For a complete newbie, recommend me headphones < 70K

[essrand]

Hello,

I own a Nagra Tube DAC which has quite a decent headphone amp I have heard. I would like to buy a headphone that can utilise the potential of my DAC without going too crazy on the price.

I am not particularly interested in going down the rabbit hole and upgrade path etc, would like something that's great and will keep me happy, something that is right on that curve of diminishing returns.

I am more of a stereo guy but many a time can't play music loud all the time.

Would love some suggestions.

Two criterions:
1. No headphones amp should be needed. My DAC has a decent one but not sure if it can support Headphones that need a lot of drive.
2. Closed back preferred, but am flexible.

Looking to buy once and keep.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[catalyst360]

My personal choice at that budget would be an Ananda or LCD2C. Buy for your requirements Focal Elegia is a good fit.

 

[fLUX]

Hello,

I own a Nagra Tube DAC which has quite a decent headphone amp I have heard. I would like to buy a headphone that can utilise the potential of my DAC without going too crazy on the price.

I am not particularly interested in going down the rabbit hole and upgrade path etc, would like something that's great and will keep me happy, something that is right on that curve of diminishing returns.

I am more of a stereo guy but many a time can't play music loud all the time.

Would love some suggestions.

Two criterions:
1. No headphones amp should be needed. My DAC has a decent one but not sure if it can support Headphones that need a lot of drive.
2. Closed back preferred, but am flexible.

Looking to buy once and keep.

Thanks in advance for your help.

If you are going to be playing music at fairly moderate/loud volumes and someone else is going to be in the room then closed back is a better option, else would suggest to go blindly for open back at this budget.

Focal Elegia is a very good option at this price point , very few closed back options too at this price range in India. If you can source from abroad you have Fostex TH-900/Aeon Flow closed back are few other options. I have tried the beyerdynamic T5P 2nd gen which are flagship closed back but found it to be not as good as the Ananda so gave it away. Hifiman Ananda is a good choice for majority of the genres and is a detailed, fun sounding headphone you cannot go wrong with.

 

[essrand]

It seems like the one. The Ananda, until I saw this ASR review:

Hifiman Ananda Review (headphone)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hifiman Ananda open-back, planar magnetic headphone. It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $700 on Amazon including Prime shipping (retail $999). This is one massive headphone! As you see, it dwarfs the panther next to it. For...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[catalyst360]

Measurements don't tell the whole story but if you want a good measuring headphone, its younger brother the Sundara was well reviewed on ASR. The Sundara however needs a good amp though. I don't know the specs of the headphone amp section of your dac but I'd be willing to bet that it wouldn't be enough to get the best out of the Sundara. The good news is that the Sundara and a great headphone amp like the Topping A30Pro would be well within your budget.

 

[essrand]

What specs would I need from my DAC to find out if it can adequately drive the Sundara?

Yes, I totally agree. I am a tube guy and most of my gear would probably measure poorly. But the review quite trashed the product hence the surprise.

Getting a headphone amp is a dealbreaker for sure. I like the price of Sundara, given I am just getting started and will surely make mistakes, so spending lesser is better.

 

[catalyst360]

First you need to make sure if the amp section is solid state (hybrid amp) and not tube. Tube amps don’t mix well with planar headphone. Planar magnetic headphones typically have low impedance and require high current amplification. Tube amps on the other hand is better at driving high impedance loads.

As for the Sundara, you’d need at least 1 watt at 37 ohm to drive the Sundara to its full potential.

If getting a headphone amp is out of the question, the Focal Elegia would be your best option.

Edit -The Harmonicdyne Zeus is worth considering as a left field option.

 

[essrand]

My DAC does have a built-in headphone amplifier, not sure of its specs though. Will find out soon.

So the Ananda would also need a SS headphone amplifier?

 

[catalyst360]

The Ananda is much more sensitive than the Sundara and could probably get away with a weak amp or no amp. But yes, planars in general require SS amps.

 

[Thirumalkumaran]

Why no one asked the 2 questions?
1. What type of sound signature is preferred?
2. What is the genre of music he is into?

 

[essrand]

Sound signature: Warmer, weightier side of sounds without too much losing resolution or transparency. More analog, musical, and engaging side of things. Am a tube guy.
Genre: Indian classical, acoustic, Middle-eastern, jazz, Bob dylan.

 

[essrand]

Spent an afternoon combing through this epic thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-nagra-hd-dac.730313/page-33

Found out that my DAC can drive these headphones:

HE1000, Utopia, Meze Empyrean, Focal Stellia, Fostek TH900, LCD4

Then perhaps it can drive Sundara as well? Am still learning what impedance and sensitivity means in the Headphone world. Can anyone confirm this?
HE1000 and Sundara seem to have same specs.

 

[Thirumalkumaran]

If closed back is your aim... You might need to look at Focal Celeste..
Though dynamic driver... should be one of the best. (but might be slightly above your budget as well)

 

[fLUX]

Spent an afternoon combing through this epic thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-nagra-hd-dac.730313/page-33

Found out that my DAC can drive these headphones:

HE1000, Utopia, Meze Empyrean, Focal Stellia, Fostek TH900, LCD4

Then perhaps it can drive Sundara as well? Am still learning what impedance and sensitivity means in the Headphone world. Can anyone confirm this?
HE1000 and Sundara seem to have same specs.

What specs would I need from my DAC to find out if it can adequately drive the Sundara?

Yes, I totally agree. I am a tube guy and most of my gear would probably measure poorly. But the review quite trashed the product hence the surprise.

Getting a headphone amp is a dealbreaker for sure. I like the price of Sundara, given I am just getting started and will surely make mistakes, so spending lesser is better.

I own the Hifiman Ananda & have been using them for about a year and half. They are fairly easy to drive and scale well with good amps nevertheless & sound decent driven out of a medium powered portable DACAMP. Coming to SQ these suit majority of the genres and the presentation on Ananda is slightly forward with a very musical and engaging mid & high end. The lows have a very good slam and pace , quantity is pretty good for an open ended headphone. I use it for listening to post 90's bollywood , sufi, ghazals, classic rock , pop , some country music and etc & the Ananda sound perfectly fine for all of these music.

Your DAC should easily drive them as the headphones you have mentioned are equally hard to drive. The Ananda sound good with a good variety of genres and are not very fussy with the amp pairing either.

 

[essrand]

Anyone familiar with the ZMF Auteur headphones? Any thoughts/opinions on it?

 

[Amitdubey]

Sunanda and hd600 can to be your starting point while learning and discovering what you would like to scale up into to upgrade and dropping moolah on more expensive phones. They do so much so well and is end game headphones for so many. The big jump worthy for both planar and dynamic are focal clear and arya if you like what you hear from hd600 or Sundara. The intermediates can be skipped!

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Hello,

I own a Nagra Tube DAC which has quite a decent headphone amp I have heard. I would like to buy a headphone that can utilise the potential of my DAC without going too crazy on the price.

I am not particularly interested in going down the rabbit hole and upgrade path etc, would like something that's great and will keep me happy, something that is right on that curve of diminishing returns.

I am more of a stereo guy but many a time can't play music loud all the time.

Would love some suggestions.

Two criterions:
1. No headphones amp should be needed. My DAC has a decent one but not sure if it can support Headphones that need a lot of drive.
2. Closed back preferred, but am flexible.

Looking to buy once and keep.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Iam no head phone guy as you are aware

But I've tried some cheap ones in my time. And always found the closed backs to sound too closed in. Especially the notion of having the singer inside my head was a bummer for me. Besides, coming from a 2 channel setup, I was used to feeling the bass on the body, and headphones didn't give me that feel.

So read up a bit, and bought some used planar magnetic open back audeze isine 10's or 20's, I don't exactly remember which one, as the model name is not written on them. Being open backs, they probably connected better with my lack of acceptance to having voices singing in my head

Recently one ear clip broke due to my mishandling and I had to buy some Sony noise cancelling wireless head phones called WH-1000 M3 or something. They just suck in comparison. Besides the feel of a closed back head phone makes me claustrophobic.

I cannot recommend any headphone per se, and I haven't heard any of the decent ones suggested so far. But I feel before you plonk for any one, you should try atleast one open back vs a closed back and see which you prefer. As you are willing to plonk a lot of money on one

 

[essrand]

Thank you Manohar and @Amitdubey for your very practical posts.

To be honest I don't want to spend 70K, more like 30-40K, I should have put that number not 70K but I just put that number out there because I didn't know what was the starting point for a really good headphone, the 85-90 percentile performance point in a market where now even Apple headphones cost 30-40K.

Thanks to you guys, I decided to get the Sennheiser HD 660S to get started with. Then if I listen as much as I should or love it as much as many people do, will dive in further.

Will update when I am able buy one, it seems to be sold out everywhere or undeliverable because of lockdown of course.

 

[fLUX]

Thank you Manohar and @Amitdubey for your very practical posts.

To be honest I don't want to spend 70K, more like 30-40K, I should have put that number not 70K but I just put that number out there because I didn't know what was the starting point for a really good headphone, the 85-90 percentile performance point in a market where now even Apple headphones cost 30-40K.

Thanks to you guys, I decided to get the Sennheiser HD 660S to get started with. Then if I listen as much as I should or love it as much as many people do, will dive in further.

Will update when I am able buy one, it seems to be sold out everywhere or undeliverable because of lockdown of course.

I have not listened to the HD660s , but thsse are not very popular amongst audiophile circles ( not sure due to what reason). The HD600/650 would be better purchase but they sound average with most of the portable and solid state desktop gear, but they have immense scaling capability ( not sure how they pair with Negra dac). I have the HD600 and can confirm they sound absolutely phenomenal with the right gear

 

[Amitdubey]

Agree. Hd600 I've had for 18 years and keep going back to it with other high end phones in my collection. Start with hd600 in dynamic and sundara in planar magnetic and upgrade from there down the line of and only if you feel something is missing. Alternatively, 560s is also a good starting point.