What headphones do you have in your collection and why?

Exactly!
And the service at Forza is great, just like other smaller companies where they know service is the key to maintain customers. It IS more expensive than my other cable pushers (Periapt and OIDIO) but they are also that more high-end.

7 Likes

In july we are in poland for a few weeks sailing, camping and fishing in the far north east
I already planned to check out Felix Audio - the Echo
There is a shop on our way and maybe I say hello and can touch and smell the Echo :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Matt at Forza is a top notch stand up dude! Glad I bought from him. Anyway, just thought Iā€™d chime in.

5 Likes

Thatā€™s a great collection of gear you have there @Gordon_Freeman (Jacob). I see you like your iems too.

4 Likes

I can also recommend the Forza cables. I bought a balanced 2.5 MMCX from them around 18 months ago for my Andromeda and itā€™s a great cable.

5 Likes

@Torq - impressive set!

When I grow up I want to be like you! LoL seriously epic collection man.

3 Likes

Verite Closed-Ive built my system around high ohm headphones,and for me this is the best of the bunch. Still loving it since day 1

Verite Open- It has been severely neglected since the VC arrived. Maybe someday I will fall back in love with it.

ATH-AD2000- The original dynamic speed king. Pretty bad clamp,and I no longer have an optimum amp for it. Its for sale,but apparently nobody wants it.

AKG K240 Sextetts-(EP,MP,LP) Some of the best mids you will ever hear. Great for metal. A beast to drive. The only headphone I own that sounds better out of solid state than tubes.

Sennheiser HD250-Love sub bass? Forget LCD-2/3 and try and find this ancient beast.

Beyerdynamic DT990- My sacrificial new tube testing headphone. If new tubes arc over and fry a driver,it will be on this one. No big loss.

AKG-K701- My gaming headphones. Sound fantastic out of my GOTL too,which surprised me a bit.

AKG K340- If my DT990s get fried,this will be next man up. Never could get into the sound of these dynamic/electet hybrids.

13 Likes

Thx!
Yes, I stated out with iemā€™s and have drifted into headphones :wink:

3 Likes

Iā€™ve been upgrading over the years; although not the level of some people here thatā€™s for sure. Iā€™ve used IEMā€™s, wired and wireless but mostly on the general consumer level:

Sennheiser HD555 - My first foray into the ā€œmore than $30ā€ headphone zone. Theyā€™re somewhere in the house, but who knows where anymore.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50S - My first higher end headphones. Really enjoyed the bass response from these. Still pick them up every now and then.

Sennheiser Momentum Wireless - My next step up in quality. Very clean sound. Heard things in songs I never heard before. They are primarily responsible for my starting my ā€œbest sound possibleā€ addiction. Damn you Sennheiser.

Sennheiser HD1 Free - These were my first set of wireless (sort of) IEMā€™s. Liked them, but they still have a wire connecting the buds together. My wife took these over to use for work which led me toā€¦
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless Earbuds - These actually fit my ears great and sound great as well. I donā€™t use them as often as I thought I would, but they are great when I do take advantage to use them.

Sony WH1000XM3 - My every day, taking the train, headphones. Great noise cancellation and sound. Couldnā€™t live without them.

Focal Elegia - And finally (so far) my biggest step up. Heard these at the AXPONA 2019 show and fell in love with them. Listened to a lot of headphones that day, but kept coming back to these. Glad I put the money up for these. Really enjoy listening to these for the clarity they provide and punchy, but not muddy or overdone, bass.

On a side note I also recently purchased the Sennheiser GSP 500 for gaming (using the GSP 600 ear pads) and these are great for soundstage and picking up the small details in game. I tested 10 different headsets and these stood out for comfort, sound and they didnā€™t break the bank.

I guess thatā€™s it for meā€¦for now.

Matt

7 Likes

Nice collection.

1 Like

Hello everyone. Nice to meet yā€™all. Since there is no ā€˜New Members Introductionā€™ thread, I thought this thread would be a good place to start:

I generally prefer a neutral-warm signature and am a sucker for soundstage. I would take full-size HPs on a good desktop chain, over an IEM+DAP solution. Given my mobile lifestyle and comfort issues with heavy headphones, I have a mix of light weight headphones and IEMs/Earbuds. So here we go:

  1. LCDi4 - This is my primary HP, as it is the closest it gets me to a full-size HP in a portable and comfortable form factor. This is an all-rounder with which I can listen to any music. It is free of many flaws that IEMs come with. Neutral-warm in tone and just a touch laidback in nature. I use this with the Cayin N8 acting as a USB DAC, or on my iPhone using the Cipher Cable when convenience takes precedence.

  2. HD800 - It is the best sounding HP in my arsenal, when used in my home desktop rig, which is: Cayin N8 (DAC) > Eddie Current Black Widow 2 (Amp). I have both SDR and SBAF mods installed, which make them less bright. Even with the mods and my desktop system, it is still a bit on the bright side, that 30% of my library is a no-go with this HP. But some of the albums sound just out of the world and puts any portable gear to shame.

  3. FLC-8N - A highly underrated DD-BA hybrid IEM with a balanced, laidback sound. Itā€™s not a very accurate sounding IEM, but it doesnā€™t sound completely off either. In a way it has many similarities to the U12t, so much that I would go to the extent of calling this one a baby-U12t.

  4. Final E5000 - My guilty pleasure IEM with gobs of bass. The bass is actually bloated, but slams hard and goes deep. It is not an IEM I would easily recommend to others. I also use this for movies.

  5. DQSM Turandot - This one is a earbud and was a FOTM last month and is considered one of the best earbuds in the $200-$250 category. The tuning in a way reminds me of HD650 with a warm and musical tone and roll-off on either ends. As with most earbuds it cannot do sub-bass well.

  6. IE800S - Without EQ, I cannot listen to genres involving acoustic instruments or vocals as the tuning lacks sufficient ear-canal-gain at 3kHz. I like to use this with synthetic music, where I donā€™t get offended by its incorrect tone. With some good EQing, it can actually sound quite good.

  7. Simgot EN700Pro - This one has a more W shaped tuning, but in reality, it sounds much more balanced than some of the recent Harman-tuned multi-BA IEMs. Very comfortable to wear and punches above its price point with good technicalities and stage. The upper-mids could be a little intense, but not as intense as an Ety ER4. Given the other gears in my collection, I typically donā€™t get to use this often.

13 Likes

Welcome, @EagleWings.

Iā€™d really like to hear the LCD-i4ā€™s. I love Audezeā€™s sound.

There actually is a thread, Iā€™ll link it here:

There are lots of great threads, and even some ā€œOff-Topicā€.

Enjoy the forum. :+1:t4:

5 Likes

Excellent setup @EagleWings and welcome to the forum.

6 Likes

@ValentineLuke @prfallon69 , thanks for the warm welcome guys. Oops, my bad. Looks like I scrolled right past the link when reading the welcome bulletin. Will head there to introduce myself.

7 Likes

Not a problem. :+1:t4:

1 Like

I suppose a worthy second post will be my gear/setup.
I generally swap headphones around a lot due to the difficulties of demoing where I am currently located in Norway. Iā€™ve found electrostatics are whatā€™s most interesting to me, I am an avid user of EQ so the somewhat questionable frequency responses of many electrostats luckily isnā€™t such a bother though the ideal headphone would of course be one where no EQ whatsoever is needed, or at least it doesnā€™t feel as if it is needed.

That being said, gear:
Stax SR-007
I absolutely love this headphone. It is one of the smoothest headphones Iā€™ve heard throughout the spectrum and neither high or low frequency extension is lacking in the slightest. One of the most detailed headphones Iā€™ve heard with imaging that might just be the best Iā€™ve heard. It does have some shortcomings in the form of slight upper mid recession, a slightly smaller stage than I would like, and it is not as dynamically proficient nor does it slam as hard as some of the planar and especially dynamic competition. It also doesnā€™t fit my head too well (too small) but I know my head is an outlier in this regard.

Stax SR-X MK3
An interesting headphone. What it does well is detail and a supremely well balanced 20-3Khz response. Beyond that it is extremely bright, the most dynamically compressed headphone Iā€™ve heard and doesnā€™t even have a semblance of soundstage, it might as well be an IEM. That being said it can be a very nice listen at low volumes.

Sony MDR-F1
A headphone working in free field similar to K1000 (which I used to own), SR1a and the MySphere. In itā€™s stock form this is a pretty underwhelming headphone, it rolls of before 100hz, has a rising response all the way to 1Khz before dropping off again. This is then followed by a pretty monstrous 7-8Khz peak that in conjunction with the 1Khz emphasis makes female vocals sound like death and destruction. Luckily it takes EQ very well and the driver is actually capable of going almost flat down to 40hz with less than 3% THD in the bass! Bass is still not the forte of this headphone and complex tracks makes it want to die but it undeniably has a very nice midrange and staging after getting a bit of EQ. Also supremely comfortable.

Now Iā€™ve just recently purged my headphone collection so I donā€™t have a lot currently. On the way is a very intriguing electrostatic headphone made by a small new company from Hong Kong. I donā€™t have the highest hopes for it but Iā€™ve been surprised before. For now SR-007 is ā€œthe headphone to beatā€ in my collection, though I know it isnā€™t to everyoneā€™s taste, and understandably so.

11 Likes

Awesome collection @Scgorg !

3 Likes

Very nice collection @Scgorg.

Iā€™ve always wanted to hear a pair of Stax, given their reputation. Hopefully Iā€™ll have a chance to at CanJam SoCal.

3 Likes

Welcome. Always good to have another STAX-o-phile in the community. What are you using to power the STAX?

4 Likes