What is your current headphone setup?

Personally, I cycle through a lot of stuff, and I’m currently testing the PXC 550s and the DSR9BTs for a review.

That being said, when I can I have a pair of Utopias with an SPL Phonitor X amp. (I say when I can because it’s usually only a demo pair that eventually needs to be sent back to Focal)

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I also used to cycle through different setups every 3 months but I’ve sort of “settled” in so to speak. HD800SDR w/ Gumby/Mjolnir has been pretty reliable for me since I got it (and so much more comfortable than almost any other headphone for long term wear).

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I cycle through gear way more often than I’d like to admit but right now here’s a current list:

Headphones:
AKG K181DJ, K271, K4, K501, Audioquest Nighthawk, Auglamour RX1, Beyerdynamic DT220, ishT1 (T1 drivers in a DT770 frame with a lot of tuning–kind of what I wish the T5p was), Etymotic ER4S, Fanny Wang In Ear Wang, Fostex WTH900 (TH900 drivers in a different frame meant to bring out the midrange more and cut the treble unevenness), Grado SR60, Koss KSC75, PortaPro, Technician VFR, SP/3, Master and Dynamic MH40, Monster Turbine Pro Gold, NVX XPT100, Oppo PM2, Sennheiser HD800, Urbanite XL, Smeggypucks, Sony CD1000, TFZ Balance 2M, Series 5, Ultimate Ears UE7, VE Monk, Velodyne vTrue, VSonic ANV16, Yamaha HP3

Amps:

Upgraded Bottlehead SEX, Cavalli EHHA, Liquid Fire, CMoy, Headroom Desktop Portable Amplifier, SMSL M6

DACs:

AMB Gamma2++, Enlightened Audio Designs DSP7000, M-Audio ProFire 2626, SMSL M6

I’ve written short impressions about everything I’ve owned or been loaned here.

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My current headphone setup is Roon feeding a PS Audio Lan Rover to a Ayre Codex with balanced Black Dragon wires to a Sennheiser HD 800. This is next to my work PC and it sounds good to me. I also have a Mojo/Poly. I am looking to get a pair of JH Audio 13 vs pros when the October Rocky Mountain Audio show comes.

I’ve currently got a review pair of Sennheiser HD 599 on my head being run through a Dragonfly Black.

I’ve got a pair of original NightHawks and NightOwl carbons at the house that I use at on the weekends and the NightOwls I bring into the office quite a bit.

My commuting set-up is currently a pair of 1More Quad Drivers being run through an Advanced Accessport into my iPhone 7+. The Advanced Accessport is a pretty useful little DAC/AMP combo for those without a headphone jack. I didn’t realize until a month ago but they actually released a firmware update that made it fully functional too which was great.

Sometimes I do switch up my commuting set-up and throw my NightOwls on but in the summer in Vancouver it can get pretty hot with the leather pads.

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DAC: Schiit Gungnir Multibit

My best rig -
Amp: Woo WES
Headphone: Stax SR-007 MKII

Secondary:
Amp: Schiit Valhalla
Headphones: AKG K240 (Sextett)/ Beyerdynamic DT880 (600 ohm)

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Right now I am using a Mac Mini with a Schitt Modi dac into a Micro Zotl headphone amp with the following headphones:
Hifiman 400,
Sennheiser 580
Akg 272
B&W P5

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PC > SBX G5 > DT 1990 / AQ Nighthawk / SHP9500

or

PC > Avantree TC418 > various BT cans

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I currently sport a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7 wireless headphones and usually just listen with Spotify’s high-quality streaming option. I’ve noticed a slight difference with my DragonFly USB DAC so sometimes I’ll use that when I’m not out and about.

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At home: Schitt Bifrost Multibit DAC, Schiit Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp into Sennheiser HD650’s driven from my PC with Fubar2000.

At work: Pono Player - Massdrop Noble IEM with Surf Cable balanced cable or original DragonFly - HiFiMan HE350 (Massdrop). Can’t crank up the volumes too high at work, have to be able to hear my coworkers :slight_smile:

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PC =Optical=> FiiO E17 => Senn HD650
Or for portability:
PC =USB=> FiiO E17 => Shure 535

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I currently use RaspberryPi with a HifiBerry Digi+ => Schiit Modi Multibit => Schiit Valhalla 2 => Senn HD600

At work I use my Huawei phone with etymotic HF5s. Tempted to pick up a small dac/amp for that as the phone is a bit noisy (though nowhere near as bad as my work computer)

do you ever sell stuff off? I wonder if I will…it makes sense financially knowing it doesn’t make sense to hold on to expensive things I won’t use…

I realized I have other sources in my set up. I also have:

Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with Ortofan 2M Blue => Pro-Ject Tube Box DS2

and

Teac A-2300SD

Both of those go through a Realistic Tape Control Center to select which input goes to the headphone amp, or to the integrated amp.

Yup, I always sell stuff off to fund new gear so I keep a consistent “headphone hobby” fund. Lately I’ve been looking into new speakers which is an even deeper rabbit hole.

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Roon Server => PC => Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ => Audeze LCD-XC (via balanced cable)

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Mac Pro — Roon — Chord DAVE — Woo Audio WA33 — Focal Utopias

Still haven’t heard any setup that beats this one, to my ears.

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That is a great combo

I love Fubar. I’m 100% Mac now and really missed Fubar after the switch. Roon has helped ease the pain

desktop: MBP- Bimby-Lyr 2
mini-desktop- X5iii- loki mini-magni 3
portable- X5iii, X3iii and X3ii
rotate through Mr. Speakers Ether, Meze Classic 99, AQ Nightowl and HE-400i
IEMs- CA Andromeda, Lyra, Cypher Labs C6, 64 Audio U8 and Ibasso IT03 and IT01