4K headphone + headphone amp/dac system recommendations please
I have 4K to spend on a better headphone system and have no expertise in the headphone zone.
Currently using old Grado SR 225 cans with Schiit Jotunheim 2 amp (single ended connection). Source is Jay's CDT2 transport and I'm using the internal DAC in my Hegel H390.
While the Hegel's onboard DAC is pretty good, it is a bit thin in the mids. I'd prefer something a bit more fleshed out in that frequency range.
I'm not finding many headphone amp/DAC combos. I am not interested in Chord or import brands that cannot be serviced in US.
The Teac UD 507 looks like a possibility. Moon Audio sells it and recommends HiFiMan HE100 V4 Stealth Magnet currently on sale for $949 to pair with the Teac.
Please Note: This budget will also need to accomodate a power cable and an AES/EBU cable to connect to transport.
In terms of sonics, I favor musicality over detail. I'm very sensitive to fatiguing highs. At the same time, I prize tight bass.
I listen to 3 types of music: acoustic Jazz, non-classical acoustic (NewGrass, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, etc) and some Classic Rock.
Here are a couple reviews of the HPA-1 that might be helpful in case you haven’t seen them already… https://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-hpa-1-headphone-amplifier https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/best-headphone-amps-series-pass-labs-hpa-1-review/ |
The amps that are recommended are all good but not what I would focus on. A friend of mine is friends with the Woo designer and told me recently that Woo has a new amp that is killer. However, I say forgot all of those because a phone is more important and should constitute about 90%+ of your budget. The Schiit AsgardX (mentioned before) or the Schiit Mjolnir v3 amp are under $1000 and get you to a very high level of performance. Use most of your funds on a phone. The place to learn about these things is at the head-fi web site. You can also get any phone you want a decent used price. Recently, I had one of the very best headphone amps in my home for a few weeks. The Allnic HPA 15000 OTL/OCL. This thing is incredible and very expensive ($15k). Even though it was better than the 2 Schiit amps I mentioned (AsgardX and Mjolnir v3), the phone was still the most important thing. I say this because I also had a demo RAAL 1995 Magna phone ($7.5k) in the house and I tested it with the Allnic and also my Schiit Aegir v1 amp ($400 used). With the Magna the Allnic was better but the Schiit was not embarrassed. If I had not heard the Allnic I would have thought the Magna and the Aegir v1 combo were end game.
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