Home Headphone Setup

Drummerman

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Aug 19, 2018
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Grado 80e.

They run good from my HP laptop, Schmegel amplifier and Note 8.

Unfussy and warm/full sounding with 'knock dead dynamics'.

A bit like me.

 
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ziggy

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Mar 11, 2017
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Grado SR325e connected to a Chord Mojo at home. Oppo PM3, Audioquest Dragonfly Red out and about.

 

nick dartmoor

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Sep 19, 2009
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Mmm.. Audeze! They have completely re-defined headphones for me. I have LCD-2 Fazor, and Sines. I use them with a variety of set-ups - my Jolida Glass FX III, the Audeze Cipher into my iphone, my studio Monroe-Sonic headphone amp, my Centrance Dacport. 

 

aejoker

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Mark
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Dipping my toe in Headphone waters , total cost about £140 , so far quite impressed , probably looking at maybe a used little dot headphone amp & possibly something like a topping dac for the Squeezebox Duet as a future upgrade ? I think this could be an area for tinkering as opposed to playing around with my main system where improvements start to get a bit spendy (not that headphone set ups can't get spendy as I'm sure many on here will verify  :D )

DSC_0025.JPG

 
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Toesindeep

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Aug 28, 2021
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Sony MDR-E 818 LP Earphones (faulty after little use) 

Sennheiser CX300 Earphones

jvc gumy Earphones (most used) 

1MORE Triple Driver In-Ear Earphones (noisy stiff cable) 

Stax SR-007 + SRM-717 Energiser (favourite) 

Stax SR-L700 MKⅡ (convenient detachable cable)

Sennheiser HD 660 S

Sennheiser HD 599 Special Edition

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 (most used) 

The Sony earbuds were the first at what I considered at the time a decent pair of earphones. They were fine for the limited amount of time before one channel died, looked after like crown jewels didn't save those. The jvc have been used and abused & work to this day and don't to my ears sound much worse than the 1more, especially if you're walking as the stiff cable on the 1more rubs on clothing creating a lot of mechanical noise. 

The Stax SR-007 + SRM-717 Energiser was my first attempt at buying my way into something that would hold value and sound good, and my first experience of an electrostatic. I went from regular use of the jvc gumy to these. 

I decided to look at some other cans and went with the sennheisers, easy to power as I have no headphone amp. A plenue d or the Asus crosshair vi extreme based pc are my usual sources. 

Then the B&W PX7 for convenience, liked them so much got a 2nd carbon black pair for the missus. 

The stax sr-007 changed my perception of value in the headphone space. I found myself listening to much more music and tracks I'd often pass by. The effortlessly intricate sounds from some tracks tingle my senses.

I got hold of the SR-L700 MKⅡ to compare. I prefer the 007 sound but reach for the l700 for the cable is much less faff to keep untangled. 

 
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MVJ

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Apr 9, 2020
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Decided to change my set up for my Stax SR-3 headphones to make them more user friendly and for moving them around in my room/house. Previously they sat in the corner of the room about as far away as they could be from my system which required nearly 6m of speaker cable running round the carpet edge, 

As my system is active I drive the Stax with a pair of Temple Audio Monoblocks which are placed with my system for power & connection to my pre so after being given a sample of an lp holder my Son had which frankly was'nt fit for purpose tbh I decided to see if it could be utilised as a mini rack to hold all the components/power supplies & any other bits required to use them around the house....

And here is the result..👍

The unit has 4 slide in spacers if it is used as it should be or shelves if it's on it's side as I have placed it. The bottom shelf has all the power supplies & triple socket and the middle shelf has the Monos and Stax Energiser fastened on it with double sided tape to secure them. The top shelf houses the power lead and 3 metre rca interconnect to connect to my pre amp there are connections for power and inters on the rear of the unit. Handles are yet to be purchased and fitted for ease of moving.

This now means I can take the whole set up anywhere in the house and only need a source & power to use them anywhere in the house/garden or on the table beside my listening chair mainly. Works a treat.

5CC59D61-1472-419A-9B29-9EDF7EF69E93.jpeg

 
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Amormusic

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I have a set of Sennheiser IE800S in-ears which I run via an Oppo HA2 DAC/amp. This combo sounds absolutely fantastic and is also portable so I can take very high quality music with me on the go.

Genuinely, I wonder why I spent so much on kit and not just a really decent headphone rig. The Senns and Oppo combo is also not humbled when compared against my main rig, they are that good.

For anyone interested - on eBay right now is a brand new old-stock set of IE800S Senns for £469, from a business seller with 100% and almost 130k sales. That's an utter bargain for how they sound!! No connection to seller btw. Treat yourself someone, they sound phenomenal!

 
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SilverBirch

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Jan 26, 2022
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Nottingham England
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Brett
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I'm running a topping E30 (DAC) / L30 (Headphone amp) mini-stack in the home office and it sounds great. Headphones were HiFiman Sundara but on the hunt for an upgrade now.

 

George Hincapie

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Oct 15, 2016
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That's a pretty comprehensive setup! I've tended to stick to one headphone for indoor listening and others for travelling etc.

Current main setup is based on the Sony Signature Series 70th Anniversary kit. I've got the NW-WM1A hi-res Walkman with about 500gb of music, the TA-ZH1ES headphone amp/DAC, add the Z1R headphones. I can also use these with my Leben CS300XS valve amp.

Shown here playing a DSD256 guitar recording from Eudora:


That's a nice looking setup.
 

rdale

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After replacing my Audeze Sine ear pads with Vesper Audio ones and thinking how good they sound, I needed to replace the cables as they had started falling apart, and I thought I’d get some Vesper Audio cables. I asked about Sine replacement cables and they sent me a list of 10 different types with varying prices. I went for the second most expensive which were 220 euros including shipping. The Sines had been sounding so good with the original cable, I thought it was worth taking a punt on spending a bit more on the cable than seems reasonable. The cable needs more breaking in before I can tell how good it is, but it is already sounding very nice and looks good too:

IMG_20231117_194946_Original.jpeg
 

rdale

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Richard Dale
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After replacing my Audeze Sine ear pads with Vesper Audio ones and thinking how good they sound, I needed to replace the cables as they had started falling apart, and I thought I’d get some Vesper Audio cables. I asked about Sine replacement cables and they sent me a list of 10 different types with varying prices. I went for the second most expensive which were 220 euros including shipping. The Sines had been sounding so good with the original cable, I thought it was worth taking a punt on spending a bit more on the cable than seems reasonable. The cable needs more breaking in before I can tell how good it is, but it is already sounding very nice and looks good too:
Update on the Vesper Audio cable - after about 50 hours it is sounding phenomenal! The Sines now have a larger more out of the head rock solid imaging and higher resolution so you can hear every last ambience and instrument placement change. The stock cables had a slightly over sweet sheen, which I thought was the amp but it was the cable and now the Vespers are more neutral. They sound musical with old recordings, and are just a really open window into whatever music you play through them.
 

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