[Audius]

I enjoy the V shaped sound, but I'm looking for something with more resolving capability and extremely wide(I want the biggest) soundstage.

Anyone have any recommendations? It doesn't have to be more expensive, I just want something that's going to be really novelty to go back and re listen to my music with, in a good, clear, big soundstage neutral kinda way. The kind of iems or headphones that make me think, "This is the laziest beat, why on earth did they add this treble note in there and why have I never heard that before? That's horrible."

I want something that makes me respect not only the artist but also the mastery of their recordings. Something that I can put my favorite songs on and it will make me want to never listen to them again and force me to look at new music and hunt for really great pieces.

I want the most unforgiving setup possible, bang for buck, maybe including dac and amp, (running fiio e10k right now) under $1200...ish.

Slap me with it.

 

[plmon]

Fostex TH-900 would be a direct upgrade from that family of drivers. I found it to have a wider soundstage, better imaging, and a noticeable bump in resolution. The treble could be a point of concern, though I didn't find it as bad as others did (it's not like Beyer level imo).

Other headphones you could look into with larger and more spacious presentation would be Sennheiser HD800, AKG K700 series, Hifiman Ananda/Arya. These have a leaner, bright tonality though.

 

[Audius]

Fostex TH-900 would be a direct upgrade from that family of drivers. I found it to have a wider soundstage, better imaging, and a noticeable bump in resolution. The treble could be a point of concern, though I didn't find it as bad as others did (it's not like Beyer level imo).

Other headphones you could look into with larger and more spacious presentation would be Sennheiser HD800, AKG K700 series, Hifiman Ananda/Arya. These have a leaner, bright tonality though.

Noticed you have E-MU teak, unrelated but do you enjoy them?

 

[silent-circuit]

HD800 is exactly what you're describing. The undisputed soundstage king.

 

[plmon]

Noticed you have E-MU teak, unrelated but do you enjoy them?

I did, the tonality and presentation were like if you made the HD6XX a little V-shaped. Natural, slightly warm sound that's not too recessed and improving on the bass quality. I don't see many headphones that get this kind of balance for a V-shaped sound.

However, it was hard for me to go back to the small earpad openings after using the Hifiman Ananda. So at the moment, I've swapped pieces between the Teak and TH900 to get a good compromise in tonality and comfort.

 

[Audius]

HD800 is exactly what you're describing. The undisputed soundstage king.

/thread?

 

[lpd2]

Audius you could possibly get two really great headphones around that same cost total if you go with an all in one portable dac amp. I recently got a fiio Q3 because my macbook air only has usb-c outs. Its a "THX aaa" amp and runs pentaconn, 2.5mm, and 3.5.mm. I am using focal elegia as my main theyre 600$ after tax currently in the US. What you are describing about hearing the faults in a mix etc yeah the elegia do that but only legitimately. They don't get it wrong by preferential tuning basically. I could literally go down the list of my cd collection and prioritize which albums to get the remasters of and which to hold off on (mostly mid 60's to mid 80's popping up on that list). They are that legit. On 1950's jazz recordings you can tell the wood plank floors they're on, swivel stools etc... You could get the DC audio aeon RT off of drop (they have open and closed at like 380$ r now) and you'd have both main driver types (dynamic and planar), both headphones debuted around a thousand bucks and are a full league above the d5000. There are other all in one dac amps but I found the Q3 to be the easiest to pull the trigger on given its balanced, native dsd512, usbc, and with the super clean thx aaa amp modules. I drove nicely some 150ohm monitors unbalanced (less power output). Yeah for 1200 get both driver types for sure. Someone who has both on the Elegia forum suggested that the Aeons were more resolving fwiw, and also that theyre a good pair to own both.

 

[Audius]

Hmmmm.... I suppose the downside of going with HD800 is finding a used one since it appears discontinued and replaced with the HD800S?

I'll look into the Focal Elegia since you mentioned it but I should mention that this is for a desk setup. It's going nowhere.

 

[lpd2]

If you got a used decade+ old headphone in this booming audiophile market during the holiday season it would be sort of tragic. No warranty, no returns, no heavily discounted recently-innovated technology. Please nobody else buy used decade old headphones during the holiday season. Btw that flagship sound is made for businessmen to "feel luxurious" listening to smooth jazz they're not actually for audiophiles. Better to get Senn's 660s by a mile - easier to drive too. Heads up dude.

 

[lpd2]

The Sennheiser 660s are $362 on amzn r now. Thats a way better headphone meets your criteria 100% and you can return it if you don't like it. Plus it won't be carrying someone elses residue. Edit: 660s comes with a balanced cable, should widen soundstage a bit.

 

[silent-circuit]

Hmmmm.... I suppose the downside of going with HD800 is finding a used one since it appears discontinued and replaced with the HD800S?

I'll look into the Focal Elegia since you mentioned it but I should mention that this is for a desk setup. It's going nowhere.

I mean, the 800S is really just a small re-tune / update. Some prefer one, some the other.

 

[lpd2]

Drop has their version for 1100 that actually looks decent and price is not outrageous.