Show us your headphones

Just put new pads on my Stax SRX’s (circa 1978 in Grad School). The originals were falling apart, and every time I used them, I would find black flakes of leather on the floor–WAF was not high. I was expecting a hassle to get them off, but they came in one piece. Surprised me. I put the new ones on. Both were stick in place. Got replacements that were original equipment from a fellow in Italy (I am in USA).

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Just picked up these Sennheiser hd25’s. Wanted a cheap pair of closed backs. If you buy then in June, you get then with an extra pair of orange pads and a reduced price if £89.
Sound wise? Damn good for the money. Very impressed. And ok comfort for on-ear jobs.

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And being Sennheiser, spares are readily available and reasonably priced. Result. And, these came with both orange ( very 414) and regular black pads. Want a coiled 5m extra lead? £15 delivered.

As my HD800S are still at the service center I already decided to upgrade for HD820. :slightly_smiling_face:

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İs it an upgrade? Or a downgrade ? I advice a test

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I will do as soon as HD800s are back from the service :ok_hand:.
Listening sessions are definitely more comfortable as they are closed-back headphones.

They look very nice indeed, enjoy them!

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Hi MaxiMe,
Have you got your Meze Empyreans yet and how do they sound with the V281? I am still drawing up a short list of amps and the V281 is an option.
Also, is their any difference between the V280 and V281 amplifier circuits? I know the V281 has a balance control and additional outputs, but what about “the bit that matters”? The marketing blurb is not exactly clear!!
cheers

The v281 is a very fine headphone amp. Certainly taking the top off and having a look inside is impressive. 4 desperate power amps to drive 2 pairs of cans or a single pair of cans in balanced operation.
The build quality is good.
And most importantly the sound is very good. Without doubt the best I have heard or, will own. And so it should be for £1600.
I spent a long time looking and listening to amps. I wanted balanced operation as an option. Most amps sub £600 did not do this.
As soon as you see the amp, and feel the weight you are currently convinced. Hearing it just confirms this.
My focal clears are quite an easy load at 70ohm. But others on here drive 600ohm easily.
If you have the money and want ( amongst) the best, then purchase from Germany. Mine only took 2 days to arrive to the UK.

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Thanks for your analysis @Thegreatroberto This amp is moving up my consideration list! I have 32 ohm Meze Empyreans so don’t expect any load issues. Do you need to use any attenuation with your Focals to use more of the volume pot range?

Strangely no attenuation. The volume pot tends be be around 10 o’clock position. No tweaking of any kind required on the v281. I also use a pair of Sennheiser hd25’s that are also 70ohm and they sound good driven by the amp too.

Brilliant, many thanks for your reply.

Still waiting for the Empyreans and ND5 XS2. Not long now I hope, I’m like a kid waiting for Christmas!
Don’t know on the technical differences between the Amos, sorry.

Oh no - still waiting. I can understand what you feel like. When I order new “toys” I am the worlds most impatient man! I hope they arrive soon, still on the plus side you do have your V281. :grinning:
Concerning specifications, I have been doing a bit more background reading and from what I can make out the V280 and V281 have very similar / identical amps (V280 v slightly less powerful) but the big difference is the V281 has better connectivity (can act as a pre-amp) and has the balance control. Must say I am torn between the two models as I dont need the preamp capability but the balance control would be nice to have. :confused:

When I bought and trialled my Focal Clear Pros (from a local dealer) I was surprised how little headphone stock was , well in stock from the many big names.
For example trying to trial or even buy Audeze or Hifiman, forget it. A large south coast headphone dealer had zero stock, despite the best prices! Another Midlands firm could not supply the HE6se from Hifiman.
I get that headphones are hardly essential in a Pandemic, but if you have a mail order side of your business, then keeping that going should be important. Anyway happy with the Focals and happy to help a local business.

It’s a bit unclear exactly what you don’t get with the v280 for £400 ish less. It’s a big chunk of cash.
What I can say is that the v281 does not have a lot of free space inside it’s box. The 4 amps take up most of the space. Plus there is a gap in mine for a DAC.
Does the 280 allow for pre gain to deal with difficult loads/ inefficient cans?
I guess if you are driving an easy load, then save the £400. If not…

I mainly bought it for the huge volume control :slight_smile:
The fact that it’s “better” was a bonus!

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Yep. There’s a joke in there somewhere…

Which volume control did you specify ? I see there is standard, standard with remote and a 128 stage relay with remote and sound quality benefits apparently.

My choice of language was deliberate, given a recent thread that got completely derailled!