Hey all, new member, long time lurker! I’m looking to enter the world of high end headphones and wanted to get some suggestions. I’m fine with either open or closed back since I’ll only use them at home. Looking to just enjoy and have fun listening to music, not analyze or produce it. My main genres are jpop, RnB, pop and classical. I have a budget of $1200. I would like for this first pair to be able to be driven well off of a portable dac/amp as I often listen to music when doing the dishes and cleaning around the house.
I’ve had the opportunity a couple of times to A/B some headphones at a hifi store when I travel to visit my parents. I’ve listened to the Audeze Lcd 2c, Lcd X, Focal Clear Mg, Meze 109 Pro, Focal Celeste, Meze Empyrean and Focal Stellia. All listening was done through Roon on either the iFi Audio iDSD Neo or the iFi Audio Pro iDSD Signature. I had a playlist of 6 songs that I Iistened to on each headphone.
Here’s a rundown of how I felt about each:
Lcd 2c: Listened to them on two seperate occasions and liked them both times; felt like I could listen to them all day. Liked the base and midrange on these.
Lcd X: I felt they sounded better than the 2c, but I didn’t have the desire to keep listening to them. The guy at the store said they’re more technical than the 2c so that might be the reason. Not exactly sure why, but I found the X less appealing then the 2c.
Focal Clear Mg: Also listened to these on two separate occasions. These sounded better than the 2c and X, but after listening to them for 10-15 minutes I always had the sensation that I needed to stop listening and take them off my head. They were never piercing or anything, but I always hit a point, sometimes midsong, where I felt I needed to remove them from my ears and move onto another headphone. It was pretty strange cause they sounded good, but I couldn’t get past that sensation.
Meze 109 Pro: I found these pretty boring. Kind of the same feeling I had with the Lcd X.
Focal Celestee: I liked listening to these which surprised me since I was at that point expecting a similar experience as I’d had with the Clear. The sound seemed ‘closer’ than any of the others, but I didn’t feel that was a negative. Felt I heard more of the music on the Clear, but didn’t have that strange sensation with the Celestee’s as I’d had with the Clear’s.
Meze Empyrean: Loved listening to these! Best sound I’d heard up to that point. Base was great, heard details I hadn’t heard on the previous headphones, vocals sounded great. They were very relaxing. I didn’t want to take them off when my playlist ended!
Focal Stellia: My time with these was more limited than the rest cause I had already been there longer than I orginally planned to be and had to leave to not be late for an appointment I had. That being the case, the two songs I listened to were either on par with or exceeded how I heard them on the Empyrean! One song was Scream by Michael Jackson and what the Stellia’s did with it was the best I’d heard from any of the other headphones! Wish I’d had more time to listen to these!
So, in summary I liked the Lcd 2c, Celestee, Empyrean and Stellia’s. Obviously the Empyrean’s and Stellia’s are outside of my price range, but wondering what other headphones I can potentially audition when I visit that hifi store again in a few months? Sorry for the long post! Felt it might help guide any suggestions. Thanks!