[AnAverageElephant]

For those that have found their end game setup or think they have, what did you end up with? Hd600 and a Schitt stack? Susvara? Orpheus?! Porta pros? Skull candy crushers EQ’d with more bass and less of those meddling mids and treble? That pair of buds that came free with the $50 Sandisc MP3 player you bought in 2004?

Also how many sets and what sets of cans did you go through to find it?

 

[chesebert]

Better start small and slow and find your own end game. I can tell you to buy HE1 but you may not even understand or appreciate why it's better than HD600 even when you hear one IRL.

 

[msing539]

For those that have found their end game setup or think they have, what did you end up with? Hd600 and a Schitt stack? Susvara? Orpheus?! Porta pros? Skull candy crushers EQ’d with more bass and less of those meddling mids and treble? That pair of buds that came free with the $50 Sandisc MP3 player you bought in 2004?

Also how many sets and what sets of cans did you go through to find it?

I went through maybe 80 headphones and heard another 50+. Landed on the Meze Elite, D9200, HE5 and HE6. Plus the rest. Only headphone on my list is the Final D8000 Pro and if they come out with an Elite 2 that improves anything dramatically.

Exploring some iems now but I'll only end up with one or two pairs when I'm done.

 

[dunring]

For my business I've had a chance to use over 260 headphones, IEM, ear buds, and most amps and DACs out there under $2,000. My permanent setup is an SMSL DL200 as a DAC and Topping A30 Pro amplifier I cherry picked from a bunch since it has .1db channel matching up to 25 percent and perfect after that. I use a 7hz Salnotes Zero:2 for isolation and a Hifiman HE5xx as a daily driver which doubles as bookshelf speakers hanging up since they leak so much it's handy. The best headphones I've heard are the Hifiman Arya Stealth, though the Ananda Nano isn't far behind, and a much better value for money if you get one open box/refurbished. Just spent a day with the Moondrop Blessing 3 and I wouldn't trade them for the 7hz Zero:2 (tuned exactly how I would tune a pair) or the Truthear Zero Red (comfort kings).
You hit a point where there's more expensive, but just side-grades or 10 times the price for 10 percent better. I've had the HD800s, T1, Audivina, Heddphone, LCD-DX, etc. etc. but I'll stick to my trusty Zero:2 in blue with black tips and a black multikit and 4.4mm to XLR adapter so I can test listen all the amplifiers that come in. Everyone has a different opinion, music taste or gaming obsession, hearing ability and comfort level (not to mention checkbook size). End game is whatever makes you happy and comfortable that you could afford it without melting down a credit card.

 

[AnAverageElephant]

For my business I've had a chance to use over 260 headphones,

Sounds like an interesting line of work. I wish i could listen to headphones at work never the less demo.

End game is whatever makes you happy and comfortable that you could afford it without melting down a credit card.

Wise words.

 

[kiling92]

Personally for my taste my endgame is Sony R10 connect with an ampli with valves (mine is leben cs 300xs plus goldlion and sylvania gold brand)…and I found my final setup.
The most natural sound with an amazing 3D image;before find this setup I start with hi end closed back like stellia,hd820,demon 9200,fostex 900;after that I owned the Stax 9000,but the R10 sound in it’s properly league IMHO

 

[theveterans]

Susvara is pretty much my endgame and anything below it is a different take of sound signature but for anyone who has started this hobby, they will not understand why Susvara after all these 7 years is still regarded as a top headphone as such. The journey of acquiring a starter set of Koss KSC-75 to HD6XX then bolstering the components from an entry topping or schiit stack to the step-up models, that's where the fun of this hobby is truly about and not reaching an endgame that doesn't exists.

 

[arielext]

Sash très se, meze liric and Stax sr007a

 

[Alkamei]

Stax Sr-009 S)

 

[michael2v]

Diana V2 (OG fenestrated pads) with a Nitsch Pietus Maximus; man this combo slams.

Blessing 2 Dusk for IEMs (but I have a Monarch Mk3 arriving today...we'll see if that changes my mind!).

 

[phthora]

'Endgame' is a hard concept for me because as long as I have a little extra money and an understanding wife, I'm gonna buy more headphones. Maybe my reasons change, right now I am no longer chasing the summit-fi sound, but I'll find something. The longer I've been in this hobby the more subtle aspects of headphones I've come to admire, not just sound, but build quality, aesthetics, the story behind the company too. There's never going to be a headphone that sates my desire in even one of those aspects completely. I cannot be monogamous with headphones. But, here's what I can say:

Now that I have a Benchmark DAC-3B feeding a Benchmark HPA4 and driving my Audeze LCD-5, I am no longer trying to find 'better' headphones.

If I had to had to, I could be happy with just an RME-ADI-2/4 Pro SE and my Audeze LCD-XC.

Gun to my head, Modius/Magnius stack with a Focal Elex.

 

[geek707]

Currently Meze 109 Pro driven by Ferrum Oor/Hypsos stack, driven by a Cambridge DACMagic200m.
Planned changes. Likely to a set of Audeze planars. (Not sure which yet. Had LCD2C, LCDXC, LCD5, should not have sold the 5...) Maybe a early LCD3.
Maybe get a Ferrum WANDLA and cables needed to drive it from the Hypsos. Just because.
End-Game is what you make of it and what you can afford. I suspect everyone will be different.

 

[paulrbarnard]

You also need to ask end game for what use case. My office setup is different to my living room set up and different again to my travelling set up.
Ironically the system I ‘listen’ to the most is not my higher end kit, that lives in my office, it’s the system that sits next to my chair in the living room so I can listen to music while my wife is doing her own thing. It is a very lowly system in todays world being a 0G Grado RS1 paired with a Mojo2. It’s my ‘living with my wife’ end game solution

 

[Barnstormer13]

I don’t know for sure I’m at my end game, but I haven’t bought any new gear for a while now so I figure I’m close. The chain is a WiFi Tidal streamer -> Schiit Bifrost2 -> Schiit Saga preamp -> Schiit Folkvangr -> ZMF Verite Closed.

I have a bunch of other gear as well, but the above is what I listen to the majority of time when I’m listening with my full attention.

 

[Tano]

If price wasn't an object: Final Audio D8000 Pro LE.

Considering price (2nd hand prices): Focal Clear/HD800s for dynamics

Verun one mk2/ Hifiman Ananda nano for planars.