I am stranded figuring out a 600$-700$ setup

Headphones Headphone Discussion / Help
41

May I add my recommendations as well?

If you want closed back, fun sounding, easy to listen, I would suggest to try the Meze 99 Classics headphones.
They are easy to drive, very efficient (you can connect them to your phone), relaxed sound, the type of headphone you mostly use when you want to have fun.
Not overly analytical, the treble is not fatiguing. These are the type of headphones used for long time listening (work, travel, out and about). They are punchy tough, with the midbass pretty emphasized, so hip hop, electronic music, metal, movies, gun shots, explosions, sound really good (at least to my ears).
Being closed back, they do get warm though.
Regarding gaming, they have a good separation, but only ok imaging. I mean, if you do not game competitively they are a good choice.

If you want open back, Philips SHP9500 or Philips Fidelio X2HR might be good for your needs, but I do not have that much experience with them.

Regarding a DAC/AMP, Fiio BTR5 is surprisingly good and practical. It is small, portable bluetooth receiver dongle that can be used as an USB Dac.

Here is a review from ZReviews:

Edit: Besides what Zeos says in his review, I’ll add a few details from my own experience with the BTR5.
If you have inline microphone hadphones (with a 3.5 mm connector), the BTR5 can use the microphone and the inline remote. It also has a microphone in it’s body, which is pretty good for calls.
It gets warm if you use it as a USB Dac decoding DSD or other high bitrate music and set it to keep the battery full (it has an option to disable charging until it restarts)
It also reports battery discharging in 20% percent increments, so from 20% battery to 0% you do not get any warning and it will shut down suddenly. This is the most irritating thing about it from my point of view.

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42

Also, generally keep your eyes peeled for good deals. You find a sale and get either headphone $50 off, or both, you’re getting pretty damn close to the cost of a starter DAC like the SMSL M100 or their new Sanskrit 10th Anniversary Ed. I still say if something has to give you can wait on the DAC, but keep this in mind. Enjoy!

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Yeah for this setup, keeping it under 100 for a dac will be pretty great bang for buck. The topping d10 or smsl m100 (sanskrit 10th AE if you can find it for a good price) would be pretty great

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Yeah, the d10 DAC 90$ or a smsl m100 80$ and a Schiit heresy 100$ then a Sundara 350$ = 530 plus tax should get you about 600$ An Emu is 450$ = 700$. heres the from if you want a EMU for more bass:

https://www.emu.com/order.html

Hifiman is a planar driver and very impressive. some say its got amazing treble. quite nice headphone. i’d recommend that over the Emu. but bass can be so nice lol. and the Emu has got it good. Emu is a dynamic driver

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UPDATE:
I received the Sundaras I ordered, they are pretty much perfect for my use case, great suggestion. The sound is extremely clear and balanced, I’d like a little more bass (nothing to complain about though) but I’ll see if I can fix that with an EQ I have lying around. For now I’m using them connected to an old Denon AVR1804 receiver (the first thing I found with a decent enough audio jack) and the sound a lot better than what I expected. I’m still waiting for the Magni 3+ (shortage of supplies in EU due to the big 'rona), we’ll see how that goes.

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46

Nice, glad you are enjoying them :+1:. I have a feeling that when you get something like the 3+ bass will improve for you as well

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