I would like to thank everyone at Head-fi.org. With this community, I was able to purchase a few products and can say I feel like am in heaven. I have read so many posts learned so much. I am not new to audiophile headphones. I got robbed over 10 years ago and lost a lot of my equipment. I have been slowly rebuilding. I have done work as a sound engineer and have lots of experience in the music industry. My listening preference is still technical detailed and accurate. Once levels were set, I would sit in with the artist during recordings just so I could truly hear their voice. My favorite recordings were in old houses or large rooms because I got to be with the artist during recording. It felt like a truly private personal show.
My recent goal was to be able to come home from work and relax in my favorite "Perfect Chair" while listening to music. I usually play a few muted xbox games while relaxing enjoying the music. The wife does not have any music appreciation. Headphones are a must. In this setting, I want to be able to hear other noises in the house so the open headphone is better than closed. Also I have noticed, a lot new music is being engineered using headphones. I have a had a lots of different equipment and each has its place. One of my favorite listening headphone brands has been Grado labs. So last year, I came across several reviews on the Focal Utopia. The reviews were so good, I started to dream about them. The price was out of my league. Then a review on Drop Focal Elex pops up on my news feed. Price is okay. I have the Drop + THX Panda's wired to the Xbox controller and those are a great pairing. So I started looking at Elex and then they went on sale on black Friday. The frequency response graphs have the sound curves that I am looking for with more bass than the HD 650s. I jumped on the deal.
First listen was not as great as I was hoping for. Okay they need to break in, after a few days of breaking in while I was at work. They sounded much better but not perfect. This is when I realized why I like/dislike the on ear headphone. The speaker placement is angled. The Elex fit perfectly over my ears and remove the pressure but have the speaker placement correctly slightly forward. This makes them very enjoyable to listen to without fatigue. Good now I need to make them great.
Now, I need an amp and DAC and once again thanks to this community for lots of posts. I found a deal on a Audio GD HE-9, I just could not pass up on. The specs on that amp are insanely good. Right after I make that purchase I got another great deal on a Audio GD R28 MK2. Once it came in, I thought I just bought a brick. A little testing and I know why I got a deal on it because the previous owner pressed the red button. A few hours of firmware fixing and hurray, it was not bricked. I really like the sound of the ladder DAC but the iFi DSD Diablo was better. Then I remember reading about ladder DACs need to be burned in. Yes, yes they do need to be burned in and I let it burn in for 600+ hours. Figuring that maybe re-flashing might have reset something. I had a new pair of mini waterproof Bluetooth speakers that need to be burned in and batteries run down for the first time. I left the DAC to do its thing. Those little speakers took over 80 hours of playing to finally run down. So 4 weeks later, I got to play with the ladder DAC again. A little tweaking and changing to NOS. Wow, For the first time in a very long time, I heard perfection. I am listening to artists that I am not a fan of but they sound so good. Going back to the iFi Burr-Brown is nice but the ladder DAC is just more precise. I have been listening to HD radio and I can instantly tell when the song are UltraHD. My really nice Grado Labs and Sennheiser feel dull compared to the Drop Focal Elex. It also is a little unfair as only the Elex have balanced cables.
Having patience to breaking audio equipment might be the more important than I have ever realized.
Now, I wonder how if the R-8 MK3 would sound better than the R28 and how much more?
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