What is your most emotionally involving headphones/rig?
Jan 7, 2010 at 4:49 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 63

EYEdROP

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Out of all the setups you have heard/owned, which one let you forget about the gear and simply enjoy the music? Which headphones bring back memories of the past? Which ones gave you the most eargasms per song?

For me, its gotta be my Macbook Pro 96KHz > Yamaha receiver (pure direct) > Beyerdynamic DT-48E with 120 ohm APS adapter. Everything just sounds so refined and resolving, like all the notes in the song were meant for each other. The imaging is spot on. The detail is nuts. You can hear the start and stop of every single sound and detail perfectly and the notes just dance with each other. The sound does not blur at all or become sibilant. The timbre is very real sounding. Beyer must have known what they were doing all these years because these things sound legendary to my ears. I still have a hard time describing the sound because everything just falls into place, if that makes sense.

For when I want a colored sound, I use my Bose In-Ear and Sansa clip+. I like the bass impact and psychoacoustic trickery. Good for Rap and Pop music. It reminds me of being a dumb kid again which I enjoy.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 7:08 PM Post #5 of 63
Any phone running off my EHHA amp is a lot more engaging. Its amazing how flat, dull and boring my HR balanced desktop sounds, by comparison. Of what I've owned, I like HDCD disc played on Rotel 02 to Parasound 1100HD to EHHA to D7000. The High Fidelity soundtrack played on this setup in HDCD is a foot tapping experience. For non HDCD, hard to beat either Eric Clapton's Unplugged or Alice in Chains' Unplugged on the same rig.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 7:46 PM Post #6 of 63
How do these threads normally go on these forums? Does everyone simply list what they already have?
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:00 PM Post #7 of 63
My current rig is the most involving:

PC=>Buffalo 32S with Shunt PSU's=> AK Class A=>K701

Wonderful, pure, full-bodies sound. It can have me dancing around the room, or sat with tears in my eyes, plus everything in-between.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:02 PM Post #8 of 63
My Pioneer Monitor 10s put a smile on my face. 'Chop Suey' by System of a Down was just perfect. It goes with classical music too.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:03 PM Post #9 of 63
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Sukebe /img/forum/go_quote.gif
How do these threads normally go on these forums? Does everyone simply list what they already have?


Pretty much unless they are recommending equipment they have never heard.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:05 PM Post #10 of 63
Easily my Pico -> WA6 (with SP tube) -> RS1 (with flats) combo. Nothing else I've had has invoked emotion in music like this setup... it feels like as if I am on stage.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:11 PM Post #11 of 63
HD650, i love their warm non fatiguing sound signature, i'd say it's really "involving" for my tastes, even if many would disagree, preferring other kind of phones for the genres i usually listen to.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 8:20 PM Post #12 of 63
I have had the K701's, DT 150's heard the HD 650's, and some others not worth mentioning, and without a doubt the most intimate and sensual phones ever have to be the HE-5's! No matter what I throw at them they always have this warm and cuddly feeling, like sitting in front of a fire on a starry winter night and drinking some irish tea...
tongue.gif
Its a total different experience, maybe its the ortho "sound" but whatever it is, its magic...
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 10:30 PM Post #13 of 63
Emotionally involving? Pro 900 is the only one I have heard that can actually make me almost cry at times. They are also the ones that make you feel the most alive.

On the other hand the DX 1000 could make me feel like a king. Taking me to a better world. Emotionally involving in another way I suppose.

ED 8 is kind of a mix here... Hard to say but one of those three will most quickly fill my emotion metre I suppose.
 
Jan 7, 2010 at 11:04 PM Post #14 of 63
At the moment, Opus 21 --> Dared VP-20 --> SRD-7 Pro --> O2 Mk1.

Which is interesting since the O2 can sound very emotionally un-involving in some rigs. But another rig I've liked it in, which I had, was:

Cambridge Audio 840c --> SRM-717 --> O2 Mk1.

Worked nicely, but as soon as you swapped the 840c for the significantly better Opus 21, the magic went out, and only comes back with the Dared/transformer setup - and comes back 10 times as strong. What gives?

I also really liked my old Rega Planet 2000 --> MG Head --> K340 setup, and I routinely get emotional over the ES2 (now dead) and UM3x out of an mp3 player. But maybe it's the booze talking.
 
Jan 8, 2010 at 12:14 AM Post #15 of 63
Quote:

Originally Posted by kool bubba ice /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Sextetts..


As much as you rave about the DT48, I'm surprised you didn't put them
wink_face.gif


For me it might be easier to list ones that don't emotionally involve me. I've had eargasms with the lowly PX100.

I guess I'd put the YH-100 for home use and the X5 with my iPod. Although I got my DT931 out the other day and it has me dancing in my chair.
 

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