After a few months, reduced to the core of what sounds good.
definitely not the best gear, but enjoy what i am using.
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This is what is most important! Find a sound quality you like, and enjoy the music! For the music is what is most important. Not the fancy marble, or planar magnets!
$30-40k *MSRP, but actual cost probably 75% of that?
Am I apalled/embarassed that I’ve spent this much on audio? Not one bit. Music gives me more pleasure than literally anything else in the world and I’m not sorry for prioritizing my HiFi above many other more conventionally “important” things.
Life is too short to listen to mediocre music. 
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oh damn, I didnt realize you had snagged HE1. I dont remeber, but did you ever end up getting HE90/Shang/other totl estats and enegizers? I’ll be super currious to see your impressions compared to those if so.
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I don’t believe you! 
Notice I haven’t disclosed my $ amount yet…
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That comment prompted me to follow up on the initial question and ask: “What percentage of my gear do I use? Would I buy again?”
I tabulated my spending totals and found that I regularly use about 1/2 of my stuff when counted by items or by cost. Some gear made sense when I was learning but not now, some things are better than others, and some reflect changing tastes and moods.
When written down in a spreadsheet there is also a clear correlation between higher cost and personal preference. This follows from smoothness and refinement and balance, but not measurements.
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Been doing this since high school, so over 40 years now. Total spent on stuff that I still have is a little under $14k. Another maybe $5k has passed through or been tossed at some point. So, less than the depreciation on my favorite car, which is now 24 years old.
Of the 19 items in my list of current stuff, 11 were purchased new and 8 used, but the new stuff represents over 2/3 of the total cost. Several of my most prized items were really good deals on the used market (not that I really knew that at the time of purchase). So, I’m planning on filling out my bucket list items mostly as used.
Currently in use: 12/19 ~ 63%. Some of it is waiting for a new assignment. For example, I will eventually have a nicer (probably PM) headphone setup at home and my Flux FA-10 will go to that. My Marantz 1060 will become my headphone amp at work. Other pieces need some attention, a couple amps need to be re-capped, and I need to replace some tweeters also.
Would buy again: Everything I have except for maybe my surround processor.
Agree that measurements don’t add up to personal preference / enjoyment. It’s less clear for me on the correlation between cost and preference. I can really enjoy music on a sub-$700 chain: Emotiva Big Ego + feeding Marantz 1060 driving OG Klipsch Heresy speakers.
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I did, but haven’t gotten to set it up yet.
I owned an HE90/HEV90 setup for a while back when I was in Seattle. I should have kept that, but figured the HE-1 was going to completely replace it. And in terms of raw fidelity it does, but the HE90/HEV90 setup still has some magic.
The following is based on my listening, chain, hearing profile and preferences … so those that feel differently are welcome to their opinions; these are just my opinions:
I spent about a month with both the Shangri-La Jr. and Snr., as well as their respective amps. I didn’t care for any of them, in any combination.
The SLJ is basically a fractionally more resolving Susvara, but with an even more limp bass. Somehow they managed to make it feel even more poorly made Than the Susvara. It sounded “okay”, bottom-end excepted, from its “matching amp”, but that was just because the amp was muddy and thick compared to other amplifiers … which helped add a bit of body to the cans.
The SLS … well, they’re better than the SLJ or the Susvara. They’re also $18,000. I could have snagged a set for under $10,000. Which is about 3x (maybe 2.5x) what I’d be willing to pay for them. Same lame build/feel. Better sound, particularly in the bass. Very ephemeral. Amp was “meh”.
Would rather listen to any of the SR-007 MKII (w/ port mod), CRBN or SR-X9000 … and neither the Jr. or Snr. are remotely in the HE90/HE-1 league.
Amp/energizer wise, I have a BHSE and Mjolnir Audio Carbon CC, and I’ve also tried them on various STAX amps, both original and DIY T2 amplifiers, the Viva STX, MZ LTA10e and a couple of the Woo ES amps. Oh, and the iFi Pro iESL (excellent, with a decent amp driving it).
Unless going for a T2, I’d stick to the KGSSHV (and up) and BHSE.
…
Otherwise, I think I’ve heard all the “high-end” electrostatic options. Have not heard the DCA Corina yet, likely won’t, but didn’t care for the Voce. And my ES-collecting friend is supposed to be getting a Topping EHA-5 (or whatever it is) today or tomorrow … so I’ll have my ears on that here shortly too.
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Had I not tasted the forbidden upgrade fruit, I’d likely be happy with the HD 600 (my first real headphones) and an iFi ZenDAC. That combo sounds fine in isolation, but not when compared back-to-back to other things. Since I own other things I don’t use the cheap stuff very much. I keep some things for benchmarking and to assess what I got for upgrade money.
By cost correlation, I’m including extremely low end stuff like my POS starter tube amp – the $68 Bravo Audio V2. I’m also putting the $35 Koss Porta Pro up against the Clear and HD 800 S. Once you get to the middle price tiers the correlations start to break down. Some equally priced amps are alternative flavors but not clearly better or worse than others – I prefer some because they warm up faster than others.
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I am awed by your knowledge of e-stats. They fascinate me, but also confuse me so much I’ve basically decided to simply not go down that rabbit hole.
Anyway, if you haven’t heard the new/upcoming Grand Cayman amp it’s worth a listen. Impressive stuff, possibly even a T2 rival?
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Ive heard this from a few HE90 owners. TBH its making me more and more curious about them. Did you ever try them on something other than the HEV90?
Oof, yah, the hifiman amps are big bad tbh.
Ive got shang sr on my desk right now and ive very conflicted about it tbh. The detail level and space is adictive but it feels a lot less “complete” than a lot of conventional headphones. I think if I get the space and sub-bass extension out of them at the same time (Ive gotten one or the other on different setups, but never combined) Ill have a real winner for my personal prefrence, but I do still keep thinking about that shot HE1 demo I had and start to wonder if maybe that is a better option as well (TBF I did have some gripes with HE1, mostly about stage, but I wonder if it just fits my prefrences better).
Thats real interestign tbh. I think id take X9k off of the chains I have on hand, but neither 007 or CRBN realy did much for me.
The Viva STX realy impressed me at canjam, but id need more time to realy say. T2 is the other stand out. Just FWIW, if you liked IESL you should check out woo wee. Ive got iesl, wee, and mjolnir SRD-7 all side by side right now (running tjem off of my riviera AIC-10) and the wee is a pretty massive step above the other two for stage and detail. T2 I think is what I’m most currious to get more time with for shang though just to see if I can get that sub-bass back.
Anyways, I appreciate the response and will be looking forward to your HE1 impressions. Going to be super curious how it scales with better dac and tubes (if you plan to roll the latter)
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I do think it competes in that range, but its wildly different focus. I think GC vs T2 for most people will come down to what music they predominantly listen to above basically all else tbh.
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which is more fitting for what?
GCs real stand out was timbre IMO, but it was a bit more etherial overall and seemingly lacked a decent bit of control. Im sure its astonishing for orchestral, but I didnt like it with more intimate jazz and thought it fell on its face with lofi and the sub-bass heavy neuwave bullshit I always listen to at work.
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I’ve not heard the Grand Cayman, though I’d certainly like to. Given what I’ve heard rumored for the price, it will need to perform significantly better than the T2 to make any sense. Assuming, of course, that those rumors were in anyway reflective of reality.
Realistically, though, I expect I’ll be well into selling off everything but the HE-1* before the Grand Cayman gets a final price, let alone before I could take delivery of a unit.
*I may keep the HM1 and a couple of dynamic cans, as well, but the intent with the HE-1 was to make it my only headphone - as I’m mostly on speakers anymore.
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I’ve heard them from other amplifiers, but I never ran my own set off anything other than the HEV90.
They’re not for everyone; I just thought both were much more convincing, for a much broader array of music, than the SLJ/SLS units. Even if I liked the way the SLJ/SLS sounded, and they were competitively priced, I don’t think I could get past the look/feel of the things … they’re just so tinny and naff.
Kit has one. He describes it as “quite unpleasant”. I like it a bit less than he does.
I did like the iESL, properly driven. Wasn’t a Woo Wee fan (though it’s been a while … maybe it was updated?). Nor, particularly of their other ES amps, though I’ve not heard the ES8, 3ES or WA7e (well, not all of them and/or not with a source/headphones I was familiar with).
But that’s just me … there’s plenty of stuff I like that others don’t, so I just listen to stuff and buy the stuff I enjoy.
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Give some of your old stuff to the poor and homeless. They need good audio gear as well!
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That makes sense. I would agree that both are much more well rounded headphone than Shang sr (haven’t spent enough time with jr to comment). Both of their detail levels just kinda put me off over more conventional cans I already like tbh (most notably utopia and d8kp), but that is openly just a bias I have cause I already have nice chains for conventional cans.
Interesting. I’ll try and hunt down his impressions and give them a read.
Mind if I ask what you used to get it properly driven? I think the most powerful thing I’ve used mine on is my aic which is rated at 10w @ 8 ohm, so it’s nothing crazy.
As for the rest of the woo energizers I would agree. 3es elite is super technicaly proficient (same as wa33) but just aren’t my jam. I realy hope they make an enegizer that captures the wa23 sound at some point
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Kit is a local, electrostatic-collecting, friend. He doesn’t post on any forum, at least not that I’m aware of.
Well, it sounds good at a proper, sustained, 10w @ 8 ohm (from an HSA-1b) … depending on the specific headphone model, and where you have the impedance/gain set.
By 20w @ 8 ohm, it was notably punchier and more dynamic.
With the 75w @ 8 ohm Chord Étude, it was about as good as it was going to get (on raw power, at least … other factors in the speaker amplifier do, of course, have other effects).
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Tyvm for the info. I’ll have to see if I can borrow some decent speaker amps from some friends to try.
Ah, got it! I apreciate the impressions
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