Recently I bought headphones and a Valhalla 2, also a few other items (Mani/Moni/Sys). After 24 hours, I realize I absolutely hate headphones. So, I bought Kali LP-6’s and here I sit. I really like the way it sounds but I want more. I’d like to spend less than $1500 or less to finish it off or replace. Currently I use a MacBook and occasionally the turntable for a music source. Music - rock/blues/jazz (ex. Vestbo Trio). My room/office is roughly 15 x 20. I’m looking at a Vidar for power (Should I keep the Valhalla for something as well? ). For speakers/monitors - Adam, Genelec, Focal, LS500, Elac UF5 among others. Am I on the right track? TIA for any input, Steve
Well, are you leaning towards powered monitors or passive bookshelf’s? Also, since you seem to like the kalis, you like a more studio neutral signature, or are you looking for something else?
Thank you for your response - I’m probably leaning toward monitors. I just have miscellaneous Sonos around the house to compare them to, or old memories of passive speakers from 20 years ago. When I play clean stuff from (Dali CD tracks on itunes) the LP’s sound really good, but if I play rock with a lot of stuff going on, they sound boxed in to me. But maybe that’s the monitor size limitations or the lack of power?
Hmmm, you might like some genelec monitors as they can do room correction to adjust themselves to meet you room, which might alleviate the boxed in effect the kalis have. Genelecs are great, but they might be a little less forgiving with poor quality recordings if that would be alight, as they don’t really sweeten anything up.
Also just curious what headphones did you pick up?
HiFiMan HE5se and then something else my son had. Headphones just don’t give me the feeling I like the way speakers do. I should mention I’m a 53 yo dino, so my ears are not great. Probably opposed but always open to used. There would just have to be a big enough “wow” in the deal.
Ah, well, the 5se has been having some stuff go down, where the initial run’s sounded great, but currently the ones floating around sound like ass, as hifiman did something that seriously degraded the quality from what it seems (so you may have just happened to unfortunately get one of the bad units)
Yeah headphones have a very difficult time replicating speakers, and if you wanted something like speakers in headphone form, the akg k1000 or the raal sr1a might be an interesting look lol
Hmmm, so if you want to buy new the genelecs might be out of your price range which is fine for sure. What matters most to you for sound (as in what aspects do you really like and what do you shy away from)?
Something that might be actually up your alley could be the Swan M3a
I heard these and they were very impressive for the price, and also avoid harshness in the high end and control bass very well. They have a pretty balanced sound with great imaging and soundstage, and the separation is very good. Also they have a pretty good amount of features
Of course there are other options as well
Something else too would be the Vanatoo Transparent 1’s
