Personally I much prefer the abyss diana v2 over the empyrean also tbh. And another thing is do you really only want one headphone? Having multiple can be fun and also cover more of your bases
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I guess it wouldn’t be the worst thing. It’s easily one of the most comfortable headphones I own, and the build looks even better in person, but the sound signature is a little less detailed and a little warmer than I would want for every day use. Don’t get me wrong, I will go days where I don’t listen to any of my other headphones, and I also listen to a lot of rock which it’s fine on. It may be too warm for classical, depending on your tastes.
The more I develop my preferences, I find I prefer dynamic drivers and tube headphone amps. Sennheisers and ZMF headphones are taking up most of my listening time lately. I also think I prefer detail to bass, so the Verite may be my preferred “endgame” headphone when compared to the Empyreans. The Empyreans are great though. I just think you may appreciate them more when you see what they are trying to do compared to other companies offerings
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Yes, I personally think to really experience and appreciate your time in this hobby and feel satisfied I think you need to start lower rather than just jumping to the top. You of course don’t need to start at the bottom of the barrel or anything, but grabbing a few sub 1k headphones and playing around with them can really help with a higher tier decision imo
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I would love to have all kinds of headphones to play around with but that would be pricier then just one purchase…
Gotcha, but won’t listening to different headphones in store have the same affect then buying different headphones? And also, how do people go about listening to headphones in stores, how does the dac/amp work when you try out headphones, do they supply you with one?
To really get everything you would want to know about a headphone, I would say around a week of constant listening to really understand and make and educated choice. A few days is worth is good enough. Demoing in a store really isn’t ideal tbh, but it still is a good idea to try in stores, that is still valuable.
Having multiple headphones for use cases can really be nice too, you can have different setups for different moods, really nice. There really isn’t an ideal do it all, having like 2 or 3 solid models can be pretty nice
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with multiple headphones you can tackle different driver types, back types, sound signatures and types of presentations as well. so you can have a master of a few trades per headphone instead of a good at all trades not as good as others at a specified trade. like one for classical and one for rock
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Sennheiser do bundles with the HD650 or HD660S and Apogee Groove where you are basically getting the very good Groove USB DAC/amp for a nominal cost. A great bundle and in all honesty as much as anyone needs if it is just about sound quality IMO.
Have you tried the Meze Empyrean before so you can say that? Just curious…
That might be your opinion but even the Grove won’t standup against newer mobile Dac/Amps let alone $1k+ desk tops…My FH7’s kick my HD660’s into touch in pretty much every department “sound wise” and they’re just a modern day £450 iem and not a $3k over ear flagship.
I couldn’t live with the 660 and 650 being my only headphones in all honesty. I would much rather spend that money on a elex and a k5 pro personally the 660 and 650 don’t sound that different to really warrant owning both.
Huh, they sound pretty different to me, but I would say it’s not worth owning both unless you are a big fan of the Sennheiser sound (I would also only own the 650 or 600 if I had a tube lol)
The differences are more subtle than most. Of course the 660 leans warmer and slightly bassier with more color to the overall sound slightly wider soundstage much better imaging and doesn’t take a tube as well as the 650. But the differences aren’t really enough to warrant owning both
Oh you will, you just wait and see lol
I mean the 650 doesn’t really extend as well as the 660s, and the 660s has a decently more fun signature that sounds pretty good off of solid state, where the 600 and 650 kinda need a tube to sound complete
True I guess I’m just biased though cause none of them are personal first pick for me.
The 660s isn’t super amp picky so that might be fine, but the 650 off of a groove is definitely not ideal imo, the 600 and 650 are a fair bit more amp picky
Regarding amps, it really depends on the headphones for if a higher end amp is worth it imo. Some headphones it definitely is, some headphones it might not be
Yikes they advertise the groove for a HD 800s
That would be pretty shite lol
