I have been shopping around for a pair of planars for a while but don’t know where to begin. I currently have the dt880 600 ohm with the pads swapped to Dekoni choice suede, I love the sound just looking for something to give me a bit more bass.
Currently, I have the liquid spark to power my headphones, and the topping e30 as my source.
budget of around $200
I am considering the monoprice m1060 or the he400i
Edit: from suggestions I have expanded the search for a tub amp instead of the headphones, the budget remains the same.
It’s not a big budget for bassy planars, though planars respond to bass shelf nicely.
One could say that purely for bass in planar at $200, something like Dekoni Blue is a contender also.
Can’t claim it delivers similar sound to DT880.
If you like your headphones and all you need is more bass, you could swap your DAC to the iFi Zen DAC, which has a built-in bass boost function. Pretty sure that should be within in your budget.
Sure… We all agree that headphones make the single biggest audible difference. But your recommendation is a ZenDac to power DT880 600ohms, probably an inferior signal path (and much lower powered) than his current sufficient stack. Much less that is an attached cable headphone that won’t be run balanced.
Maybe you’re mis-understanding? Current stack is E30 → Liquid Spark → DT800 and I was recommending Zen DAC → Liquid Spark → DT880. Yeah, definitely don’t run the DT880 directly off of the Zen DAC, lol. (Though yes, EQ is also an option!)
not quite sure why the resort to planar for this… planar are quite different and tend to be not as bassy especially not even close to this budget wise… 400i isn’t bassy whatsoever and m1060 floats around neutral of which the dt 880 is inherently bassier and even bassier with the suedes on… get yourself a tube amp for the dt 880 600 ohm and if you still finding yourself needing more bass add EQ and swap the tubes to a warmer variety. The only thing I can say is m1060 is mod friendly and bass shelf friendly… so if your into that it may be a better option in that particular case
I wouldnt go planar for that, they do hit different, but if you absolutely want to try out one the he400i is a very solid choice and can get a good “organic” bass boost with brainwavz xl pads
I mainly was looking to get new headphones and was wanting to try out planars. But I like your idea of getting the tube amp, do you have any recommendations on where to start for my particular headphones.