[Roderick]

I

I LOVED the Ara's by CA and compared them to the older Andromedas which I owned for many years and the newer Andromeda 2020s. I chose the Ara's for me and my tastes, personally and paired them with the ALO SXC 8 cable. I love the sound from that. Have you tried the Ara's yet? If so, what did you think of them vs the Andro 2020s?

I have not tried Ara or new andros. I'm surely curious about those two and Solaris. However I propably won't be upgrading to those. Even as used Ara's or Solaris would end up at $1000 or actually a lot more.

I had 10k invested in a headphone set, well not a Set. It was a bunch of amps, dacs, headphones...

Downgraded to bundle of smsl amp dac Combi with JVC dx1000 and a sash tres as My headphones. And for more critical listening, andros from my phone.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

1&2) Sennheiser 800S (detail, resolution, accuracy, soundstage for days, comfort, nothing else sounds like them), tied with ZMF Verite (gorgeous to look at, comfortable, wide soundstage, seductive timbre and tone)
3) HEKse (phenomenal details/resolution)
4) HEDDphone (phenomenal midrange/vocals)
5) LCD X (phenomenal bass)

 

[knopi]

HE1000 (softer, grand, pleasent, comfortable, quite universal, not that bad price today from second hand or Arya)
Jupiter (less sensitive and predecessor of Andromeda, cheap today if one will find, good with iPhone)
Perun (pleasent, comfortable, quite universal)
Clear (could not own them becasue of soundstage and to much analytical for me but it is good hp)
LCDX (could not own them but it is really easy drive and quite universal, good hp)

Did not here everything of course for example ZMF and some well rated IEMs and even some well rated cheap hp like Verum. I do not want buy headphone over $1500, not worth in my opinon.
And quite funny for example Andromeda legendary status, today are more and more people which writes many negatives about them but to me it was really game changer in IEMs soundstage highs dynamic.

 

[moriez]

For me 'best' goes hand in hand with price tag. What I missed consequentially even if owning them for a while, here the most enjoyable ones over the course of 7 years:

1.HE-4 ¹ / HE-500 ²
2.LCD2F = LCD2 Classic
3.Sonorous VI ¹ / III ²

Nods to Edition X v2, Beyerdynamic T1 g1, Sennheiser HD540 / HD58x / HD600.

 

[ListenThis]

• Sennheiser HD800s
• Final Audio D8000
• Stax 007
• Focal Stellia
• Sony Z1R