I had the Chatham 6080 and CV4003 in, and was getting a fair bit of background noise, when I’ve spent time ensuring my D50S and SP200 run dead silent.
Swapped back in the stock tubes, better. Then remaining noise realised the baby monitor was doing it, so wife can take that for now.
But, how do you like the pairing? I find it rather intoxicating lol… a little bit of wood on wood crime if you know what I mean 
…no, I don’t even know what that means… =( lol
Not since the 70s has Crack and Wood been so mainstream.
It is nice. I can’t A/B too well, the 5 seconds to unplug and plug in the headphones resets my brain. I’m like yeah, this is good. Clip. Snap. Hey yeah, this is good and the same.
But just listening it is nice. Has a certain feel more so than a distinct “bass more, detail same, mids more” sort of thing.
I’ll just listen exclusively to it for a while I think.
The Chatham 6080 and CV4003 combo had a lot of noise though, swapped to the stock RCA and GE ones and noise gone. Dunno. They had a fair bit of warm up time.
Update to the system - I added my Jotunheim to the mix, because this amp still rocks. Sometimes I just like the simplicity of a good solid state, and for the money and versatility the Jotunheim is hard to beat. My Ori sound incredible with the Jotunheim/Gumby combo.
My happy place.
Dear all,
First time posting my setup. It is indeed much modest compare with the ones I see in this forum but I hope I can demonstrate what I’m seeking at this point with this hobby. Note I started this journey on November 2019.
If one word could summarize what I’m currently looking for it would be exploration. I mean, to notice whatever nuance I could not hear in the pre-hobby days. That’s motivating enough for me.
Goal:
Rotate the headphones while having fun. “Circus” below is assembled when I can afford for a few hours of pure listening. Typically it is just the 58X and/or 6XX as the daily drivers.
Setup:
FiiO K3 connected through USB:
Headphones from left to right and signal chain:
HD600 (2.5mm jack); Coaxial out Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 SRH1540 and HD58X TOSLINK out Modi 3 Magni 3+ HD6XXMisc:
Cheers.
Hi Everyone,
This is my current setup-ish haha (The Bifrost 2 is silver now and i’m lowkey regretting that decision lol) and I have couple other gears on the way so I’ll keep you guys posted.
Pi2AES > Bifrost 2 > Black Widow v2 > SW51+ > JAR650 | JAR600 (not pictured)
Pi2AES is the acrylic piece on top that basically works as a SPDIF transport. Bifrost 2 owners, if you’ve been only using Unison USB, definitely check this out. It has a cleaner, more incisive presentation than the Unison to my ears. I still appreciate the Unison though for convenience! I mainly use the Pi2AES to stream spotify on my iphone or ipad pro and it’s pretty nice not having to physically connect them to my rig 
Bifrost 2 …well I won’t really talk much about this since it’s been out for a while and I know a lot of you guys are rocking one for your rig haha good schiit, possibly my favorite schiit offering currently.
Black Widow v2: No longer being sold, but occasionally do pop up on the used market from time to time. It’s one of my favorite solid state amps, only bested by ECP 3F, but the price difference is lol It’s known for its warm and organic sound without the solid state etch/glare. Slams like a mofo and pairs really well with HD600 and HD800. I first heard it at a meet and was really impressed with its sound. Sometimes I do find the transients a bit blunted and the bass can sound slightly bloomy, but I find that you can ameliorate that with source matching a bit.
Shortest Way 51+: I think out of the many mid-tier tube amps I’ve tried (ZDT Jr., Liquid Platinum, Lyr 3, Valhalla 2, etc) this one takes the cake for the most bang for your buck, if your main headphones are high impedance dynamics. It pairs greatly with ZMFs and Sennheiser HD6x0 series. Despite being tube design, it’s very solid state sounding with incredible microdynamics and clarity. The aesthetics are very reminiscent of ZDT Jr. but the sound is quite different from one another. While ZDT Jr. is warmer, thicker, meatier sounding, SW51+ is “neutral-ish,” clean, and pristine sounding.
JAR650: Basically a 650+, that is less veiled, more dynamic, with slightly improved bass extension. As much as I enjoy Focal’s sense of dynamism, I always come back to the Sennheisers for the righteous timbre and do-no-wrong tonal balance. If you are a fan of the classics, this is definitely something you should check out!
JAR600: made by the same person but using the 600 instead. This one is more lively and share some similarities to Focal’s slightly aggressive sound. The uppermid shout is also lessened to a considerate amount and I find it more enjoyable/tolerable than stock HD600. I can see some people preferring this version over the 650 depending on synergy. low key, I’m still trying to decide which one to keep lol
I like using the JAR600 with the Black Widow and JAR650 with SW51+.
That looks very close to my ideal setup. Did you ever end up trying out the Pendant with the Verite? I’m not deciding if my next purchase will be the Arya, Susvara, or Pendant haha.
That’s a fine looking setup. I like how you are trying to get every last ounce of greatness from the fantastic 600 series from Sennheiser.
I think that is a really good comment that should be appreciated, essentially building your audio chain from one link to another to make the whole thing stronger. Of course, one has to make a decision about what the core link of your chain is (either amp or headphone) which is not always a simple decision.
That’s an awesome setup. 
Thanks!
Been debating whether to use a surface pro or the ipad pictured and I’m likely to add a tube amp to the mix at some point, not sure how far I want to go down that rabbit hole though haha.
I’m an Apple user so that setup works for me.
The nice thing is that you can get some tube ‘flavor’ with the iCan Pro (?).
Awesome Setup That iCan Pro is awesome
I like that setup. Very clean.
Is the light pretty close to the violet hue in the pictures? I like it. It reminds me of neon.
Thanks @ValentineLuke , Yes, it has a light violet hue… I use the Lifx Beam… Took me a while to find the soft spot to the eyes and mind… The color at the right temperature and tone is very relaxing…
7800K/26% gives me a nice relaxing hue.
nice setup Fernando - I do like the clean look. I could not get this clean and airy, cause of stuff crammed in everywhere in the house
is there a Loki on the shelf right hand side the headphone stands?
Thanks @MartinTransporter, Yes that a Loki, along with a Saga S and a Aune X7s that I am going to sell soon.
The iCan Pro render this equipment useless. I had the Loki to help the Schiit Jotunheim (Sent to repair) bring some of the lows forward (Schiit gear lacks lows in some areas… I am a bass kinda guy) 
I see the usefullness of the Loki with some units. The iCan Pro is a future planned buy, if it works out this year with some other stuff, first. So you add a bit of XBass+ with some tracks and headphones?
