Can I buy used for price savings
lets keep it new for now
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Wait are amps factored into the costs?
no additional 50% for the amps, but you can’t fiddle with the totals, Headphones must be under the price given, amps under 1/2 of that.
The reason for the strict cost thing is as much because I believe most people climbing up the cost ladder have various psychological barriers.
The whole “What are you willing to pay for headphones” thing.
For example I struggle to justify $1000 headphones (though I’m getting there), but I wouldn’t consider a set of speakers for serious listening for less than that.
Since I’m tired right now and can’t think that well, so I also need to factor in the costs of the amp to the budget? So for the 200 category 100 for headphones and 100 for amp? Or just 200 on headphones and imagine you have a amp half that cost
Oops wrong thread…
So for $200 you could habe some 6xx’s because <$200 and you could go with a Schiit Magni for $100.
I’ll let you play by audiofile rules if you want so a strict $1000 budget really means less than $1200 
We can ignore DAC’s for now, lets just assume you have something good.
Gotcha, so I will be adding extra half for the amps
Also after I answer this I want to clarify its immediately outdated lol. I don’t want people to take this as my official top picks or anything. I would rather help someone figure out what they would like than look at a list like this.
So for under 200 I would pick up the dt880 600 ohm and run them with a liquid spark
For under 500 that’s a pretty tough one tbh but personally it would be either the lcd1, dt1990, or a tr-x00 ebony. The amp would be something like an Asgard 3 or a sp200
For under 1k… Perhaps the clear since it’s on sale for 1k and that works lol. I would pick the Rupert neve rnhp for the amp.
For under 2k, I would pick the he6se since you could get it for 700 bucks and devote the rest of the budget towards an amp along with the extra 50% lol.
Under 3k I honestly am not sure atm, probably an abyss diana v2 since some of the other stuff I would say barely is too expensive. For the amp I think I would probably go with an ifi iCan Pro
Price no object idk
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I should also explain my reasoning. I picked headphones that are great all rounders, have good comfort imo, and something that could scale with future usage. I didn’t really follow the pure enjoyment part tbh and it was more inline if I had those actual budget restrictions. This is just for me, not for everyone lol
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And once again I don’t know if I will agree with this tomorrow when I actually get sleep lol, I probably should have waited and actually thought harder about it lol
It was just a thought exercise, Given you’ve listened to a lot of stuff, I just wanted to see what had “stuck”.
So, as my headphones’ price tags have been increasing, the more I am finding myself disagreeing with Zeos’ reviews. I initially thought it was because his focus rightfully is a cost vs. performance style. But the more I listen to the 789, I think the issue is more that he uses this amp for just about every review he’s done since he first got it. It’s a great amp, especially for the price, but it’s limitations become more evident as the headphone capabilities scale upwards. He didn’t like the Utopias, LCD4s, or Verites and without looking I think he used the 789 for each review. Whether they end up being everyone’s personal preference or not, he is maybe the only reviewer I’ve seen that says they sound bad. As much as I wish it weren’t the case, I think to get the most out of these top of the line headphones you need an appropriate amp to power them. That’s not to say that you need to spend $5k on an amp, but like @Nick_Mimi said in another thread, synergy is really important. Overall I appreciate the 789s very much, but I think the performance drops off noticeably with just about every headphone I’ve tried on it that cost more than my Elex. I’m honestly really surprised he gave the Empyreans a positive review because I don’t like them at all running off the 789
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I mean I don’t know if stuff really stuck, as there are certain headphones I would actually choose instead if I had multiple pairs but wouldn’t buy on their own
Regarding the 789, with high end headphones the difference is apparent imo. The 789 may be the more wire with gain amp, but it’s just not as good at actually amplifying the headphones imo. You miss out compared to the finesse you get with higher quality amps. You trade measurements and specs for actual driving capability imo. Does the mean I don’t like the amp? Not at all, a thx amp is an easy recommend for most people who wouldn’t consider a single headphone over a grand. It’s reasonably all they would need. But if you have higher end headphones (or specific amp picky ones), I feel like you have more out there that the 789,887,788,888 and all those other ones lol can’t really provide. Although I haven’t had enough time with the benchmark thx, because that could be better imo. Perhaps I should pick one up, I don’t have any thx tech 
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It seems to work wonders on $500ish headphones, but goes from sounding clean to flat pretty much starting with the Clears out of the headphones I own. He often bemoans his 909s not sounding right off of most of his amps (read 789) but says they are fixed when he runs them off the Audiovalve Solaris. I don’t think it’s a coincidence and explains his criticisms of a lot of expensive headphones
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Saying you don’t have any thx tech yet is a bit like saying you are going to end up with one.
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IDK yet TBH, I don’t feel like I need any since I already have a very clean solid state lol. I also want to wait until the thx hype has slowed down
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Not all pieces work well together, and some seem as if they are a match made in heaven, i swear by this statement.
I would love to have a head-fi meet at my place someday, Just a few folks dragging along 2 or 3 pcs each so we can compare equipment and also to get the opinions of different ears.
Well the 909 is just a very picky headphone lol. Also yeah it might make sense that he ends up getting a partial experience because of his attachment to thx