[Ear-Wax]

Hi all! I've been reading thousands of posts over the last week trying to decide what cans to buy and just two days ago I picked up s pair of HD650's and the E17/E9k combo for starters. I'm also evaluating Audirvana + on my i7 Mac mini and so far I'm hugely impressed by this affordable little setup!
 
I'd like to thank the community here for helping make my initial purchase decisions. Down the road when I can convince my wife I need to upgrade, I would like to pickup the HDVD800/HD800 combo.
 
Cheers!
 
Mike

 

[JmanOfIsrael]

HD650s are a great pair of phones! I've been a head-fier for just over a year and finally picked up the HD650s about a month ago. I liked them so much I practically sold my entire inventory! I recently built the Bottlehead Crack, a wonderful and very capable DIY tube amp. I'd highly recommend it for the HD650s and later on down the road the HD800s, it is built for high impedance HPs. Plus it is an incredibly fun/easy build (even if you have no soldering experience)!

 

[Ear-Wax]

Well, after just one week with the E17/E9k I returned both to the retailer for a refund. Nothing wrong build wise, initially I was impressed but the more time spent listening to this combo the more it left me wanting for more - much more....
 
I found the Asus Xonar Essence One Muses edition DAC for a good price and jumped on it. WOW, my HD650's just come alive!
 
I compared the XEO Muses side by side with the Grace m903 and the Asus sounded as good if not better for less than half the price so I grabbed it.
 
Is this my end game? No, probably not. But it will keep me happy for a while I think.
 
Cheers!

 

[Stoney]

By the way, I have a clean E17, hardly used, that I expect to post for sale here.  Feel free to message me here. I'm in Silicon Valley, CA. 
 
UPDATE: I see elsewhere you have tried the E17 and settled on something else.  Same with me... I've spent many times as much, but still respect the E17 for portable use.