I listen mostly to my music on headphones, as my taste in music is a bit extreme for my wife.
I mostly listen to Jazz. Most modern recordings are well recorded, especially Blue Note and ECM. But some old recordings often sound weird on headphones at times, due to instruments being placed right on one side. I have accumulated three or four headphones and the effect can be less marked on a headphone like a Sennheiser HD800S, and terrible on my old Amiron cans.
I have just added the wonderful Heddphone 2GT, with its particular diaphragm, and Hedd recommend amongst others a headphone amp made by SPL, the Phonitor se DAC. Sonically I am still fine with my Lehmann Audio amp, but the Phonitor has a function called Matrix
SPL make mostly gear for recording studios, and they use matrix to simulate listening to speakers, when using headphones, by introducing a sophisticated crosstalk function.
I wonder how useful this might be for these old recordings.
Any comments.
BTW the Heddphone punches far above its cost, compared to some other brands.
Hi, i use a Phonitor X, it is a fantastic headphone amp and preamp ( i don’t have a dac in mine) and very versatile well worth an audition. It might be worth while downloading the phonitor manual as it explains all the functionality very clearly.
It is also worth considering a higher model like the phonitor X as this will give you greater flexibility, as i’m not sure crossfeed alone will address your needs/requirements.
If you’re not adverse to buying used, then there are a couple of Phonitor X’s on ebay.
I connect my dac to the X via xlr and my phono stage via the rca inputs. You can then select either from the front. I then run xlr out into active atc speakers.
The ones in the UK are going for a good price. But I am in Italy and customs charges will be a killer. I often buy Audio gear SH, I can usually get a good bargain that way.
I have found a used SE with Dac in a shop here for €750, and at that price is worth a punt.