It’s not as simple as sound quality in review though. I had a Clear, LCD-X, Arya and Ananda in front of me at a dealer for about 5 hours. I intended to upgrade from my Ananda, but the Arya sounded too similar with more treble, the LCD-X was too heavy but sounded great, the Clears just made me wish I was listening to my speakers and didn’t really provide me with the bass I got with planars or anything really new or exciting compared to what I had which is really subjective.
If you can, which I understand can be hard at the moment, I would audition before buying. Personal sound preference is heavily going to dictate if you like them or not.
Well that’s exactly why I started this thread in the first place, to hear opinions about the “worth” factor.
I’d also like to try it out before buying. In Croatia these are the only high end headphones I can try: HD800s and LCD-X. Traveling to Austria/Germany just to try out headphones is a far stretch especially now. That is why I’m looking for help in the first place.
The Phonitor 2 seems great, but it is really expensive, is there an alternative with 2 inputs at the back?
So hypothetically, what would be a good place in Austria that is not too far away from Croatia for instance where I can check out all the usual suspect headphones such as HD800s, Arya, Clear, LCD-X, HEDDphone, Emperyans and others in that price category?
I’ve searched HiFi shops in Austria and haven’t really found a shop where there are many headphones to try, let alone to buy. (not even sure that you can try those that are available) Especially things like the Emperyans, Focal stuff, HEDDphone … I’m not sure I’ll be able to try them all out before making a decision. Right now in Croatia, I have HD800s and LCD-X available to buy and maybe try.
I’m not Joshua Velour or some other Youtuber that tried 30 different headphones and 100 different amp/DAC pairings that I can confidently say oh I like this and that, and these are the things I don’t like.
That is why I’m asking for personal opinions of people who maybe own or have heard some of these headphones.