The All Purpose Advice Thread

My crappy advice would be just commit to one of the proven sets, start listening and be happy with your purchase. The more you over think this, the less music you can enjoy.

My good (but biased) advice would be buy the HD650 or HD600 and sleep easy know that they are almost universally liked.

 

Stick with the Senns - HD 6X0. Bar the Philips, I have owned/tried the rest and IME, there is no contest. You can safely remove the Audez'e from your wish list (and this is indeed a biased view). At one time, I owned 4 different pairs of Audez'e; I can safely claim to be the only one out of 1.2 billion on the sub continent to do so. Now I am down to three (woweee) only because I have made no effort to sell the LCD X and XC... I do like the Lcd 2.2 which has been modded by our own Bill-P (who by the way will mod anything so be careful )

 

hi, i need a small highly portable dap which sounds brilliant from headphone out (no additional amp needed) for use when out and about (walking, shopping, waiting for my wife to finish shopping etc.).

i have a fiio x5/e12a but i find it a little large/heavy to carry out too much.

I use shure se535 and rha t20 iems and want suggestions from people that have found what i am looking for and used them.

Reliability and support and are also desirable features, i am not too bothered by the UI as i play through folders.

Thank you

d

 

I know I've said it already but the O2 does not do a good job with the HD 650. I owned one when I bought my Senn's and sold it on within a month. The O2 is a great wee amp but just doesn't gel with the HD 650.

 

the Stax sr-5 with simple sorbothane pieces under the earpads (very simple to put in) is so good that i listen no more to my others headphone... The clamping is non existent, the mids is to die for, the rendering of the musical timbre of instrument is in another league ... All This for 60 bucks... the stax SR-5 was the greatest headphone in 1975 in the world... With sorbothane inserted under the earpad this headphone was probably one of the best headphone now for quality/price ratio.... best regards to you all

By the way the vintage normal bias Stax headphone are always sold with an energizer that you will connect to a vintage amplifier ( mine is Sansui au-7700) this combo will beat almost anything under one thousand dollars for half the price in total... i have said all this here because i would have liked somebody had sald me all that 3 years ago, i would have put one thousand dollars in my pocket, this is the price i had paid for trials and errors before i learned about this combo : Stax SR-5 +sorbothane mods+ energizer+amplifier...

 

@richard51, he would need the SRD-7 amp (I think that's the one) also, would he not?

Could be that the SRD-7 is the adapter, not an amp...

 

For price of O2 + ODAC could get a mangni / modi schiit stack and drive HD6x0's, but now we have completely screwed this guy on knowing what to do.

 

@JoshMorr, I completely agree with you given that he wanted to buy a HP to mate with the ODAC/O2.... he should probably get the HE400i and be done with it

 

There is a short cut: the KSC75.

 

Lotoo Paw 5000

Small, ultra fast UI, acceptable SQ, great baterry life

 

Why not an X3ii?

 

DF, just ordered one .... this should motivate the OP....

 

If small is a consideration, I've been decently happy with the Sony A15/A17. Plenty of power for anything intended to be easier to drive, only downside is the 3.5ohm Z out, which may or may not be a problem with BA only IEMs (don't have any right now to test) but it sound great with PM3/MSR7

 

Not on OP's list, but why not the HiFiMan HE400s? With limited budget, ie not spending much on amp/dac, this seems like the way go. Or for $100 more, the Oppo PM-3.

 

It would be cool if we had an advice thread...

 

Well Innerfidelity exists. Also I agree as long we do not turn into the Hype-Fi "buy the M50" machine.

I had to learn the hard way to trust my ears and filter through reviews and opinions.

 

There is plenty of good advice here. Look at the pattern and make the purchase.

 

I'm going to go against the general advice here and say get a Fidelio X2.

I'm willing to accpet that the HD 6X0 is as great as this forum says it is but not out of something like an O2 or lower end Schiit. I say this because on my own desktop rig the HD 650 is a worse headphone then the X2. (asgard 2 and a Peachtree DAC). Out of a ragnarok or lyr 2 I'm sure the HD 650 scales well.

X2 on the other hand does not. I can't even go past half on low gain on the Asgard. But it sounds excellent there. And I have no doubt it sound excellent out of an even lower end amp.

X2 has excellent soundstage, nice bass, liquid mids and ok treble. Also better build quality then the Senn's. I found it more resolving then my old AKG 712s. By a fair margin actually.

I'm with Tyll on this one.

 

No one said the x2 had "liquid mids," least not Tyll. I think he said,

In fact, many enthusiasts believe they may be the most important headphone in the hobby. (hd6x0) Well, I don't think the X2 is going to change that


I tried to live with the x2 but just couldn't. Good build quality, fairly heavy on the head, cord way too long for me, and the V shaped signature was fun but not for everyday listening IMO.