The SBAF Headphone Compendium

E-MU Teak and Walnut are still for sale at the E-MU website (http://www.emu.com/). The "Black Walnut" version (which I own) is also for sale at Drop for $69. Very similar sound to the CAL!, which is no longer sold and has the same biocellulose (please check spelling in opening post) driver. My CAL! sadly broke down, and I cannot repair it. Tyll Hertsens compared the E-MU Walnut and the CAL! (whose sound he slightly preferred) at https://www.stereophile.com/content/e-mu-walnut-creative-aurvana-live-woodied. IMHO, the E-MU (Black) Walnut is still an excellent value at $69.

 

I am using my pre-faz rosewood LCD2 r2, kiss-mod HD6xx and HD800S with my Bottlehead Crack. And I absolutely love the planar+tube pairing . I have tried my LCD2 with many ss amps but just have not like any of them (maybe except the original Asgard). It is weird that I don’t like my 2 Senn headphones out of my Crack because they sounds too soft. On the same amp (Crack) my LCD2 makes my HD6XX sound soft, flat, blunt and simple IMO.

 

This is wonderful. You should do something like this for amps (both headphone and speaker), DACs, and speakers as well.

 

A small note of caution on power: you might not need a pair of monoblocks but it is very possible to run out of current or outright gain on most single-ended amps depending your music selection and your desired listening volume. I'm not normally a "more power" guy, but the HE6SE is the one headphone in my collection that really makes the Magni+ sweat. I'd suggest 2W at 50Ω but more is better for dynamics. If you listen exclusively to very "hot" music then go ahead and derate that by 2-4x. If you'd like your ears to bleed in the loud parts of very high dynamic range DSD content, aim higher. I don't have a HE5SE to compare but with an even lower rated impedance it's not going to be any easier to drive.