This is a follow up to a thread I started earlier, after a lot of reading, learning, and talking myself into a much bigger budget. I am hoping that now that I have learned a bit, I won’t be annoying anyone here with a much revised version of basically the same question.
Budget: $5,000 FIRM - not a penny more
Requirements: exactly one (1) Dac, exactly one (1) Amp, at least one (1) pair headphones - preferably exactly one (1). NO open back headphones, but semi-open with decent isolation could be on the list.
Optional: upgraded cables, upgraded power supply, DDC and/or external clock.
Usecase: Many hours of mixed active/ passive music listening ~50% of time.
Several hours FPS (imaging critical) and RPG (detail and soundstage critical) gaming ~30% of time.
Finally, movies, Netflix streaming, anime, and Twitch, all aggregate together to ~20% of time.
I spend a LOT of time in my headphones at my desk. My desk is 7 foot steps from my bed (home office in bedroom). I listen to music all day while working 8+ hours, then game and/or watch media from various sources 5+ hours. All day comfort for wearing the same headphone for 13+hours a day 6-7 days a week is a must.
While listening to music, I commonly (2-5 ish times a day) take a break to more actively listen to the music and appreciate the recording. Such breaks can last from one pop song (3-5 minutes) to an entire album or a full symphony. While gaming, I need both similar to “competitive” positional accuracy, as well as “immersive” soundstage. The real bitch with the gaming side is the need for closed backs.
I am just trying to hedge my bets, as I am only going to get one (1) shot at this. I have 2 kids in College, and the third is starting his senior year in HS as I type this. Making it worse, all 3 are thinking about advanced degrees after undergrad - so future “upgrades” will require the selling of a component, and receiving payment before I can then spend that scratch on its replacement. Alternately, I suppose I could just wait the 7 or so years until the dust settles and my boys have a real handle on their education debt before I upgrade anything.
Currently I am thinking Soekris 2451, Vioelectric V281, and Focal Stellia. If I can get all of the above used, they should fit nicely into my budget with ~$400 to ~$500 to spare for the optional upgrades, but that “spare” disappears quickly if I need to find any components on this chain new, or get a price near to new.
I am quite familiar with Equalizer APO and am not even a little intimidated by using it to tune frequency response to my preferred curve (which resembles the Harmon curve, but is a little more upper mid forward for my Kpop girlcrush vocals), so sound signature of specific headphones isn’t super critical, as long as stage, imaging, detail, and separation are in order.
Am I overlooking anything critical? I have had thoughts of maybe a DC Aeon 2 closed in place of Stellia, and there have been some good deals on lower end Chord dac’s that compete with the few listings I’ve found for 2451 for price, so there does seem to be some wiggle room in specifics. Are there better alternatives for any specific component within budget?
