[Katzky]

For your particular music selection, it will be hard to surpass the refinement of the SR1a. The question would be commissioning a direct-drive amplifier like the Uberamp or delving deeper with power amps and the interface.

Depending on exactly how you feel about the Bartok and HD800 (if a little sweetness would be preferred) the DIY T2 and 009 is incredibly difficult to beat. More competent in resolve than the more passive HE1.

At these levels, you play to the refinement of your preferences.

Oh I now see you’re into Pass Labs gear. I’ve been reading about them for years and always had an interest. My space is limited do you think one of their ab stereo amps would be sufficient for the sr1a? The brand has such great reviews and a pleasing aesthetic.

 

[Katzky]

Headphones would probably be Hifiman Susvara or Abyss 1266 TC or maybe the Focal Utopia, but really they are more like side-grades to the HD800 at a higher price.

For the amp, it depends on which headphone you get. If you really have the cash, I would look into higher end speaker amplifiers to drive the headphones.

Thanks for input. Realistically I’d like to keep a $100k budget which I initially thought was insane $ fir headphones. Now I see one could spend unlimited $.

How does a person use a speaker amp to drive headphone? is that easy to do? Unfortunately I’ve developed a neurocognitive disorder that most likely will only get worse. Well nobody has indicated any possibility of it ever getting better. So I need something that doesn’t require technical skills after I get it set up. I’ve never heard of driving headphones with regular amps is this a diy kind of solution?

thanks.

 

[Whitigir]

Bit coin ! Is it bit perfect ? J/k
I am glad that you can enjoy the hobby better with it. What you think you have now is just a little drop of Piss from the whales like Elon and so on

This is a good read
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/24/17275202/bitcoin-scam-cryptocurrency-mining-pump-dump-fraud-ico-value

anyways, there will be more whales jumping in . Time to buy !!

 

[cucera]

The BHSE is still commercialy available at headamp.com and a really great amplifier dot it is the best Stax amplifier I ever owned, and I had a lot of them. It sounds excellent with every Stax phone I plugged in. The Cabon is only a different flavor. The T2 is supposed to be superior but not commercially available.

If someone could afford it, the SR-009s and the SR-007 are different enough to justify owning them. The SR-007 is darker and imho better for most modern genres but the 009 excells at classical and instrumental music and is definitely higher resolving.

 

[protoss]

Never sell the greatest technology that ever existed! Foolish

 

[Katzky]

Bit coin ! Is it bit perfect ? J/k
I am glad that you can enjoy the hobby better with it. What you think you have now is just a little drop of Piss from the whales like Elon and so on

This is a good read
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/24/17275202/bitcoin-scam-cryptocurrency-mining-pump-dump-fraud-ico-value

anyways, there will be more whales jumping in . Time to buy !!

Well I was a bitcoin miner starting in 2012. My wife was pretty upset with all the computers & ASICS in ever room of our house. I just did it for fun and stopped in 2013 to save my marriage. Jk. It is weird that the value of those bitcoins is multiples of the value of my labor from 15 years working as a ”highly compensated” software engineer. I tried to give away some bitcoins to friends/family In 2012/3 but none of them would even bother to create a wallet. Fortunately I set up wallets for my nieces and nephews so now they’re all “bitcoin millionaires“ and they don’t even know it. Unfortunately it never occurred to me that bitcoin could get so valuable and now the tax implications are significant.

Sorry... not intending to brag it’s just I’m still in shock over bitcoin’s appreciation. I’ve been unable to work or do much of anything interesting for five years. Something happened to my brain and I now have very little sense of passage of time. For instance I was going to call a friend because I promised to call her back. Well I was calling her but that previous conversation was 10 years ago. I hadn’t spoken with her in a decade and I’m acting like we just spoke yesterday and tried to continue the conversation where we left off. Also I forgot to eat for about six weeks.

wow... I’m way off topic. The point I think is that having bitcoin right now has given me some hope that no matter what happens to me my family will be able to live comfortably. It’s also neat that my daughter who was six at the time helped me set up the mining equipment. I explained all the details about bitcoin And was probably the only kid in her class who could describe a one way function.

 

[protoss]

That's a Garbage article. You should be ashamed of yourself to link that. Bitcoin is one of the greatest technology that exist.

Every God damn point the article pointed out is WRONG. Completely utter crap.

Two Examples,

1. 3 sites you can buy anything you want with the mighty king bitcoin.
https://www.headphones.com/
https://bloomaudio.com/
https://www.newegg.com/


2. Gold and silver produce more CO2 emission than bitcoin as for food for thought but the bias liars the media and bankers will never mention this.

Let's shut all the banks down as they are wasters of our electricity and number #1 producers of CO2

 

[Katzky]

Never sell the greatest technology that ever existed! Foolish

Well that was my plan but due to combination of my inability to work, pandemic economics, and my sudden interest in headphones; I decided to break the rule and sell a few. Obviously I’m still in it long term.

 

[Katzky]

The BHSE is still commercialy available at headamp.com and a really great amplifier dot it is the best Stax amplifier I ever owned, and I had a lot of them. It sounds excellent with every Stax phone I plugged in. The Cabon is only a different flavor. The T2 is supposed to be superior but not commercially available.

If someone could afford it, the SR-009s and the SR-007 are different enough to justify owning them. The SR-007 is darker and imho better for most modern genres but the 009 excells at classical and instrumental music and is definitely higher resolving.

Thanks. Is it just 009 or both 009 & 009s for classical? Is there anything about electrostats that would convince a person they also need dynamic headphones?

 

[cucera]

Thanks. Is it just 009 or both 009 & 009s for classical? Is there anything about electrostats that would convince a person they also need dynamic headphones?

The difference 009 to 009s is not that big. But I prefer the new model in the high frequency.

I don’t think dynamics and magnetostats offer anything really superiour to an excellent E-stat rig, but can offer more bass impact.

 

[HBen]

Thanks for the advice. Not sure he1 is right for me because I don’t have time to wait for it the be built but I requested they contact me so I can get a better idea what’s involved.

Looking at your profile it’s clear you have extensive headphone experience. I always wanted to try Stax but never had opportunity. I’d greatly prefer only having 3 headphones. The only headphones I’ve ever known are hd800. Which Stax model is the best for all genres? Is the 007.2 sufficiently different from 009/009s to get both? Would it make sense to buy all 3? Could you live with only electrostats?

I have developed a neurogognitive disorder which has lately made it difficult for me to read through forums and really process nuance across multiple threads. I tried and I got overwhelmed. So I do appreciate your advice.

Thanks for your comment - glad to offer some hopefully useful advice:

A few important points I found over the years venturing into high end headphones and associated gear:

- There is no "best at everything" - however there are headphones that are better than others in many or maybe even most (but not all) areas

- A lot depends on personal preference, music style, hearing, etc. - that's why only testing yourself can provide you with the optimal solution for you

- System synergy (especially the three main components: headphones - amplifier - dac) is pretty important - even more so for high end gear

- timbre or frequency response issues can somewhat be adjusted by maching with the right components (-> system synergy), using tubes or even EQ etc. but speed cannot be gained through any of those means. Thats why the most realistic and in my opinion best headphones are electrostats and those headphones with electrostat-like speed like the susvara or abyss headphones.

That said I think venturing into STAX is highly recommended in my opinion, especially if you like to listen to voices, jazz, classical, indie, chanson, instrumental or similar genres. For those genres the magic electrostats are able to create is hard to match. Rock, pop etc. is still very enjoyable - the only genres I would'nt really recommend a STAX setup for are all kinds of electronic music or if you prefer very hard hitting bass.

Coming back to your question: Yes the 007 and the 009 are different enough the own both. The 009S is pretty similar to the 009 but slightly voiced closer to the 007 from what I recall, so getting only that one could be an option. I cannot really reliably comment on the 009S though since even though I tested it many times I didn't test is on my own gear and therefore a comparison would be missleading.

Also a lot is about amp/dac matching. There seems to be some prevailing opinion on this forum that the 009 is best with the BHSE (or T2 for that matter), but personally I found the BHSE not the best match with the 009 in the setups I heard it, I think the BHSE fits better with the 007. As always also here personal preference, matching components etc. matters.

I personally could live only with my electrostats ... I could live even only with my 009 setup - I guess that's mainly because they do so well with all my favorite genres.

If you want to cover all your bases I think having three or four headphones can get you a long way. Apart from electrostats the only ones I would consider to be somewhere in that are are some abyss headphones or the susvara.

Unfortunately nobody will be able to give you any great advice on how to proceed from here, since personal preference, music preferences, system matching play a major role at this point.

Testing all the different gear on different amps/dacs with your own music is the only way to really know, but that's even hard to make happen when it's not during corona-times.
Since you seem to have the means to make it happen, I'd recommend getting your hands on a hand full of headphones like the stax' mentioned, abyss and susvara - plus a few different headphone amplifiers (tube or not tube) and combine them with your dcs to see what you like most. Unfortunately that's the only way to really know - but it's well possible to have some fun in the process

I wish you all the best on your headphone journey.

 

[ThanatosVI]

I'm pretty annoyed that I never jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon.

Regarding Systems to consider.
In that price League there are the statement products
- Sennheiser He1
- Hifiman Shangri La

Or if you are set on the Rossini route
- Hifiman Susvara
- T+A Solitaire P
- Abyss TC1266

Amplification has tons of options.
Some are strong believers that Speaker Amps are the best option here
Pass Labs XA25 + pa-12 are very popular recently.
Or high end Tube amps like the Woo Wa33 Elite
Or Solid State headamps like Wells Audio Headtrip 2 L2, Bakoon r13 etc. To Name a few.

The Susvara and Abyss threads mainly talk about amplification options if you want to get more options. There are lots of plssibilities, which one is the best, is a matter of taste

 

[markel]

This question has probably already come up with discussions of really expensive equipment, but if you were going to spend $20k to improve your DAC, wouldn’t it be better to build a good two-channel listening room instead of just focusing on headphones. I assume most people would have both, but even though I really like headphones, a really good two-channel system blows away any headphone set up.

 

[paradoxper]

What do I need to make the sr1a work? The uberamp appears to be bespoke and I’m just not capable of doing that. Does it just connect to a regular 2 channel power amp through the interface? I read it needs 100w. I have a Naim 80w amp that I am replacing in my speaker system. Do you think that would work?

The Blue Hawaii is amongst the most popular TOTL commercial offering.
However, you are balling, as such, you needn't consider only the convenient. The DIY T2 is that pinnacle.

I had Kerry build mine (you can see his workmanship speaks for itself,) I established the same source for finishing as the HeadAmp products, so you are making zero concessions.

There is currently not a good all-in-one solution for driving both electrostats and dynamic. HeadAmp is researching the development of producing such an amp with aim of providing a reference ribbon (RAAL SR1a) amplifier. I will find this project rather arduous with many obstacles, also to be met with skepticism.

The Interface and any nominal 100W amplifier is what you need. The Naim will provide enough drive for the SR1a, you may not find it the most ideal.

As you provided a more limited listening experience than I anticipated with headphones, I would recommend you contact a dealer and just start demo'ing various headphones to gain a better insight to what may work for you.

 

[Tarttett]

The Blue Hawaii is amongst the most popular TOTL commercial offering.
However, you are balling, as such, you needn't consider only the convenient. The DIY T2 is that pinnacle.

I had Kerry build mine (you can see his workmanship speaks for itself,) I established the same source for finishing as the HeadAmp products, so you are making zero concessions.

There is currently not a good all-in-one solution for driving both electrostats and dynamic. HeadAmp is researching the development of producing such an amp with aim of providing a reference ribbon (RAAL SR1a) amplifier. I will find this project rather arduous with many obstacles, also to be met with skepticism.

The Interface and any nominal 100W amplifier is what you need. The Naim will provide enough drive for the SR1a, you may not find it the most ideal.

As you provided a more limited listening experience than I anticipated with headphones, I would recommend you contact a dealer and just start demo'ing various headphones to gain a better insight to what may work for you.

Is my understanding correct, that Justin now is developing an amplifier that would be for dynamic and planar magnetic headphones, for electrostatic headphones, and for ribbon headphones?

I believe that Justin previously had stated that he was developing an amplifier that would be able to power all of those types of headphones, but it is possible that I am incorrectly remembering what he had stated, or that I originally had misunderstood what he had stated.