[hodgjy]

The O2. If you're not into DIY, these are ones preassembled you can find very easily from reputable vendors.

Thank you Magick Man, Katun, devhen, Keithpgdrb & obobskivich.

@HD600 owners

Asgard sounds great with HD600, but it adds a little bit of warmness to the sound. I like my headphone to sound as natural as possible (without warmness). Is there any other good amp in the Asgard price range that sounds as good as Asgard ?

 

[Magick Man]

Magick:
Some add-ons to your ESP/950 review: you can get a premade adapter from APS, around $100 (the STAX end is the hard one to find IME). And the 950s can run on the WEE (which is around $500 but you need a speaker amp); I don't know if it's any improvement. Gilmore measured the E/90 as being ahead of everything commercial in terms of voltage p-p, but it doesn't deliver as much current as many other designs. I haven't seen the slew rate measurements go up yet. My understanding is that it's competently designed and spec'd, but not the be-all end-all of amplifier designs for electrostatic headphones. They (and the E/90) feel relatively solid in hand. The best mod I did was going down to ratshack and getting some adheesive feet for the E/90 to keep it from sliding around on my desk. Feels about 10 times better now (and cost around $4). I agree that the HD 600 feel more robust, but they also feel more rigid/clampy - it's a double edged sword. While the 950s feel a bit "loose" I wouldn't regard them as suspect as say, the ESW9 (a headphone that more or less started falling apart out of the box IME). But they certainly aren't up to my MDR-F1s either (which are all metal).
Good review. I feel about the same about the other Denons (I haven't heard 7000) against the 950s; and appreciate the impressions on the HE-6 (as I'm sure others do as well). This isn't to say the Denon are a bad headphone, but they lack a certain something imho. A lot of people probably disagree and hear them as fantastic, and that's fantastic.

Thanks, yeah I own a WEE and to be honest I feel that it gets a bad rap around here. I've not been able to find any fault with it, except the selector switch doesn't feel as sure as I'd like. I got it so I could enjoy the "Cary flavor" with my stats, and it does a great job with that. 90% of the time it's how I listen to my 007s, I set the Cary in Triode mode, and revel in the warm tube distortion. Is it entirely neutral? Hell no, but it is entirely beautiful. I sometimes wonder what some people around here are smoking, from what I can hear the WEE doesn't introduce any noise. It just provides the bias voltage, like it's supposed to.

Moon audio sells the STAX ends. I had my soldering guru friend re-terminate my 950s and it works like a champ. As for Denons, the recessed mids put some people off, and I wish they were a little more forward myself. I just hit my EQ preset when I listen to them, I boost them 4dB at 2.5kHz and it does the trick.

 

[goldoon]

Quote:

Actually the "warmness" is already the basic nature of HD600, so whatever your amp using, the warmness will never go away from your HD600's set-up.
 
Anyway, neutral amp around that price range that I can think right now is only gilmore lite.

Thanks. I know HD600 is warm, but I just don't want to add a little bit more warmness to the sound with a warm-sounding amp. It has more than enough warmness in its nature (and because of this reason I prefer DT880 over them).
 
 
 
Quote:

The O2. If you're not into DIY, these are ones preassembled you can find very easily from reputable vendors.

Thanks. I have O2 myself and it's a great amp, but I use it with my DT880. I didn't know that it has good results with HD600's too.

 

[Magick Man]

The O2. If you're not into DIY, these are ones preassembled you can find very easily from reputable vendors.

And there's the oft recommended Matrix M-Stage. If you want some tube hybrid flavor there's also the impressive Little Dot I+ for $120 or the HiFiMAN EF-5. I own both of those and they're great value for money.

 

[goldoon]

Quote:

The ESP/950s are mostly neutral with slightly colored mids. Their bass is dead-on accurate, and they have very detailed highs with a little sparkle at the top end (8-10kHz). They're great with just about anything, except perhaps metal.

Sorry, but I want to ask you why ESP 950 is not suitable for metal.

 

[Katun]

Well, the Valhalla brightens things up if that's what you want. But like others have mentioned, the HD600 is a warm headphone at heart.

 

[labratoire]

Thanks a million Magick Man.

 

[Magick Man]

Sorry, but I want to ask you why ESP 950 is not suitable for metal.

They don't have the forward mids and brighter treble that really gives emphasis to electric guitar. That's what makes the HE-6, most Grados, and the Q701s so great with hard rock and metal.

Thanks a million Magick Man.

NP

 

[goldoon]

Quote:

They don't have the forward mids and brighter treble that really gives emphasis to electric guitar. That's what makes the HE-6, most Grados, and the Q701s so great with hard rock and metal.

Aha. So it's not that unsuitable for metal too. I thought the reason is that it's slow.

 

[Magick Man]

Aha. So it's not that unsuitable for metal too. I thought the reason is that it's slow.

No, they're very, very fast.

 

[goldoon]

I would order them tomorrow. I hope ESP 950s make me rethink about my DT880s. It seems there is nothing wrong about them. If I'll like them, I'll sell my DT880s and get one for myself. It seems they have everything that I need for my music listening (Ambient/Noise/Doom/Black) (& even music creation) & it seems there is no need to buy something like Audeze lcd2.
 
Thanks to all the guys that helped me with their replies.

 

[obobskivich]

No, they're very, very fast.

Allow me to re-iterate this for emphasis: they are *very* fast headphones. I don't listen to much metal, but they do fine with rock imho (I agree that Grados or 701s or something may be somewhat better for that single genre, but overall the 950s do such a good job it's no problem).

One other thing to keep in mind, since you mentioned living outside of the US - ensure that you get the appropriate power supply for the E/90 (if you're having them imported or something like that). It's an external wall pack so it's easily replaced - some users have reported improvements with better power sources, but I've never personally tried this.

 

[goldoon]

Quote:

One other thing to keep in mind, since you mentioned living outside of the US - ensure that you get the appropriate power supply for the E/90 (if you're having them imported or something like that). It's an external wall pack so it's easily replaced - some users have reported improvements with better power sources, but I've never personally tried this.

 
Sorry, but power supply = 120 VAC adapter ? If yes is there any difference between power suppliers, really? I mean, it's a little bit weird if there is any improvement with changing power supplier. I don't know. Maybe there is.
 
&
 
Quote:

The best mod I did was going down to ratshack and getting some adheesive feet for the E/90 to keep it from sliding around on my desk. Feels about 10 times better now (and cost around $4).

I didn't get the point. Can you explain a little bit, please?

 

[obobskivich]

Sorry, but power supply = 120 VAC adapter ? If yes is there any difference between power suppliers, really? I mean, it's a little bit weird if there is any improvement with changing power supplier. I don't know. Maybe there is.

Yes the AC to DC adapter - I believe the unit wants 9VDC out of the box, but I've heard user reports that with a more robust (higher current) PSU that it apparently improves things. I have no idea if this is true, as again, I haven't tested it myself. I find it hard to believe that anything can really improve them (or that anything needs improvement )...

 

[goldoon]

Quote:

Yes the AC to DC adapter - I believe the unit wants 9VDC out of the box, but I've heard user reports that with a more robust (higher current) PSU that it apparently improves things. I have no idea if this is true, as again, I haven't tested it myself. I find it hard to believe that anything can really improve them (or that anything needs improvement

)...

Thanks.