I spent the day listening to a lot of headphones and here's what I found.
I can't afford any of this. That's what I found. At least, that's what BW says.
I usually write about my family, but seeing how as I am without them at the moment and I am at a show dedicated just to headphones, I thought I would write down a few notes on what I heard and saw today.
Also, soccer lessons are expensive.
The thing with high end audio is that you can read reviews and watch YouTube videos until your hearts content but unless you listen to music you like on the gear itself you really have no idea – and that's the reason I am here in Dallas. To get a chance to listen to all the stuff, and here's what I have learned. I have classified these into categories based on whether BW would let me buy it.
The NO WAY in HELL Category
Some of the expensive stuff is pretty fugly. It looks like it got lost on the way to the store and stopped at Donald Trump's tower for a bit. Nothing says high end audio like gold. When it doubt, gold all the things. If it's gold it must be good, right? We need MOAR Gold!
I am not sure what they were thinking here but it looks like well, gold. lots and lots of gold. I heard it with some $5000 headphones and my opinion was meh. It was nice, but not price-of-my car nice.
The Maybe ONE Day Category
There's a surprising amount of stuff here and I could make a list that's as long as my arm with most of the stuff being $1000 or less. Still a lot of money, but they make $1000+ iPads too so it's all relative
If I had to pick one piece of gear in the $1000 ratio it would have to be the RME ADI-2 DAC FS. It's German Made and has so many features and can be configured in so many ways. It's like a Tesla. This is a computer first with a headphone amplifier and dac thrown in. It's priced at about $1300 new but I saw one today used for $800, so it's possible.
The Amplifier
The Headphone
If I had to pick a headphone in the same category as the amp, it would be the Sennheiser HD800s. It's about $1500 new, but I could find it used for under $1000 so it's on the maybe list.
It has a sound stage that is W-I-D-E. It sounds like listening to speakers, and not having 2 cans tied to your head like some others I listened to today. The much adored HD650 from Sennheiser I sold because they sound so closed and close. I like wide sound stage apparently.
Also on the maybe list:
The Violectric V202. I have never felt a smoother feeling volume knob on a headphone amplifier. It sounded great too, but that knob. $1000 and up..
Stuff from Schiit. It's pronounced as you would think. They make some well built affordable stuff without all the bullshit about magic copper fairy sprinkles other manufacturers would like you to believe. I heard a $200 gaming headphone amplifier from them today that was just fine. I'm not a gamer, so not my cupppa but they make good affordable stuff that's not from China.
The Christmas is Coming Category
Any of the gear I list below is usually $500 or less so consider this a Christmas wish list for those of us that have been really good. (cough) . Or, if I just bought this without permission it's cheap enough I could apologize my way out. 😃
- Beyerdynamic DT900 Pro X open back headphones. Surprisingly good. Some complain about them being too shrill sounding, but I am old and can't hear above 14khz anyway. About $269.00. Priced about half price of Apple Airpods Max.
- Hifiman EditionXS. Made in China, these were $600 headphones now on sale for under $300. They are like speakers taped to your head. Not Sennheiser good, but also 1/8 of the price.
- Topping D50III Dac and A50 III Headphone Amplifier . About $200ish each. So under $500 for the pair and NO GOLD. They have a nice volume knob feel and the DAC has bluetooth too.
- Qudelix-5K Bluetooth USB DAC AMP. This thing is about as big as a cigarette lighter but it has bluetooth and allows me to clean the house while listening to music with my headphones. (are you reading this BW?) Also, like the RME amplifier above, it allows me to tweak too. $100 or so.
Lastly, I also learned there are a lot of AC/DC fans out there. It's not the music I would listen to to test really expensive gear but I sure heard a lot of it today. If you've heard one AC/DC song you've pretty much heard them all.
Anything but Gold please,
TH and Co.
