The Best Audiophile Earphones headphones and Amp

I am really pleasantly surprised at how much I like my Sennheiser HD650s. They are not the most highly resolving headphone on the market, however they are very pleasant to me. They have a nice warm sound that does not cause listener fatigue, even when listening for hours. I just got mine for under $350 brand new in the retail box.

Regarding the headphone amp: Do you just need an amp, or does it need any other features, like a built-in USB DAC? For a dedicated headphone amp, the Burson HA-160 is getting excellent reviews and the street price is $699. If you need/want a world class DAC built-in, then the Burson HA-160D is excellent at $1100.

For less money, but still good performance, the NuForce Icon HD or Icon HDP get excellent reviews when paired with the HD650s and many other headphones.

Just like with any audio system, you can spend a lot more and a lot less. The above recommendations are just some of the products that fill the sweet spot between price and value.

As stated before, HeadFi.org is a wealth of information. You can get lost for days reading forum posts and reviews.

Enjoy,

TIC

If you hunt around a bit on the Gon you might be able to score a Cary 300sei without breaking the bank. Stick in some proper capcitors in the output stage and it is hard to beat.

IMO, you won't find better than the Stax. I've owned many pairs of headphones so this is not just my ego talking. All
others feel and sound like headphones. Stax create an ambient
space over your ears but without the distractions that plague
loudspeakers. I use both the solid-state and tube driver units
and I highly recommend the tube units. My best advice is to buy them first and you'll never feel that there is something missing. Also, used units on Audiogon are safe bets. Stax
headphones are hard to damage-I've been using mine for about 20 years and they still sound GREAT!

As others have suggested, take the time to figure out what you want. If you want closed headphones, then go for that. Open headphones require a quiet area. They also require people around you accept music leakage. I have a pair of AKG K1000s which sound spectacular, but require a big amp (not a regular headphone amp) and I won't listen to them with my wife around because they 'leak' something fierce. If I didn't have the AKG cans, I'd have a pair of high end Stax.

I second Tonykay's message: it has taken me over 10 years to get to appreciate what Stax headphones can do. As of today, I have sold all my electrodynamic headphones and only use the Stax Omega 2 mkII with SRM-727A amplifier (about 3.5kUSD combo).

Before that I have owned the following (from recent to old, probably missing some, headphone + amplifier). I give the approx. retail price:

> Sennheiser HD800 ($1500) + Lehman Black Cube Linear ($1000)
> Ultrasone Edition 9 ($2000) + Lehman Black Cube Linear ($1000)
> Sennheiser HD650 ($450) + Lehman Black Cube Linear ($1000)
> AKG K701 ($300?) + Meier Audio Opera mkI ($1000)
> Sennheiser HD650 ($450) + Meier Audio Opera mkI ($1000)
> Sennheiser HD650 ($450) + Ray Samuel Audio Stealth ($2500?)
> Sennheiser HD650 ($450) + Meier Audio Prehead MkI ($1000?)
> Sennheiser HD600 ($300) + Meier Audio Prehead MkI ($1000?)
> Grado RS-2 ($400?)

As you can see, it's been a regular rotation of headphones and amps. More recently, top dog electro-dynamic headphones (Sennheiser HD800, Beyerdynamic T1, Ultrasone Edition series...) have closed the gap (pricewise) with Stax electrostats.
In terms of resolution too, a well amplified HD800 can very much compete with the Stax Omega 2 + Stax amplifier. However, when I mean well amplified, this implies 2 to 5kUSD of amplification.

What I realized for me is that there was no point to keep spending so much money on electrodynamic gear when I could have it all and more with a similarly priced Stax electrostatic system. For instance, there is no electro-dynamic headphone I have heard that can have the same finesse as Stax (non grainy yet extended treble, extreme resolution, excellent micro-dynamics, basically the usual benefits of electrostatic drivers...). While electro-dynamic headphones can do many things right, you always find that 1 headphones forte comes also with 1 or 2 flaws that spoils the experience, eventually...

To my ears, the Stax Omega 2 are the first headphones I simply feel are sounding totally natural. The Omega 2 is not perfect (the new prototype C32 might be as close to perfect though based on my audition ;), but it totally satisfies me because it always sounds natural. In that sense, I very much agree they're one of the only headphones that make you forget you are listening to headphones...

While sites like head-fi provide a lot of information they're also a bit misleading because a lot of the noise on the surface is based on the "flavor of the month" (there are some recommendations in this thread which are a clear example of that).

To summarize, I will give the same advice as some others: do not take someone's advice for granted (mine included, hey, I have hated Stax gear for years until I realized how right it was ;) ). Listen for yourself if possible, headphones sound come in many many colors, just like loudspeakers... The comfort is also indeed an issue (does not get much better than Omega 2 again though ;) ).

arnaud