I’m currently looking in the market for a good all around headphone that excels at live recordings and chamber music. My Dac set up is currently the HI-FI Zen Dac and would need to make sure the headphone could run on the Dac.
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What have you been running previously?
Beyond Chamber music, what kind of live genres are you listening to?
Budget?
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I relatively still new to HI-FI audio, currently have kph30i with grado pads, blond-5 IEMs, and pc38x
I also enjoy a lot of heavy metal, and folk music live
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Tell us more about how you feel about your current headphones.
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Also budget
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I guess my current thoughts on the headphones I have is that they either lack separation, a deep bass that you can feel, or warmth/detail.
I do enjoy a lot of orchestra, metal, and folk music. That is why I mostly look for those three aspects when searching for headphones.
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Your current collection I think present generally as a “warm” signature, but all roll-off significantly for deeper bass. The KPH could give some sensation of soundstage/openness while the others would be somewhat tight for live presentation, and I could understand question of ultimate detail with them. I’m unsure that you need exceptional extension, but your flavor does seem to need bass, and I’d seek soundstage/imaging characteristic enhancements. You have a ZenDAC so you shouldn’t get anything terribly power-hungry.
I wonder if something like the HarmonicDyne Zeus would fit you well. They’re a warm headphone more low end (and extension) than your current crop, technically superior and give good spatial elements. They don’t need much for power, so you’re in good shape. The genres you’re targeting are interesting to coalesce to one recommendation. Hopefully a bunch of ideas will come flooding in.
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I heard people talk about HarmonicDyne Zeus doing very well in terms of soundstage/imaging. There was one youtube reviewer I think his name was Z-review who recommended something called HarmonicDyne Poseidon as the best headphone for at least classical listening, but I didn’t see many reviews out for the headphone so I’m not sure if this would be the case.
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If you’re not looking for a detail monster, the Zeus checks pretty much all the boxes, it’s a really fun pair of headphones. I personally think the MSRP is a bit high so buy used if you can. I also feel it’s worth mentioning that since you have a zen DAC you have bass boost at your disposal for some headphones that may be a little light on bass but otherwise perfect so keep that in mind.
What gen zen DAC do you have?
What’s your budget?
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zen DAC is a version that doesn’t come with MQE (I hope that doesn’t matter too much) and I got it on sale for like 100 something which people told me was a insane deal for the value.
My budget I was thinking of putting it around 300 to 450 dollars.
first, welcome to HFG!!!
for chamber music, I’d say the HD600 would a shoo-in with your Zen DAC (I’m assuming this is the combo DAC / Amp unit and not just the DAC?) as it’s legendary for how it responds to warm sound (Zen DAC is warm) and instrumental music.
I dunno how it would do for your other genre interests, but definitely a good start. You could try getting the HD-6xx from Drop…it’s not regarded as good, but still does well with warm sound and is half the price of the 600.
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Yeah, I heard people recommend HD600. I was thinking it would be between the 600 and the Zeus
I listen mostly to orchestral / instrumental, so my current dream setup is the HD600 plus an equivalent OTL tube amp like the Bottlehead Crack w/Speedball. 