The Dragonfly Cobalt is pretty good, but is $300. It adds the jitterbug and has a different implementation than the Black or Red.
Recent and higher-end ESS products, such as the newer Schiit products, surely have better reviews. I havenât personally sought them out. Budget buyers focus on price first, and thereby often end up with close out or no-name economy implementations from Ebay and Amazon. In this price bracket Iâve been happiest with the iFi ZenDAC (Burr-Brown), as it rolls off the treble and thereby dodges the treble issues that plague many lower priced headphones. However, a stage and nuance master it is not.
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I couldnât be in stronger agreement. The amount of money that I, and many of us on this forum, pour into the headphone hobby is ludicrous by any ânormal personâ standards. I also definitely didnât mean to demean or put down the products you mentioned, and if it came off that way, then I apologize. If anything, mid-fi gear is more interesting and important than the flagship stuff because, well, of course a $4K headphone + a $4K dac + a $4K amp is going to sound really good. But thatâs going to be either out of reach or simply not that big a priority for 99.999% of people, and the way to bring the joy of better music to more people is through excellent, budget-oriented products.
So, the point of my comment wasnât so much to say any of this stuff is not up to the task of bringing enjoyment, but more from a very specific angle of: how do I present a totally new person to the headphone world where (a) the sound is very clearly better than their Bose 700 + Spotify, and (b) not super intimidating and complex. I havenât heard enough of the tube product you mentioned myself to speak with any authority whatsoever, but I guess what Iâm saying is that I feel like a mojo (used is ~$350) + a 6XX (new for $240) lands barely above apple airpods max in price, and I feel would be more impressive than trying to squeeze in a tube amp with a similar budget, thereby really taking a step down in terms of the DAC. My comment about the 6XXâs relatively weaker detail retrieval wasnât meant as a slight, but more of a concession that perhaps it doesnât dig as much out of a DAC, thereby making that component matter slightly less, and maybe a tube amp helping more than the better DAC.
@chrisnyc75 made a really interesting point that I hadnât considered, where the benefits of a Mojo amp/DAC may not be so obvious to a newer person vs having, say, an ifi Zen DAC + Schiit Valhalla, where it looks and feels more overtly new and interesting than a Mojo.
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Interesting thread again. Solid State vs Tube-based amplification is an old topic in the audio world. For the sake of simplicity, generally speaking, I feel that SS done right is the way to go but I can understand the appeal of tubes amplifiers for many listeners. After the âelementsâ have been chosen to oneâs own satisfaction, one can then focus on the music⌠yes audio equipment is fascinating but music even more so! One is the method to access the end: the achievement of delight, the contemplation of beauty. The endless search for âbetterâ sound can be exhausting, it must be that âmale exploratoryâ thing. To conclude: find out what you really like and buy the best quality you can afford. Cheers.
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SS done right is generally good and less expensive. Also far less to go wrong, easier maintenance, and no wondering about coulda woulda shoulda unless you have something with say interchangeable op amps which is itâs own little rabbit hole.
A strong alternative is a tube hybrid, like the Lyr3 which will match well with headphones of any impedance rating. And in the case of the Lyr 3 only one tube to mess around with. In some other cases that would be 2 tubes, still not overwhelming.
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Your statement is quite relatable to my own experience having only just learnt this through my past two years of this hobby. I attribute this to my acquisition of better performing/costlier headphones and solid state amplifiers. Previously, I had considered tubes as the ultimate amplification ingredient above others within my audio chain. Particularly a revelation with dynamic driver headphones. While I love my tubes, I seemed to have figured out that solid state amplifiers synergize better with each of my higher end headphones, outperforming every one of my tube and tube hybrid amplifiers. This is in terms of technical performance when making side by side comparisons. Yet, my tube amplifiers remain an integral rotation quite regularly as the fun and entertaining factor of tubes are out of this world.
The op-amp rabbit hole is what created my current favorite headphone pairing. My ZMF Aeolus (velour monoprice pads) paired with Ray Samuels Emmeline HR-2 rolled in with super inexpensive AD825 op-amps creating a very intimate and immersive experience. What an odd mixture of parts from past decades to mix with an in-production headphone.
I find myself listening much less to my hybrid amplifiers. However, the Schiit Lyr 3 that you mentioned is probably my favorite hybrid at the moment as it really is able to bring out much a tubeâs character while still being able to drive my planar magnetic headphones. I didnât care much for it at first. But now that I have rolled many tubes, I can report that the Lyr 3 is my top pick to make my planar magnetic headphones sound tubey delicious.
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Was originally going to post the deets in âSystems & Synergiesâ thread but feel it belongs here more:
This is the Koss ESP/95X electrostatic headphone system, featuring the Soekris 1421 DAC pumping signal into a Gustard P26 Preamp (with the Burson Classic opamps).
Underneath the Koss energiser is a 9V / 2.5a Linear Power Supply.
Earpads are from Dekoni, nice thick leather (unlike some flimsy Focal earpads Iâve purchased from there). Be sure to give these earpads some conditioner to soften them up.
In terms of changes of sound:
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The earpads. Lately giving the Koss headphones a second lease on life, I thought they were hazy in the midrange, boring, with a weird bass hump but also lack of sub-bass.
The earpads make the low end much more linear and clean, cutting the bass hump while also increasing the sub-bass. They cut that hazy area in the 1-2Khz range, and as a result highlight the low treble region much more and overall increase the tonal balance of the 95X. -
The source: a good source shows what electrostats can do. I had been feeding signal from my OTL amp, the 95X was still agile and speedy in transients, but also a little hazy and grainy. Feeding them signal from this beefy class A preamp shows off their lightning fast transients while making the sound as transparent as these headphones are capable of. The Classic opamps from Burson add a touch of tube warmth, I prefer angling these headphones to the warm side of neutral as thatâs what they do best.
I had experimented with the stock 95X earpads and a tube preamp, the Dekoni pads and solid state preamp combination is the more transparent and resolving overall, though. -
The Linear Power Supply: supplies immediate power to the energiser, fleshing out the low end and midrange, maybe adding some sparkle to the top end also.
The headphone stand from Grump Goose serves no purpose other than to hold the headphones for me on those inconvenient occasions when Iâm not listening to music! 
In honesty, my LCD-X has a more honest tonal balance, the snare drum sound just right for example. But the 95X is probably the king of warm, relaxing sound for me. The tonal balance is maybe 85% of something more reference like the LCD-X, whereas in stock form it would be 50%.
Next on the list of mods? A new amp for sure! Would have to be the Stax SRM-400S, and the Microzotl Z10E. Also Vesper pads, they would have to be perforated leather like Dekoni for the tonal balance that the Dekoni achieves.
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