So this is not a challenge or a Contest as Audio is subjectable and I think so many of us forget this. For me after buying different headphones like the Sundara, 58x, and others I came up with my own personal Must-haves.
Reliability and longevity.
Comfort
Mids must be Butter
Timbre and Vocals must be at the top of the game
Must have zero bleed-in of Bass but yet deliver Sub-bass
highs must be Crisp and clean without harshness
Imaging/Separation must be top-notch
Soundstage must be wide enough to use the imaging and separation correctly…yet not too wide to lose the intimacy .
Must have a Very nice Black look that isn’t overly large or mimicking a Science experiment.
Must be able to use by my Current 789 setup or even EQ if I chose to do so.
These must-haves taught me where I have needs and opens up a clean picture of what I needed to go with above all other things. You see a lot of people love the “5% Chase”. I don’t. After bouncing to one headphone after another based on people claiming one is better than the other I quickly found that better almost always meant that one headphone was 5-10% better in 1 area and yet still failed in others and above all the Deminshing returns after $499-$1000 weren’t worth the money and were highly overblown(for me). I especially saw this with the 58x vs 660s. People swore up and down that the 660s were so much better or that the 6xx was the clear dominant headphone. And what I found out was all of them were actually the same Tonality between them with only minor tweaks to certain areas that made them legally approved to be different by Sennheiser. And even with the Sundara…it was just a different type of approach but still rather similar in its delivery as well and yet went through 3 of them because they couldn’t be trusted in their QC. Over and Over …if you get the 600s or the Focal …everyone has their own little niche that they do well in but yet all of them fail at others. You can go get the $2000 headphone and it will still fail to beat a $200 headphone in areas. So for me when the dust settled I found that the 660s although not very different in sound from the 58x at all especially if you EQ…was better for my taste because I liked the look, presentation, and comfort a little more. I knew that above every single brand Sennheiser 600 series( 58x included of course)… has the best reliability track record of any brand out there. It had the unbeatable Vocals timbre and Mids compared to other brands and price points, had the sub-bass that didn’t bleed, highs that remained crisp and clean along with very good instrument separation and imaging. I mean…box after box checked off for this headphone…FOR ME. And it is why it is my endgame. I don’t have any need for a $1000+ headphone even though I can afford it and wouldn’t have any issues with buying them …if they actually made a $500+difference in sound quality. But nothing that exists in headphones can do this that is even reasonable in cost.
You know, the other thing that this brings to light is that end game doesn’t have to mean spending absurd amounts of money on things. I think that is a trap that many people get needlessly sucked into. Frankly I think it’s a joke. 15 grand for a fucking DAC - One piece - BULLSHIT! I can buy a brand new bike for that. Which do you think I would rather have? Is that DAC gonna sound 14,000 bucks better than that 1,000 or 1,500 dollar unit? I think we know the answer to that one!
But hey, it’s all about where your priorities lie. And I get that. Everyone’s goals and limits are different. That’s why they make all this great stuff. All I’m saying is, you don’t have to mortgage your soul to achieve excellent sounding “End Game” audio.
Sure it can, depends on the person and what you value. If your main priorities are something else going up the ladder in audio will make less and less sense
Welp I wrote the above before reading this lol, yes agree
“End Game” is a different place for different people anyways, there’s not a specific hard price point or place where things become “End Game,” that could be 500 bucks for one person and 50000 for the next. I personally prefer to use the phrase “reasonable stopping point” because I think that’s a much more accurate representation of what happens
What, so the measurements are fake? I don’t think so! I realize there is more to things than just measurements alone, but hard data is hard data. Maybe a really good 100 dollar DAC wasn’t really possible back in the day, but that’s just not the case any longer. But hey, you drop that 15 grand if you wish. No judgement, here. Better you than me! Enjoy.
Data is data, but when you try and make conclusions on said data, that’s now a subjective take on that data. Like a dac measurement, sure that’s what it measures like, but the moment you say that data means good or bad sound quality wise, that’s now a subjective opinion (just like everyone elses : )
But I don’t think that’s the sort of debate @MazeFrame was really trying to start here. Or perhaps he was lol, but idk. He linked a lab waveform generator for non audio applications, I’m pretty sure measurements would really matter there as that’s not really going to be used for anything subjective whatsoever
low cost stuff can and does sound wonderful and so does that $15K dac that many dont think is worth it all…for me I dont waste my time thinking that the $15K is a piece of crap…if you can afford it and like it well good for you!
Its not for me to bad mouth that high end high cost stuff…I used to…and went down the road of buying, testing and listening…and came to the same conclusions about what has been discussed already.
Would I spend $15K on a dac…well no I dont think I would even if I could afford it…
There is just not that great of an improvement…IMO.
People crap on me for buying a PassLabs HPA-1 vs something alot less in cost…why well because I wanted to hear the differences…and liked the design and build quality. And because I could afford it.
On the other hand my MUCH lower cost amps bring me just as much pleasure.
Ya cant take it with you!!
Enjoy what you have, buy what you can afford if you want regardless of the cost…you be the judge of if its worth it or not…
