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Need to build a headphone system

I'm looking for advice.  I need a headphone system for an apartment.  I am  overwhelmed both by the variety of headphones and amps out there and the difficulty of auditioning them.  My budget is about 8.5K for amp and cans.  I listen to lots of chamber music, solo instrumental and other small group stuff, so I appreciate detail and responsiveness.  But I shy away from analytic - my main system amp has beautiful glowing tubes.  Although I stream a lot, I also listen to a lot of vinyl.  I wear oticon behind the ear hearing aids.  Music sounds noticeably darker and less detailed when I take them out.  So certainly not in-ear!  Any expertise on listening with aids is greatly appreciated.  

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Showing 2 responses by rlawry

rlawry
476 posts
 

If you want to think outside the box, literally, I could recommend the RAAL SR-1b earspeakers (nearfield ear monitors) with the Ti-1b transformer interface box.  You would need a headphone amp with a 4-pin XLR output that delivers a minimum of 2 wpc into either 16 or 32 ohms, so a pretty powerful headphone amp.  But there is nothing like the SR-1b in terms of spaciousness, speed, detail, and transparency with the RAAL ribbon drivers, and they should fit with your hearing aids since they have a pad that goes behind the ears.  Maybe not.  And the system should be within your budget.  The only downside is bass quality instead of quantity so some folks who like gobs of fat bass probably won't like the SR-1b.  Check out the RAAL Requisite website for more details.

http://www.raalrequisite.com

rlawry
476 posts
 

I bought some Kennerton headphones a couple of years ago from Audio 46 and the transaction went well with no issues.  They do have a pretty impressive list of headphones from modest offerings to some of the most expensive, so it might be a good place to try some on your target list.

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