[Euph4life]

Hi all, this is my 1st post.
I have a few questions I'm hoping you might be whle to help me with?
I'm looking to get a headphone setup, which I can use at home, and also take to the office too.
Budget is around £700
They would need to be closed back headphones.
I own a Yamaha rn602 digital amp, would this do justice to a good headphone for the home listening? Or will I need a headphone amp/dac?
I also own a galaxy tab A 10.1 , this at the moment would be my source at work.
Both the Yamaha amp and the tab A I use to access spotify premium (320kbps).
How much of the £700 should I spend on a amp ? And how much on the headphone?
Would a £300 headphone paired with a chord mojo sound better than a £700 headphone plugged directly into my 602 amp?
I've been looking at Sony mdr z7 which I love the look of, is it possible to pair these with a suitable amp/dac to go between the sonys and the tab A or the sonys and the 602, for £700?
Basically to summarise, I have £700 to spend, I want the best audio quality possible out of a set of closed back headphones. They must be able to access spotify via my tablet at work, or my rn602 at home, and i need to know what % to spend on headphone/ headphone amp .

Sorry for the long 1st post!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Because of impedance issues (high output impedance) with the headphone jack on most speaker amplifier/receivers,
you would want to get headphones in the 250-Ohm to 300-Ohm range.
With the Galaxy Tab A 10.1, you would want headphones that are under 100-Ohms.
So the (70-Ohm) Sony MDR-Z7 should(?) be fine plugged into the Galaxy.
With the Yamaha, you should be able to get an external headphone amplifer (100 Euros), with a low output impedance.
Connect the head amp to the line-output (RCA) jacks on the Yamaha.

 

[buke9]

If you want closed headphones then just go with the Mr. Speakers Aeon Closed and be done.

 

[Euph4life]

Will the mdr z7 work with a dragonfly red , plugged into either the tablet or the amp?

 

[surfgeorge]

I think you are asking a lot of good questions, which shows that you are on a good track with regard to your purchase!

With 700 pounds you could get a CHORD Mojo + Audioquest Nightowl, which is the setup I have chosen after several iterations.
I tried lesser DAPs/DACs and headphones, but with this combo I am very happy and feel little itch to change and upgrade.

One thing is that the Mojo for me is the portable DAC/Amp endgame, no question there.
The headphone choice was a little harder, I went through Sennheiser Momentum 2, B&O H6 V2, but in the end chose to follow the expert, Rob Watts, the CHORD DAC developer, who has used the AudioQuest NightHawk for a long time as his go-to combo with Mojo. I chose the closed NightOwl instead (and got the Nighthawks too, since they were so cheap)

With AudioQuest getting out of the headphone business you can get the NightOwls for 300 pounds new, or less used. I got a new Mojo on UK Embay for 300 pounds, but that was a very good price.

Sound signature:
The Mojo is very famous and you can read plenty in the thread. In short, very smooth, yet still detailed, very good soundstage and imaging.
When I switch form Mojo to my DAPs (lower end, Cayin N3 = balanced but bland, Hiby R3 = bold but digital) I simply don't want to listen for a longer time, it just doesn't touch me.
Mojo opens the Music and pulls me in. The NightOwls also have a really large soundstage, like concert hall size, when needed. Very real! It happened that I really thought there were people around me and I turned around!
Another really special thing is how Mojo keeps busy orchestra pieces very clearly separated. After trying it in my stereo system I kicked out my 4000 Euro DAC and replaced it with a used Chord 2Qute. Much better.

NightOwl: It's said to be dark and warmish, which is both true. They do need a little adjusting if you come from bright 'open' headphones.
But when I listen to them I don't feel that they are dark, I feel like I dive into a dark pool of music, full of space, texture and details.

One thing to keep in mind is that my preference is Classic, Jazz, vocals, blues, pop, some Rock, a lot of which is live recordings.
This combo absolutely shines with live music, very realistically reproducing the soundstage. Think Jazz-bar or concert hall. The NightHawk can even portray a church, but for a closed HP the Owl creates an amazingly large soundstage.

I find that the more processed the sound is (engineered in the Studio) the less the Mojo's capabilities can shine.
With acoustic recordings it's really great.

Another thing to consider is that the differences I am talking about are in some sense subtle and in another sense very clear (for me).
Switching from Mojo to HiBy R3 and back, the R3 doesn't sound bad, it actually sounds very bold and impressive. But I quickly feel that something is off, digital, I just don't feel like listening more to it. With Mojo I just keep listening with a smile on my face. But don't ask me to describe how it renders different frequencies differently, I could not say that. From this perspective, headphones will have a much bigger difference. But with 700 pounds budget I think a Mojo would be a very good investment.

Cheers!