[dayamax]

Hi,
 
I have been using the Sennheiser HD 555 headphones for the last two years, and I was very satisfied with its performance. But for the past couple of months, I've been thinking of upgrading my gear. I used my headphones straight out of my laptop headphone jack. So I want to buy a headphone amp and DAC (or amp/dac combo) + new pair of cans.
I will use these only at home, so noise leakage is not a problem. One important factor is that the headphones should be comfortable (at par with the HD 555 in terms of comfort) since I wear them for several hours at a stretch. My musical tastes include mainly classic rock, blues, blues rock, hard rock (70s, 80s).. though at times I also listen to classical music. Most of source consists of FLAC or APE files.. with some 320 kbps cbr mp3s.
 
My budget is about 500 $, I can stretch it to 600 $. I am considering the Sennheiser HD 600/650 (confused between which of these would be better), and the Grado RS2i. Buying the RS2i would leave me with very little cash for amp/DAC so I'll have to drive them straight out of my headphone jack. I'm also apprehensive about the Grados because they don't seem to have a good reputation for comfort.
 
Please let me know what you think would be a good pair of headphones for me. Any suggestions for the amp/dac are most welcome.
 
Thanks. 

 

[tvrboy]

If you want the absolute best bang for your buck, get a Stax 2050 system and get the DAC later. Or get some kind of Lambda and a transformer box to run it off a speaker amp. But most people don't want to put in the time or effort to figure out Stax headphones, that is a shame...
 
If you're going dynamic, my suggestion is a Musiland MD-11. I bought one and I'm very satisfied with its performance for the price. The headphone amp sounds fine. The DAC part is pretty good. The only thing I don't like is the tonality is not as good as my Cary Xciter, but the Cary is over 3 times the price. You can buy the MD-11 on eBay for less than $400. Pair that with a used HD-600 for $200 and that's a decent enough system. The problem with "one-box" products like the MD-11 is they are usually a compromise. Neither the amp nor the DAC section is as good as a standalone product would be, and you can't upgrade without buying 2 new products. If I were you I'd buy your headphone first, then a decent amp like a dyanlo, then choose a DAC later. That gives you more room to upgrade either section later.

 

[dayamax]

@tvrboy.. thanks for your input.. So far, I have been looking at dynamic headphones only.
Would you recommend the HD600 over the 650 .. or is it just because of the lower price ?

 

[tvrboy]

Quote:

@tvrboy.. thanks for your input.. So far, I have been looking at dynamic headphones only.
Would you recommend the HD600 over the 650 .. or is it just because of the lower price ?

I much prefer the 600 over the 650. It's easier to drive and has better tonality. The 650 sounds a bit dark and lush, it's not to everybody's taste. Plus the bass can be too much if it's not controlled with a good amplifier.

 

[svyr]

If you're going dynamic, my suggestion is a Musiland MD-11. I bought one and I'm very satisfied with its performance for the price. The headphone amp sounds fine. The DAC part is pretty good. T

oh the horror. I suggest not buying it and instead shooting yourself in the knee caps.

My unit has power button problems, DC on line out (enough to cause major audible problems with stax driver units on the other end) and major firmware and driver issues. The musiland bbs is filled with testimonies about QC problems for the units (physical or software). Musiland support will flat out ignore all your emails. Some issues are documented here http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/500181/musiland-md11-to-be-released/15 Aside from the grounding problem, which was not MD11's fault, everything else + more still remain. Anyone's best guess which problems are fixable through a driver/fw update that's sort of out... and sort of not. Did I mention there are no official change logs for those ?

The problem with "one-box" products like the MD-11 is they are usually a compromise. Neither the amp nor the DAC section is as good as a standalone product would be, and you can't upgrade without buying 2 new products.

How many Async usb with up 24/192k can you name? How many people kept US 02 as their main DAC?

Having a Class A amp in the same package is quite rare too (except for 96k/24b units from: audio-gd newer units and D100, and matrix oooh wait, maybe not anymore...oh well at least not 192k usb ones). The one on my MD11 goes loud enough to make it painful to use it at 25% vol for any hard to drive hp I had for 'modern music'. 300 ohm hp aren't a problem. The overall sound is a bit dark compared to Yulong D100 or Benchmark DAC. somewhat mid-centric too/nice bass/bit recessed highs.

For $350, and if it worked, it would probably offer unmatched value, as would MD30 when it comes out with balanced outs/new fpga module and other tasties (something about new clock on the bbs, didn't quite understand the details)