[colinut]

Hello HeadFi!
 
I feel I recently rediscovered music after I upgraded from my On-Board sound and Senn's HD515 cans to a Fiio E17 & E09K + a set of Beyers dt770 250's. Everything's different now! The sound, the emotions, my whole life is different!
I went with this setup based on reading your recommendations so first let me thank you all for that!
 
Recently I also started re-doing my whole music collection in FLAC by ripping my old 100ish CDs again!!!
 
The issue I'm having is that I got the DAC, Amp and Headphones on my desk at work and I was thinking of having a similar setup at home so I don't have to carry my gear between work and home everyday. Initially I wanted to just replicate the exact setup at home, but before spending another £350 on the exact same gear again, I started wondering what the next step up would be in terms of sound quality.
 
I tried a few headphones and for some reason I'm hooked on the Beyers sound so was looking at the T90s. I'd also need a nice DAC and amp to power these so I started looking at the ODAC+O2 combination from JDLabs. But would this solution be a big enough leap from what I already got to warrant the extra spending?
I wish there was a guide somewhere online that would list the best gear based on price range. So far I haven't found such a guide.
 
So I'm turning to you, what would you recommend for a home setup?
In terms of music, I listen to a lot of rock/blues/jazz quite a bit of metal too.
 
Many thanks! 

 

[tanner116]

My current setup is: PS1 -> JDS Labs O2 -> DT990 250ohm. 
 
While I don't have experience with the T90 (though, what I wouldn't give for some time with them!), I can tell you that the O2 is a great amp at a great price. I would highly recommend it, especially if you want to be different from your work setup.
 
Regards!

 

[KG Jag]

Since you're thinking about spending about $500 on your cans, look into the HE 500--see:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/634201/battle-of-the-flagships-58-headphones-compared-update-audeze-lcd-2-revision-2-6-4-13#user_HE500

 

[tanner116]

Since you're thinking about spending about $500 on your cans, look into the HE 500--see:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/634201/battle-of-the-flagships-58-headphones-compared-update-audeze-lcd-2-revision-2-6-4-13#user_HE500

Or the HE-400i. Or the HE-560. Hifiman makes some great cans. Getting them used is a good idea, too. But I'm a bit confused about your budget now; I was under the impression you wanted to spend $500 on the whole setup, not just the headphones.