Currently some Sennheiser momentum 2 closed backs. Will trial some £1000 to £1500 cans. Looking at Focal clear, or Audeze. Wanted to get the amp first, and work from there. Any suggestions?
Depends massively on what you are looking for.
For me the most important was fit and comfort as since having a small opp on an ear, I needed headphones that didn’t rest on my ear at all.
Then it was sound quality and I wanted details and a nice large sound, the sennheiser hd800s fitted the bill nicely.
Also since getting the rossini, I wanted to try fully balanced throughout the set up and so glad I have. The headline 2 is a nice amp, but its certainly not even close to this.
I would have suggested you find the headphones first that you like and then match an amp to best suit them, I guess nothing wrong with doing it the other way round, but as you have some sennheiser’s already, make sure you try some hd800s, especially if you keep the V281, as they go well together and if you have a great source to feed it, even better.
Also are you going with the built in dac board?
I will try some HD800s. DAC? No. ( But I think you could retro fit it). I use a chord qutest for DAC duties.
I got into headphones about a year ago passing through Hifiman 400i, Shure 1540, Focal Clear, Focal Utopia, IFi Micro Black, ALo Continental Dual Mono, Chord Hugo 2, Chord TT2 to the current Chord Dave/MScaler, XI Formula S/Powerman, Abyss 1266TC. The 1266 are the best headphones I’ve heard.
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How’s the Hugo 2 as a stand-alone headphone amp?
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This thread has really got me thinking about my next cans. You know what is is like, someone mentions how good a set are, and you do a quick Google to see what sort of money they are.
I should have known better with the Abyss 1266’s. The M scaler and DAVE should have been a hint. But I think these are off my potential list 
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Wow, that’s a lot of kit to go through in a single year.
What I was thinking. And a great ( expensive?) Place to end up. But worth it if you are happy.
The Hugo is a great product but imo needs careful matching. I had the Hugo when I was running Focal Utopias and I preferred the sound when I added the ALO CDM tube dac/amp (used as an amp) which warmed up the sound. I didn’t try it with the Abyss. I subsequently bought a TT2 and sold the Hugo 2 because I didn’t need both. Ideally I’d have liked to have kept the Hugo 2 to take to the office.
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Maybe it was a bit more than a year, certainly for the Hifiman and Shure. It was about a year before I really got going.
Yes it was costly but most (especially the higher cost stuff) was bought used so should retain its value. Does it give me as much enjoyment as my stereo (Xerxes 20+, Aro, Shiraz, Trology 907, Teddy Pardo active into SL2s? Overall yes although in a different way, so in fact the headphone system is better value!
AudioQuest, NightOwl Carbon. Don’t use them much, but they do sound pretty darn good.( sorry about the dusty desk)
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So having just posted about my B&W PX headphones, they stopped working shortly afterwards!
Anyway, my very kind HiFi dealer in Canterbury dropped off a pair of B&W PX7 (extra low price as they were in the window). These are the silver ones - also available in ‘space grey’.
So far, they sound very good (certainly good enough for dog walking!), and somewhat improved SQ over my old PXs. They also seem to pack more tech than their predecessor.
I also treated myself to an iPhone lightning to USB camera connection cable, which has enabled me (using the Onkyo HF Player iOS app) to use my iPhone as a transport to play High Res FLAC and WAV files using the Chord Mojo as a DAC into my Sennheiser HD800S headphones. Here’s some photos showing a 24bit 192KHz file being played - the blue colour on the Mojo On/Off switch shows that this is indeed a 192KHz file playing. I’ve only just received this cable, so have yet to test it out - is it a ‘mullet’? Time will tell!
George.
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Looking forward to how you get on with iPhone/Mojo/HD800’s
Partly inspired by this thread and a random chat with my ever helpful dealer, I have just grabbed the Heed Canalot and Q PSU to run my HD800’s off. I was previously running of the headphone stage of my SN2. I am now running direct from the analogue output of the NDX2 using variable volume control and it works a treat. All though I found the SN2 headphone stage really good, this is on another level to be honest. Happy days.
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Looks good, but what is the team?
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Don’t often see the V-can amp. I used to Sue one of those but found the volume knob very annoying. The volume goes very high for a modest turn, I couldn’t even get it past 8oclock!