[Audiophool101]

I am really new to this. Decent sounding music. I`ve always enjoyed music, but never really thought about those kbps and formats and file sizes and DACs and god awful expensive headphones until relatively recently. Always enjoyed music, just didn`t have any contact with high end stuff. Hence audiophool. Not audiophile, very far from that league, but just looking for an audiofine experience. Hence starting a journey.

Please don`t laugh at my current setup: LG V20 and Senns HD58x. I know its not the hottest stuff ever, but I`m really enjoying the sound and beginning the journey. And for around 250 bucks in total it was a steal. Oh, and flacs do make a difference. I know its a phone, but its ESS Sabre quad dac is alright (for entry level audiophool probably) and it drives the headphones at midvolume loud enough already.

Taking the headphones out of the box and pressing play is now a sort of ritual of rediscovering music: taking those ol` Floyds for another spin and finding out there actually were more sounds to those songs all along! That whisper sounds different now?! Darn his voice is so close to my ear, its like Gilmour is in front of me?! Wow, I was deaf for so long!

The whole point of this is to ask where do I go from here? What to upgrade/buy next?
To put this in some context, I mostly listen to prog(-ish) and prog metal, some alternative rock and jazz and classical. I don`t really want to spend more than 500 bucks. Its a hobby, not a wife.

So what should I buy?

Some naive shopping list candidates:
SMSL M500 should be futureproof in terms of DAC; reviews mention AMP to not be top tier but should be good enough for 300 Ohms easily. That Ess 9038 Pro looks juicy though.
Senns HD600 as I find the 58xs a bit bassy at times although they are not actually bassy headphones in general, but I wonder if it is worth it to have two sets of headphones which might be quite close to each other?
Hifiman 4xx? Are planars so different in sound? But, need amp?
AK 712 Pro for the soundstage, should be great with Floyds and classical and jazz I presume. Con is they need an amp, so then which amp?
Khadas Tone Board + good amp? Again though, which amp?
Chord Mojo? But some comments here mention LG V30s or V40s are very close in SQ to the Mojo and the price would be sort of similar, plus, well, you know, phone and OLED and stuff, but then again Mojo should drive headphones better.

Questions, questions.... way too many (unanswerable) questions.
Not really looking for (definitive) answers as this is a choice and not a math problem, just looking for your honest opinions.

Many thanks for reading the long rant
~ Just an audiophool ~

 

[PaganDL]

I am really new to this. Decent sounding music. I`ve always enjoyed music, but never really thought about those kbps and formats and file sizes and DACs and god awful expensive headphones until relatively recently. Always enjoyed music, just didn`t have any contact with high end stuff. Hence audiophool. Not audiophile, very far from that league, but just looking for an audiofine experience. Hence starting a journey.

Hi @Audiophool101,

First of all, welcome to headfi...apologies to your wallet in advance...

We were all beginners once too so nothing wrong with that...

Just some general info, as much as some like to say, formats don't actually matter but recording & sound quality matters more & are the more important factors, not to mention highly subjective & persona
So any precieved differences in format will come down to Expectation & Perception Bias.
As long as the music you're listening to sounds good to you, then that's all that matters.
You also don't need to experience high end gear in audio to enjoy music, I certainly don't though I have up to mid range gear which is more pro than hifi in any case...
Especially in audio, price isn't indicative of quality, especially in personal audio.
The important thing is to listen as much gear as possible to build up good experience, especially with music you know really well from good quality sources.
For these two reasons, it's important to say whether you may or may not like certain gear as long as you can give explaination or at least reasons why though like anything in life, be prepared if others start complaining over your view...
Personally, I never like the audiophile label for various reasons...

Please don`t laugh at my current setup: LG V20 and Senns HD58x. I know its not the hottest stuff ever, but I`m really enjoying the sound and beginning the journey. And for around 250 bucks in total it was a steal. Oh, and flacs do make a difference. I know its a phone, but its ESS Sabre quad dac is alright (for entry level audiophool probably) and it drives the headphones at midvolume loud enough already.

Why would anyone laugh? If they laugh, something is wrong with them...not you...
You did get a good deal, be happy with that.

The whole point of this is to ask where do I go from here? What to upgrade/buy next?
To put this in some context, I mostly listen to prog(-ish) and prog metal, some alternative rock and jazz and classical. I don`t really want to spend more than 500 bucks. Its a hobby, not a wife.

Aside from budget & music preferences, the main question you have to ask yourself is what are trying to achieve with your setup?
For your budget, do you want to focus more on portable, stationary listening or both?
Do you want gear which can either be upgraded or complement future choices as budget allows?

So what should I buy?

Some naive shopping list candidates:
SMSL M500 should be futureproof in terms of DAC; reviews mention AMP to not be top tier but should be good enough for 300 Ohms easily. That Ess 9038 Pro looks juicy though.
Senns HD600 as I find the 58xs a bit bassy at times although they are not actually bassy headphones in general, but I wonder if it is worth it to have two sets of headphones which might be quite close to each other?
Hifiman 4xx? Are planars so different in sound? But, need amp?
AK 712 Pro for the soundstage, should be great with Floyds and classical and jazz I presume. Con is they need an amp, so then which amp?
Khadas Tone Board + good amp? Again though, which amp?
Chord Mojo? But some comments here mention LG V30s or V40s are very close in SQ to the Mojo and the price would be sort of similar, plus, well, you know, phone and OLED and stuff, but then again Mojo should drive headphones better.

Questions, questions.... way too many (unanswerable) questions.
Not really looking for (definitive) answers as this is a choice and not a math problem, just looking for your honest opinions.

Subjectively & personally, not sure whether I would consider the M500 futureproof but certainly from spec, it is at least close...sonically, don't know as never heard it so have no opinion.
As a side note as far as DAC chips are concerned, after some time, consumer culture makes these things irrelevant so it will depend on you, unless you feel you need a change then do so, no one can or should influence you.

A good example of this is I had the Lexicon Alpha for close to two decades, near end of last year, I changed to RME ADI 2 Pro.
Is there an audio difference between an audio interface which is now worth $50 USD from $300+ USD when I first got it, to an interface which averages $ 1500 USD.
Subjectively & personally, aside from lower noise floor & perhaps cleaner signal, subjectively & personally...no...just a little more convenience too...so really it all depends?

Honestly, sonically, there is little difference between Planars & Dynamic Drivers at certain levels though with some, it is more obvious than others, which isn't necessarily linked to cost but more how the headphone is tuned though there will certainly be some who will disagree on this...

Two things to consider not often talked about or listed is SYNERGY in audio gear matters a lot & more often than not, the head amp will matter a lot too though some will very heatedly disagree...the only way to know as said before is try as much as possible...
Among my top affordable head amps I still recommend to this day is the Presonus HP 4 which I use more for audio signal distribution than as a head amp.

Haven't tried the LG VG V Series so can't say but I have demo the Mojo extensively & personally while it is a good head amp, it is overrated.

Many thanks for reading the long rant
~ Just an audiophool ~

By the way, you are not ranting...
Feel free to ask more when you need.

Hope you have a great day !

 

[Audiophool101]

Aside from budget & music preferences, the main question you have to ask yourself is what are trying to achieve with your setup?
For your budget, do you want to focus more on portable, stationary listening or both?
Do you want gear which can either be upgraded or complement future choices as budget allows?

1. The aim is to enjoy music. And while some genres and bands work great with my current setup, others can be improved. So one aim is to also get a wider soundstage (Pink Floyd and classical - they could really use some more "sound space"), but this would most likely require an amp as well (with AKGs for example as, although they dont seem to have very high impendances, they apparently are a bit more difficult to drive).
2. Stationary is fine. Don`t mind if it happens to be portable, but it does not need to be.
3. Great point, never really thought about this. To complement future choices I guess as I do not see myself buying dacs or amps and tinkering with their transistors or tube lamps or chipsets.

Among my top affordable head amps I still recommend to this day is the Presonus HP 4 which I use more for audio signal distribution than as a head amp.

Wow. this looks really nice. Never heard or Presonus before. Will be looking into this. Thanks!

 

[PaganDL]

1. The aim is to enjoy music. And while some genres and bands work great with my current setup, others can be improved. So one aim is to also get a wider soundstage (Pink Floyd and classical - they could really use some more "sound space"), but this would most likely require an amp as well (with AKGs for example as, although they dont seem to have very high impendances, they apparently are a bit more difficult to drive).
2. Stationary is fine. Don`t mind if it happens to be portable, but it does not need to be.
3. Great point, never really thought about this. To complement future choices I guess as I do not see myself buying dacs or amps and tinkering with their transistors or tube lamps or chipsets.

1. As said, regarding your first point, aim is to enjoy music, have no opinion on the M500 or your phone so can't tell you whether the M500 will be subjectively 'better' or 'worse' than what you currently have if you're after an overall improvement.
A good middle ground is see if you can find the Lexicon Alpha if it's still available as it is my understanding it is being discontinued or any of the Focusrite Scarlett Series.
As audio interfaces, their sound quality is generally at a higher level & if you can find a good pro audio shop in Slovakia, maybe they have at least any Scarlett set up for demo to try.

2. Now an alternative option is to look into the Cowon Plenue D, the sound quality is outstanding as is the battery life where both subjectively & personally outperform even most high end DAPs I have demo over the years.
The only minor issue is this can't be used as an DAC with a computer.

3. As stated in my previous post, I only own 2 DACs nor do I really tinker with gear unless I really have to though I do own a lot of head amps by this stage but that's for various reasons.
So if you're not going to upgrade or get more gear than necessary, consider what would be most useful to you & plan accordingly.

Wow. this looks really nice. Never heard or Presonus before. Will be looking into this. Thanks!

Honestly, hard to beat this head amp for the value & if one day, you need to connect up other gear together.

Feel free to ask more when you need.

Hope you have a great day !