Been Busy Building My Headphone Sys...

[tutomac]

Hello All.

Over the past three months I have dedicated my time to putting together a headphone system. Although not part of my original plan for my first HiFi set up, more and more often I find myself having to yield to my family's request of "turn it DOWN", or "do we NEED to listen to THAT?". As if the world stop turning around me...

So, I read, and read, and read... I asked questions here and elsewhere, and I looked at a million pictures. Unfortunately, I do not have a high end audio store anywhere near me, so once again, demoing and first hand experiences are out of the question

Last, but not least, the ever pestering budget!

So this is what I came up with:

Bryston BHA-1 balanced amp and Mcintosh D100 balanced preamp/DAC connected via Wireworld Electra 7 balanced XLR IC's. Both use Wireworld Silver Electra PC's.


After my head exploded from reading all the opinions of so many experts, (BTW it may be indispensable, but I despise the ever present last disclaimer of every expert: "Of course, you will have to judge by yourself", or "At the end, this is all subjective, and you will have to come up with your own conclusions...". REALLY? Then why am I wasting my time reading your apparently-not-necessarily-good- for-me impressions?) I chose two pairs of cans:

HiFiMAN HE-560 (upgraded from my original HE-500). I upgraded the stock cable with Moon-Audio's Black Dragon terminated in dual 3-pin balanced connectors.



AUDEZE EL-8 (closed back). Stock cable. This arrived last night, and they're so new in the market that I have not found cable upgrades, yet. The main problem is these cans use their own particular connectors at the cups. Moon-Audio won't have their cables available until "this summer"...



In the next few weeks I will be posting more photos and my impressions as everything comes together. Plus, I would like to upgrade the Audeze's cable before I comment on it. For one thing the stock cable is too darn short for my comfort, and I am not happy about that. I rather wait until I can be in my usual comfy spot on the couch. I will say all the above equipment is as solid and beautiful as described by all the reviews out there. The sound so far is very enjoyable, and Im hoping it will only improve with time

Cheers!

[Antonmb]

Looks like a very nice setup.

[tutomac]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

Looks like a very nice setup.

Thank you sir... It's helping me understand the differences between open and closed back for one.
Cheers!

[G8YU]

You are off to a very good start. In fact, you may be satisfied enough with that system to not feel any need to upgrade (for a while at least).

[cmalak]

Tutomac...congrats on the new cans and phones amp and preamp/DAC

Looking forward to read all your comments.

[Robert_Anderson]

Very nice from a fellow headphone connoisseur.

[Douglas]

Very cool indeed! I would be interested in your views on open Vs. closed-back from a SQ perspective

I will go down this road soon!

[John49]

Tutomac... I have HiFiMan HE-500 and was wondering whether to upgrade to HE-560s or Audeze EL-8, so look forward to your findings, comments etc.

[Robert_Anderson]

Here's my home headphone electronics in an ugly rack. I use Audeze, Sennheiser, SR-009's and others. Good luck with the new setup.

[Toobs]

Originally Posted by tutomac

Hello All.

Over the past three months I have dedicated my time to putting together a headphone system. Although not part of my original plan for my first HiFi set up, more and more often I find myself having to yield to my family's request of "turn it DOWN", or "do we NEED to listen to THAT?". As if the world stop turning around me...

So, I read, and read, and read... I asked questions here and elsewhere, and I looked at a million pictures. Unfortunately, I do not have a high end audio store anywhere near me, so once again, demoing and first hand experiences are out of the question

Last, but not least, the ever pestering budget!

So this is what I came up with:

Bryston BHA-1 balanced amp and Mcintosh D100 balanced preamp/DAC connected via Wireworld Electra 7 balanced XLR IC's. Both use Wireworld Silver Electra PC's.


After my head exploded from reading all the opinions of so many experts, (BTW it may be indispensable, but I despise the ever present last disclaimer of every expert: "Of course, you will have to judge by yourself", or "At the end, this is all subjective, and you will have to come up with your own conclusions...". REALLY? Then why am I wasting my time reading your apparently-not-necessarily-good- for-me impressions?) I chose two pairs of cans:

HiFiMAN HE-560 (upgraded from my original HE-500). I upgraded the stock cable with Moon-Audio's Black Dragon terminated in dual 3-pin balanced connectors.



AUDEZE EL-8 (closed back). Stock cable. This arrived last night, and they're so new in the market that I have not found cable upgrades, yet. The main problem is these cans use their own particular connectors at the cups. Moon-Audio won't have their cables available until "this summer"...



In the next few weeks I will be posting more photos and my impressions as everything comes together. Plus, I would like to upgrade the Audeze's cable before I comment on it. For one thing the stock cable is too darn short for my comfort, and I am not happy about that. I rather wait until I can be in my usual comfy spot on the couch. I will say all the above equipment is as solid and beautiful as described by all the reviews out there. The sound so far is very enjoyable, and Im hoping it will only improve with time

Cheers!

A very nice headphone system indeed Happy listening

Here is my meager system. Burson Soloist SL amp, Rega dac, Bel Canto cdt3, HiFiman HE-400i, Sennheiser HD-580 and Grado 325i headphones.

The Grado and Sennheiser are excellent cans, but the HiFiman HE-400i's are absolute killers. I can imagine how much better the HE-560's are.