[Whitigir]

Hd800s, period

 

[bagwell359]

One of the wonders of tube gear. It’s never boring. Unless there are anomalies that tubes can’t fix.

I've had lots of experience with tubes.. Great for headphones, or hybrid/tube pre-amps. For full tube big watt amps - Jadis and ARC come to mind - so do $15k+ price tags and $1k+ retubing costs. Yum!

But for headphones, quite viable and enjoyable.

 

[bagwell359]

Hd800s, period

For you. If I was down to just one can only and this was the criteria - and using my kit as is (Ragnarok 1 and Gumby 1) I'd rather go with the Arya or E2 or used LCD4. 800S can sound very clinical on my Rag and make misery out of older/poor recordings.

OTOH by Spring '21 I expect to have a HD-800 (nee 'S') and a Susvara added to my list to go with HE-500 and HD-600.

Love to have a killer estat set-up but even used that's near $6k.

 

[FYFL]

For my Klipsch Cornwalls 4, no need for monstrosity of an amp. 10-20 wpc is plenty.

I would like put my heads on quality class A amp. And see what it does.

 

[yolosauce]

Yeah, I have heard that it could be slightly peaky at 5-6khz. I don’t mind it as long as it’s not sibling or shrill. From what I’ve read, they seemed to easy to listen to but still very technical. There were no complains regarding bass response or soundstage/imaging. Which is great.
I guess the only question is, do they respond well to tube amps and are they that much better then way less expensive Arya? There’s some conflicting opinions regarding value to performance ratio. Some say that it’s an obvious set up, others can’t seem to justify tiny (according to them) sound improvements. Any thoughts?

I think the SE is worth the upgrade over the Arya. The Arya is laid back and smooth sounding while the SE is more aggressive and dynamic. Arya has a hint of plastic timbre while the SE sounds more realistic albeit brighter. I can't comment on tube amps with the SE but they sounded just as good from my phone as they did from my el amp 2. The Arya does come with better quality stock cables for some reason.

 

[RSC08]

For you. If I was down to just one can only and this was the criteria - and using my kit as is (Ragnarok 1 and Gumby 1) I'd rather go with the Arya or E2 or used LCD4. 800S can sound very clinical on my Rag and make misery out of older/poor recordings.

OTOH by Spring '21 I expect to have a HD-800 (nee 'S') and a Susvara added to my list to go with HE-500 and HD-600.

Love to have a killer estat set-up but even used that's near $6k.

This is another good point that hasn't been touched much, highly analitical phones will not be an optimal pairing for someone that intends to listen to a lot of jazz/blues.

 

[number1sixerfan]

For Jazz and Classical specifically, yea I'd say the HD800S is a good bet (with the right tube amp). For that price range the Focal Utopias (used) and ZMF Verite Closed are much better all rounders imo. Also, if the less costly Hifiman offerings are anything like the Susvara, I'd definitely look into them.

 

[descloud]

I have not heard of this. However the HDV 820 does have a high output impedence which impacts the HD8xx FR if you want to call it EQ in that manner - but also makes it a poor match for anything but 150ohm+ headphones. Not some profile built into the dac tho as far as I'm aware of.

You might be right there. I suspected that it has some sort of equalized profile because of the measurements found by ASR on both the 1/4 output and the XLR, on top of the high output impedance it already has. The THD+N at 50 Ohm and 300 Ohm have noticeable distortion measurements, which seem to render it better for Sennheiser's high impedance models. This is only a suspicion why Sennheiser did this with the HDV 820 dac/amp and is in no way conclusive.

 

[ruinedx]

You might be right there. I suspected that it has some sort of equalized profile because of the measurements found by ASR on both the 1/4 output and the XLR, on top of the high output impedance it already has. The THD+N at 50 Ohm and 300 Ohm have noticeable distortion measurements, which seem to render it better for Sennheiser's high impedance models. This is only a suspicion why Sennheiser did this with the HDV 820 dac/amp and is in no way conclusive.

TBH ASR's measurements and especially conclusions aren't so great

But the high output impedance of the HDV 820 does have the effect of warming the headphone a bit, and some people like this change of balance

 

[PointyFox]

For Jazz and Classical specifically, yea I'd say the HD800S is a good bet (with the right tube amp). For that price range the Focal Utopias (used) and ZMF Verite Closed are much better all rounders imo. Also, if the less costly Hifiman offerings are anything like the Susvara, I'd definitely look into them.

I'd be wary of owning a Utopia due to the seemingly high driver failure rate. Some owners have even had it happen more than once. The LCD-4 had a high driver failure rate too that they "fixed" in the latest version. I owned the latest version and didn't think I'd get a driver failure but I did.
I heard the ZMF Verite and ZMF Verite Closed back to back and I thought the closed version sounded very muffled compared to the open.

 

[number1sixerfan]

I'd be wary of owning a Utopia due to the seemingly high driver failure rate. Some owners have even had it happen more than once. The LCD-4 had a high driver failure rate too that they "fixed" in the latest version. I owned the latest version and didn't think I'd get a driver failure but I did.
I heard the ZMF Verite and ZMF Verite Closed back to back and I thought the closed version sounded very muffled compared to the open.

Yea I've heard of that. Haven't experienced it and that's unfortunate, fingers crossed that I avoid it. Yea the Verite Closed like any closed can can sound like that, especially before adapting to it. I have that same feeling 15-20min in any time I put it or the L3000 on. And then as my ears/mind adjust I quickly pick up on the intimacy and specialness of each. But do admit that if I were looking at Jazz/Classical only an open headphone is probably the best route.

 

[ruinedx]

Yea I've heard of that. Haven't experienced it and that's unfortunate, fingers crossed that I avoid it. Yea the Verite Closed like any closed can can sound like that, especially before adapting to it. I have that same feeling 15-20min in any time I put it or the L3000 on. And then as my ears/mind adjust I quickly pick up on the intimacy and specialness of each. But do admit that if I were looking at Jazz/Classical only an open headphone is probably the best route.

The hd700 is weird like this at first as well. But then sounds really good after a few min

Also, the hd820/800s makes everything you put on after it sound extremely muffled

 

[sennfan83261]

I’m in the same boat, but I’m pretty satisfied. I don’t think I would trade any $2k headphone for my current rig.

That's a damn solid lineup IMO.

Can you tell me more about your experiences with HE1000? With open box discount these would be with budget. Also, are these cans tube friendly? Verite looks nice and gets good reviews within the community but it will be hard to audition them......I think.

Planars are not really friendly with OTL (output transformer less) tube amps such as the Darkvoice or Bottlehead Crack, which work best with high impedance dynamics like the ZMF can you mentioned. Planars work better with solid state/tube hybrid amps such as the Drop Cavalli Tube Hybrid or many other ones around that price point. Planars can also work with OTC (output transformer coupled) tube amps, but these amps are generally on the more expensive side of things. Best to check whether the amp supplies enough current to drive your planars properly.

 

[FYFL]

That's a damn solid lineup IMO.


Planars are not really friendly with OTL (output transformer less) tube amps such as the Darkvoice or Bottlehead Crack, which work best with high impedance dynamics like the ZMF can you mentioned. Planars work better with solid state/tube hybrid amps such as the Drop Cavalli Tube Hybrid or many other ones around that price point. Planars can also work with OTC (output transformer coupled) tube amps, but these amps are generally on the more expensive side of things. Best to check whether the amp supplies enough current to drive your planars properly.

It’s an OTC direct coupled amp. Yes, I’m aware of OTL (I own Darkvoice. It’s junk) amps not being an option with planars.
Output of my Dragon Inspire is into 40 ohms -1.7watts.
“The power levels vary with the impedance of the output load. At the 32 ohm level up through 570ohms the power is in the 1.125watt to .750 watt level. Higher power at the lower end of the range. It will drive the 600-ohm cans you have as one of your choices.”

You guys have touched on quite a bit. I haven't had a chance to see every single post yet. I’ll check those out in a bit.
From headphones that you guys have suggested, these made the list so far: HE1000v2, Susvara (if I could find a good deal), HD800s, ZMF Verite open. I’m not ruling out HADDphone and LCD4 (maybe used but a bit risky since you mentioned issues with drivers). Am I missing something?

 

[510198]

That's a damn solid lineup IMO.


Planars are not really friendly with OTL (output transformer less) tube amps such as the Darkvoice or Bottlehead Crack, which work best with high impedance dynamics like the ZMF can you mentioned. Planars work better with solid state/tube hybrid amps such as the Drop Cavalli Tube Hybrid or many other ones around that price point. Planars can also work with OTC (output transformer coupled) tube amps, but these amps are generally on the more expensive side of things. Best to check whether the amp supplies enough current to drive your planars properly.

I’m pretty sure we met at source A/V

That's a damn solid lineup IMO.


Planars are not really friendly with OTL (output transformer less) tube amps such as the Darkvoice or Bottlehead Crack, which work best with high impedance dynamics like the ZMF can you mentioned. Planars work better with solid state/tube hybrid amps such as the Drop Cavalli Tube Hybrid or many other ones around that price point. Planars can also work with OTC (output transformer coupled) tube amps, but these amps are generally on the more expensive side of things. Best to check whether the amp supplies enough current to drive your planars properly.

Hey! I’m pretty sure we met at The Source AV meet for Heddphone/RAAL SR1A lol. Thanks for the compliment. Your collection is awesome as well! We should meet up sometime or have a mini meet with the guys who were there lol. I want to compare my lcd2 to others since the unit variation is so high. Yea, I had a bottlehead crack speedball a while back, but sold It because it started to hum. Luckly mine is fully upgraded by ecp with all the mods, and I have read it’s really enjoyable with HD800. I just would not plug an he6 into it lol. Keep in mind I got this piece for half of what others paid for it new.

More fluff regarding the ECP T3 below https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.re...y_hands_on_this_amp_and_it_gives_the_hd800_a/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.re...ss_in_great_ones_a_brief_look_on_the_master9/