headphone help

[admin_exported]

Hello one and all, some advice and info would be much appreciated on the following....

I'm looking at purchasing some high end headphones having caught the bug after experiencing the impressive sound of my akg k550's. They will be used for equal parts listening to music (via laptop, creative MP3 player and Nexus 7), watching movies (bluray through ps3 on Panasonic vt30b) and gaming on xbox360 and ps3.

Having read a gazillion reviews and a squillion comments I am thinking either lcd-2, he-500 or beyer t1s and pairing them with an m1-hpa amp.

Is this a good idea, which cans would be best, should I also get a DAC? Any thoughts, tips, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated.

 

[quadpatch]

The M1-HPA has a good DAC in it already. If you are thinking about spending £500 on just an amp I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Given that you like the AKGs I would recommend you the HE-500 of the three you mention. The LCD-2s are for a more 'normal' bass presentation (in my book), which to a K550 lover could be undesirable. Ignoring the T1s for now because Ortho's are where it's at for this price really and I've heard the T1's have a big issue with driver matching and general QA inconsistancy.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers. I do fancy the he-500s to be fair plus they are the cheapest of the 3. What amps would you recommend?

 

[quadpatch]

Well traditionally it doesn't hurt to throw something quite powerful and a little bit smooth at a planar magnetic, I know the HE-500's are easier to drive than the infamous HE-6 but I still can't see anything wrong with a nice tube amp here to round off that spiky treble. I don't know too much about these to be fair, someone else might be better suited to answer this but I was eying up the Icon Audio HP8 mkII (£550) - just look at the gorgeousness, supposed to sound good too:

Or you could save a bit of cash and go for something like the Schiit Lyr, which is a hybrid - just uses tubes for the input stage (£420). If you're looking for a DAC as well it depends on how much you want to spend / how you wish to spread your available funds.

The reason I am looking at these is that I am going to jumping in to Ortho headphones soon with a Fostex T50rp + Mod, but eventually I want to give Audeze and Hifiman a go.

 

[eggontoast]

The M1-HPA has a good DAC in it already. If you are thinking about spending £500 on just an amp I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Given that you like the AKGs I would recommend you the HE-500 of the three you mention. The LCD-2s are for a more 'normal' bass presentation (in my book), which to a K550 lover could be undesirable. Ignoring the T1s for now because Ortho's are where it's at for this price really and I've heard the T1's have a big issue with driver matching and general QA inconsistancy.

I've been trying for sometime to demo the HiFiman and Audeze headphone's, where did you listen to them ?

 

[quadpatch]

I haven't heard them yet. That was information that I have collected from a lot of stuff that I have read recently. Sorry I should have mentioned that. As far as testing places go - I have it on good information that both will soon be available from this place:

http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/headphone-demo.php

As soon as they do I will be off for a visit myself so maybe we will meet there one day soon .

 

[idc]

I had a loan of the HE-6, here is my review

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/headphones-etc/hifiman-he-6-on-test