General purchase advice: Ask your questions/for advice here!

Hi everyone

Looking for some new cans. I already own the Focal clear pro but as much I love them there not without there drawbacks. More on that later

My budget is anything below £2000

For home studio use only

Open or closed back I don’t mind as external noise leaking in is a non issue for me

I listen to Techno driving, Techno, Trance, hard dance, melodic house and classical rock (AC/DC)

My audio interface which has a dedicated headphone amp is an Aurora (n) 16 TB3. I also have a playdiffrently model 1 that acts as an analogue console and DJ mixer

I’m a bedroom DJ and also a sound designer with hardware synths and drum machines. It’s all just a serious hobby however

Ok, so I’m looking for something that is going to give me a different listening experience compared to the Focal. The problems I find with Focals are they don’t like EQ. They absolutely hate resonance and they don’t like heavy mixes. So my next headphones have to be able to pass those issues with no problems and give me a different listening experience

I’m hoping you can help as when I purchased the Focal I did do quite a lot research but only a couple of reviews mentioned these drawbacks to the Focal clears and I was surprised how bad these problems actually we’re

Thank you all

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Hello! Great post and I have to say the CYRUS CD i is the best possible CD player for the money.
I would keep your vioelectric 200 amp because it is powerful enough to drive the most demanding headphones and utilize the Cyrus’s internal DAC, which is smooth as hell. It uses the R2R tech and it is a 32 bit DAC.
Later on you can get the PSXR-2 specialized power supply that is specialized for The CD i. It will cost you under 4- thousand brand new at retail price.
I have a CD i with the power supply and I swear by it. You get sheer quality without destroying your bank account.

The only flaws the CD i has is that it loads the disc a bit noisy. Sounds a bit robotic, but to be honest I personally really like it. Lol.

Anyhow. Let me know what you decide on. We’re all hear to help. :slight_smile:

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My friend. The LCD XC all the way.

Experience slam and a pretty damn wide soundstage for a closed back.
There is a big reason why the XC is Audeze’s flagship closed back for 9 years now! :slight_smile:

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I had the same questions when I was looking at the RT vs Drop version, so I emailed DCA, and this was the reply:

"Thank you for the interest. I would say if you prefer the Open headphones, by all means get a set of Opens.

They are basically the same as the AeonX, and yes consider the VIVO cable as the difference in sound is huge."

Now I was more interested in the opens, and DCA had an upgraded cable included with theirs for the same price at that time, so I bought direct from them.

I would imagine the same applies for the closed version, which is that the RT and Drop versions are the same or similar enough to not make any real difference. Unless the Drop version is a better deal (which it was over the holidays) I would vote for buying from Dan Clark. Easier warranty coverage, probably better customer service…

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Hi :wave:

Thanks for your advice. I checked out some reviews last night on these cans, all seems to look and sound good. Do you have any other recommendations that suit my requirements.

Thanks again

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Hi folks. I’ve made a post in the other advice thread, linked below, please feel free to chime in there. :slight_smile:

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I just bought a new car and intended to get a Dragonfly Cobalt to feed my phone’s Qobuz or Apple Music streams into the car (AUX). Problem is the new car doesn’t have an auxiliary audio input.

Is there any accessory that unlocks the highest resolution from my phone but feeds that highest resolution into my car via USB/CarPlay? I’m assuming that CarPlay doesn’t process full 24/96 audio, for example, since my iPhone’s lightning output won’t provide that hi-res feed.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Your car is an inherently noisy and acoustically difficult environment. Other than playing music while stopped with the engine and climate control off — such as in a car audio competition, there isn’t much point in the highest resolution possible. Streaming is usually pretty bad while moving with cd res being the highest I’ve been able to get reliably. (Radio Paradise, Apple Music, Qobuz) Although it has improved over the years.

I’m not sure CarPlay can support higher res. Bluetooth won’t, and when I run digital direct into the car audio I go to the auto system DAC. The only possibility would be an aux input as you say. There used to be adapters that can go in the harness. Have you pulled the head unit? Sometimes there is an option that the automaker did not use…

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Many, many, many people are unable to hear quality differences above CD Redbook 16/44.1 under ideal circumstances. Some also can never hear any differences between compressed sources and Redbook. Automobile high res audio is a solution in search of a problem.

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Thanks - I’m not overly worried about it having higher-res in the car; I’m just more curious as to whether there is a solution to this (supposed) problem. Appreciate the responses, though!

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My conclusion, arrived at about 30 years ago, was and is that trying to get good sound from car audio is like trying to get good sound in the worst room in the world, with a forced terrible seating position and a very high noise floor. Maybe I would be more motivated if I spent more time in a car, though I doubt it. Diminishing returns hits even earlier and harder in that context. Just my 2 cents fwiw.

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In my car I have a USB input. Using Android Auto (italian for Car) I send the signal from USB Audio Player Pro to the system on my car. I drive for at least 100km per day and very often music is the only thing that makes tolerable the travel.
Consider I don’t play music over red book sample rate but I was curious as you are and this provided a 48/24 reply to my curiosity.

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So very true. I just plug my phone in via the USB and play music just to hear music. I just throw quality out the window as usually the windows are down anyway. A car or truck is a noisy place to think one can achieve headphone quality in a car or truck. I save those $$$ for the home environment, unless one happens to own a Rolls or a Bentley where the sound is rather nice :grin:.

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The value of audio characteristics changes in cars. We had a “semi-luxury” car with a 7 or 9 speaker Bose system. It sounded mediocre at best (err…Bose…), even when set to “solo driver optimized” asymmetrical mode. We also had a car with a party-oriented subwoofer under the driver’s seat. It thumped! Thumped! This carried the bass through the background noise and improved the overall audio experience…even though I’m not into bass-dominant music.

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Past all these opinions - which I find valuable - is there a solution to my problem? Can I get 24/192 or 24/96 tracks to play via a digital-to-digital converter, I suppose?

Stu

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Sorry, @Sturosen, when I wrote earlier I was on my iPhone, so didn’t go into details. Yes, there are solutions. It all depends on how much money you want to throw at it and how much you want to do yourself. My first big warning: when you take something out or apart, if you don’t know exactly what you are doing, even if you get it back working, it will not be as tight or rattle-free as before. Unless you are working with sound deadening material (highly recommended).

Second warning: If you are going to insist on using factory head units, your options may be limited. You should find the service manual for the factory head unit you have in order to see if it is able to accept any additional line level inputs. If you have any tape capability (unlikely) forget using a device that will try to access the tape heads to input music.

If you do not have any AUX, and you do have a CD player, you may be able to pull the head unit, open it up, observe where the CD is connected, remove the CD player and solder leads to the place where the CD was connected. These should be line level Left and Right inputs, often marked on the motherboard with L-in and R-in. You’re can then run the lead to a mini jack. When the CD player is activated, you can use a blank CD (record it with nothing) and the CD player will think it’s working, but you can then use your phone or the Cobalt out… This hack is demoed on You Tube.

A more elegant solution is How To Add USB and Aux Inputs To Your Factory Car Radio - YouTube using an adapter, which works with many head units.

Probably the best idea is to find a high-end car stereo shop in your area and wave about $3000 under their noses. This should result in an upgrade from the factory head unit with professional AUX inputs.

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Hey, thanks for the additional detail. Wow, what a thorough answer which completely convinces me this is not worth worrying about on my end. I was hoping there was some sort of reverse 3.5 mm to USB cable that would feed in the Hi-Res into the system via CarPlay. I don’t care anywhere near enough to do anything you are proposing! But I really do appreciate understanding what an effort it would be to squeeze a little more performance out of a brand new car’s audio system.

I suppose there are people who are willing to crack open a brand new car and throw $3000 in to get just a little more performance out, but that ain’t me! Thanks for a real education on this - really appreciate it.

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Bingo ! That will work every time . Show me the money. :moneybag:

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There are a lot of ways to get more performance other than trying to feed a higher resolution signal. Probably the easiest is to upgrade your car speakers - even if they are placed in the factory locations. Companies like Focal make automotive replacement speakers. I have an Infiniti Q50s hybrid. I’m not going to find it worthwhile to make the changes. Years ago I did a lot improving the sound on a car I eventually wrecked in the aftermath of a blizzard.

I keep considering updating the auto sound in my wife’s '64 F-85 Deluxe Oldsmobile. It’s difficult to decide, based on that we don’t drive it much whether it’s worthwhile. The way to go would be to send the original radio to have the electronics changed. They even make kickplates that match the interior and will allow both the lower air vents and speakers.

So far, all I’ve done is when we redid the interior to run a speaker wire back so that we now have both front and rear mono speakers with the original radio (admittedly getting a bit deteriorated electronically).

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First recommendation is that you turn your CDs into digital files (and back up those files), even if your intention is to always keep spinning discs. Two reasons: (1) Physical media can always be lost to disaster, and (2) even barring disaster, CDs won’t last forever (despite the early claims of Sony and Phillips). Storage is really cheap these days – a 4TB SSD is under $500 and will easily hold over 5,000 CDs with lossless compression. And, yes, that SSD also won’t last forever, but you can keep copying digital files with no loss of information and pass your stuff on to your kids and grandkids (or whoever). So, a small portion of that budget can get you a lot of peace of mind.

There are potential audio advantages to playing files instead of discs as well – no moving parts required and a much more direct path from storage to bits being streamed into your DAC.

Best wishes for happy listening. – let us know what you get.

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