[brnord]

Hi everyone -

My set of PXC 480's and a Q1 Mark II eventually led me to recently acquiring a pair of HD6XX and a Modi 3/Vali 2. I wouldn't call myself an "audiophile" (yet, at this point) so I don't know all the terms to describe my experience, but I will say the upgrade was significant and pleasing - especially for what I consider a pretty modest investment compared to my other hobby, photography. I also switched from Apple Music to Amazon Music HD.

However, while my combo is extremely satisfying for most of what I listen to, about 10% of my music benefits from more powerful/present bass that this combo just doesn't seem to deliver. I upgraded the tube to an EH 6922, a little better - but not much. So, I've been considering adding either a Schiit Loki to EQ for this or a pair of Beyer DT770's 80 ohm for about the same price when I want a little more out of the low end.

Getting to the important part now:

Out of curiosity, I plugged the HD6XX's into the Q1 Mark II today and I was surprised to find that with the bass boost on the Q1 "on", the HD6XX's actually deliver low end that's quite satisfactory, but at the expense of a noticeable amount of quality I get from the Modi/Vali (getting particularly sharp on the high end and a general lack of clarity at louder volumes) - though volume available was surprisingly not an issue with high gain.

This tells me the HD6XX's are quite capable of what I want on that end - so maybe it's the Modi/Vali combo? Should I have gone for the Magni (maybe something else) instead of the Vali? Or maybe because bass boost was "on", could this be telling me a Loki would help?

Thank you!

 

[Brubaker]

I personally wouldn't get too into trying to equalize the HD6XX since there is only so much you can do with them. I always feel it's best to bring out what they do best rather than try to turn them into what they are not great at. Enjoy the smooth frequency response and excellent mids. The Magni isn't as laid back as the Vali, so you might get a bit more bass slam and extension. The Magni 3+ is an excellent budget amp but there are better matches for the HD6XX if you spend more.

 

[brnord]

Guess I'm seeing that all over the more I read - they won't like the low end EQ.

What yould you recommend if I were planning an upgrade path? I've read that the Valhalla 2 and Bottlehead are both good matches.

What about more portable? Maybe not to haul around town, but easy to move from my home office to the living room for example. Would I have to go all the way up to the iFi Micro BL to drive them well or would the xDSD have enough power?

 

[corgifall]

The bass boost on the q1 mk2 is really over the top too. It required some super lean bass sounding headphones to actually be of use. Otherwise it sounded super bloated turned on.

The fiio q5s had a more enjoyable bass boost that was still really good for any bass anemic headphones. I had the xcan from ifi for a bit which I really liked but that's an portable amp only.

 

[Brubaker]

Guess I'm seeing that all over the more I read - they won't like the low end EQ.

What yould you recommend if I were planning an upgrade path? I've read that the Valhalla 2 and Bottlehead are both good matches.

What about more portable? Maybe not to haul around town, but easy to move from my home office to the living room for example. Would I have to go all the way up to the iFi Micro BL to drive them well or would the xDSD have enough power?

You might not like Valhalla 2 if you want to get the most out of the low end. The Bottlehead Crack would give you what you want. These two amps are for high impedance headphones, so keep that in mind if you plan on adding other headphones later on.