Critical Listening: Grado H2 - Limited edition made from Cocobolo wood. They sound great. Open-air. The earpads take a little getting used to. They are not overly comfortable to wear, but the sound negates all of that. Critical Monitoring: AKG K702. Very neutral sounding and picks up everything. Bad recordings sound bad and good ones sound good. Unforgiving. But that is what I use them for.
Listening now to the latest (used, but near mint) headphone in the pack - the AKG K812. Very very nice it is too. A little top end spikiness, as expected by nearly every review, but not as obvious in either frequency or magnitude of occurrence. Beautifully made, it's definitely a keeper and at AUS$800, about 1/4 new price. I'm loving them.
I've gone planar magnetic with my speakers - now I have got to try a pair of planar headphones. Suggestions on inexpensive models (under $200, if that exists)?
I've experimented with headphone and amp combinations, some great fun with various Beyerdynamic, Grado, Mr Speakers, Senn, AKG, Audeze the ones I come back to are the Senn HD600. They just don't do anything wrong to my ears, which may not seem like a ringing endorsement - but it beats being impressed and then tiring of a sound. That has happened a lot. I also find them very comfortable, which is essential if you are ever going to use them much.
Drop HiFiMan HE 400i's at work, driven with a Schiit Modius DAC and a LYR 2 headamp. Loudspeakers at home.
Funny that I don't consider myself a "Headphone Guy", but I do have three pair hanging over my desk at home and a couple more in the cabinet' 1. Audeze LCD2Closed - Recent purchase, Heavy as hell, but still comfy and just amazing sound and isolation. 2. Fostex TH-900 - Light and really comfortable - almost too loose, very detailed and nice bottom, but can be a little bright on top. 3. Senn HD700 - I did not like these for ages until I got a dragonfly, now I like them, but they do lose out to the ones above handily. 4.Monoprice M1060 - Boought just to see what the fuss about Planars was. Pretty decent for the price, but only a gateway to much better cans. 5. Senn TW Momentums - Better than the Airpod Pros but also fussy, less battery and more connection issues. 6. Airpod Pro's - Just great everyday carry arounds. 7. Sony WH-1000XM2 - Only for air travel, great ANC, and nice sound as well. 8. Bose QC20 - Bought while traveling when I forgot my others, Pretty good,at everything but don't excel at anything either. Had it in my head that I couldn't use BT on a plane, should have returned them. But prior to the Airpods they were decent to carry around. It is amazing what a rabbit hole they really are. Now I am demoing a Woo WA22 that my dealer has on consignment and it is pretty amazing.
Oh cool! Woo has some neat tube amps. I haven't been able to try a WA22. It's one I'd like to try. Check the power of the WA22 with your Audeze. Make sure it is able to get quiet recordings loud enough without compromising dynamics. General power recommendation for the Audeze headphones is a minimum of 2-2.5 watts at around 50 ohms for solid state amps. Tube amps can get by with less power because tube watts are magic. The Audeze headphones will get plenty loud with less power. The extra power is for headroom. To make sure dynamics are fully dynamic and don't suffer compression in dynamics or soundstage. Audeze used to have a help page that explained why they recommended around 2-2.5 watts. But they've backtracked on that a bit. Probably because it made marketing difficult when other planars were claiming they needed less power (but really needed similar power to retain headroom and dynamics). The WA22 is likely at the borderline for tube watts to power the Audeze headphones with headroom. But test with quiet recordings to make sure. The LCD-4 is a different beast since it is a 200 ohm headphone. Needs an amp that can do about 0.25-0.5 watts at 200 ohms. That's a lot for an amp to do at 200 ohms. Many good solid state amps won't do it. Tube amps can. The amps I use with my LCD-2 are hybrids and SS. Capable of around 3-6 watts at 50 ohms.
Yeah, it was good just connected to my little Cambridge DacMagic100 (that little box is absolutely amazing at it's price point). So I pulled out the Gumby to test the balanced inputs and that made a pretty big different in dynamics. It's really way too big for my desk but it may be too good a deal to pass up. Should mention that all the tubes are upgraded so I can't even tell what it might have been with stock glass.
It's a balanced amp and will likely do better using the balanced inputs. The unbalanced inputs use a phase splitter and those things often impact sound quality a bit.
For under $200 you can get the HiFiMan HE400i HIFIMAN High End HE400i Over Ear(Full-size) Planar Magnetic Headphones with best sound and bass
There's another variation of the HiFi-Man HE400i, available through Drop. Navigate to the Audiophile section, and tons of headphones are listed. Scroll down for the 400i's. I just bought a pair myself. Great so far, with a Schiit DAC and headamp.
Pancat, what benefits do you hear in going balanced? Where did you get the custom cables? What amp do you use?
Custom made, from a now defunct company called Alternate Audio. The man who made them added ribbon tweeters and made a sweet birch frame. They look and sound excellent.