Listening to my pair right now. Loving it so far - Dogs was mind blowing how accurate sound in positioning - I felt like the drum set was in front of me.
Later Iāll swap the pads for comparison.
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Canāt believe I have to part with these 
But will probably buy them again once this pandemic is over and I can work more again 
Bummer! Thankfully the SR2 isnāt a limited edition headphone like the SR1 was.
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Iāve sended mine back to the vendor. Not that I donāt liked them - totally the opposite - but my SR2 came with a QC problem in one cup. The screw that hold the yolk with the headband was loose and its head was stripped and even scratched the cup. So iBasso is taking It back to know what happened and sending me another one. Hoping to not take too long to receive another one
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Hi All, I am pretty much learning towards getting iBasso SR2. Thank you to those who extensively reviewed this pair for me to come to this conclusion. However I wish to pair up with good quality DAC/Amp to utilise its best potential and I am not very knowledgeable about them. I kept doing my research 
(Apologies if the rest is hijacking the thread, I will remove it if disrupting the flow but it seemed like the right place as all active owners of SR2 are in this thread and there are not many users of this headphone around. I hope it helps other potential buyers of these pairs)
Within my budget I can list some that took my interest (for desktop and portable use within limited space, not much of an EQ guy, I will also use for FPS games) and appreciate if you could guide me which one would be a better fit for SR2 - listed most to least interested/same trend with highest price to cheapest:
iFi Micro iDSD Signature, Dethonray Honey H1, xDuoo XD-05 BAL, Luxury & Precision W2 (out of stock where I could order from), Earmen Sparrow.
Other choices that I have not extensively looked into Cobalt, Lotoo PAW S1, iFi Audio Hip-DAC etc. Unsure if they could be better fit for longevity/future headphones.
I live in UK, and if not available in my country, then I will also look into ways of ordering from Hifigo along with SR2. Appreciate any better recommendations outside of this list that could benefit me.
Thanks for your help!
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Great to hear another person to join the SR2 club 
Itās interesting, because the mentioned DAC/AMPs vary quite a lot in terms of price.
I personally cannot give you a clear answer by saying which one to go with. Iāve never heard of the Honey H1, but that thing looks gorgeous!
Hereās my take: answer to yourself how much you will be using it for portable use and how big of a priority it is to you. I think that you would be much better of with going a desktop DAC/AMP at around 500 bucks. You have great options from Burson Audio (Playmate 2 or Funk), or you can go with the outstanding Topping A90, but thatās a much bigger investment since itās only an amp ā but an amp with mind-blowing specs.
Hereās why Iām telling you to go with a desktop option. If you are not going to be using it for portable use too much, then you will be getting much more value if you go the desktop route. If you were to invest in something like a Burson Audio Playmate 2, you could buy a small dongle AMP/DAC from iBasso themselves (their āDCā series). They are relatively cheap but like all the other iBasso products, their performance is way above its price point.
The Honey H1 costs $700. So, letās say you pay the standard $550 for the Playmate 2, this leaves you $150 for a portable AMP/DAC, and iBassoās DC04 fits in that price range. Or, you can go the deluxe (max. out) version of the Playmate 2 (or Funk) and pay $750ā¦ but then you will probs have to chill for sometime before you can buy the portable AMP/DAC.
Thatās just my 2 cents and my observations. I care about your pocket and money, and this is basically my conclusion. You will be getting waaaay more out the desktop route and it is a long-term investment.
Thanks voja for your response. Helpful as always!
It has been a week since my last response, and you are pretty spot on in terms of what you said and what I decided to do (i.e. go for desktop setup and get portable later). Btw my iBasso is coming tomorrow (at local post office) so I cannot wait 
As you mentioned my price bracket was actually touching for a good Dac/Amp combo for desktop solution, however many of you mentioned the versatility and capability of this headphone against different EQs. Since I am not planning to go on a holiday for quite a while (cough pandemic), I actually bite the bullet by going tiny bit out of my budget, and went for RME ADI-2 DAC FS - in UK it comes with 5 years of warranty. It has not arrived yet (a month for that to arrive from a very reliable retailer). As you mentioned I will think about the portability later, it will not be urgent for a while; and yes you are right I do think about the long-term investment and quite serious about having solid setup that could take me for a long journey.
I also had my eye on the A90/D90 combo, however once I can stabilise my budget again in the upcoming months, maybe I can combo it with A90 in the future.
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Great to hear that!!! Congrats on the significant move forward in this hobby.
You definitely went the right path. I guess that the RME would be in competition with SPLās Phonitor.
Basically at this price there are a ton of different options. Like literally a ton. You can get lost just by looking into all of them. The ones that come to my mind are the Phonitor and Burson Audioās higher priced AMP/DACs.
5 year warranty is pretty darn good, you are covered if anything happens.
I usually get an email when there is a response in this thread, but I didnāt get one so I didnāt see your response. If I had seen it earlier, I definitely wouldāve spilled my 2 cents earlier 
Iāve been pretty busy in the last month or so. Iāve been working on my largest article (yet to be published), I finished & published the iBasso DX300 review (on Head-Fi), and then I also finished writing some short write-ups for some IEMs and a entry-level source.
SR2 is STILL my favorite headphone. Love this thing =)
Canāt wait to hear your experience and to see how close/far it is from mine.
Post 15 has to be the longest single post in the history of HiFi Guides. 
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Oh wellā¦ then I donāt know what you will say about my upcoming article.
The iBasso SR2 review is my longest review to date, and it is roughly 9500 words long. It is also my favorite review (and headphone!) to date.
How do these compare to something like the OG Focal Clear or the HE6SEv2?
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I wondered the same thing. After a few months of looking my interest was piqued by these, the Apos Caspians and the HE6se V2.
I hit the Buy Button on the HE6seās at $599.99, today. 
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Might be of interest to you.
Thanks, Iāll have a look at it. I must admit that I am nervous about this purchase. I hated the HE4XXās, liked the Sundaraās OK and I am a little underwhelmed by my Edition XXās.
However, I thought these had the highest ceiling of the three. Time will tell. 
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I am on my phone for the rest of tonight I will check out the video tomorrow on my desk top.
Although itās too late for me anyway.
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IDK, but a guy on Head-Fi is obsessed with these (much like me). Unlike me, he owns several TOTL headphones like the Focal Utopia ($4000) and Abyss 1266 Phi TC (min. $6440 ā according to the Abyss store which is in Eur). He said that the previously-mentioned headphones are different but no better than the SR2. If you are wondering, itās @Jamato8 on Head-Fi. Iām not familiar with his history, but at some point this man owned a Sony R10, so Iād consider his opinion valid at least. He called the SR2 one of the best sounding headphones on the market, regardless of price.
Thereās that.
I will definitely keep an eye out for these in the future. Maybe even find them in the used market.
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I am listening to mine now.
The SR2 is very niceā¦ if you EQ them.
Provided you have enough clean power, this bad boi can handle a huge amount of EQ in the bass.
This is by virtue of the driver, more specifically its speaker inspired rubber surround.
The bass is proper puncy, stabby almost, when elevated with EQ. This introduces a very nice dynamism. I think it can even beat out the venerable Fostex Biodynamics in terms of sense of punch, hence why I sold my Ebony.
The stock tuning is very boxy and midcentric to my ears, it is just honky and flat out low-fi sounding. Actually, I donāt have qualms with saying that is sucks ass without EQ. That is the transformation it gains from EQ.
With EQ I think this beats out the HD650 without breaking too much of a sweat.
I would never buy or keep a headphone that required EQ to be listenable. To me that would be proof that they werenāt for me.
But, different strokesā¦
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