I’m new to this area, and have done a lot of research recently on headphones and amps. I’m looking to get a pair of open back headphones for the primary purpose of listening to music - Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Boston, Faith No More, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. (maybe some bass heavy hip hop every now and then, but I don’t care as much about that). I also care about being able to appreciate more dramatic orchestral pieces and film scores, like stuff from Interstellar or Lord of the Rings.
I’m planning on using these headphones exclusively at my desk with my PC.
I’m probably not willing to spend more than around $300 in total, and I’ve been looking at
Edition XS (open to refurbished)
Sundara (again open to buying refurbished)
HD 560s
HD 58X
I’m obviously open to other suggestions. After watching crinacle’s famous You Don’t Need an Amp video, I’ve got questions about amps - after plugging in the Edition XS’s specs (which is what I’m interested the most in at the moment) into headphones power calculators, it seems like they could be driven off of an Apple dongle - is this true? I really don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on an amp or dac/amp because of placebo-caused misinformation about the true need for a dedicated amp.
planars usually want current more than raw wattage.
not sure about the apple dongle personally but my DDhifi type C to 3.5mm runs my Ananda Nano decently (like a $25 adapter run at below half volume from my phone).
there are some decent-good power and current dongles in the $50-100 range I’ve seen.
imo FIIO stuff is great if you could find a deal on a BTR7 or a KA17 (think I’ve seen BTR7’s secondhand for $120ish) hard to get better bang for buck than that.
EDIT: BTR15 is also probably worth a look but just came out so probably wont have sales for a while
I have both of these and would get them again if I was shopping under $300 for a pair to use every day. You’ll have plenty of power to equalize and something else down the road. Under powered headphones usually suffer in the bass region, or planars without enough current sound weak. Both with free shipping and warranty.
Hifiman HE5xx
$119 free shipping and 18 month warranty if you like them on social media when you register.
Buy the JDS Atom 2 in a heartbeat. But you really should get the Atom 2 DAC, too, as a stack.
The Atom 2 DAC/amp stack provides more than enough CLEAN, uncolored power for about $225 bucks. Buy the Edition XS for $250ish, and you have a KILLER setup for around $500.
I own the Atom 2’s predecessor, the Atom+ DAC/amp stack. Couldn’t be happier with it.
I’m still skeptical about the need for the Atom DAC - why couldn’t the dongle serve as the dac, let the Atom push the power, and be set? Everything I’ve read seems to say that the dongle’s dac abilities are basically as good as more expensive options on the market. Again, I’m new to this so there could be something I’m missing. Thank you for your advice, I seriously appreciate it.
The Apple dongle is fine. I think the Atom is better, but the Apple one should work fine. I have no idea how to run it through the Atom amp, so investigate that before you purchase.
Thanks again. You think the following would work?:
My pc → Apple dongle → 3.5mm to RCA adapter → Atom Amp 2 → Edition XS
with the Apple dongle serving as the external dac? Do you know if this would cause me to run into some sort of double amplification problem since the dongle has its own amp and isn’t only a dac?
I would imagine it’s fine. I feed my Atom+ amp from my work laptop dock for meetings and don’t notice any issues. Not exactly an Apple dongle but same concept.
Also, you could always start with the Atom + Apple dongle, then consider a separate DAC later if you’re not fully happy.
Hah, and the mystery is solved: the reason “warner” here confused the Edition XS as an Audeze product is because it’s not a human user of the forum, it’s a spambot, possibly AI/LLM-powered so it writes convincing and relevant-sounding posts. Starts out supportive and positive-sounding only to build up a reputation and later insert promotional links, and while initially its APK website link to some Minecraft file (infected with who knows what?) seemed on-topic, its newest one in reply to me makes no sense in the GPU discussion: Let's talk about computers - #3039 by warner
If you’re mainly looking to use these at your desk and don’t mind keeping things straightforward for now, starting with a simpler setup (like an Apple dongle or your PC’s output) should be fine. You could always experiment with the Edition XS or Sundara, and if you feel like you need more power later, add a budget-friendly amp to improve the experience. But the HD 560S and HD 58X are solid choices that should work well even with simpler setups.
