Best headphone under 10k$

@213runnin

After further listening between Sr1a and Stax 009s driven by Kgsshv Carbon amp, I found 009s give more natural and sweet tone of violin.

But in general, I prefer Sr1a to 009s with more open and dynamic sound.

@ arelare7


I had not listened to Susvara but read some comparison between Susvara and Abyss 1266.


I had chance to compare between Sr1a and 1266 Phi.

Both are nice Totl headphones while Sr1a sounds more open and exciting and 1255 with deeper bass and more accurate presentation.

Now I am going to retreat my bold statement about Sr1a.

It will depend on personal taste.

Sr1a, 009s, Susvara and 1266 all has potential to be the  best Totl headphone under 10k$.

1266 for me...

Good enough is good enough. $2500 ZMF Verites!

I had lived with Sr1a driven by Jot R for 3 months with Dave and HMS as source.

It sounds open and exciting but close to hot from time to time.

Thus I had pulled the trigger for Schitt Freya to be in front of Jot R.

I also placed an order of Nos quad Sylvania 6sn7 GTB made in 1955.

I hope it will give relaxed tube flavor to both Sr1a driven by Jot R and 009s driven by Kgsshv Carbon amp.

But Freya is backordered so that I may get it on next Thursday or later.

I also have quad Sylvania vt231 made in 1940's but two of them are in my 2 channel amplifier and I keep one more pair as spare



I had chosen Sylvania vt231 in Line Magnetic 508 amp after comparing with Nos Kenrad, Tungsol and modern Shuguang Treasure cv181-z.

Shuguang Treasure sounds warm and organic but falls slightly short of vt231 in details.


Sylvania "Bad boy" made in 1952 are hard to get with exorbitant price which I had not tried in my system.

But I am happy with Sylvania vt231 which give excellent details, nice dynamics, wide and deep soundstage.

I will also make comparison between Sylvania vt231 made in 1940's and GTB made in 1955 in Line Magnetic 508 and Freya.

I received Freya+ this morning

I skipped JJ stock tubes and inserted Nos Amperex 6sn7gtb in gain stage and Sylvania 6sn7gtb in buffer stage.

After running demagnetization tracks twice( 6min each) on Freya and Jot R, I started listening to Capricio Italian (Tchaikovsky) directed by Bernstein.

Wow, Freya with Jot R sounds much better than Jot R only with more relaxed and nuanced details but with minimal loss of transparency

While it sounds slightly thin with Jot R only.

Old Jazz recording by Benny Goodman sounds more relaxed with less hot edge from Freya and Jot R.

My digital source is Dave and HMS.

I use 20ft Purist Audio Design balanced cable between Dave and Freya and 6ft Synergistic Research balanced cable between Freya and Jot R.

I still have several choice of tube rolling with Sylvania vt231, RCA gray glass 6sn7gt and all quad Syl 6sn7 gtb.

Audio depends on personal preference, but Freya fitted with Nos tubes and Jot R sounds much more musical to my ears than Jot R only with overall nuanced presentation.

Although I had enjoyed fast and exciting sound out of Sr1a driven by Jot R for the last three months, I keep going back to 009s driven by Kgsshv Carbon amp to get more relaxed sound.

With Freya and Jot R, Sr1a move halfway between Jot R only and 009s with relaxed presentation.

I will also apply Freya to Kgsshv Carbon amp later today to find its effect on sound of 009s.

Out of curiosity, I am driving HD 800s out of Rca output of Freya using "Hosa TPR-257" adapter bought from Amazon.

Wow, Freya+ is also a killer amp for HD 800s.

I had driven HD 800s by headphone output of Dave and HMS.

It sounds transparent but with one note bass.

But with Freya in the chain after Dave, HD 800s sounds almost perfect with nice soundstage, clean details and full and textured bass.