My computer headphone setup: Schiit Modi 2 USB DAC, Schiit Wyrd USB "Decrapifier", Garage 1217 Project Polaris Amplifier driving Sennheiser HD600 cans with custom cable.

Over 600 CDs and numerous vinyl LPs ripped to a harddisk and played uncompressed using foobar2000 software:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bald1,

Very nice set up. I have been salivating over the HD 660s, but have resisted so far.

Very nice setup! Your headphone amp is just a little more sophisticated than this one I recently completed.

That’s quite the flux capacitor you’ve got there.

Very nice setup. Its amazing just how nice a decent pair of cans can sound. I started with a cheaper pair of Sennheiser, then Grado and AudioTecnica. Stupidly, I sold my tube headphone amp.

FiveFiveSixFan,

Nice work on that board! Enjoy!

Fusternc,

I've only had one tube headphone amp and that was Schiit's Vali*. I moved to the Polaris from it. It was great but the Polaris is a solid step up.

In the past I've owned Headroom's original Supreme and their Cosmic model too. The former was bought with HD580* cans back in December 1993. That was the beginning of my decent headphone enjoyment journey.

I simply don't consider old gems from way way back like Lafayette F990 to count although a Koss ESP6a* was pretty decent albeit way too heavy. A set of Senn HD480s was my introduction to their brand.

* still have and functional

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bald1,

Spiffy amp you've got there. I used to really like my HD650 with a Stefan Audioart Equinox cable. Everyone who listened to that setup remarked on how smooth and transparent that cable was, even a couple of those who doubted that mere wire makes any difference at all.

Then one of the terminal ends snapped, and SAA got bitchy about replacing it (despite the so-called warranty that was still in play at the time). They finally gave me a new cable but the wire resistance between the two channels was so unbalanced that I've forever thought that they did that intentionally. I ended up selling that screwed up cable, put the factory wire back on the HD650, gave that headset to a cousin and wound up buying the first gen HD800 as a replacement, then swearing off aftermarket cable makers forever. And now that roughly 15 year on my hearing is not what it was, it's all a moot ('mute' ) point anyways.

soggy,
I normally eschew custom cables too.

With my old HD580s I found first using HD650 cables (along with HD600 grills) worked fine. I also found inexpensive NewFantasia OFC cables to be quite nice as well.

On a whim I popped for the CustomCansUK 1.5m cable now on my HD600 at better than 50% off normal pricing.
It features Neutrik plug and Cardas pins, silk covered litz wire, each core is made from 84 individually insulated strands of copper then wrapped in paracord. The cable is hand braided in a flat braid pattern to get the capacitance even lower than 20pF.

Does it sound any better than either the HD650 or NewFantasia? That could be argued for weeks. But they do indeed look nice. LOL



As an aside I much prefer the HD600 to the HD650 as well as unmodified HD800s. And I actually liked my vintage 1993 HD580s with the aforementioned grill and cable changes along with Brainwavz HM5 ear pads even better than the 2015 HD600s. But one driver finally gave up the ghost so the cans have been retired.

I have a set of 2016 Philips SHP9500 that have been modded with 2mm felt to dampen the tendency for brightness and find them a remarkable value for the $60 they were acquired new for. I originally bought a pair for one of my sons to mate with a V-Moda BoomPro mic for gaming but liked them enough that I got a pair for myself as well. Here they are with a DAP/Amp:

does that gizmo go in to your computer tower ?
or a pre amp ? or both ?

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
does that gizmo go in to your computer tower ?
or a pre amp ? or both ?

The computer tower's USB port feeds the "stack" passing digital music signals from the foobar2000 software.

The DAC converts the digital to analog signals which the amp then amplifies for the headphones.

Here's an older picture with the Schiit Modi 2 DAC and Vali tube amp. You can see the USB plug on the bottom right of the DAC.


I later added the Schiit Wyrd to "clean up" the USB signal (honestly detected no difference) and also upgraded the amp from the Vali to the Polaris shown in my earlier post,