me2621a
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Posts
- 320
- Likes
- 307
Hi everyone,
It has been a while since I have posted but I am getting ready for a headphone/equipment upgrade and I wanted to get some thoughts about the two options I am considering and see if you guys can help guide my decision making process.
What I currently have:
Emotiva XDA-2 -> Little Dot MK VI+ With my primary listening headphones being the HE 560 and a HD650.
I am a big fan a Planar headphones and I have realized the Little Dot was probably not the right amp for them (have to turn it to 100% to have my preferred listening volume on the 560’s) and based on the performance the amp has with the 650’s it is clearly built (no surprise here) for higher impedance headphones.
So Option 1:
Schiit Gungnir (Mulit-bit) -> Schiit Jotunheim (jot) -> Ether Flow
I have not been able to audition an Ether Flow yet personally but the sounds has been described to be in between an HD 800 and a Audeze LCD-3, sounding like a more refined HE 560 which matches where I want to go, and obviously I would decide to keep the flow after listening to it, and if I were not in love with it would also probably audition an LCD-3. Total cost would be about ~3400. If I go this route I will defiantly be going a Gungnir because I had the non multi-bit version for a while and simply love that DAC.
Option 2:
So this is the reason I am writing this post. I also know that people have not heard this headphone yet but I am curious about electrostatic headphones as I have not heard one before but it sounds very interesting to me and I realized that I could get the necessary equipment and the VOCE for about the same price.
Equipment Chain
Emotiva XMC-1 (already own, replaced my original Gungnir because for me it matched the sonic performance on my main speaker system in reference stereo) -> Emotiva A-100 (re-badged mini-x) -> WOO Audio WEE -> MrSpeaker VOCE
Total cost of new equipment is $3700
My big question is which option would you gravititate to if you were in my position. I have no issue auditioning headphones and returning them, but I would prefer not to buy all of the new source components audition and return, which makes it hard to test out both. I also have no experience with electro stats though based on what I have read they sound great.
To be clear I do plan I keeping the XDA-2 and Little Dot in either case as they are a perfect match for my HD650. I will probably sell off the 560 as I would imagine the replacement will probably make them unnecessary.
Thank you for the time and advice
It has been a while since I have posted but I am getting ready for a headphone/equipment upgrade and I wanted to get some thoughts about the two options I am considering and see if you guys can help guide my decision making process.
What I currently have:
Emotiva XDA-2 -> Little Dot MK VI+ With my primary listening headphones being the HE 560 and a HD650.
I am a big fan a Planar headphones and I have realized the Little Dot was probably not the right amp for them (have to turn it to 100% to have my preferred listening volume on the 560’s) and based on the performance the amp has with the 650’s it is clearly built (no surprise here) for higher impedance headphones.
So Option 1:
Schiit Gungnir (Mulit-bit) -> Schiit Jotunheim (jot) -> Ether Flow
I have not been able to audition an Ether Flow yet personally but the sounds has been described to be in between an HD 800 and a Audeze LCD-3, sounding like a more refined HE 560 which matches where I want to go, and obviously I would decide to keep the flow after listening to it, and if I were not in love with it would also probably audition an LCD-3. Total cost would be about ~3400. If I go this route I will defiantly be going a Gungnir because I had the non multi-bit version for a while and simply love that DAC.
Option 2:
So this is the reason I am writing this post. I also know that people have not heard this headphone yet but I am curious about electrostatic headphones as I have not heard one before but it sounds very interesting to me and I realized that I could get the necessary equipment and the VOCE for about the same price.
Equipment Chain
Emotiva XMC-1 (already own, replaced my original Gungnir because for me it matched the sonic performance on my main speaker system in reference stereo) -> Emotiva A-100 (re-badged mini-x) -> WOO Audio WEE -> MrSpeaker VOCE
Total cost of new equipment is $3700
My big question is which option would you gravititate to if you were in my position. I have no issue auditioning headphones and returning them, but I would prefer not to buy all of the new source components audition and return, which makes it hard to test out both. I also have no experience with electro stats though based on what I have read they sound great.
To be clear I do plan I keeping the XDA-2 and Little Dot in either case as they are a perfect match for my HD650. I will probably sell off the 560 as I would imagine the replacement will probably make them unnecessary.
Thank you for the time and advice