Just pulled the trigger on the Meze 99 Noirs! Looking forward to some warmth.
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I had been searching for a headphone amp to add to my main system⌠Read a lot here and watched lots of reviews. Prefering very low distortion revealing equipment, I settled on the SMSL SP200. I think it fits in with my equipment⌠Just waiting on cables now⌠non essential⌠who says so!!! LOL. Headphone reviews are dangerous for sure right now⌠I am curious about planar headphones⌠Oh! just a small other thingâŚ
Does it sound different? Shrugs⌠But looks cool 
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just purchased Edition XX (pic from seller, about to ship)
Upgrading from my HE4XX. I feel like I have now officially plunged into this hobby. Either this becomes my endgame or there will be no end in sight.
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Nice, curious to see what you think of it 
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SMSL Sanskrit 10th SK10 MKII Upgraded Version XMOS AK4493 for my desktop speaker and headphone amp upgrade! Thanks to M0N for the help with that!
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My guess is the âno end in sightâ outcome. Either way, enjoy the ride and focus on what you have rather than on what youâre missing (something I often struggle with myself). 
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Soekris dac1321 has arrived. Not even fully warm yet, but so far it sounds spectacular. In particular, percussion sounds so life-like and natural. The spacial recreation is great. Further listening is needed, but this little guy sounds pretty damn good so far. 
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Congratulations! Iâve been looking at this DAC very seriously I want to know your hard honest opinion on it once you have more time with it please. Feel free to start a thread on it.
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âEnd today, game tomorrowâ seems to be how it works, FWIW. 
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This is the correct answer
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Wow from 4xx to that! Should be interesting lol. For sure share a comparison after you get them and have time with em!
Definitely will do. Should I post it in this thread or another one?
I was debating whether to get the sundara, or spend more and get the ananda, elex or edition xx as my upgrade and decided on the edition xx because I found a good deal. Also, the 4XX is really nice for my preference to the point that if I didnât know there were upgrades to it, it would probably be all I would need. As such, the FR of the edition xx seemed like a safer choice.
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gotcha, i havenât heard the edditon xx so i canât comment but it seems to get raving reviews! and the sound sig seems to be different(?) from the sundara so iâm curious as to how it will compare to the 4xx. (i also owned a 4xx, but moved to a sundara recently as i also got a good deal).
and honestly, you could make a dedicated thread or the thing that most people do around here is just compare it in the thread of that headphone (edition xx should have itâs own oficial thread where you can post your first impressions, review or comparisons) people donât mind if you do it here either tho. for sure @me when you do so since i donât wanna miss it!
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Thereâs an Edition XX thread that would be a good home for detailed impressions, but since you started the convo here would be nice to see a link to over there whenever you post your thoughts.
Just to expand on earlier comments about âendgame,â this hobby presents nearly endless ways to explore audio as deeply and in as many different ways as your wallet and curiosity will take you. Like different transducer types, SS vs tube amps, IEMs and portable gear, different tunings (clinical or âfunâ), etc. There is no one common, objective definition for âperfect,â and there are many different branches leading to their own subjectively sublime limits.
Variety is the spice of life. I think of headphones kinda like a high-end knife blockâyou could get a fine chefâs knife and use it for everything, and you wouldnât be wrong or lacking in capability. Or you could expand to bread knives, vegetable knives, utility knives, pocket knives, razor blades, swords, and hatchets and have the absolute perfect tool to cut anything, lol.
Whatever you do, donât feel obligated or afraid to blow money on this hobby as long as it brings you joy and you keep it in balance with your other obligations and priorities in life. Welcome to the rabbit hole. 
[EDIT: took too long on my silly metaphor and beat to the punch on the pertinent info, lol]
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I will probably post my reply here and then quote it in the official thread. I did a lot of look at reviews of the edition xx yesterday and they were quite varied. Metal didnât like the unit he tried although there is an open question if his unit (serial #0000) was atypical. DMS and Joshua Valor thought they had a niche in the price range. Z thought they were so good that they make the Arya unnecessary (paraphrasing). Some people say they are basically the HEX v2 in sound such as The Next Best Thing Studio, but others have pointed out that the driver is cheaper and it just isnât the same headphone. I think Mon said the technicalities of the XX are definitely a step down. DBS Tech Talk loved the headphone. Oluv did not like them much at all and iirc even said he prefered the 4XX (which was scary to hear). Lastly, the head-fi thread was all over the place.
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yeah honestly spending money is the shitty part of this hobby, but i think itâs really nice just to hear something new. I know alot of people keep many headphones for different sound sigs and it makes sense but i must say myself that i havenât felt the need or want to pick up my other headphones since getting the sundara. Maybe i will in the future if i get tired of them or want to spice things up. but i think iâm liking for now keeping one headphone that plays everything well (really digging a neutral well rounded sound atm, might end up surprising me as my favorite sound sig) and eventually getting other stuff just to listen or just go to a canjam to see whats out there. not sure i will be the type of person to have more than one headphone anymore (used to have 2 opposite headphones for dif sound sigs. he might end up the same with just 1 headphone and explore other stuff here and there
Regarding the money, this hobby can be expensive but at the very least buying used, taking care of your gear and reselling to fund future purchases can make it relatively affordable.
Regarding a variety of headphones, I bought the 6XX for variety due to all the hype around it. Once I got it, I listened to only that for a few days and thought âok this is pretty goodâ but wasnât wowâd. Then I put on the HE4XX again and was like âoh right I forgot how good these are. These are much better.â FWIW I listen to EDM primarily.
I went to canjam and was most impressed by the Utopia (and the Abyss 1266 Phi TC), so I might look at the Elex for variety. Quite a few of the other things I tried didnât impress me much for whatever reason.
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