The All Purpose Advice Thread

Anyone have any experience with the Dekoni HD800 earpads? Looks interesting, though I'm not sure how they'd play with the current range of modifications?

https://dekoniaudio.com/product/dek...eepskin-ear-pads-sennheiser-hd800-headphones/

They're on Massdrop right now as well.

 

Any advice on a (very) budget receiver for our living room?

Need something with HDMI passthrough. Only running center speaker + 2 bookshelf speakers (Pioneer SP-BS22LR). Running a turntable, cable box, and 2 gaming systems, so 3 HDMI inputs minimum.

Thanks!

 

Do I need and adapter (like the Hifiman HE-adapter) to try out my LCD2 Classic and HE-500 with the Pioneer M-25 power amp or an XLR-speaker tap cable would do? The preamp is a Saga.

 

For SS or transformer-coupled tube amps, the cable would do fine (so specifically for the M-25, the cable). For OTL tube amps, an adapter box like Hifiman's with resistors is safer. If you don't need the adapter box (and you don't), the cable should sound better.

 

Hello friend. Had a similar problem with and Audeze headphone. Here in my country we have some people that work with special metals. I don’t know the exactly name in English. They usually make jewelry, rings with gold, silver... I think you got the picture. So, he extracted the screw for me. They have some kind of machinery to do that. After that he silver plated my Audeze grid just for fun. LoL .Hope I can help you

 

Thanks David! That may not be necessary though, as @CEE TEE is a saint and has already offered help.

No seriously, I don't get why people rag on Massdrop as having shit aftersales support, but I understand that my few experiences with them are hardly representative of the whole. Still, I count myself fortunate that they had the necessary parts lying around.

 

Never used in the hd800s, but I have bought for my th900 , same brand and same material. Changed the sound a lot. Never used since. Vis a vis, if you are willing to preserve your original sound, I cannot recommend those pads in my experience

 

Hmm I wonder which amp I should get for the LCD-2C. I've read about Jotunheim and HPA-3B but I'm not (yet) sold on either one of those. Would prefer similar pricing as the headphones have (around 600$). Also Magni 3 might be a thing for these(?) The source is Yggdrasil. Any advice?

 

You could run something like this instead: https://www.amazon.com/Zettaguard-W...624&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=hdmi+switcher&psc=1

That is if you already have something to power the speakers, its what I use to avoid having the switch out my pre-hdmi Harmon Kardon receiver.

 

I have tried jothuhem, lyr2 and vali 2. Incredibly
I prefered the vali 2. Can you test them before buying?

 

I just ordered the non-fenerated sheepskin. Took me a while to consider, especially with no impression here in sbaf. But it sure looks damn comfortable compared to the original pads. I'm also hoping the sheepskin would lessen the 6k treble somewhat.

 

No personal experience but there should be more noticeable difference in the NOVA as it functions like a tube buffer and the character of the tube will have a much greater effect. ( something like the old musical fidelity X-10D)

..dB

 

Thanks for the opinion. As it happens, I live in a town where there are very limited options and can't really demo anything.

 

I’ll dive in and report back at some point then.

 

Is there a worthwhile, well rounded amp specifically for the hd650s in the $400-$700 range?

The crack doesn't really interest me because it seems like it turns a warm headphone into a dark headphone and the lack of overall detail.
The valhalla 2 seems to be the opposite end of that.

Currently using a GOV2 infinity and hoping to buy a ZDT jr. used when it comes out.. but is there another amp in the sub $700ish price range that is well rounded for the hd650s?

 

Jotunheim with balanced headphone cable.

 

Upon returning to using my desktop rig more frequently than prior recently, I realized that I like my B&W P7's out of my iPhone more than my desktop setup (HE-500's with a pair of lawton audio pads and an audio gd NFB-5) has me back in the audio game.

Whether my disappointment comes from the HE-500s or not is probably not super relevant considering that part of the reason I typically use them so rarely is the weight seems to give me a headache and seem to have a massive dip around 8K Hz that's enough to color the sound. Right now the short list of headphones is Aeon Flow open, Elear, and Clear, but that's not really the crux of my difficulties.

Considering that I can't find a good measurement of ANY piece of audio gd equipment, I'm obviously looking to go for something else, BUT most of the reason I went with the NFB-5 in the first place was due to wanting enough power for big orthos and the flexibility of its outputs. My "misc speakers" I'll call them, they're not really for music, the Promedia 2.1 is important here because it doesn't have a way to turn it off easily. Of course after typing this I plugged them into my kill a watt and they draw a constant 15 watts so now I'm wondering about if I can do anything about that. I'm reading that unplugging them too frequently can kill them?

Anyway, I can probably deal with not having switchable outputs, though they would be preferred, so I'm considering the Fostex hp-a4bl, but I'm not positive its amp is up to the task, though none of the phones on my current shortlist seem that hard to drive. I'm also considering the Jotunheim with DAC if I think I can reconfigure my set up to use it, but at the moment that might be a bit of a stretch. Are there any other DAC/amps with switchable inputs and outputs? Are me fears relating to the HP-A4BL founded?

 

Soekris dac1541
Holo Audio Cyan (not sure about selectable output)

Note that Jotunheim doesn't have selectable output (headphones and line out are both always active).

 

If you like the GOV2 I would just get the Valhalla 2. The tuning is not that dissimilar - both have good microdynamics and staging, slight colouration in the mids, excellent sense of realism, slightly soft and rounded bass, and treble which if not completely smooth is at least smooth enough to work well with the 650s. Jotunheim is more similar than different. On the one hand it's faster and clearer with better bass control. But the staging is weird and it sounds a bit flat and grey by comparison. No tube magic.

The GO2 is a very clever piece of kit in my view as it simulates a well done tube sound by exploiting the timbral oddities of the Sabre chip. If you like that go for the Val2 for sure.