[ArcticPete]

​Hi, all. First post in here. I think I've frequented this site for the past year or so, since I decided to sell my hifi and move to headphones completely. Of all the different forums on different topics, I find Head-Fi as the most serious one I've come across. My initial motivation for that was to run away from the constant upgraditis I had in regards to my setup. But I have of course since then learned that this is something I will live with, whether it's hifi or head-fi. But a practical reason is that I am, at 33, going back to Uni to get my masters, after having a good job for years. I will thus be living in a much smaller apartment. I do have Sennheiser HD 25-1 II's for my iPod, but don't see them as a long term solution.
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​My hifi setup is a Marantz Pm8003/CD6003 combo with Dynaudio 2/6. It gives me a tight bass with a quite sweet mid. They sound the best when I'm listening to jazz and acoustic music. Not that I don't listen to other genres. Classic rock is widely represented among my cd's as well as some prog-rock. Electronica is something that I've started to listen to in the past couple of years. I think that genre-wise, heavy-metal is the only genre I don't get. Based on that I'd say that the sound I'd want is a well defined bass, a little emphasis on the mids and a detailed treble that's not tinny and tiring.
 
Don't know whether that's some utopia for my price range. For headphones I don't see myself going above $500. The brands that are available for me are AKG, Audio Technica, Beyer Dynamic, Grado, Shure and Sennheiser. And it's al online as we don't have any retailers that sell anything other than glittery 5.1 sorround setups.
​
​If I keep my cd player - which also doubles as a DAC for my iPod, I could budget for an amp only. I don't think I can get any higher than $300-400. If I do sell my cd player I'd need to split that amount for both amp and dac.
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​I hope that wasn't too long and that you guys can give some pointers.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I loved my Sennheiser HD600 with my Marantz CD60 (until I got tired of servicing its transport and used an iPad2, later my Galaxy S3, as USB audio servers), using only the CDP's headphone amplifier. You might want to try getting the HD600 first and just use it with the CD6003's headphone amplifier first until you can save up for an amp, but hey who knows you might like it enough not to crave for one for a while. If my CD60's transport didn't screw up at that point I would have kept it longer; it took a while before I found an Amp+DAC (in the same chassis) that I liked for it.

 

[ArcticPete]

  I loved my Sennheiser HD600 with my Marantz CD60 (until I got tired of servicing its transport and used an iPad2, later my Galaxy S3, as USB audio servers), using only the CDP's headphone amplifier. You might want to try getting the HD600 first and just use it with the CD6003's headphone amplifier first until you can save up for an amp, but hey who knows you might like it enough not to crave for one for a while. If my CD60's transport didn't screw up at that point I would have kept it longer; it took a while before I found an Amp+DAC (in the same chassis) that I liked for it.

Thank you. I'm glad getting specific suggestions. And the emphasis on the mids in HD600 reviews makes it a clear candidate

 

[ArcticPete]

This may be going the other way around but I bet other newbies have taken the same route.
Considering I can't buy headphones without auditioning I've decided to wait til some time in August, where I will have the chance to try several headphones.
 
Although ProtegeManiac stated that my cd player's headphone output would suffice, if I went with the HD600, I thought that I may as well get an amp now. I think that with an amp (and DAC?) I wouldn't be solely relying on my cd player in the future. Based on what I've been reading in here I'm really turned on by the O2. Question is whether I get the O2+ODAC combo or get them seperately. I guess going for seperates also gets me a portable amp and that's what I'm leaning on.
 
Either way this gonna be fun!

 

[Roy Munson]

You could do something like a Schiit stack (Magni or Vali + Modi) and AKG Q701 / Beyer DT880. That will probably put you somewhere in the $400-$500 range... and obviously a bit less if you stick with your current dac.
 
- Roy

 

[darkfire32]

Yes you can get the O2 and the ODAC separately. JDSlabs sell them together and standalone. However, I don't think many people would call the O2 portable. It doesn't have a rechargeable battery like the Fiio's and you would have to open the case through screws in order to swap out a 9V battery. 

 

[anoobis]

Unless JDSLabs does things differently, the O2 does include rechargeable batteries (9V NiMH) and in-built charging. If you get the O2/ODAC in a single unit, the batteries are removed to make space for the DAC board.
 
You might want to check whether the gain on the Shiit amps is likely to be suitable for you.

 

[julzd]

Look at a used hifiman he-500 and run it off speaker taps from your speaker amp, will be better than hd600 and probably best under $500

 

[ArcticPete]

Thank you all for your suggestions, but I went for something else. When I realized I couldn't add my bank account on paypal, I jumped on the opportunity to buy a M-Stage HPA-2 USB. Not complaining at all. Didn't think I would be hearing that much an improvement on my HD25-1 II's. As I stated earlier, I'm waiting till I move to Denmark before buying over-ears.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  This may be going the other way around but I bet other newbies have taken the same route.
Considering I can't buy headphones without auditioning I've decided to wait til some time in August, where I will have the chance to try several headphones.
 
Although ProtegeManiac stated that my cd player's headphone output would suffice, if I went with the HD600, I thought that I may as well get an amp now. I think that with an amp (and DAC?) I wouldn't be solely relying on my cd player in the future. Based on what I've been reading in here I'm really turned on by the O2. Question is whether I get the O2+ODAC combo or get them seperately. I guess going for seperates also gets me a portable amp and that's what I'm leaning on.
 
Either way this gonna be fun!

 
You can't use the ODAC with the Marantz though, as it only has USB inputs. If you're planning to use them with a computer then go ahead. As for the O2, don't just buy any O2. Most of them have the input port in the front, and personally that feels like a PITA mess especially if you're using traditional equipment like that Marantz that has its output ports in the back. I think there's at least one version with the input in the rear.
 
In any case, do you really need it to be portable? Because if I'm already shelling out for a large CDP like that I might as well get a Schiit Asgard2 class A headphone amp. Or skip the CDP altogether, get the Schiit Bifrost with the Asgard, and just buy a relatively affordable CD transport. Shanling has some on eBay for around $200, and just larger than an external DVD drive (or the same size as external DVD drives a decade ago) so it won't look anything like the tank-like CD transports (nor cost anywhere near as much) from Teac/Esoteric, CEC, etc that were designed as if CDT's were as susceptible to vibrations as TT's (most of the problems with their vibration vulnerability coming from there being physical contact between the needle and the vinyl to begin with).