[PolkManiac]

Allow myself to introduce........myself.

Okay that was a pathetic attempt at humor, but get used to it I'm sure there'll be plenty more to come.

I'm new to the world of headphones and headphone gear. I've always been into audio gear, but always of the loudspeaker variety. I've never spent much time with headphones.

A couple months back that started to change. I've finally reached an acceptable level with my two 2-channel setups, and I've hit that point of diminishing returns where to even get a small upgrade in sound is going to cost lots of money. I have good synergy with both systems right now, so I've decided not to spend any money on upgrades there.

So I decided to start playing around with headphones. I started without any knowledge or research really, and ended up with the following:

Portable rig - Shure e2c
Gaming rig - Senn PC150
Main Rig - Senn HD280Pro and the original Little Dot amp to go along with them

Each setup is okay for what it does. I'd say I'm completely satisfied with the Shure for now - I don't listen to my Zen enough to really justify buying a higher end set. The gaming rig is okay, but I'm thinking of moving the HD280 over to that setup when I upgrade the main rig - I don't use the gaming rig for any movies or music really, just don't do those on the PC much. The main rig is where I want to focus my attention really.

I've been a contributing member of the Club Polk (www.polkaudio.com) forums for several years now (I guess my screenname gave that connectiion away). When I mentioned over there about getting into headphones I was of course directed to this forum - so here I am. I signed up a while back and have been lurking, but I think this is my first post.

I'm looking to start my main rig again from scratch, but going to do it right this time. That doesn't mean that I have a small fortune to spend, but I've always been able to do well in audio by doing my research and buying used or demo gear - I'm hoping that translates over to the headphone world also.

So is there some required reading for anyone wanting to get into headphones? Is this forum the best resource for information, is there an additional resource I should be looking at? I'll take a look through all the sticky threads as I assume those contain good information - anything else I should be reading?

I'm normally not a big fan of "Can you tell me if brand x sounds good", as I have and always encouraged others to listen and decide for themselves. but for someone new such as myselfsometimes a general list of reccomendations is helpful.

I'm thinking of starting with a pair of Sennheiser HD650. Are there any good alternatives in that $300 price range I should be looking at?

Do those 650s respond well to tube power, or do I need a SS or ihybrid amp to run them? I was thinking something along the lines of a Millett Hybrid. Any reccomendations for amps.

Any help or tips you guys can provide are much appreciated.

 

[Gaara]

I'm a renegade from Club Polk as well, all my reading seemed to point to the Sennheiser HD650s as well.

I've got the 650s on the way with a Zu Mobius upgraded cable. Just bought a RSA Hornet that seems to be the portable amp of choice for the 650s.

There are some good threads on this that are pretty recent, there was one all about the best amp choices for the 650s and another shootout between 20 portable amps. I am sure if you use the search function more will pop up.

As for the headphones I know Grado and AKG seem to be popular around these parts, but no experience with either. This is my first headphone system as well.

Jared

 

[PolkManiac]

I don't know much about the AKG. I tend to like the more laid-back sound better (as evidenced by my gear), and I've heard that the Grados may not be the best phones for that...

I'm still debating between a portable and a larger amp. I think I'd rather have something larger, as these phones won't be leaving the immediate listening area.