[buckstir]

Hello,
Have been active on Audiokarma for years and an occasional lurker here.
My number one system is about "there" and have my endgame speakers, amp,cd player and turntable.
But boy, have I thought that before.
Looking into a nice set of headphones and an amplifier. Because really, everything else is pretty dialed in.
Reading reviews and trying to decide .... is the agony and the fun in this hobby.
I'm 60 and live an hour north of Seattle.
Bought my first nice setup in High School ... 1975.
Been at it in various forms ever since.

 

[Monsterzero]

Welcome to Head-Fi,sorry about your wallet!
Im an old fart too,and have been doing the opposite of you,very active here,and an occasional poster on AK,which has been an invaluable source of info on my vintage receivers.

Whats your budget for headphones/amp/DAC?
Genres of music?
Warm/cliinical/neutral preferences?

 

[serman005]

Welcome aboard, @buckstir!! In addition to the information @Monsterzero requested, it would help us to know your sound signature preferences and whether you are looking at open or closed headphones. And again--welcome!

 

[buckstir]

Thanks for the welcome.
I honestly didn't know much about open vs closed until I recently started my research.
I might try one of each!
I have a dedicated converted garage that my record crates and number one system reside. (PrimaLuna tube amp, Aragon pre, Music Hall mmf-9 tt, Rega Apollo cd and the latest ....Zu Omen Dirty Weekend mkii speakers ( electric blue dyed maple! ). The pre does not have phone inputs and I have to turn it down or off at 11pm. to be a good neighbor.

I want to set up a nice little headphone system on an end table in the main house. It is where the black lab and I hang out as I goof off on my MacBook Pro.
I already have on hand: Schiit Modi Multibit DAC, Schiit Loki Tone Control, Pure i20 iPod dock / DAC, Teac CD-H750 CD player with usb in that recognizes my iPod Classic.

I use the two Schiit units in my main system ... the Modi fed by a Sony 300 disc CD player ... the tone control there if needed but sits usually in bypass mode.
Thus both are borderline redundant and may be better utilized with a Magni 3 or Valli 2 in a Schiit stack with my new headphones.
I have two iPod classics full of tunes and all are backed up on the cloud, so could be accessed via my laptop, though have never explored this method.

Have narrowed my headphone quest down to some choices ... want to try over ear vs on ear. FYI I wear glasses.

Closed .... Meze 99 classics ... love the form factor ... have a strong lead on a slightly used pair for well under 2 bills on Audiokarma.

Open ...Sennheiser HD580,598,600 ... Hifiman HE500 or maybe even the 400. Lead on a cheap pair of 580's

Am trying to figure out this Massdrop thing.

Beyerdynamic and AKG also considered.

I like my sound on the punchy side ... vocals forward vs recessed ... drums not buried ... no hiss on those ss's .... no mud.
tight bass over thunderous exaggerated bass.
Perhaps have not been happy with my polite speakers ... The Zu's are pretty much full range, a little in your face ... a bit "fun' if you will.

In constant rotation from the record crates and cd racks:

Dire Straits and Knopfler solo,
a lot of James McMurtry
Wishbone Ash, Tull, Drive-By Truckers,
Neko Case,
Emmylou Harris
Tom Waits, Zappa, Cockburn, Supertramp,
Sinatra, some Miles on occasion.
Eagles and Fogelberg for my Sweetie.
Steve Earle
Eno
The Clash
some Floyd when the mood strikes.
Tonight was some Rolling Stones ... first time in awhile ... sounded good.

Thank you for your interest,
Buckstir

 

[buke9]

The Clash ,Steve Earle ,Zappa and Eno throw in some Parliament and some XTC and that is a party I’m down for HE-500’s and your good. Have the Meze 99’s also good but the 500’s much better but you do need a amp but not so much with the Meze good out of a phone or in your case iPod. Just my opinion YMMV.

 

[Monsterzero]

If you have a good vintage receiver(and what AKer worth his weight doesnt?!?) grab an HE-500 and a pair of AKG K240 sextetts and use the receiver HP out as an amp.
Both have glorious mids and are great for the type of music you listed,yet they sound entirely different from each other so that they arent redundant.

You dont need a big 125wpc monster either...All my receivers listed in my sig work as very nice HP amps.

 

[Stillhart]

Sounds like you'd love the HE-500. Legendary mids (with enough power) and punchy (not boomy) planar bass. The trick to the HE-500 is feeding it lots of power. Feeding it from a vintage amp is a thing I've heard of, but I'm not sure how to do it. If you want a dedicated headphone amp, I'd go a step up from the Magni and (if you want to stick with Schiit) look into a Jotunheim (along with balanced cables for the HE-500). The Modi Multibit is a great little DAC and there's no need to get a new one if it's available to use.

 

[buke9]

One of my favorite new amps is the Massdrop Cavalli Tube Hybrid. I’m not a HD-650 fan but from a Bottlehead Crack or CTH they are awesome . It also has the power for the HE-500’s more would be better but not too bad. It would be what I would recommend it is stellar for the price. If you have a bit more the Liquid Carbon is just awesome in my book. I have the original and everyone says the Massdrop sounds very close so I would give that a look also. My Liquid Carbon will never leave me as I ordered it after hearing the prototype and waited 8 months or so to receive it is so good to me.

 

[Monsterzero]

Feeding it from a vintage amp is a thing I've heard of, but I'm not sure how to do it.

The headphone jack works fine. I tried it from speaker taps and it made very little significant difference in SQ.

 

[Stillhart]

The headphone jack works fine. I tried it from speaker taps and it made very little significant difference in SQ.

Yeah it's the speaker tap thing I was thinking of. But now that you mention it, I recall reading that vintage amps are good because they tended not to limit the wattage to the headphone jack (unlike modern amps/AVR's which do). Maybe that's why there wasn't much difference?

 

[Monsterzero]

Yep vintage receivers added a resistor in-line off of the speaker amp to feed headphones. Theyre a great way to drive high ohm(250+) and planars.
Modern receivers use crappy opamps,....bleh

I had Peterek make me a speaker tap cable for HE-6s,which absolutely need the tap treatment,and since the HE-500s shared the same interconnects as the 6 I tried it off of taps as well. As I said previously,not much difference really.

Vintage receivers really are under appreciated as headphone amps

 

[buke9]

I have a hard time buying a receiver that takes up more space than my Yggdrasil. It is big and the receiver will be as big. Not that it won’t sound good but just big.

 

[Monsterzero]

I have a hard time buying a receiver that takes up more space than my Yggdrasil. It is big and the receiver will be as big. Not that it won’t sound good but just big.

Oh...no doubt,they take up quite a bit of real estate...heck you can land a fighter jet on my Kenwood Eleven GX,that thing is massive,even by vintage receivers standards.
The flip side is theyre powerful amps and to get the kind of power from a dedicated HP amp can be,and usually is,a very costly proposition.

Well not even discuss how damn sexy they are

 

[buke9]

Oh...no doubt,they take up quite a bit of real estate...heck you can land a fighter jet on my Kenwood Eleven GX,that thing is massive,even by vintage receivers standards.
The flip side is theyre powerful amps and to get the kind of power from a dedicated HP amp can be,and usually is,a very costly proposition.

Well not even discuss how damn sexy they are

Please post a pic of a fighter jet landing on your Kenwood?

 

[buckstir]

Lightly used Meze 99 Classics paid for and will ship tomorrow .... that takes care of the closed back cans.
Apparently very easy to drive.

Next conundrum ... a Schiit Vali 2 or Vahalla 2 .... Little Dot mkii is a darkhorse.