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Two paths for upgrade ? Suggestions

Joined
Jan 21, 2022
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Hello,

I'm new on the forum, but I've been reading Amir's review for quite a while !

Right now, I'm looking for two possible upgrades, but I have a technical question related to one of those paths.

Here is my current setup:
Acoustic Energy AE309 (Sensitivity = 89 dB, "warm" sounding speakers, good for jazz and vocals, at least for my ears !)
Atoll DAC with Apple Music + Thorens TD160 turntable (I enjoy listening to Jazz records on LPs, but I don't pretend it is superior by any mean)
Simaudio Moon 220i/i.5 (40W per channel at 8 ohms, 80W at 4 ohms)
BeyerDynamic DT250 headphones (bought a while back)

I live in an apartment, so nothing special in terms of listening room (9 feet ceiling, around 30x30 feet in the living/dining room space)

I was wondering if I should/could upgrade headphones with something like Dan Clark's Noire headphones or adding some power to the amp with something like Class-D Purifi/Hypex system (either stereo power amplifier or maybe even affordable mono blocks).

So my question is, for normal listening habit and for mostly jazz music, would more amplifier power would be noticeable and worthwhile ?

Better headphones seem quite obvious, but I'm not sure if increased dynamic range and maybe less distortion would be a noticeable upgrade worth the investment in my scenario.

Thank you for your help !
 

RickSanchez

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So you have an Atoll DAC, but how are you driving your headphones? I'm assuming via the Simaudio Moon 220i? (I don't know this amp, I'm just guessing it has a headphone jack.)

If that's the case I would say consider the following for upgrading your headphone listening.
  • Look at ratings for headphones. ASR, crinacle, RTings are good places to start. DIY-audio-heaven is another great one that I highly recommend; it's run by an ASR member. (solderdude)
    • Keep in mind that there are critical elements of headphones that go beyond sonic abilities. You're not going to like headphones that aren't comfortable, have too much clamping force, make your ears feel hot, etc. RTings has some of this info, but ultimately you'll be the best judge of what works for you.
    • I'd recommend headphones that allow you to upgrade the input cable to balanced.
  • Figure out what you want in terms of type: open back vs. closed back, planar magnetics, etc. This may require you to do more research on ASR or elsewhere, and potentially to try headphones at home to see what those design differences are like.
  • Research dedicated headphone amps. Typically speaker amps do a poor job driving headphones. There have been tons of great headphone amps reviewed on ASR and you can find them here. For myself if I were in the market for a headphone amp I'd likely buy the Monoprice THX 887, but like I said tons of great options with varied feature sets and a range of price points.
  • Frequency response of headphones will vary between manufacturers, models, even unit to unit. And FR will also vary between users because of how the headphones sit on your head and how they seal. So I'd recommend looking into EQ; that can do wonders to make the most of your headphone investment.
    • On PCs EqualizerAPO + Peace is a great combo for running software EQ for headphones.
    • That said -- considering you've got a turntable in the mix -- you may not want to run music though a laptop. You can still use EQ but you would have to look into hardware options (like miniDSP).
 
OP
C
Joined
Jan 21, 2022
Messages
33
Likes
18
So you have an Atoll DAC, but how are you driving your headphones? I'm assuming via the Simaudio Moon 220i? (I don't know this amp, I'm just guessing it has a headphone jack.)

If that's the case I would say consider the following for upgrading your headphone listening.
  • Look at ratings for headphones. ASR, crinacle, RTings are good places to start. DIY-audio-heaven is another great one that I highly recommend; it's run by an ASR member. (solderdude)
    • Keep in mind that there are critical elements of headphones that go beyond sonic abilities. You're not going to like headphones that aren't comfortable, have too much clamping force, make your ears feel hot, etc. RTings has some of this info, but ultimately you'll be the best judge of what works for you.
    • I'd recommend headphones that allow you to upgrade the input cable to balanced.
  • Figure out what you want in terms of type: open back vs. closed back, planar magnetics, etc. This may require you to do more research on ASR or elsewhere, and potentially to try headphones at home to see what those design differences are like.
  • Research dedicated headphone amps. Typically speaker amps do a poor job driving headphones. There have been tons of great headphone amps reviewed on ASR and you can find them here. For myself if I were in the market for a headphone amp I'd likely buy the Monoprice THX 887, but like I said tons of great options with varied feature sets and a range of price points.
  • Frequency response of headphones will vary between manufacturers, models, even unit to unit. And FR will also vary between users because of how the headphones sit on your head and how they seal. So I'd recommend looking into EQ; that can do wonders to make the most of your headphone investment.
    • On PCs EqualizerAPO + Peace is a great combo for running software EQ for headphones.
    • That said -- considering you've got a turntable in the mix -- you may not want to run music though a laptop. You can still use EQ but you would have to look into hardware options (like miniDSP).
Thank you for the good advices ! It is always a bit of a daunting process.

Best wishes,
 
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