To be honest I don't know who i'm trying to kid, will end up buying a valve amp as well at some point.
Hey I love my HD800 (SDR) with my Bottlehead Crack + Speedball It is one of the headphones that will be very hard to get rid of to be honest...but I haven't listened to it for months now...=(
Yea, I won't get rid of my HD800 (SDR mod with Dekoni pads) either. Still does things as good or better than many new headphones out there today. Actually a great compliment to the Verite IMO (especially if you're already using a tube amp).
Your Elex is much more dynamic than the Arya. You're asking too much and so you have to pay more the HE1000se $3.5k or the focal Utopia $3-4k My Elex is more "crisp" sounding than the Verite, it's brighter and with more air using SS amp with both. Yet I take my Verite rich, live and fast sound over any headphones I own (Elex, Ananda), everything else sounds dead and fake compared to the verite (except my EQed ultrasone signature studio). You need to hear the Verite to really understand what I mean.
You could have just rescued my HD800. I had another listen again this morning with Studio Six and wondered why I am selling it for a song. It sounds marvellous still and I was going to give the Forza Audioworks away for free too. So as the seller's funds are not cleared, I think I will rescind the transaction. The Audeze LCD-3f has been sold though. A few buyers waiting in line to buy it. I agree the HD800 is a great compliment to the Verite.
That is subjective from person to person. For me of the 3 headphones my preference is Verite, HD800 and LCD-3f. Verite gets use mainly in the last month.
I don't get the notion of the universe pads are warmer than the flat verite pads, they are just less dynamic/intense and darker sounding (with bigger stage obviously). Therefore the verite pads bass is actually more prominent/intense to my ears.
You're right on all accounts there but if it's not as bright as the Verite pads and if it's darker sounding, then saying it's warmer is not wrong too. Although after extended listening now, the Universe pads isn't that warm. Just slightly warm as compared to Verite flat pads.
Audiophiles terms at it again I still think the 'warm' term should be used for bass and very low mids and 'dark' for very upper mids and treble directly and not implying but reversing the terms just to maybe avoid saying a "negative" words as 'dark sounding', this will help reduce the confusion and give a clearer feedback. For me even with the verite pads I still think they are very so slightly dark sounding, so I gave them only +2dB EQ above 2k (plus the +2dB at 3k) to make them sound dead natural which what I prefer.
