May only be able to make 1 audio purch for a long time. You may be the only guys I trust to help!

So, I grew up poor. The “best” headphones I ever had were Beats that were given to me as a Christmas gift. I’ve just now reached the point in my adult life where I have any kind of discretionary spending at all, and the audio bug has hit me really hard. I still have a bit of discretionary spending left, but as of next year it’s going to start going into home repairs on two different houses and I’m pretty certain this will be the end of my ability to buy anything new at all for quite awhile. I also live way out in a rural area, so I have just about zero chance to try anything out before I buy it or make it to any kind of meetups before I commit to something.

Still, I ended up managing to get my hands on both a pair of HD800’s, and a pair of pre–fazor LCD-2 Revision 2.2s. Before trying the LCD-2s, I managed to try out HD600s, HiFiMan HE400S, HE560s, and probably a couple others I can’t remember. The HD800s blew all of those away for me. For me personally, the HD800s did everything I loved about the HD600s, it just did it all better. I wanted to love the HiFiMan stuff, but as much as I had the sense that I was missing out on bass impact, I still couldn’t shake the perception of losing clarity any time I switched off the HD800s. On A/B testing, I kept wishing I could take the bass impact of the HiFiMans and transpose it onto the HD800s, but it was a clear-cut winner that as a whole I'd take the HD800s anyway every time. I ended up sticking to the HD800s and thinking I was done.

But then I ended up with the chance to get a great deal on the LCD-2.2PFs. So I tried them. And for whatever reason, the cut in clarity / increased muffled sound compared to the HD800s was tolerable for me here. I'm still disappointed that it doesn't seem possible to combine the fun sound of something like the LCD-2s with the ridiculous levels of clarity on the HD800s, but all else equal, if I could only ever listen to one of the two again I'd feel really f'ing bad about it but I’d have to cringe and hope nobody overhears me and go with the LCD-2s.

I don't think I could bear going back to any closed-back headphones under $500 again even for casual listening. For reference, I listened to a pair of B&W P7s and with my new audiophile baseline set I found them just shy of actually unlistenable. If I had to downgrade my headphones for budget reasons, the HE400S would be an easy pick for me based on what I've heard so far (in fact the HE560s barely seemed like a noticable improvement in side-by-side comparison) but I definitely wouldn't listen to music as much as I do now if I downgraded.

Note: I’m Amp/DAC’ing everything through a Schiit 2 stack. I’ve never even had the chance to try anything else out, besides some cheaper FiiO gear. It seemed obvious to me that the quality of the sound as such was better coming out of the Schiit, so that inherently inclined me not to believe the stuff I was hearing about how anything that can get your headphones to an adequate sound level is totally equivalent to anything else. That’s the main reason I signed up here at SBAF, because I kept getting that feedback any time I tried to ask questions anywhere else. Even if I decide I personally can't tell the difference with different quality amps, listening to those people is never going to allow me the opportunity to make up my mind about it for myself. Someone who thinks there's a marked difference in quality can at least do the best job of recommending something that will allow me to see or not see that for myself. Even when I told people in other forums that I explicitly wanted that, the "Schiit 2 is all anyone could literally ever possibly need" brigade just wouldn't stop chiming in.

Obviously, I can't help wondering if the amp/dac source is why the HD800s don’t sound as good to me as they could and if a different source would make them my end-game and settle it once and for all. But frankly there is just an impossible number of choices to make here and none of the recommendations seem anywhere close to unanimously agreed upon outside of the best basic entry-level stuff (e.g. Schiit). So I haven't even found a way to make a purchase decision given that it will pretty much wipe me out.

Sidenote: I played around with EQ’ings for the HD800s on Peace before picking up the LCD-2s. I don’t know what happened here… but before I tried the LCD-2s, there seemed like a drastic difference to me between the different settings I came up with or copied from other people. At the most extreme end, some tracks sounded downright muffled and like the treble was being played from the other end of a tunnel several feet away. After I spent awhile listening only to the LCD-2s, I tried switching those settings back around... and I literally couldn't tell any difference between them at all anymore. I have no idea how or why this could even happen. It was enough to make me worry that I didn't have Peace set to change the EQ on the right sound device anymore, but I confirmed everything as best I could and that doesn't seem to be the case.

SO... like I said earlier on, money is tight and I'm stretching my budget as hard as I possibly can to make sure my audio listening will be more than enough to make me happy before shit really hits the fan. I want to keep 2 headphones so that I have a backup go-to if something somehow happens to the other one and I can't afford to fix it or whatever.

If I replace my amp, my max budget can stretch up to about $500. If I decide to buy a different headphone, I can stretch up to about $1000 (by selling either the LCD-2s or the HD800s for about 500). So the LCD-2s and HD800s are each kind of balancing the perceived deficiencies in the other for me right now. If I replaced the HD800s I'd probably want the replacement to be more HD800-y and if I replaced the LCD-2s then I'd want them to balance the HD800s similar to the way the LCD-2s do for me currently. Based on some of the comments I've heard, I've been wondering if the ZMF Atticus wouldn't be the perfect upgrade to the LCD-2s that would give me the bass I'm lacking in the HD800s but upgrade the LCD-2s in a very HD800-y direction by increasing the clarity in the rest of the sound. It also might be convenient to have a closed-back option? As long as the soundstage isn't as cramped as the other cheaper closed-backs that are currently the only thing I have to make reference to like the B&W P7s! As another point in favor of this reasoning, I figure I'm better of selling the LCD-2s than the HD800s because the LCD-2s are at risk of driver failure and if they died I would be devastated and have no way to replace them or anything. So trading up on the LCD-2s is probably what makes the most sense, I'd assume. But then again for all I know putting a better amp on the HD800s could turn them into everything I'd ever want or need, and I just don't know and have no way to try anything out first.

What do I listen to? I've learned that it really depends on how the gear I'm listening through makes it sound, and realized that my musical preferences throughout my entire life have probably changed based on what I was listening through even though I didn't realize it at the time. On the HD800s I gravitate towards things like Radiohead, The Mars Volta, Aquilo, PVRIS, music where a greater proportion of the interesting stuff going on is up towards the higher ranges. On the LCD-2s I start gravitating towards things like FKJ, Mastodon, Tool, Zeal and Ardor. Rock/metal/electronic. But I seriously dig for new music constantly and listen to everything from soul to classical to rap and country. My recently played has Slipknot, Tigran Hamasyan, Submotion Orchestra, Le Trio Joubran, Tinariwen all side by side and I do even just sit around and listen to really well made recordings when I'm in the mood.

So... damn, there's my long-form essay about the situation for you guys. Please help!!

 

Sorry, but growing up poor != getting $300ish headphones as a Christmas gift.

Also, you should post this in the general advice thread instead of a thread of its own. You'd get a lot more actual advice from awesome people there

 

Uh, it wasn’t from my parents, it was from a fairly distant relative who was, no less, using gift cards people had gifted them when they were doing their Christmas shopping. There were some really awkward pressures around holidays and awkward year-to-year reuses of sometimes it seemed like all of the gifts in that side of the family. I'll move it over to the general thread.

 

- If you had more of a budget I'd say go Stax, but that's a big risk if you don't have the ability to buy/sell/trade easily.
- a new amp will not magically transform the HD800 (with the exception being something with a high output impedance to generate the midbass bloom... which actually could sorta be in line with what you're looking for)
- if you're gonna sell something, sell the LCD2 because resale value on those sucks so get what you can now before the upcoming "classic" lineup tanks the used prices
- have you looked up any of the various mods for the HD800? There might be some options there that work for you

 

I'd grab a Garage 1217 Horizon 3 with the CNC'd Aluminum Top [$315] for your HD 800 along with the SDR Resonnator that one of our members is selling.

With a upgraded tube plus the resonator you'd be around no more than $450 for everything. If you really want to burn some cash and get up to $500 then maybe grab a power cable for your Dac and a pair of Blue Jean Cable RCA's, I'm not going to say the Cables will make a HUGE difference, but they are durable enough that you shouldn't need to worry about replacements for a very long time, having only used MonoPrice cables for years I've seen them wear out not so nicely, I can say the same for power as well. Even with a power conditioner I was having issues with both drop outs and freezing on my PC, swapping in even a fairly inexpensive $20 cable removed the issues I had completely... I was again replacing very old power cables from I couldn't say where

I got a chance to hear a modded HD 800 with my own Garage 1217 Amp and I really liked it!

And to add, I enjoy my G1217 amp and the upgraded tube [which changed the frequency response enough to compliment the ONE headphone I listen the most with] enough that I'm really content with my system. Upgrades at this point are possible, but no longer necessary, as I addressed problems with durability with new cables and I got an amp with a ton of flexibility [via tube rolling] to address troublesome parts of frequency, of my primary driver. After tackling those issues, yea I can say I don't want to or even need to buy anything at this point,

My terrible advice is what worked for me, here's to hoping maybe it'll work for you

 

If I were you, I will just adhere to hd800.

To be specific:

1. Sell lcd2 (I indeed like lcd2, but you have a budget problem. It's not very wise to play with two pricey headphones in such situation imo)
2. Sell magni, and buy vali2 (trade might be good if possible)
3. Mod hd800 (sdr+vader)
4. Enjoy musics with 2+3
5. Save your audio budget until $3,000. (May take time, but you can learn what you really need in the meanwhile!) - Based on my experience/observation, I assume hd800 users will ultimately need Gungnir Multibit or better dacs (cost at least $1k) AND nice tube amps (usually cost $2k or more) because of damn great scalability.

Of course, YMMV

 

How handy are you? Up for building something from Bottlehead?

I would also mention your LCD-2 flavor is an endangered species. There aren't many around and they tend not to live forever. Whereas HD800s are all over and very safe to buy used.... Just sayin

 

Try balanced, maybe? Jotunheim w/DAC + some cables would do it.

 

If your headphones must be an HD800 and you're looking for a decent amp under $500, I should be able to recommend one pretty soon. Be patient. In the meantime, make sure to mod your HD800, at least with the SDR mod.

As a general rule of thumb, listen to Marv's advice and stay away from most SS amps in general. It's not that all SS amps are bad, it's just that most of 'em don't do justice to HD800. One notable exception I could think of is ECBW, but now it's become unobtainium.

 

Argh, I don't need one at all, but I've always fancied either building or buying a pretty pre-owned Crack. Just something appealing about having something like that sitting there being so un-slick (plus, with the speedball, it appears that it might not actually sound awful).

If I wasn't building it myself, I'd much prefer to get a nice one from someone reasonably competent, rather than an HF rando.

(Not that I am assuming I'm at all competent, my soldering is v. rusty.)