@bretemm:
• Impedance: 16Ohm
• Sensitivity: 90dB
So, low impedance but not overly sensitive. I found they worked quite well with the Aune X1S amp I have in for review. Synergizes well the blue valve, bringing out the top end. I'm not keen on the Aune with brighter headphones, so I'd avoid any valves with lifted top end with the X1S. One of the really nice things about t096z is the ability to switch valves and get a completely different sound to suit your mood or synergies with different equipment. Hope that was helpful.
$330 for six quite distinct sound signatures. Be forewarned that you will probably really like a couple, find a couple ok for occasional use, and dislike a couple. That was my experience, and Torque's owner related that this was the typical customer reaction.
As far as whether they work for your music, I'd say it's more up to your preferences. Do you like a sound signature with deep, powerful bass, neutral mids, and sparkle up top? Choose the green valve. Like da bass but prefer smooth treble? Blue valves for you, good sir. Prefer a mid-forward neutral-ish sound? Red. Lean and mean without aggressive highs? Pink. Love bass, hate treble? Yellow. Hate bass but live for lots of top end? Black.
You get the picture :wink_face:
Previously, I was listening to them with the Shanling M3 I'm touring in the US & Canada and really liked them with it. I listened to them last night out of my Fiio X5 and wasn't that happy with them to be honest. Out of the Aune X1S, they're really good - better than the Shanling M3. I'm finding they're pretty source dependent for best sound, and synergy plays an important part in my enjoyment. I wouldn't be happy with these with my iPhone or Flip X5. I'd be happy with them with the Shanling M3 and even happier with them out of the X1S.
In fact, I'm listening to them with some electronic and piano music by multi-genre artist Ocouer with the Green filter out of the X1S. First time I'm trying that, and I quite like it. I thought it might be too hot up top, but it's not.
Just switched to Radiohead, and it handles that nicely, although for this I might switch to another valve to emphasize the vocals more. I had the green on because I intended to listen to listen to some electronic music and wanted a valve to have some fun with that
FYI: Here's what I installed the green valves to listen to tonight:
Hey again bretemm:
Impedance (Ohms) help you determine whether or not you headphones frequency response will be altered by your source. Ideally, you'd want headphone impedance to be at least 8x the output impedance of your amp stage to ensure frequency response is as the manufacturer intended.
Both impedance and sensitivity make headphones easier or harder to drive.
For instance, with the 50 Ohm Klipsch, ideally you want your source's output impedance to be around 6 Ohms or less. With the 16 Ohm t096z, ideally you'd want a source with less than 2 Ohm output impedance.
The X1S I'm testing has output impedance of 10 Ohms, while your Valhalla 2 is 14 Ohms. Clearly, neither are intended to drive lower impedance gear.
That said, I really like the 16 Ohm t096z with the X1S's 10 Ohm output. Is this a mismatch? Yes, but it sounds really good to my ears Looking at the Valhalla 2, it's got 14 Ohm output which is an larger mismatch. Will it sound bad because of that? Not necessarily. In fact, it might sound great, but I can't say for certain.
Not sure how the mismatch will affect the Klipsch, either.
Hope that helps in some way!
Aha, I just saw 14 Ohms on the Valhalla 2 webpage.
You can try both and see which you like
Valhalla 2 interests me. Is it warm, neutral, or bright?
