[hakunamakaka]

Here is the problem with your approach... You are looking for a solution without defining the problem you want to solve. If you have a problem that you can define, you can research ways to correct it and then have a good chance that it might make an improvement you can clearly hear. If you just swap more expensive stuff in randomly, you are just as likely to screw up sound as fix it, and in most cases, it might not make a difference at all. Random solutions produce random results.

The best way to improve your system is to make an effort to know how it works before you go buying stuff. Read about how capacitance works, google frequency response, research the specs of your equipment, figure out what the audible thresholds are... THEN you will have an idea of what needs fixing.

Too many people think being an audiophile is about shopping. The person who buys the most expensive and most convoluted and inconvenient system has the best. That is what the high end audio salesmen want you to believe because it makes you come back to buy the same thing over and over and over again, spending more money each time.

All you need to do is be an informed buyer. Understand what you are shopping for and decide if it will solve your problem and give you more convenience and better sound BEFORE you pull out your credit card. Once you get the new doohickey, carefully test it and return it if it makes no improvement. If you do that, you'll find that it doesn't cost a fortune to put together a good sounding system.

unfortunately I do not live in a place where I could test much of interesting audio gear for me, but I totally agree with your approach. Either way my journey is finished with portable rig upgrades. I have old oppo pm3 which really stood it's own matched again 5x more expensive hifiman products like arya, the CIEM that I got have their own signature, but for sure I can't justify their price. Differences are nowhere near as big as when I swap my speaker setup between vinyl and digital source, that's what I could call a real improvement.
Once my wallet gets back to normal I got my eye on Klipsch speakers and a better dac to accompany or leave behind my LP source. For now I'm going back to my old habbit which is listening to music instead of thinking about the new audio gear

 

[bigshot]

A speaker system can always soak up more money than a portable system! And getting better speakers is the best place to upgrade. I have a Klipsch center channel. I think Klipsch are all horn loaded, which makes them more directional... Better for sitting at a little distance from. I really like my Klipsch center. It's a good efficient speaker, a bit louder than other designs.

The nice thing about ordering stuff from Amazon is that you have a 30 day return window. That makes it easier to try stuff out and see if it works for you.

 

[hakunamakaka]

A speaker system can always soak up more money than a portable system! And getting better speakers is the best place to upgrade. I have a Klipsch center channel. I think Klipsch are all horn loaded, which makes them more directional... Better for sitting at a little distance from. I really like my Klipsch center. It's a good efficient speaker, a bit louder than other designs.

The nice thing about ordering stuff from Amazon is that you have a 30 day return window. That makes it easier to try stuff out and see if it works for you.

To be honest I think once you reach certain SQ level in portable system there is not much left to impress, things go down to personal preferences. I had that wow effect when I jumped from airpods to oppo pm-3 with portable dac/amp and it seems I hit the sweet spot. Afterwards had a chance to audition hifiman line hp, even though their high tier openbacks did sound bigger, but I did not see such a sound improvement as I got with my first higher end purchase. Speakers are a different story, but I'm looking only to a bookshelf sized speakers as I live in a tiny flat.

 

[Bozzunter]

I think that headphones are slightly off-topics here (although it was me to have started the thread), since it’s not really possible to make proper blind tests and the differences among models are objective anyway.

Nonetheless, when I read about Airpods Pro and Oppo PM-3, I am not sure I can be won over the argument that it’s not worth to spend more money like for any DAC or DAP.

There are several Airpods-like solutions from Sennheiser, Bose and Sony which sound better or much better than Apple’s solution which is barely acceptable with noise cancelling on, insufferable with Transparency and Off modes. I returned them all since one way or another they work less flawlessly than Airpods pro, but when we talk about the pure sound, it’s different leagues. Not much different than comparing Beats to some proper headphones in my opinion.

I didn’t listen to PM-3 but since I have experiences with similar planar models, I would bet any money that lots (most) of people would ditch them immediately should they listen to Sennheiser HD-800s, some models from Focal, LCD... Yeah, they’re more expensive but we’re not talking about throwing the money away for things where no one could find any difference in a blind test.

 

[hakunamakaka]

I have auditioned my pm3 against ananda/arya/senheisers 6xx through a various and expensive amps and basically difference are in small details apart from 20-30% larger soundstage due to openback design. The cost of arya is 5x my pm3..and for such a small margin of SQ improvement for me...would rather blow that on my speaker system. Only once I’ve gone out of control purchasing portable audio gear, is when i bought ciem, but I simply got tired of buying multiple highly praised chi-fi products in head-fi forum and being disappointed afterwards

 

[Blackwoof]

I highly doubt 99.9% of anyone would find the gains from going ER3XR/HD6XX to a LCD4 or HD800 worth it, Despite what the online audiophile community says.

 

[PhonoPhi]

I highly doubt 99.9% of anyone would find the gains from going ER3XR/HD6XX to a LCD4 or HD800 worth it, Despite what the online audiophile community says.

In a spirit of your factually unsupported strong statements: one may even downgrade a notch or two without noticing any sonic difference when listening to 128 mp3

 

[dazzerfong]

I highly doubt 99.9% of anyone would find the gains from going ER3XR/HD6XX to a LCD4 or HD800 worth it, Despite what the online audiophile community says.

Why stop at Etymotics? I hazard 99.9% of the world wouldn't appreciate going from a Koss Porta Pro to HD800s. Hell, I bet they'd even like the Koss' more!

 

[Blackwoof]

In a spirit of your factually unsupported strong statements: one may even downgrade a notch or two without noticing any sonic difference when listening to 128 mp3

Ah so ABX'ing ER3XR vs HD800 to test wither <5% gains is worth it is unsupported, lol?. Yes i sure love to buy a $1600 headphone then find out that my ER3SE's with ER4SR EQ sound the same 99% of the time with the rare <1%, the HD800 shows fart sounds in the studio that the ER3 shows but is bit quieter.

Do any of you read your posts or being offended a natural state here?. lol

 

[bfreedma]

Ah so ABX'ing ER3XR vs HD800 to test wither <5% gains is worth it is unsupported, lol?. Yes i sure love to buy a $1600 headphone then find out that my ER3SE's with ER4SR EQ sound the same 99% of the time with the rare <1%, the HD800 shows fart sounds in the studio that the ER3 shows but is bit quieter.

Do any of you read your posts or being offended a natural state here?. lol

I'm having a hard time figuring out if you like Etymotic IEMs...

Nothing wrong with having a personal preference, but might want to dial down what's coming across as a severe case of fanboyism (fanboyitis?).

 

[Bozzunter]

Ah so ABX'ing ER3XR vs HD800 to test wither <5% gains is worth it is unsupported, lol?. Yes i sure love to buy a $1600 headphone then find out that my ER3SE's with ER4SR EQ sound the same 99% of the time with the rare <1%, the HD800 shows fart sounds in the studio that the ER3 shows but is bit quieter.

Do any of you read your posts or being offended a natural state here?. lol

If now you’re trying to say that an IEM sounds like open cans 99% of the times, to me you’re making statements as absurd as in the dedicated headphones forums.

HD800 were replaced by 800s a few years ago, please tell me a song to try when I can hear them farting.

I might not understand your mention to the studio: do you mean using an IEM in a studio for critical listening?

You know, one thing is to show that to spend money in DAP/DACs is useless, I was into that game and I agree not based on strange ideas but for I cannot hear any difference whatsoever between any combination. The myth of DACs was more than properly debunked here.

Still, if the game with cans becomes ‘the less money I spend the smarter I am’ and any can, IEM, open, closed, planar, whatever other technology or kind, sounds the same with a proper equalizer, I think I can hardly agree.

 

[hakunamakaka]

If now you’re trying to say that an IEM sounds like open cans 99% of the times, to me you’re making statements as absurd as in the dedicated headphones forums.

HD800 were replaced by 800s a few years ago, please tell me a song to try when I can hear them farting.

I might not understand your mention to the studio: do you mean using an IEM in a studio for critical listening?

You know, one thing is to show that to spend money in DAP/DACs is useless, I was into that game and I agree not based on strange ideas but for I cannot hear any difference whatsoever between any combination. The myth of DACs was more than properly debunked here.

Still, if the game with cans becomes ‘the less money I spend the smarter I am’ and any can, IEM, open, closed, planar, whatever other technology or kind, sounds the same with a proper equalizer, I think I can hardly agree.

I can't comment on high end dac's, but I can tell the sonic differences between my budget portable lotoo s1 dac and my macbook output while connected to speakers.
Differences are even more obvious when I match it against iphones dac with my CIEM

 

[KeithPhantom]

You know, one thing is to show that to spend money in DAP/DACs is useless, I was into that game and I agree not based on strange ideas but for I cannot hear any difference whatsoever between any combination. The myth of DACs was more than properly debunked here.

With DACs, to hear a difference (distortion or noise) they have to be bad, and really bad (I am talking something like >= -40 dBFS 2nd harmonic). Buy a DAC that measures good and has all the features you are looking for, because all well-engineered ones are bound to sound the same.

 

[KeithPhantom]

I can tell the sonic differences between my budget portable lotoo s1 dac and my macbook output while connected to speakers.
Differences are even more obvious when I match it against iphones dac with my CIEM

Not to attack you, but those claims need to be supported by evidence.

 

[hakunamakaka]

Not to attack you, but those claims need to be supported by evidence.

No offence my friend. Might be that iphone dac is not up to that “standard”. I tried few budget portable dac/amps with my old pm3 and earsonics em10 CIEM and difference between iphone jack and lotoo S1 is huge for me, I can bring my CIEM very loud with iphone only, but it won’t have that layering and 3D presentation, it seemed like a simple single driver iem and at the beginning I was so disappointed that I blew so much money for em10, but once i plugges it via S1 I could hear a difference instantly, it even improves my old pm3 sound. If you have a chance you can always test audio gear in shop that’s the best way...and by no means I have a very good hearing, but I could tell that bose qc35 hp lacks behind in sq against pm3.