Headphone lovers, what do you love, what do you have, Head-Fi fans 2018 edition.

Pairing the HD6xx headphones with a Zana Deux amp is very enticing with the HD6xx. Not crazy at all. The HD6xx are worthy of being paired with a tube amp like that. The Senns will be right at home in company like that. The HD6xx won't make the most of a high-end tube amp like that, but will do well more than good enough. The HD800 headphones are tube amp friendly and are more revealing and will let you hear more low level details that the HD6xx might hide a bit. If you wanted to up your game later you could get an HD800 and be able to hear just a little bit more what the amp is capable of.

The Zana Deux is a really neat OTL style tube amp with a really neat style of tube sound. It's able to do a sonic holography thing combined with the ability to extend the headstage out around and in front of your head. Not all tube amps can do that, even expensive ones. It takes a special style of amp to do that. The amp also adds a little bit of tube style swing and flow to the music. If you get a tube amp like that you have to appreciate what it's doing. Otherwise that style of tube amp sound may drive you bonkers rather than enhance your listening. It's very much not a solid state amp. Ideally with amps like this you'd be able to audition the amp before deciding to purchase. Because the sound is likely going to be different than some expect if they've never heard an OTL headphone amp of this sort and style.

 

Tube amps are neat. Good ones are expensive. If you're looking to upgrade from the Valhalla 2 I'd want to have that upgrade be a lot of upgrade and not be a sidegrade. Otherwise you're churning through amps that aren't really better. I generally find that good tube headphone amps are going to be in the $1500 and up category, with some exceptions. Maybe wait till a good tube amp shows up on the used market for a good price.

I'm a big fan of Cavalli amps. I own five. Soon to be six once the Liquid Platinum is available. They sound good with the HD600/HD650, but I don't consider them to be an ideal pairing with the Senn HD600 or HD650. The issue I think is that the Cavalli house sound is somewhat laid-back, and the HD600/HD650 is also somewhat laid-back. So you're pairing a laid-back amp with a laid-back headphone. The result is a little too much laid-backedness. I like the result. It sounds very sexy to me. I would never kick it out of bed. But I also prefer a laid-back sound with headphones and amps in general. I can understand why some people would prefer an amp that is more forward and forwardly dynamic with the HD600/HD650. I tend to feel that the Cavalli sound is more suited to planars like the Audeze headphones and dynamics like the HD800 and Focal Clear or Utopia. I do like what the Cavalli amps do with the HD600/HD650, but I also understand why some would not consider it an ideal pairing if optimizing a headphone setup for just the HD600/HD650.

The Liquid Carbon is available on Massdrop now for around $300-$400 depending on whether it includes a DAC or not. The original version is smaller and more transportable. But sound is essentially the same.

I'll be getting a Liquid Platinum from Monoprice when available. I'm curious how it will do with the HD600/HD650 compared to my other Cavalli amps.

 

I currently use my Audio Technica ATH-AD700 headphones for my stereo system, but I want to upgrade that to better headphones and I would likely need an upgraded headphone amp (my Nakamichi receiver's headphone amp can go up to 40 ohms) to accommodate the more power hungry cans.

Meanwhile, I use my Beyerdynamic DT990 250 ohms headphones to my PC with an Asus STRIX sound card to its built-in dedicated headphone amp, which can go up to 600 ohms.

 

I am really intrigued by the Liquid Platinum from Monoprice. Should at least be a nice change of pace from by Auralic Taurus II.

 

Sennheiser HD800 and HD650 with a Woo WA-7.
Sounds good to me for Flac listening

My HD800 <---McIntosh D100 <--- SimAudio Moon260D transport for CD listening.
Love it.

 

The Cavalli's and the Taurus Mk II are different sonic flavors and styles. No redundancy in having and enjoying both. Having both is optimal.

 

Alessandro MS1, MS2 and Grado SR125, RS2. Used to like Sennheiser 414 years ago.

 

I got a few different cans (Focal Elear, HD600, Fostex Massdrop, Oppo PM2, AKG K712) and I assume some with sound best with the Auralic and others with the Liquid Platinum. It promises to fun.

 

For the past few months, I’ve compared the Trilogy H1 and Stax SRM T8000 with my Mjolnir Audio Mini KGSSHV. Yesterday I reinstalled the Mjolnir; I love its bass definition among its other virtues:

 

I bought two new additional headphones, but please consider that I managed to find plausible excuses for this excess. The first set are the Audeze Mobius and that's purely because i want to hear for myself if they can improve headphone's movie or gaming experience due to their surround technology that supposedly doesn't sacrifice sound quality. The second set are the SONY WH100XM3 noise cancelling headphones because there are some occasions when the HD380 pro at the office doesn't cut the mustard and my coworkers still manage to irritate me.

Still if I'll allow myself to be honest, I don't really need either and these purchases serves only to demonstrate how weak, easily wooed by new shinny stuff and spineless I really am.

 

I don't listen with my Grado sr80 that often, so this simple Myzic headphone amp from French brand Micromega does the job well enough for me.

 

My current set up is a a combo of the Decware 25th Anniversary Edition CSP3 preamplifier/headphone amplifier feeding the Decware Taboo Mk IV (with Type 2 Jupiter caps). A great combination with all three of my headphones (Oppo PM-1, Audeze LCD-2, Sennheiser HD-800S.)

 

I have the HD 6XX due on Tuesday. My first Massdrop purchase so I'm looking forward to experiencing these personally. I've always heard...

 

Modest gear for me, but it’s getting used more than my main rig for time / domestic reasons:

Oppo PM3 driven by Oppo HA2 in my study attached to my PC. Windows 10 / Foobar2000/ WASAPI drivers playing FLAC / DSD. Occasionally, I may use them with my iPhone or iPad but Apple have never really properly fixed the issue with audio skipping via USB DACs so I have rather lost interest.

Bowers and Wilkins PX paired to a Sony NW-A40 DAP with a 200GB micro SD card full of FLAC files. I know it’s lossy, but AptX HD is pretty good.

Sony MDR-ZX770BN cans paired to either my iPhone or the Sony DAP. Cheap and cheerful cans for the gym. Have survived 18 months of sweat so far.

Playback software? Foobar2000 is my current number one. I have switched to using Foobar on my iOS devices too. I still use Apple Music and sync some music via iTunes to my iOS devices, but for the most part FLAC files in combination with Foobar are working for me.

Next purchase? Quite fancy some open backed headphones. Now, any tips as to how I sneak some Sennheisers past my wife? Any useful responses to the “You’ve got three pairs already, dear?” line?

 

Benchmark HPA4 (with the Benchmark DAC3 upstream) coupled with Sennheiser HD800s.

If ever there was a example of how an excellent DAC and HP amp can show the full potential of the HD800S, this is it.

 

Bowers and Wilkens PX and Bowers and Wilkins C5 S2 paired with an LG V30 or my laptop and a DragonFly Red for travel.

NAD HP50 and Hifiman HE-400i for home paired with the iFi Nano iDSD Black Label or into a Bluesound Node 2.

Bose SoundSport wireless for the gym until someone else can make a pair that stay in my ears.

All streaming with Tidal.

 

Then you might be interested in this review:
Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum Headphone Amplifier Review The Legend Returns: Monoprice resurrects a Cavalli Design that captures the imagination. Review By Dave Hanson

 

For the ultimate in clarity and transparency, and for when the house quiet, my Sennheiser HD800S phones are my favorite. I had a pair of sealed Audeze LCD-LC phones for when the house was not quiet, and they sounded great, but they were unbearably heavy and uncomfortable. So, I sold them and bought a pair of MrSpeakers Aeon Flow closed phones--they sound nearly as good as the Audezes but are vastly more comfortable.

 

Edit: I had Audeze LCD-XC phones.

 

Thank you! Very interesting review. I wonder if the amp is successful if Monoprice will come out with a separate LPS for it.

 

Thanks for posting this. Luckily I like Fostex cans and have a box full of 6922’s and 6DJ8’s to do some rolling. Too bad the release date has been pushed back to November.

 

I've been using Stax 007A with my Mjolnir Audio Mini KGSSHV for 2 years now (I also spent some time with the Trilogy H1 and Stax T8000) and I've settled on the Mini KGSSHV.

I'd never listened to the Stax 009s. I took a leap of faith and ordered the new Stax 009S, which arrived today. My initial thought was 'wow, these weigh more than my 007A!'. Looking at the specs, they weigh about 90g more than the 007A.

The 009S are so much more detailed, clearer and controlled than the 007A. It'll take me some time to get accustomed to the different presentation and how they feel on my head. I can see how some might prefer the musicality of the 007A. I got an excellent part-ex deal from my dealer so the actual cost to trade up was modest.

 

Geez man, how old are you?...

 

I have a set of HD424 which I bought strictly for nostalgia purposes. I remember how I used and abused them to listen to Yes, Genesis and Boston on my parent's HiFi system, dad not being a fan of my style of music made listening to speakers impractical. Back then I thought they were a blast, certainly when compared to the huge KOSS headphones that were common among my friend's.

Well, 40 years later I'm not ashamed to admit that beside their cool retro look I don't have much incentive using them for any kind of listening. It just show how far headphones technology advanced since the 70's.

 

Bottlehead is having a sale on the Crack and Speedball upgrade if anyone is interested. The deal saves you $115.
I've built a couple Cracks and am tempted to build another at this price. Lots of fun.