Sir, have you pursued information about these products outside of this forum, and read the threads within this forum about the products you’re inquiring on?
There’s not yet any sales commissions on this site.
To answer the question, I would do the A3, and get an external DAC rather than its add-on units.
I’m unconvinced you want to delve into the world of tube-rolling after reading through all this.
Keep it simple enough, the A3 is relatively future-proof for you, puts out significantly more power.
To give you a complete curve-ball, given your Carpenters-focussed pursuit — have you ever listened to the Sennheiser 600-series headphones? (58x, 6xx, 600, 650, 660s, etc)
Something with more attractive, mid-focussed tuning like these or the Hifiman Sundara would fit the bill. Also the DT880. With the Asgard 3 you can handle the 600ohm units no problem.
To answer your questions no i have not tried the senheiser 600 series. Also sorry for all the questions im relatively new to this hobby like i said on my first post I’ve only had the 990s nearly a year. And lastly thank you for the comment on the asgard 3.
I think the thread here has gone a bit out of the way…
Let’s sum some things up here…
Yes, @Martin_Medrano I have heard the music from carpenters and I listen to doors. 990s will work fine for karen’s voice but the mids are more recessive which has me concerned the headphone may not suit you… if you want a bright mid centric approach you may appreciate the 880 more in this case as the mids are more emphasized with the treble on the 880s. I took to the T1 2nd gen later on down the upgrade path because of the better smoother mids of this sort… as I just wasn’t a big fan of recessive vocals… you can always EQ it but I found that such a hassle. Honestly, you may love the Sundaras come to think of it… they do quite well for carpenters
as for amps… let’s keep this simple… if you have the budget… asgard 3 + the multibit(note: you do lose a bit of headroom from this) or a modius(if you want to save some money you can swap this to a topping E30 as it’s a bit warmer… just not as clean to my ear). Otherwise go the spark entry level setup and call it a day for a while. No need to get into tube rolling thats addictive as hell and costly, xduo is nice but less your going to balance that beyer or get a balanced headphone later not worth having an amp with a balanced port as most of the good sound qualities are located in that particular port on each of those amps. Those balanced ports aren’t just convenience… never tried one where that was the case… most the power and good properties of an amp will be placed into that balanced port whereas the single ended will be weaker and not sound as good
Back into the rabbit hole i go. I was just about to pull the trigger on the liquid spark stack as my birthday present this summer paired with the hifiman sundara.
Either will be good. The liquid spark will have more current for the Sundara. Didn’t know you were going to purchase them. If you were going to stick with you DT990’s I’d pick the MT602 due to the high gain design helping with the 250 ohm.
I won’t be purchasing them any time soon so i still have time to decide if i want to or not. Would the mt 602 be able to power the sundara? And also what dac would pair well with the mt602.
Yeah ofc it would power them just one amp is more suited than the other it will be like a slight difference to be honest. Any dac cause they’re all clean dacs basically. Ifi zen dac, Geshelli Enog, smsl, schiit dacs any will do its just about inputs really cause they’re all clean dacs that don’t colour sound really much at all it’s really just about having one vs not having one.
So i just stumbled upon z reviews comparison of the hifiman he400i the 2020 version and the sundaras. I do know the he400i’s are like 170 and the sundaras are 350.
There will certainly be a difference in regards to the top end treble. Sundaras are significantly airier, id say seeing as you’ve lived so far with a DT990 this won’t be much of a problem. The 400i’s do have a rounded off treble region but it’s a very fun headphone.
significant difference… he400i is more aggressively intimate and more neutral… sundaras are relaxed and extremely airy… personally I would hands down take sundara but I have a mental bias towards brighter headphones as thats my own preference, hey least I admit it lol, still… both are nice. For your music though… I think you will find more enjoyment from the sundara
thats a hybrid right? gonna say planars don’t like tube amps usually less its hybrid… lol
I’ve decided and settled on the ta-10r. Now all i need is to purchase it down the road near my birthday so that it arrives on time. Do any of y’all know if there are deals on these types of things for holidays like my birthday the 4th of July? I will definitely keep the sundaras on my radar and also i know this is more of a newbie question but how does one distinguish bass treble and mids?
It’s a hybrid. And for the price has quite a bit of power 1,300 mw into 32 ohms. I believe the liquid spark has more and is also very warm so either are a good choice.
1300mW RMS into a 50 ohm load for spark according to the specs so yeah Id say spark is stronger lol. Still though, that definitely don’t look that bad for a hybrid tube… wonder how it compares to vali
I’d be interested also the vali I believe is in the next price category above it. I think as a budget amp its coming down to either the liquid spark or MT602
Hey i thought i would let you know that i decided to purchase a schiit asgard 3 and modi 3 plus. Now all i need is a pair of sundaras. How well do you think the schiit stack will pair with my 990s?
