It’s “just” a hobby so have fun. Just don’t go over the top like I have and you’ll be okay with a few more headphones, amps, DAPs…Oops I think that I might the wrong person to be giving out advice. CanJam NYC is coming up in the beginning of March so more toys to play with and old friends to see.
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I’d love to get to CanJam , it’s a bit far from Johannesburg 
It’ll keep me out of temptation.
I am not too obsessed but since we divested of speakers I still twitch a bit when I read about nice headphones. Wifey tends not to agree
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I’ve two sets of headphones.
Focal Elear
These I use with my main system. Comfortable and sound range is good and detailed. I did change the cable to a more flexible cable as the original cable was a bit too bulky.
Apple AirPods Max
These I use with my iPhone 16 Pro Max in bed early in the morning whilst Mrs DG is still sleeping. They are very good, much better sound and far more comfortable than the AirPods Pro2 that I used to have.
DG…
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Update on my AirPods Max.
Been using them a while now and have found them to be excellent;
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They are very comfortable, albeit heavy for headphones being mainly stainless steel and aluminium. Notwithstanding this, once you’re wearing them you do not notice the weight and the ear pads are not affected by wearing spectacles. Consequently is no pressure on your ears or the top of the head. I wear mine for two to three hours at a time with no issues at all.
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Sound wise, they are much better than the previous AirPods Pro 2 that I had. Wider sound stage and good placement of instruments. The Spatial Audio is very effective; it’s like listening to live music, when you move your head, the instruments stay in the same place. For example, if the saxophone is in the middle, turn your head to the right and it stays in the middle. I have mine set on transparency so that I’m aware of my surroundings (and hear Mrs DG.) have tried the noise cancelling, very effective and can’t hear anything.
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The battery life is good, after a three hour listening session, it is down to around 65%. I agree with others that it is poor that there is no “On / Off” switch and to put them in “Sleep Mode”, they need to be put in the silly cover. To address this, I got a third party charging dock. You fit the magnetic dongle in the USB C charging slot, then just put the headphones in the dock. They are automatically guided into the correct position, start charging and go into sleep mode. To use them, simply lift off the charging dock and they are ready to go.
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They pair so easily with Apple products and can be controlled both with my IPhone and Apple Watch. The Digital Crown is very easy to use; One press to mute, Two presses to fast forward, three presses to rewind, Rotate to control the volume.
To summarise, they are an excellent piece of kit, good sound quality and comfortable. Only negative comment is the lack of On / Off switch and silly cover. But not enough of a problem to stop me enjoying them.
DG…
WF-1000XM6 has just been released 
Torben
Get thee behind me ***** !
II was reading the review yesterday looks interesting 
Fortunately we are always last to see anything new so I have time to consider . It’s only money
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Focal Bathys noice cancelling bluetooth over ears. Augmented by a Sennheiser BTD 700 bluetooth dongle for aptX and less obtrusive data compression. Very nice!
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So, with my headphone rig out of action thanks to the recent Roon bridge update, I unearthed a JCally JM20 which I bought some time ago - see, for example, this ASR review. I am completely blown away by how close this comes to my main rig for about £20 - at full power it’s just about powerful enough to drive my DCA Aeons and, if I’d never heard better, I could imagine me feeling completely satisfied with it. It plays lossless via ARC too, so that’s been my rescue package over the past week.
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Just come across this thread after checking out what’s going on with Roon (Broken).
anyway, I’m now 100% headphones user for probably 5 years or more now. I have two pairs, MEZE Elite and RAAL Immanis. Front end is an Auralic VEGA G2.2 and a Rega P8 TT that feeds a custom made Aegis headphone tube amp.
Seems like a lifetime ago since I used speaker and to be honest, don’t miss it. Much prefer what I get from headphones now. Anyway… couple of pics.
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Gorgeous photos
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that’s a gorgeous amp, almost looks like a mofi/fender TT plinth.
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Thank you… it took some time. Lost count how many coats of sealing paint, primer, top coat and then lacquer went on to it…. Not to mention the sanding in between every other coat. I think if I was to ever build another, I would go for a dark zebra type wood… easier to do 
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what’s the tube complement?
Tubes it takes? Any 5v 2amp / 3 amp rectifiers. I mainly use 274b, U52 and GZ34 Metal Base.
Input tubes are 6SL7 or variants… so ECC35, RCA Red Base 5691, Melz 1579 & 6N9S and quite a few others.
Power tubes there are so many but I’ll list a few key ones. KT120/150/170, KT88, KT66,KT67/66/63/61, EL39 (with adapter), EL38, EL37, EL34, EL33, Philips 4654 metal base (with adapter), EL50/51 (with adapter), 6F6, 6L6….. and a load of others but I think they’re the main ones
Basically, a rollers paradise
edit… forgot the GEC VT60a and 807 tubes. Again, adapters required. I have most of those listed but out of the KT tubes, only the GEC KT88 and GEC KT66
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comprehensive!
thank you, but I meant the ones you’re using atm.
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In that photo is the Takatsuki 274b, Philips Miniwatt 4654 metal base 2/3 disc getters and 7F7 input tubes. They were only in temporary as I’d never heard the 7F7 before (borrowed). Normally the ECC35 or Melz 1579 would be in with that combo.
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Thought I recognised that list of equipment! And sure enough, some superb photos of your system.
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lol… yeah get around… but, not here often. I hadn’t even seen the headphone thread here until I had to come over to find out why room had stopped working 
