Headphones thread (show us yer cans)!

Audio Gear Talk Headphones
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Show us your headphones the man said. Well I have a few,I love headphones and tend to enjoy music more through this medium than speakers. Not always though,sometimes listening to my Formation Duo or Avi DM10s is paradise…I am currently using a Beyer Dynamic A2 headphone amp which I really rate. So,here we go;

Oppo PM2. Nice,wonderfully comfortable,a little too polite sometimes.

Beyer Amiron wireless. Awesome wireless headphones especially when you adjust the sound to your hearing,or lack of it. Crazy price!

Audio Technica DSR9BT. Another top of the line wireless headphone. Lousy design in terms of ease of use,but one of the very very best wireless headphones…think they are no longer made,possibly because the price a little prohibitive.

Sennheiser 660s. Cheap looking,but a firm favourite with me,non fatiguing sound,very revealing,great price too

Bowers and Wilkins P7. Not aptxhd but has a unique sound which makes all music enjoyable,also their most comfortable offering.

Bowers and Wilkins PX 7x. Not as comfortable as the earlier model,tighter ,clearer sound,decent noise cancelling if you use it.

Bowers and Wilkins P9 Signature. If you are in the mood for them then they are just the business. Incredible bass,warm analogue sound. Love them…but not for everything.

Beyer Dynamic Amiron Home. Great revealing headphone,open sound,excellent value. Comfortable,can listen to these for hours.

Beyer Dynamic T1 gen2. Simply fantastic paired with the A 2. Prefer these to Sennheiser 800s,less clinical,more musical. Think a fair few would disagree but we all have different ears.

Audioquest Nighthawk Carbons. Totally unique sound signature. Put them on you can forget they are there. Over the years they have given me more enjoyment than almost any headphone. They are all about making music enjoyable as opposed to an accurate technical reproduction,and boy are they enjoyable.

Focal Clear. Outstanding to my ears. Lovely bass,crystal midrange,comfy. Expensive and worth every penny.

Think that’s it…oh some oppo pm3s but one of the kids seems to have hidden them.

I like headphones.

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62

Mojo/Poly + T1 + Roon = SUBLIME! :grinning:

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I’ve had a pair of these on loan for the last few days. Was not overly impressed with the sound at first.

However, after listening to them at length for the last couple of days I think they are a superb pair of headphones. They sound very open for a closed back can. The comfort level is extreme, I can wear them for 7+ hours straight and it just feels soft and fluffy over my ears, the headband dissappears completely. I have a pair of HiFiMan Ananda which are also extremely comfortable but I have to do very minor headband tweak on those every few hours.

Only minor niggle on the Aeon 2 is that the stock Dumer cable can be a little microphonic at times but that could easily be fixed with an aftermarket cable.

Think Dan Clark did a great job here on the actual cans. I will end up buying them as would miss them terribly otherwise.

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I have mojopoly and oppo pm2. Once everything was sorted by chord it has performed flawlessly and like you say sounds sublime.

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This thread is rapidly turning into the “persuade me to buy a Poly” thread. I was put off by reports of connection issues but:

sounds very promising. A genuinely portable Roon endpoint for cans sounds just what I need.

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I can only speak from personal experience but mine has run perfectly for over twelve months now with Roon.
Icing on the cake is 512 micro ssd loaded up with music and just shuffle it.
It has a great sound in my opinion.

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I have the sound half taken care of as I’m already a MoJo owner, the feedback from yourself and @Martin_Kelly have pushed me over the edge I think. A purchase is imminent, I just needed to hear from a satisfied user or two.

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The only issue I occasionally have is from my mesh Wi-fi points. It seems to stutter when switching between points if I wander around. It’s not often so it doesn’t bother me. It does puzzle me as I though mesh worked like a blanket as one but there you go. As I said I could live with just the micro ssd, Roon is a bonus.

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Since you seem to be answering questions I have one cheeky enquiry. Is it possible to play the MoJo and Poly combination while charging them?

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Yes it is. You need a charger with healthy power for them

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Sold to one baldie techie, will be purchasing over the weekend, thanks :slight_smile:

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You WON’T regret it. It’s a winning combo! :smiley:

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My partner uses the nursery rhyme line to describe me “he shall have music wherever he goes”, this isn’t going to dispel that notion. Sourcing one now, got to have a nice case as well. A weeks time and I’ll be wondering if they need a nice new pair of cans as well :joy:

Thanks both for the help in lightening the wallet burden.

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I think these are just what I was looking for for a cup of tea and a couple of tunes while my wife finishes up her zoom meetings in the evenings. Roon over Bluetooth from my NAD C658. Really articulate and nice bass.

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75

So I bought the Dan Clark Audio Aeon 2 Closed headphones - great as advertised. But here’s my situation.

I’ve played the headphones through (1) Roon via SMSL M500 DAC/Amp; (2) iPhone via iFi Hip Dac; and (3) straight to my Astell & Kern S25 DAP.

I would have thought, from reviews/general chatter that I’d see a degradation in performance without feeding the Aeon 2s through an amp, so would’ve thought the performance through the A&K would suffer. Other than the SMSL and iFi obviously having more upper volume limits, the fact is, within any normal volume range, I really can’t hear a difference among the three (other than minor tone variations due to the three different DACs).

Is this surprising to anyone? I expected a broader soundstage and perhaps more detail in the cases of SMSL and iFi, but the A&K holds up great. I may be coming closer to the limits of what the A&K can give (I personally max out around 135 of 150 on volume range) than the other alternatives, and I don’t want to stretch the S&K to its absolute limit, but it doesn’t really feel to me like the A&K is strained or that its limits are hurting my Aeon 2 experience.

Even in this case, would I be better upgrading my cable to a Vivo balanced cable in order (as I understand it) to afford the A&K just a little bit more power?

I’m new to this $1000 range of audiophile cans, so want to make sure I’m getting all I’m paying for - thanks for any help/advice/opinions.

I have a set of Focal Celestees on their way to me for comparison, but I am very impressed with the quality of the Aeon 2s across a wide range of genres and recordings of different ages.

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How does it work with Roon or are using Ravenna ?

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Sennheiser HD 800 mainly but still go back to the trusty HD 600’s now and then… The Auralic and Atom do everything I might need - plus I would never be without convolution filters for both, or Roon!

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I think that what you are experiencing is audiophile exaggeration. What I mean by audiophile exaggeration is that many audiophiles believe way too much of the hype that is present in the audiophile press. Now please don’t get me wrong but exaggeration is a big part of what keeps the audiophile world going. So for example over the years so many vails have been lifted in the audiophile press that if one were to listen to a 30 year audiophile grade stereo one would expect to the sound to be totally unlistenable and this is just not the case. A 30 year old stereo will still sound quite good and very enjoyable, just not quite as good as a newer stereo.

Now to your point, the Astell & Kern S25 DAP is a very good player with some limitations in its power output, thus limiting its ability to drive some headphones to high volume levels but, and this is important, when listening to headphones at volumes that the A&K can handle then the sound will be very good, as you are experiencing. I had a very similar experience with the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital Preamplifier and DAC which I found to be a great sounding little unit that fell a bit short in the power department. In other words great with low impedance, easy to drive headphones but a non-starter for high impedance, hard to drive headphones.

What really intrigues me is that you took the time to listen and your ears told you everything you need to know, which is that all three units sound very good but with different abilities to drive the Aeon 2. So please believe your ears and not the audiophile noise.

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The original HD 800 or the newer HD 800S?

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Thanks, Ralph - very helpful, and extremely reassuring. Reading these boards (and that’s not to say people aren’t being hugely helpful), you do get to the point of doubting your own ears!