[FredA]

Project Polaris is not USB. What USB DAC/amp can be recommended for the HE560?

Based on what i hear with my setup, i would recommend audio-gd without hesitation. On a budget the r2r 11 or nfb11.28. Or get a used Master-11 if you can find one. Or the nfb28 or nfb29.

 

[TimeSnow]

Project Polaris is not USB. What USB DAC/amp can be recommended for the HE560?

Price range?

 

[ToddRaymond]

When you say replacement model are you saying the HE560 is about to be replaced with something new?

I'd be surprised if something doesn't materialize at some point this year. But then, who knows what'll transpire.

Did Travis have an idea of what will be replacing it?

No, not as of last week anyway (when I bought one of the last few additional HE-560s he was able to procure).

Based on what i hear with my setup, i would recommend audio-gd without hesitation. On a budget the r2r 11 or nfb11.28. Or get a used Master-11 if you can find one. Or the nfb28 or nfb29.

It may be overkill, but for a while I'll be using my incoming new/second pair of HE-560s with my Master 9 (which is being fed by an Yggdrasil).

 

[FredA]

I'd be surprised if something doesn't materialize at some point this year. But then, who knows what'll transpire.



No, not as of last week anyway (when I bought one of the last few additional HE-560s he was able to procure).



It may be overkill, but for a while I'll be using my incoming new/second pair of HE-560s with my Master 9 (which is being fed by an Yggdrasil).

Not sure, The he-560 are very transparent. The better the equipment, the better the sound. I will run mine balanced soon.

 

[435279]

Metal sounds great with the 560's!

I don't listen to much metal, I found a review that mentioned this metal though.

 

[rawrster]

It may be overkill, but for a while I'll be using my incoming new/second pair of HE-560s with my Master 9 (which is being fed by an Yggdrasil).

It does sound a bit much for the he560 however if you end up buying more headphones in the future you won't have to worry about your setup not being good.

I'd love to repurchase the Aurelia Taurus amp I had a few years ago for this. I almost never see it here anymore so would have to pay full price and I value desk space a lot more now.

 

[Brahmsian]

Price range?

Under $500 would be nice.

 

[thebkt]

Under $500 would be nice.

iFi Micro iDSD BL does a pretty great job!

 

[TimeSnow]

Under $500 would be nice.

Well.. People will disagree, and I'm sure it'd all down to personal taste, but there's always the Chord Mojo. I love it with mine, but mine are custom made and don't sound the same as stock 560s. So bear that in mind.

 

[doctorjazz]

I like the Liquid Carbon with the 560. Not a DAC, so if you meant $500 max for both, it may not qualify. But, the Massdrop version was inexpensive, and they had a DAC to go with it as well. Not currently offered (but they tend to reoffer the "made by Massdrop" stuff). And, waits on Massdrop can be quite long, but I like mine (use an LH Labs Geek Out SE v1 as DAC). Also liked the RSA HR-2 amp, which is more, but I got it used for about $300. Many options out there...

 

[thebkt]

Well.. People will disagree, and I'm sure it'd all down to personal taste, but there's always the Chord Mojo. I love it with mine, but mine are custom made and don't sound the same as stock 560s. So bear that in mind.

When shopping for my Aeon's I compared them with my 560's using a Mojo. I didn't use it for that long, but I certainly left being thoroughly impressed by the lil' mojo. It had no trouble driving the 560's and sounded great!

 

[ScareDe2]

My initial impression. Like most planars they lack some air presentation, it's too refined on top, the mids are a little dry definitely behind the LCD2 in terms of richness and the bass sounds a little boomy but the amount seems just right and it doesn't seem to bleed into the midrange. I would call them neutral/dark headphones, I really don't understand those who say they are bright or neutral/bright. But note that I use the schiit Lyr 2 with tubes. For some reason I think they sound spectacularly pleasant with big music such as classical symphonies. Not for pop music, rock, techno, it's a pass. And they are too resolving and revealing for bad records. Doom metal seems to work good. If it's well recorded and it sounds big, it works very good.

Bottom line: they seem to play distant and complex musical composition very well. The closer the worst. The farther the better.

 

[TimeSnow]

When shopping for my Aeon's I compared them with my 560's using a Mojo. I didn't use it for that long, but I certainly left being thoroughly impressed by the lil' mojo. It had no trouble driving the 560's and sounded great!

Agreed!

I've been comparing my Mojo to a ifi nano bl and the 560s really need that power. I can't turn the ifi to MAX and it's not OTT. The same is not the true with the Mojo, which can rip your head off.

 

[raybone0566]

I owned the nfb1 for a bit. When my bw2 arrived I couldn’t believe how crappy the nfb1 really was. From memory the carbon wasn’t much better. Moving forward I came across a vidar/ saga combo and thought I’d give it a try. The tube pre really does help the 560’s. I found the vidar to be more detailed, and had better driver grip. Bass extension was better, and the saga added a level of transparency and everything was more cohesive than what the bw2 offered. So the bw2 is no longer here and strictly the vidar for planars. There’s a bit of low level hum in tube mode, but Not noticeable with music playing.

 

[phthora]

My initial impression. Like most planars they lack some air presentation, it's too refined on top, the mids are a little dry definitely behind the LCD2 in terms of richness and the bass sounds a little boomy but the amount seems just right and it doesn't seem to bleed into the midrange. I would call them neutral/dark headphones, I really don't understand those who say they are bright or neutral/bright. But note that I use the schiit Lyr 2 with tubes. For some reason I think they sound spectacularly pleasant with big music such as classical symphonies. Not for pop music, rock, techno, it's a pass. And they are too resolving and revealing for bad records. Doom metal seems to work good. If it's well recorded and it sounds big, it works very good.

Bottom line: they seem to play distant and complex musical composition very well. The closer the worst. The farther the better.

I wonder how much of that is the tubes. Personally, running both the LCD-2F and 560 through the Black Label, I find the 560 neutral bright or slightly v-shaped (with the bass boost on), with noticeably better treble air and soundstage than the LCD-2F, which I would call warmer. Interesting. Thanks for your take on these two.