The All Purpose Advice Thread

I've heard good things about the Polaris. It's very flexible in terms of being able to tweak the sound and it's built well. I've dealt with Jeremy/Garage1217 in the past (bought an Ember) and his customer service, both pre- and post- sale, is terrific. I think we've got some good impressions of the Polaris here at SBAF too, if you dig around. Good luck!

 

I have the Polaris with the HD600 (and up until recently the HD650 as well). I really like it but unfortunately cannot compare it to any of the other recommendations you've received, no doubt they are great-sounding too.

 

Can the hd650 be used for bass heavy music with eq? I'm a bit of an electronic bass heavy music obsessor too. I loved the hifiman he 400i with eq for bass heavy music. The texture of the punchy bass was addicting!

 

You'll increase bass distortion if you do. That may actually sound great depending on your taste.

Properly amped, the HD650 has a nice level of slam and bass even without EQ, but it's miles away from what you'd get with a properly amped HE6, for example. Perhaps resident basshead @Luckbad could offer more on this question.

 

I really want to get an omni though. It's isolation, soundstage and bass may win me over. I'll be demoing them the second day of my visit, (I'll be staying a 2 hours drive away from Chicago.) But needless to say they are slightly overpriced. But they look high end for sure.

Bass distortion can be a good thing? I'll have to try out and see... I'm not even completely sure of my own preferences yet lol.

 

The Bravo V2 is a very inexpensive tube amplifier. I think it is a hybrid amp, because actual amplification is via MOSFETs, It was actually $61.99 (with a free good-quality cable thrown in and free shipping) when I bought it in April 2014. It comes with a replaceable 12AU7 stereo tube, stamped "China." There is thread on head-fi describing the effect of different tubes. One obvious problem is that L-R balance is lost at very low volumes. The sound is fun, but switching to my O2 makes it clear that the Bravo V2 is not neutral: everything has an extra bloom in the V2. The V2 is also audibly noisier than the O2. I suspect that people who own a better tube amp (I am not in that category) will call its sound a caricature of the "tube sound." Still, here I am bobbing my head while listening to Michael Kaul's "Minor Conception" on Swiss Jazz Radio with my recently purchased $23 (including shipping, from Musician's Friend) AKG K52 through the V2.

 

The project Polaris amp has the bandwidth feature which allows it to roll off highs, in that retrospect, shouldn't it pair amazingly well with the HD 800? I mean imagine the HD 800 with that bass, that midrange and then smoothed over highs?

That is why I was considering the HD 800. Even with harsh recordings if the treble can be smoothed over by the Polaris, sennheiser HD 800 will basically become my bitch.

Now that's something you don't hear often.

 

@Vanheim I have both the Project Polaris and an O2, and the Polaris is a massive step up with the Hd650s. Like you, I'm keeping my O2 around for portable use, but the Polaris is definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

Can't comment on the HD800 pairing, I've actually been wondering about that myself. The bandwidth adjustment is subtle (even for really bright headphones like DT990s) but it does help.

 

General question - should you listen for anything in particular when auditioning amps/DACs different from what you listen for when auditioning headphones? From what I've read here it seems like it's a lot harder to measure differences between sources than with transducers, not quite sure how that plays out when considering the entire signal chain, other headphones I'd be using, etc. I've never listened to summit-fi gear that I didn't own myself (so far just the HD800S), and all my gear purchases to date have been blind, so I'm attending SF CanJam next month with the intent to try as much as I can and narrow down the field of prospects. I want to make the most of the limited time I have with each setup and have the right expectations going in regarding what I'll accurately be able to assess when listening in meet conditions vs home listening.

 

It's subtle on "mellow" bandwidth setting. On "aggressive" bandwidth setting, it should be a more significant roll off. But then again, who am I to say? I haven't even heard them personally.

 

If I get the opportunity I will definitely jump on a HD 800. Nothing can really reach it's "REZOLUSHONNN" and soundstage as far as I can tell. I've emailed Jeremy from garage1217 and he says that the Polaris indeed can roll off the notorious hd800 highs and with the addition of the SuperDupont Resonator I shouldn't have any problems with the HD 800. #makeHD800greatagain

 

Probably the best thing you can do is control the variables. In other words, bring headphones you know well and listen to music you know well. And if you can, compare different amps fed from the same source, or different sources feeding the same amp. That will give you the best chance of making useful comparisons. If you're moving from unfamiliar rig to unfamiliar rig and both the sources and amps are changing, it's going to be tough for you to know what to attribute the differences to.

With that said, I think you're right to expect to only be able to narrow down prospects given meet conditions. There will be no substitute for careful listening on your home setup for an extended period of time for figuring out what gear works for you.

 

Cool, sounds like I'm on the right track. I'm planning to bring my own HD800S and I've been slowly consolidating my headphone testing playlist to a few songs that highlight specific qualities. Changing sources and amps is my biggest worry, but I suppose I'll have to make do. Thanks!

 

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know what happened to Golden Ears Reccomendation Index? I thought it was an interesting concept but they don't seem to have updated it since 2011.

Before stumbling accross their website I barely new that headphone measurements existed.

Have they measured the current crop of TOTLS like the HE-1000, LCD-4 etc?

 

Anyone got an idea of if Elekit Tu-HP01 is good or bad?

 

Hello. I am new to this website and just joined. I am currently looking for dac/amp combo under $600 and thinking to purchase Chord Mojo or Grace M9xx. Is it good choice? I mainly listen from Macbook Air and File format are MP3 320kbps or Flac 16bit. Main music genre I listen to are; Accoustic, Blues, Jazz, Female vocal, Heavy metal. My headphone gears are ATH-AD2000x, Yamaha HPH MT220, Ety ER4S etc. Thank you.

 

I think either one of those would be a little overkill for the gear listed but the Mojo is certainly the better investment out of the two in my opinion. You can commonly find used pairs at ~$500 so I would suggest looking into that. Another option is the iFi Micro iDSD, thanks to a recent sale there are used units going for as little as ~$360, which is a real steal for such a device.

If you don't plan on upgrading to more inefficient headphones anytime soon though I think a Geek Out V2 would be the best choice.

 

Thank you for your recommendation. May I know why you suggest Mojo against M9xx? The price of M9xx is cheaper than Mojo and Mojo is mainly designed for mobile purpose and M9xx is for desktop purpose which I will mainly listen from laptop so desktop purpose dac/amp suits me better I guess.
I quickly had a look at Geek Out v2 and it looks ugly and cheap. Not sure how it sounds. I also have Meridian Explorer so not sure it would be an upgrade by choosing Geek Out V2.

 

I have never heard great things about the sound of the M9xx, it seems overpriced to me and the only category it seems to beat the Mojo is max output power, which isn't that beneficial in your scenario. I agree the GOV2 doesn't look great, supposedly they are coming out with a new cover for it very soon. Can't speak to it versus the Meridian but the GOV2 seems popular around here.

 

I vote a Schiit stack, but I'm a Schiit fan boy. Seriously, either of these would be sweet.

1) Bifrost 4490 ($400) + Vali 2 ($170) = $570

Or

2) Valhalla 2 ($350) + Modi 2 Uber ($150) = $500.

Note that the Modi 2 Uber now as the AK4490 like Bifrost.

Edit: I wasn't so much taking into account IEMs.