How are the Empyrean? 
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Good luck. I had a Woo. Buzz in one ear. Woo said it’s the source. Just not true. They didn’t stand behind their product FOR ME. Sent it in. They said it was working as supposed to. No way I spend that kind of money and listen to hiss / buzz.
I’m solid state forever more.
Again, Good luck.
Well, turns out it was a noisy power tube. No more hum in my Diana phi headphones. Some noise in my wa22 transformer but to be expected. Woo to replace stock tubes.
FYI, Woo was very quick to respond and assist.
Very happy with wa22 and Diana phi sound.
Holiday additions:
Left to right - Focal Elegia closed back headphones with stock cable on a black Kanto stand (my new favorite headphone stand), Drop+THX Panda headphones on cheap stand with USB-C cable connected to iPad Air (also new this Christmas).
Close up of Focal Elegia. By the way the Kanto stands are built like little tanks. The sound of the Elegia is very close to that of the open back Focal Elear, which I also own, in other words very good. If you do enough searching you can pick up a pair for just over $400, which is an excellent price for such great sounding headphones.
Close up of Panda and iPad (please excuse the dust on the stand) showing the “lossless” signal path. When connected via USB-C the Pandas use their internal DAC and amp and will play up to 24bit/48kHz losslessly, higher sampling frequencies are converted to 48kHz. Oh and the Pandas sound pretty darn good when connected via USB-C. They also sound very good via Bluetooth or wired (analog). The Panda is right up there with the best sounding Bluetooth headphones. Worth a serious listen.
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I’m on my “portable Roon”, which means a MacBook Pro with 5TB portable drive. Here in the cabin i have a pair of Philips Fidelio X2 but i recently bought a pair of the X3’s.
While the MBP doesn’t do high rez Roon does a good job with adapting playback to the output. I also use a Topping NX4 DSD here, and the gains in sound quality are notable, but the hassle of extra cables and little doo-dats hangin’ round the MBP is truly a nuisance…
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I have the Elear, good to know the Elegia are a similar sound signature as I love my Elears but are no good in some situations being open back.
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WOW wasn’t Santa busy 
Yes sir Santa was very busy. Money that in other years was spent on travel was spent on toys in 2020. And it’s looking like 2021 will be a repeat of 2020, at least for the first half.
Less travel = more toys
Ooohh! Me likey!!
Just gorgeous.
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Anyone got the SMSL SH9 ? The more I read aboit it the more the urge to upgrade to it from my Schiit Heresy. I do find the Heresy a litle compressed at times. Already having the SU9 as DAC it watch rather nicely and it appears to rank much better than the older SP200 matching the HPA4 according to some reviews.
I’ve got the older model and like it a lot.
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My cans are also my work setup – previously known as “work from home setup”. It’s fairly simple and in comparison to some here quite modest. But also a combination that I have loved for many years and now use more than ever. 
MacBook Pro -> Chord Hugo -> Bowers & Wilkins P7
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Yes! There’s also the SP400 which features analogue input…
Handy if using active speakers. One box to control headphones volume and active speakers volume.
Using resistor ladder volume control too.
SP400 is much closer to HPA in overall features.
I’m not using the SH9 much though. Happy with my Merging Anubis headphone output.
Don’t need the extra features at all or the extra cost. SH9 will suit my needs just fine.
These Focal Clears just showed up at my front door. It’s going to take a while to decide if I want to keep them or not.
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Unbidden? 
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I guess I did actually order them yesterday. My wife didn’t even make a whimper. I’ve been listening with headphones a lot lately because she is really tired of all the music playing all day long.
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I have a pair of Clears at my home office desk, and I adore them…
They function as they do in your home, when either: 1) my family thinks my music is disruptive; or 2) I think my music is disrupted by my family. In the pandemic era, they get a good work out.
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If your wife is in the same room, then open back headphones aren’t going to help that very much.
I have a pair of Clears. They need to be broken in.
Hated the cable. Way too stiff and unwieldy. I bought an after market replacement.
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