Tdock,
Do you attribute what you're hearing to personal preference, or does something clearly sound "broken" in your setup?
In other words, can you imagine that someone with different sonic taste might appreciate what you're hearing?
These comments are for the HD-650 pairing ONLY...
I'll try to explain this as nicely as possible so I don't get anyone even more mad at me. I don't actually think it's due to preferences at all. Hard to believe I know...
When I heard the HD-650 with it the first time I was disgusted with the resulting sound and the first reaction was almost instantly that it's probably just not a good match. That's it.
My HD-650 sounded
severely "OFF". It wasn't just a tiny bit of coloration, but major colorations. If anyone didn't notice, I've not once said the Vali sounded warm or colored with my Q701 or K400.
I doubt if anyone heard it the EXACT same way I did they would like it. There's no way. It was that bad..
OK, so here is the question..if you like the HD-650 + Vali did you hear major coloration? Was it severely congested, muffled and too forward in the low mids? With very sloppy bass? Most likely a 100% NO. Then most likely it sounded as good of a match as my Q701.
I don't doubt people find the HD-650 + Vali amazing. I wish I got the same results. People will want to say it's a case of crappy gear, but it's not. I have the HD-650 sounding great on almost everything I own. The HD-650 LOVES the Modi and my Micro DAC.
Once I heard these issues I immediately plugged in my K400 and Q701...dead neutral without much coloration. What the heck?
The Vali gave the EXACT same colorations to my DJ100 as well, but even more magnified. You know what it sounded like? A severely under-driven DJ100 and HD-650. Impossible! No, that wasn't the case obviously.
I switched between a ton of sources and similar results.
I made sure to check that my HD-650 was not broken and it's fine on everything else.
I imagine I'd love the Vali on the DT-880, T90 or maybe even an HD-800. If the Vali sounds good on a K712/modded Q701, then chances are it'd be good on an HD-800 as well.
Someone should try the Vali on some sort of bass monster and see what happens. The DT-990 is no bass monster, but it might be an interesting test.
I bet the M50 would also be terrible on the Vali and not due to noise..