I’m more of a lurker than a poster but here goes nothing.
I’m looking to upgrade both my amp and dac. I have Atom and a Modi 3, So I’m thinking I want to go balanced for my new set up. I’m pretty sure the dac I want is the Modius but I’m having a difficult time on decided on an amp. The only headphone i have are the 58x jubilee’s but I plan on getting more in the future (looking at planars atm).
My budget for the amp alone is between $500-$1,000. I don’t listen to much heavy metal and mostly listen to both Jpop/alternative and soundtracks. The soundtracks I listen to can range from dark ambient to orchestra and the Japanese songs i listen to, almost all have female vocals. So to me, Female vocals are probably the most important to me. If there’s an amp that goes beyond my budget by a few hundred, then I don’t mind spending more if it’s THAT good.
hmm
Sundaras
Argons
maybe 6xx
maybe GL2000’s
The thing is, I don’t have much headphone experience so I need to buy more to learn what sound signatures i like the best.
For those headphones I really wouldn’t suggest spending 500+ on an amp for them right away. For those headphones, I might go for something like an asgard 3 and stack with the modius, should be a nice upgrade and handle those cans fairly well imo (well I can only estimate on the gl2000)
Okay I’ll look into that, thank you. Any quick thoughts on the THX789, liquid platinum or A90? I don’t know what headphones i want to buy in the future so i thought maybe an amp more “high end” will future proof me for a while. I guess that’s a wrong way to go about it
Personally not a fan, lacking when it comes to spatial recreation, poor timbre, brittle treble, fairly overly harsh as well, dynamically unimpressive
Very solid amp, pretty nice timbre, very spacious stage, good control and impact, signature is more fun warmer leaning, pretty dynamic
Slightly better than the 789 as it’s more neutral smoother in signature, and not as brittle feeling, but still has most of the problems the thx has to where I don’t think it’s worthwhile
So if you get to the 1k ish options, you really want to pay careful attention to synergy to the point where I wouldn’t jump the gun until you know what you are after. It’s like if you enjoyed the sundara and wanted to move to a hex v2 or lcd 2 perhaps, the liquid plat is a great choice, but if you really liked the 6xx or you get into a beyer t1.2 or 880 600, at a similar price range I might rather have a hagerman tuba or feliks echo for example, or if you found yourself wanting to go after a focal product the rnhp is a really solid choice there
wow, Thanks for this feedback! Okay you’ve given me a more clearer path I want to take. I had a feeling but i guess the headphones are the real catalyst of the audiophile rabbit hole
