Hi folks,
I've found this site very useful as I recently got into headphones, and I have something to contribute but first I'll tell a bit about myself.
I'm retired after working as a systems analyst / mechanical engineer. I love music, not just hifi!
For about 20 years I've been designing and building valve (tube) hifi off and on, now getting decent results.
My main system:
Teres turntable, Moerch DP-8 12 inch arm, Zyx 4D cartridge (a really nice setup).
Luxman DA-06 dac, Heed transport and dac, Astin Trew AT3500+ cd player
DIY valve phone stage; nice; at least on a par with Aesthetix Rhea
DIY line pre using the '27' valve, also nice
Single ended triode '45' parallel amp (lower power than a 300B but far better sound)
Sensitive MTM reflex speakers, matched to the low power amp
Interconnects are Argento, at costs which look very silly for just a few cables .. until you hear them in a good system.
I came to use headphones almost by accident, and my progess has been illogical but fun!
It happened this way.
The Astin Trew cd player is truly excellent, no trace of the kind of digital sound that can be unlistenable compared to my nice analogue front end; but when I did a head to head vs a top player I heard what I was missing. I then looked for a good player or dac ... a home demo of MSB Analog dac was interesting, it was very good, but somehow I was a touch disappointed by female vocals, which I love a lot (and the AT does this very well indeed).
I ended up with the Luxman dac which I really love; I'd say it has an analogue sound and c.f. the MSB, a slight warmth in the midrange giving, to me, an excellent and natural sound to vocals.
I fixed up the Luxman dac driven by a Tascam CD200 to run the dac in ... and noticed the CD200 had a headphone output so I tried it; the sound was OK using my old AKG headphones.
I then started to enjoy some late night listening, just the Tascam and phones; pretty good sound.
A Little Dot III came next, allowing me to use the Luxman; nice! Then a pair of Audio Technica ATH-W1000X from ebay, which I love - excellent vocals, excellent tonality.
A while later a Cayin HA-1A came up on ebay UK and was won; very good, a definite improvement over the Little Dot. Then some tube rolling and recently some parts upgrades followed with excellent results which I'll write about soon.
I then wanted to try a decent cd transport vs the Tascam player used as transport and found a Heed on ebay. Soon after the mtaching Heed DA-1 dac also came up and was bought, as by then I was fully hooked on the headphone system for late night listening but also wanted a top CD setup in the main system; the Heed gear is really good, I like its analogue kind of sound, excellent for accoustic instruments and vocals (and everything else).
More later ....
I've found this site very useful as I recently got into headphones, and I have something to contribute but first I'll tell a bit about myself.
I'm retired after working as a systems analyst / mechanical engineer. I love music, not just hifi!
For about 20 years I've been designing and building valve (tube) hifi off and on, now getting decent results.
My main system:
Teres turntable, Moerch DP-8 12 inch arm, Zyx 4D cartridge (a really nice setup).
Luxman DA-06 dac, Heed transport and dac, Astin Trew AT3500+ cd player
DIY valve phone stage; nice; at least on a par with Aesthetix Rhea
DIY line pre using the '27' valve, also nice
Single ended triode '45' parallel amp (lower power than a 300B but far better sound)
Sensitive MTM reflex speakers, matched to the low power amp
Interconnects are Argento, at costs which look very silly for just a few cables .. until you hear them in a good system.
I came to use headphones almost by accident, and my progess has been illogical but fun!
It happened this way.
The Astin Trew cd player is truly excellent, no trace of the kind of digital sound that can be unlistenable compared to my nice analogue front end; but when I did a head to head vs a top player I heard what I was missing. I then looked for a good player or dac ... a home demo of MSB Analog dac was interesting, it was very good, but somehow I was a touch disappointed by female vocals, which I love a lot (and the AT does this very well indeed).
I ended up with the Luxman dac which I really love; I'd say it has an analogue sound and c.f. the MSB, a slight warmth in the midrange giving, to me, an excellent and natural sound to vocals.
I fixed up the Luxman dac driven by a Tascam CD200 to run the dac in ... and noticed the CD200 had a headphone output so I tried it; the sound was OK using my old AKG headphones.
I then started to enjoy some late night listening, just the Tascam and phones; pretty good sound.
A Little Dot III came next, allowing me to use the Luxman; nice! Then a pair of Audio Technica ATH-W1000X from ebay, which I love - excellent vocals, excellent tonality.
A while later a Cayin HA-1A came up on ebay UK and was won; very good, a definite improvement over the Little Dot. Then some tube rolling and recently some parts upgrades followed with excellent results which I'll write about soon.
I then wanted to try a decent cd transport vs the Tascam player used as transport and found a Heed on ebay. Soon after the mtaching Heed DA-1 dac also came up and was bought, as by then I was fully hooked on the headphone system for late night listening but also wanted a top CD setup in the main system; the Heed gear is really good, I like its analogue kind of sound, excellent for accoustic instruments and vocals (and everything else).
More later ....
