Thank you. The UX3000 are immediately out as my old lugs are not on the tiny side and I am not a fan of anything touching my ears.
I will probably have to order both the Sennheiser and the focal and see what my ears prefer, live with them for a week or so.
Thanks again.
That’s a great endorsement of I’ve heard one. Thanks!
I have looked at the but have seen so many mixed (I loved them Or I hate them) so am a bit sheepish haha. I think I will just have to purchase a few and see what sticks.
Thanks!
if you can stand the wire you can expand the field of choices by using a portable bluetooth dac/amp that has a wired connection for the output.
This lets you use most wired headphones via bluetooth.
The usual suspects of Qudelix 5K and Ifi Go Blu will give you an idea of how these work.
I’m trying to avoid the wire for this purchase. It’s mainly to be used for commuting and traveling so want to remain as wire free as possible to make things more streamlined.
Looking for thoughts about a couple items:
USB to S/PDIF coax converter. I’d like to see how my old Theta DAC sounds compared to my 2 current cheap USB DACs. Is there an inexpensive converter that still performs OK?
Is it worth some $$ to upgrade the stock cable for my Senn/Drop HD6XX headphones? I wouldn’t want to spend much more than $100 on it. (Even 50% of the headphone price on a cable seems a bit excessive, really, but I’m curious what folks here might think / recommend.)
Thanks.
Just have Hart Audio Cables make you a balanced set. Despite my skepticism regarding SE vs Balanced the Sennheiser seems to be improved on balanced. This can also include a changeable connector on the balanced side so later you could have a choice between SE, DIN, 4.4mm.
In my experience balanced (headphone → amp) cables have the greatest impact with the Senn 600 family versus all other headphones I’ve tried. Balanced improves their noise floor, staging, and clarity. I’m treble sensitive and hear lots of hiss from Senn 600 or 6XX/650 on single-ended cables.
Swapping from one single-ended to another single-ended cable may well not be worth your time for sound quality. However, swaps often do have value for length and comfort needs. If you want a brighter tone try a silver plated or solid silver cable, but a solid silver cable will run far more than $100.
I concur with @pennstac about Hart cables – they are modular and you can get into a very versatile multi-headphone setup for not much money.
I have no recent experience with S/PDIF and it seems to be fading away with the rise of quality USB implementations. No comment.
I often make my own cables and interconnects so I have never felt the need to purchase Hart cables, I have read about them often and find their prices very low. If I were to make similar cables and sell them (as I had done often in my youth), I would be charging higher prices than Hart is asking. Appears to be of good value to me.
These kinds of ddc’s are normally a few hundred dollars or more. The budget one that seems to have positive reviews is the Douk U2 Pro, for which there is long and active thread on head-fi. From reading a few random posts, it appears to be a “you get what you pay for” thing, not necessarily based on performance, but where you have to put a little work in yourself, finding the right drivers and an external power supply. But hopefully all the various solutions are laid out in that thread. And I should say that I’ve never used one, I’m just pointing out that it exists.
I bought a Corpse Gravedigger cable for my son to use on his 6XX and that sounded “better” to me, but it’s beyond your budget. I suspect I liked the Gravedigger because it used good quality Cardas wire. Based on my own testing, I’ve come to the conclusion that quality of the copper (or silver) makes a huge difference.
My favorite $100ish cable is the Arctic Cuprum, which is made of OCC copper, although I’ve never tried it on a 6XX. But when I was testing the ZMF Caldera, I liked the Cuprum as much as, if not more than, cables costing over $1000, because of the smooth, warmish-neutral and detailed sound I was hearing from the headphone, compared with the others. Arctic has moved things around over the last few years and the Cuprum name is now used for an iem cable. The closest headphone cable to what I own looks to be the Define, but that’s at the upper limit of your budget. I haven’t used their products but Gladiator and Forza have similar OCC copper cables that might be a bit cheaper, depending on the EUR-USD exchange rate.
Otherwise, as others have said, you can’t really lose if you buy a Hart cable. They use good quality Mogami wire, but what you’re really buying is the flexibility of their modular system, along with a good baseline for quality. I mainly use their cables for commuting/travel (e.g. I can take one set of cables for both iems and headphones, with both SE and balanced amp connectors) and also for testing new equipment. I did try my Hart cables on my son’s 6XX and from memory, I don’t think it sounded any “better” than the stock cable (I use quotes because “better” is subjective) but it certainly wasn’t “worse”.
If you can find a Schiit Eitr that would be a much more reasonable $ cost than Berkeley alpha, but used is the only option for it. I did a quick for sale search, I don’t see any listed at the moment. You could try a WTB post here or elsewhere…
I have a Schiit Eitr I’ve been meaning to sell. PM me if interested.
The Balance connection really has an impact on my Senn 800s via the Bryston BHA-1
Thanks again. I went with the Bathys. love them
I have settled on the Focal Bathys. Wow. Excellent recommendation. Thank you all for your suggestions. I tried them all haha. It has been a tiring week. I am just grateful that i could find these and live with them for a bit before deciding.
The first pair of Focals i had gave an awful ring from the right ear whenever they were powered on. I almost gave up but then walked into a store today and they had the Bathys in-stock. And i love them. Comfortable and not as bass-y as the xm4 with a good balance (for bluetooth).
Thank you all. My commute will be much better. The USB DAC option is a mighty plus also.
This is what I did. I didn’t like the default color choices so I spent a few bucks to go custom. With that the price went slightly over $100 with the multi-kit, but it’ll be cheaper when I need cables for all those new headphones I’ll be buying (well, eventually, I hope).
I did like the aesthetics of the Arctic Cables, @PaisleyUnderground. I’ll probably be tempted to try them at some point.
And, I think I’m not going to bother trying to convert USB to S/PDIF. I’ve got some Raspberry Pi’s around, and I think for $110 an Allo DigiOne will do as well for me as any DDC around that price.
Thanks for the offers and recommendations. I very much appreciate all the expertise here.
Right on! Enjoy your new cans!
I’m looking for an in ear wired headphone. I’ll be mainly using them for sleep. I’m a side sleeper so maybe a smaller profile would work best. I have fallen asleep with air pod pros and the battery life is just not sufficient and my ear tends to hurt with them. Any suggestions? Thanks
Are they for critical listening or just background noise/sleeping? The new Sennheiser IE200 have a smaller profile that might work well for sleeping; they’re getting solid reviews too.
I don’t know if there’s anything new since I posted the start of this thread about exactly the problem you mention. I tried and have the wired “Bedphones” and they are quite comfortable but just not very good as headphones. Depending on pillow, I found the Dunu Titan S to work fairly well with my ears. I can also fall asleep wearing big flat IEMs like my Audeze iSINE/LCDi3/LCDi4 because they are so large they will not push into the ear. Possibly something like the 7hz timeless would do the same for you.
Read the thread, it’s funny.