Help me figure this out.
I enjoy listening to music videos on YouTube (80%) or .mp3/FLAC files (20%).
In songs, I value vocals the most. I don’t like low frequencies, especially rumbling, but I love high frequencies.
Before buying the Topping, I always used an equalizer with a straight line from lows at -5dB to highs at +5dB.
Here’s my setup:
I enjoy listening to music videos on YouTube (80%) or .mp3/FLAC files (20%).
In songs, I value vocals the most. I don’t like low frequencies, especially rumbling, but I love high frequencies.
Before buying the Topping, I always used an equalizer with a straight line from lows at -5dB to highs at +5dB.
Here’s my setup:
- Topping DX3 Pro+ ($200)
- Grado SR60 ($100) with earpads similar to the SR325 model.
The earpads on the Grado irritate my ears, and I want the sound to be even brighter and more transparent, so I bought: - HiFiMAN Arya Stealth Magnet ($650)
- The vocals completely got lost—they’re somewhere in the background, even though vocals are the most important thing for me.
- HiFiMAN has fewer low frequencies than Grado, but paradoxically, I like Grado’s lows more—they feel more pleasant, even though I don’t like low frequencies in general.
- HiFiMAN has an annoying rumbling around ~100Hz.
- .mp3 is said to reduce sound quality, and YouTube is claimed to degrade it severely, but I don’t hear much difference between FLAC and YouTube. My audio chain on the PC is set up with ASIO.
- Maybe the Topping DX3 Pro+ just doesn’t fully reveal the potential of the HiFiMAN Arya Stealth Magnet, and I need to buy a better DAC/AMP to make these headphones sound much better? Would the Topping DX7 Pro+ be a good choice?
- On the other hand, is it worth paying extra if I mainly watch YouTube?
- Or are these new headphones simply not suitable for vocals, and it would be better to sell them and buy something else? Would the Sennheiser HD 660S2 be a good fit?
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