el34han
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2013
- Posts
- 5
- Likes
- 11
There are so many head gears and so many different ways to put them together. On top of that everyone's tast is different. I am simply sharing my experience. Hope my experience can help some because I received great help while researching my gears. Not here to offend anybody.
Just started serious listening with headphone two months ago. Before that my system was Marantz CD63->Audio Alchemy DDE1.0->EICO HF60 mono blocks(total rebuilt with separate power blocks)->MartinLogan Sequel. Had this system for about 17 years. Boy that's a long time without any upgrade now think about it. It is not a simple task to get every component ready and start listening. I want a easier way to listen to my music. So about two month ago I started researching and acquiring headphone gears.
I decided to recycle the transport and DAC. Here is my current headphone system Marantz CD63->Audio Alchemy DDE1.0->La Fegaro 336C(not Dark Voice) with Sylvania 6SN7GT and GE 6080 tubes->Philips X1(Mediabridge cable) and Sennheiser HD580(with HD600 cable)
I mainly listen to Classical, Opera and pop Jazz, sometimes a little old fashion pop. From all the reviews I read, about 20 of them, just about everyone agrees that HD580/600 is great for Classical/vocal, and X1 is great for Jazz. Many said the X1 has a recessed mid/vocal. With the stock 6N5P everybody's unanimous opinion seems to be true. To my biggest surprise after I replace the stock 6N5P with a GE 6080, the mid range and vocal of X1 become so liquid and smooth without loosing it's authoritative/tight/punchy bass and clear/airy/sparkly high. The X1 mid/vocal also gain quite some body and moved forward, now it's a perfect balance among high, mid and low. The X1 suddenly became "alive" if you know what I mean. (BTW, the stock 6N8P was way too noisy I had to replace it with a Sylvanic 6SN7 NOS right in the beginning of my listening. All comparsion was based on 6SN7.) With the stock 6N5P power tube HD580 sounded so sweet in the mid/vocal, but for some reason the HD580 become too forward and the sound stage is a bit mixed up. Well, I just found a setting that fits all my music genre which I never thought can be done with my limited budget.
Before I settled with HD580 and X1 I also tried Beyerdynamic DT880-32ohm. It was simply way too bright for my taste. Also, I couldn't hear any bass. Maybe the DT880-600ohm is beter, at least that's what I read on review, but Amazon kept sending me the 32ohm one instead of the 600ohm one I ordered. Tried twice in getting the 600ohm failed both times. But Amazon still deserve a hug thank-you from me, without their mistakes I most likely won't try the X1.
It is so sad that not too many people pay attention to the Philips X1. With proper source and amp it is truly a gem with budget price. Buy the Fidelio X1 without second thought. You will smile every day, just like me.
Just started serious listening with headphone two months ago. Before that my system was Marantz CD63->Audio Alchemy DDE1.0->EICO HF60 mono blocks(total rebuilt with separate power blocks)->MartinLogan Sequel. Had this system for about 17 years. Boy that's a long time without any upgrade now think about it. It is not a simple task to get every component ready and start listening. I want a easier way to listen to my music. So about two month ago I started researching and acquiring headphone gears.
I decided to recycle the transport and DAC. Here is my current headphone system Marantz CD63->Audio Alchemy DDE1.0->La Fegaro 336C(not Dark Voice) with Sylvania 6SN7GT and GE 6080 tubes->Philips X1(Mediabridge cable) and Sennheiser HD580(with HD600 cable)
I mainly listen to Classical, Opera and pop Jazz, sometimes a little old fashion pop. From all the reviews I read, about 20 of them, just about everyone agrees that HD580/600 is great for Classical/vocal, and X1 is great for Jazz. Many said the X1 has a recessed mid/vocal. With the stock 6N5P everybody's unanimous opinion seems to be true. To my biggest surprise after I replace the stock 6N5P with a GE 6080, the mid range and vocal of X1 become so liquid and smooth without loosing it's authoritative/tight/punchy bass and clear/airy/sparkly high. The X1 mid/vocal also gain quite some body and moved forward, now it's a perfect balance among high, mid and low. The X1 suddenly became "alive" if you know what I mean. (BTW, the stock 6N8P was way too noisy I had to replace it with a Sylvanic 6SN7 NOS right in the beginning of my listening. All comparsion was based on 6SN7.) With the stock 6N5P power tube HD580 sounded so sweet in the mid/vocal, but for some reason the HD580 become too forward and the sound stage is a bit mixed up. Well, I just found a setting that fits all my music genre which I never thought can be done with my limited budget.
Before I settled with HD580 and X1 I also tried Beyerdynamic DT880-32ohm. It was simply way too bright for my taste. Also, I couldn't hear any bass. Maybe the DT880-600ohm is beter, at least that's what I read on review, but Amazon kept sending me the 32ohm one instead of the 600ohm one I ordered. Tried twice in getting the 600ohm failed both times. But Amazon still deserve a hug thank-you from me, without their mistakes I most likely won't try the X1.
It is so sad that not too many people pay attention to the Philips X1. With proper source and amp it is truly a gem with budget price. Buy the Fidelio X1 without second thought. You will smile every day, just like me.
