[outmatch]

Right now my rig is as follow:
Source: Stello DA100
Amp: Stello HP100
Cans: Denon D5000

Which one should be upgraded first?
How much should I expect to spend in order to have a noticeable improvement?

 

[outmatch]

anyone?

 

[krmathis]

A Grado, Sennheiser or AKG maybe? Model depending on budget of course...

 

[Golden Monkey]

Pretty damn decent rig with what you have right now! What makes you feel like you NEED to upgrade anything? Different phones, different flavors, but if you could describe what you like/dislike about your current setup, and what you're looking to achieve, that would help clarify.

 

[alxwang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pretty damn decent rig with what you have right now! What makes you feel like you NEED to upgrade anything? Different phones, different flavors, but if you could describe what you like/dislike about your current setup, and what you're looking to achieve, that would help clarify.

I think instead "upgrading" he means "have some other taste of sound".

 

[Golden Monkey]

Yeah, but "upgrade" was his choice of words, not mine, lol...

 

[outmatch]

By "upgrading", I'd rather say that I want more sound quality, something like more clarity, bigger soundstage, etc. I prefer a balanced sound, maybe a bit lean toward warmer tone. I mostly listen to jazz, vocal, and classical music, with some pop and rock.

Actually I'm ok with my rig now, but there's an urge to step up to another level. I guess I have something called audiophilia

So right now I'm wondering what the weakest link in the chain is. Should I get a new source, amp, or cans?

Thanks for inputs.

 

[Sherwood]

Alright, easy answers first:

1) Consider getting your Denons MarkL modded, if you haven't already.

2) Use the same front end with a different pair of headphones. Maybe some Sennheiser HD 600 or 650?

Now, the hard answers.

1) You have an excellent setup. Major sonic improvements get awfully expensive from this point.

2) considering your taste in music, you are a prime candidate for a Stax system. Consider the 4040 system in place of your headphones and amp. I think you would yield some distinct sonic benefits from that, though most of them are really sonic tradeoffs.

 

[outmatch]

I'd rather not have my D5000 modded; it makes reselling harder around here. So I should get a new pair of cans. The Senns sound a bit too dark for my taste. The new D7000 look promising, or should I aim for something like L3000?

About electrostats, not yet. I think I'm gonna stick with dynamics for a long long while.

 

[Sherwood]

You could always just pick up a modded pair from the FS forums and sell your stock pair.

I'm awaiting reports on the D7k as well. What are the odds they incorporate something like MarkL's mods, do you think?

I've not been able to compare the L3000s to any of those cans directly, having only briefly heard them at a meet. There are plenty of folks on here who have, though. Purk comes to mind, you might want to try PMing him.

And, regarding electrostatic, you know you want to...

 

[outmatch]

Hmm, I might consider doing the mod myself, only the reversible parts anyway, just in case I don't like the modded sound.

About the D7000, from the pictures on Denon's site, I don't think they have done anything like MarkL's mods. Though, they have redesigned the shape of the wooden cups, hopefully they'll be acoustically improved.

I've heard that the L3000 have incredible bass, deep and tight. I haven't listened to them myself but I think there'll be no problem if I just buy ones and try them out. If they work well then great. If not, I can still easily resell the cans for the same price. There's a lot of hypes around the L3000 here.

On electrostats: Ah yes, one day I would be there, only after I have reached the summit of the dynamics and experienced the ultimate eargasm (R10 balanced?)