[Dawnrazor]

Current gear:

Amps- Hafler ha-75, liquid platinum (hardly use the platinum because the 1/4 sounds worse

Headphones: ultrasone sig pro, ultrasone edition 11 ( best sounding of the 2). Though i listen way more when working and now have a stand up desk with a tread mill so the over ears are problematic because of sweat. So i run the KSE1200 out of the preout of the hafler where i can get some tube goodness and use the haflers crossfeed and bass boost with the kse1200

Anyhow have $3k to spend and ideally would like to improve the kse1200. Though not much I can really do since no one makes a replacement amp/energizer. So i can either get a new amp or a better pair of over ears or an iem that will be better than the shure.

Looking at Diana phi v2 or the sultans or the final audio flag iems. I have the final 100s and really dig them. A great iem might be the best option since i will be walking at the desk

For amps, was looking at the decware taboo. It could replace the hafler except for the preout and bass boost.

What would improve the sound the most? Amp or headphone? Or am i just wasting dough?

 

[lpd2]

Headphones. What tubes on the liquid platinum?

 

[Dawnrazor]

Headphones. What tubes on the liquid platinum?

just the stock. I don't really use it at all because it supposedly sucks single ended and the only phones I have that are balanced are the m1060. I need to make a cable for the edition 11 and just havent gotten around to it. KSE1200 can't be used balanced afaik and the Sig Pro definitely can't without mods.

 

[whitedragem]

As an (Ultrasone) Ed 5 user, changing amps has changed my love for the sound quality found there-in. (obviously tested after the 1500+ hours of burn-in needed to get past the treble peaks)

Whilst I thought a pure silver cable almost gave them too much top end clarity, the bass wasn’t missing due to cable, but given in massive dividends with a different amplifier.

I’d generally take a great amp with a middling DAC (if need be), cause the amp aspect can really mix up frequency playback / delivery.

My local audio store has some clearence parts like the energiser you are talking about- is it a ‘brand specific’ or ‘model specific’ part that you need there?

Anyhow if you LIKE your sound quality, suggest taking your existing cans to your local audio store and try out three differing pricepoints of kit, and maybe some different technology /’design ideals’ regarding amplifiers.
I gather we all understand that amps can tailor sound quality- and once we start buying expensive headphones, sometimes their ultimate performance is controlled by ‘upstream electronics’.

I have heard beaut placement of every piano key and harp string (in a Florence and the Machine piece of ‘rock out’ sound) on the edition 5s and just changing amps has varied their sound through three different tiers of kit.
From a super high quality DAP with THX modules; ho humm (nothing special - wouldn’t buy the sound)
From a great mid tier amp (eg iFi Diablo or Sony PHA3 or Onkyo HA200) they sound ‘good’ (fitting for their price)
but given an exceptional amp they climb, easily, another tier of quality of sound delivered....

I can only hope your present amps don’t strangle quality of output from your existing kit.
If you buy a new headset you get ‘one’ new type of sound.
If you buy a new amp, perhaps all your headphones get an aspect of upgrade.
The iFi Diablo is a lot of great DAC and good amp in ONE package...
The DAC aspect uses a psuedo 6bit ’ladder’ /OoOC that is the closest a delta sigma circuit has gotten to R2R/ladder DAC (budget) sound (to my ears).
I consider the Diablo the lowest adoption cost for ‘mid-fi’ and it adds/gives a lot for its dime investment.
Will a class A desktop amp destroy it? mayhaps- but like anything, some systems have a synergy, and the Diablo hasn’t had a bad pairing that I have found yet....

Not saying I recommend a Diablo over a new set of cans, but I would at least look at the sound quality changeup an amp might bring your exisiting ‘phones.