metasharp
Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2022
- Messages
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- 43
Hello,
I was lucky enough to listen to many expensive headphones. I'll start by thanking to Headonist to have given me that chance. And a friend who brought some ASR praised hardware as well.
The hardware I own are in blue.
Headphones
B&W P7 (~300€) Bluetooth
B&W PX7 Carbon (~400€) Bluetooth
Dan Clark Expanse (~4.000€)
Dan Clark Stealth (~4.000€)
Earsonics EM3-Pro (~900€) IEM
Final Audio D8000 Pro (~4.000€)
Meze Liric (~2.000€)
Sennheiser HD 800 (~1.200€)
T+A Solitaire P (~5.000€)
ZMF Vérité Closed Koa (~2.000€)
Amps
Lejonklou Giella PI (~2.350€) HP amp
Paltauf HPA-100 SP (~4.000€) LS+HP amp
Paltauf KHV ESD Mark 2 (~6.000€) HP amp
DAC+Amp
Okto dac8 PRO 8Ch (~1.300€) DAC & HP amp
Sabaj A4 Full Digital audio Amplifier (~80€) DAC & LS+HP amp plugged on B&W 685 S2 speakers
Smyth Realiser A16 (~4.500€) 15.1.8 DSP & DAC & HP amp (no chance yet to try the Speaker Edition)
Topping DX3 Pro+ (~200€) DAC & HP amp (in normal mode, no gain since we forgot the remote controller)
DAC
Weiss DAC-502 (~10.000€) DAC
Software
ASIO4ALL (windows driver to force windows to send the digital signal to the external DAC)
Foobar2000 (media player)
+ ASIO output (foo_out_asio)
+ bs2b dsp (foo_dsp_bs2b)
+ Meier Crossfeed (foo_dsp_meiercf)
+ VST 2.4 adapter (foo_vt)
Foobar2000 VST plugins
+ Proximity (TDR Labs)
+ space360 (cytosonic)
Not tested : Impulcifer
My researchs (any advices to answer those are welcome)
- Best audiophile HeadPhones + (if possible) all-in-one DAC/DSP (optionnal)/AMP
- Best audiophile bluetooth HeadPhones with ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) + clean microphone
- Best spatialization DSP system to use HeadPhone to view movies and/or play games
Summary & Key take aways
HeadPhone wise : Dan Clark Audio Stealth is a closed headphone that sounds like an open one. To my ears the Stealth sounded the best of them all. Other headphones didn't seem as clean to me.
Source to Amp wise : Dan Clark Audio Stealth sound signature changes a lot depending on that. Best results I had was using the Weiss + any Paltauf.
Bad surprise 1 : I was quite suprised that using ASR reference dac8 PRO and DX3 Pro+ with it didn't give me as much listening pleasure as the super expensive Weiss/Paltauf combo.
Bad surprise 2 : Dan Clark Audio Expanse sounds like a closed HP... and has nearly no spatialization (I mean by that: everything sounds like it's within your head). To me it's a big disappointment.
Stealth+Sabaj : is not really bad but requires to push the volume from 20 to 40 which shows how much power that amp lacks. The result is not super but for 80€... it's unbeatable IMHO.
Raw Spatialization : Weiss + Paltauf + Stealth gave me something that goes from left to right ear by climbing 5cm in front of your forehead. That's the best result I had without any DSP/Plugin. With other headphones : little to no spatialization. With Stealth + other DAC/Amp : same, little to no spatialization in front of you, only sides.
DSP Spatialization reference : Best results by far was the Smyh Realiser A16 I test a few years ago. I can certify I couldn't make any difference vs a real 15.1.8 system except for low bass impact.
DSP Spatialization : Out of all the plugins I tried, space360 gave the most convincing effect... all the rest was really so so. But at what cost! Such a loss in terms of sounds quality!
Detailed review
To be written.
I was lucky enough to listen to many expensive headphones. I'll start by thanking to Headonist to have given me that chance. And a friend who brought some ASR praised hardware as well.
The hardware I own are in blue.
Headphones
B&W P7 (~300€) Bluetooth
B&W PX7 Carbon (~400€) Bluetooth
Dan Clark Expanse (~4.000€)
Dan Clark Stealth (~4.000€)
Earsonics EM3-Pro (~900€) IEM
Final Audio D8000 Pro (~4.000€)
Meze Liric (~2.000€)
Sennheiser HD 800 (~1.200€)
T+A Solitaire P (~5.000€)
ZMF Vérité Closed Koa (~2.000€)
Amps
Lejonklou Giella PI (~2.350€) HP amp
Paltauf HPA-100 SP (~4.000€) LS+HP amp
Paltauf KHV ESD Mark 2 (~6.000€) HP amp
DAC+Amp
Okto dac8 PRO 8Ch (~1.300€) DAC & HP amp
Sabaj A4 Full Digital audio Amplifier (~80€) DAC & LS+HP amp plugged on B&W 685 S2 speakers
Smyth Realiser A16 (~4.500€) 15.1.8 DSP & DAC & HP amp (no chance yet to try the Speaker Edition)
Topping DX3 Pro+ (~200€) DAC & HP amp (in normal mode, no gain since we forgot the remote controller)
DAC
Weiss DAC-502 (~10.000€) DAC
Software
ASIO4ALL (windows driver to force windows to send the digital signal to the external DAC)
Foobar2000 (media player)
+ ASIO output (foo_out_asio)
+ bs2b dsp (foo_dsp_bs2b)
+ Meier Crossfeed (foo_dsp_meiercf)
+ VST 2.4 adapter (foo_vt)
Foobar2000 VST plugins
+ Proximity (TDR Labs)
+ space360 (cytosonic)
Not tested : Impulcifer
My researchs (any advices to answer those are welcome)
- Best audiophile HeadPhones + (if possible) all-in-one DAC/DSP (optionnal)/AMP
- Best audiophile bluetooth HeadPhones with ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) + clean microphone
- Best spatialization DSP system to use HeadPhone to view movies and/or play games
Summary & Key take aways
HeadPhone wise : Dan Clark Audio Stealth is a closed headphone that sounds like an open one. To my ears the Stealth sounded the best of them all. Other headphones didn't seem as clean to me.
Source to Amp wise : Dan Clark Audio Stealth sound signature changes a lot depending on that. Best results I had was using the Weiss + any Paltauf.
Bad surprise 1 : I was quite suprised that using ASR reference dac8 PRO and DX3 Pro+ with it didn't give me as much listening pleasure as the super expensive Weiss/Paltauf combo.
Bad surprise 2 : Dan Clark Audio Expanse sounds like a closed HP... and has nearly no spatialization (I mean by that: everything sounds like it's within your head). To me it's a big disappointment.
Stealth+Sabaj : is not really bad but requires to push the volume from 20 to 40 which shows how much power that amp lacks. The result is not super but for 80€... it's unbeatable IMHO.
Raw Spatialization : Weiss + Paltauf + Stealth gave me something that goes from left to right ear by climbing 5cm in front of your forehead. That's the best result I had without any DSP/Plugin. With other headphones : little to no spatialization. With Stealth + other DAC/Amp : same, little to no spatialization in front of you, only sides.
DSP Spatialization reference : Best results by far was the Smyh Realiser A16 I test a few years ago. I can certify I couldn't make any difference vs a real 15.1.8 system except for low bass impact.
DSP Spatialization : Out of all the plugins I tried, space360 gave the most convincing effect... all the rest was really so so. But at what cost! Such a loss in terms of sounds quality!
Detailed review
To be written.
Last edited: