WTB: $1000-ish pair of Headphones?

Hey All,

So my favourite headphones are the Abyss, but I had to sell all my gear to cover medical bills. The plan was to save up for a pair of Abyss again, which I am doing currently. However, thats going to take a while, so I was thinking of buying something to keep me going until I have saved up enough. I have the Hifiman Sundara which I have put up for sale, so I guess I'm hoping to better those for around $1000USD. The plan is to keep them for 5 months or so, then re-sell them.

Used is obviously the way to go, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Better than the Sundara, but within my budget, I guess? If anyone has any suggestions, or something they are selling and would like to throw out there, shoot me a PM.

Thanks guys!

 

I'm a fan of Clear around that price used.

It's a good all arounder imo. Other options like LCD-2 and HD800 aren't as good at many genres or as forgiving imo.

 

I was thinking of the Clear as an option, will definitely keep it in mind ! There is a pair of HE1000V1 for sale locally which would work but I feel he is asking a bit much, so going to wait and see what happens on that front as well. If anyone has a Utopia they want to sell for $1000 give me a shout, hahaha.

 

What amp and DAC do you have? What kind of signature do you prefer and favorite genre of music?

 

I should have put that in the OP. Sorry, I'm dumb.

Chord DAVE/iFi IDSD BL. I realise that having a DAVE and not being able to afford good headphones at the moment is kinda dumb, but I'm working with what I've got at the moment

Signature wise, I usually prefer something that does bass well, as I usually listen to weird electronica. I'd go for the LCD2C, but I've owned the LCD-3 and 4, and kinda want to move away from the warmer darker nature of Audeze. I really enjoy the Abyss sound signature, and Hifiman as well.

An HE6 would be cool, as I could use an old speaker amp, but their prices have gone up by the looks of things, and are more than I'd want to spend for a temporary solution.

 

I feel like if you like bass options are somewhat limited in terms of non audeze options.

I use Utopia with DAVE and it's my favorite combo atm, Clear had more bass than Utopia (I eq Utopia up a tad in sub bass) so it'd probably be a very good pairing.

And honestly I'd probably sell Utopia before DAVE too, just because I want to hold on to it so bad and it powers my speakers too lol.

If you like EQ HD800 actually is pretty good with weird electronica because of the soundstage, but would 1000% need a bass boost for what you're looking for.

 

Yeah, everyone says the Utopia with DAVE is pretty great. I'd definitely like to keep it if at all possible, as the plan was to base my new headphone system around it

If anyone has an HE6 (4 screw or 6 screw, I don't care) they would like to sell for $800ish give me a shout. I could buy a cheapo speaker amp to use with it.

 

There's the new he6 2018 but it's about $1800 so out of your budget. You can add Sonarworks EQ to most playback software (jriver) and the bass will kick you right in the testicles...hard (this is a good thing). Awesome for EDM/Electronic.

 

Pmed

 

No ZMF Eikon / Auteur love? They've got the bass, and the Eikon you can get under $1k used. The Auteur is not so cheap, but close kinda.

Or you could sell the Dave, get a new Yggdrasil, a new EC Aficionado, and new pair of whatever you want.

Just saying...

 

I compared the old Yggdrasil to DAVE on a speaker system directly (Focal Kantas) , I'm not sure how different the new upgrade makes I've heard it's quite good, but there's a rather large difference in... Approach to sound I guess? You may prefer one to the other, but it's not exactly a call I'd do blind. The low end in particular was pretty different between the two. I'm not sure how to describe it, both were really detailed but the DAVE seemed to emphasize sub bass more while Yggdrasil focused on a bit higher bass. DAVE also had a smoother sound that reminded me a bit more of vinyl.

Eikon has solid tonality, but the technicalities are lacking vs Clear. I could see it being fun for @ufospls2 if he's never used them, but I'm not sure how much he'd like it when his favorite headphone (Phi) is a very detailed headphone.

Big fan of Aficionado tho!

Edit: Oh the Fostex TH-900 Mark II could be fun. Big bass and better detail up top. I think there was an Emerald version on devbrada which is stunningly beautiful.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/th900-mkii-emerald-green.885973/

 

To my ear, hd58x has enough bass and treble is not bad at all. My appliance are cheap, but I'm happy with them.