Headphones Newbie; Senheisser HD 800s or Focal MG Clear

OP,

Sorry to hear about the accident. Hope you were not injured.

I have had many headphone amps, streamers and DACs… many highly regarded. The headphones performance typically very different depending on the electronic / headphone. I found the difference in headphones accentuated by say, too little current, or high frequency hash, or cold presentation… etc. headphones are in your ear… so any deficiencies in the signal combine with the character of the headphones. I am constant surprised how similar my Sennheiser HD800 and Focal Utopia now sound. I guess my only point is that the whole signal path is important in what you get out. 

@ghdprentice I’m fine, a sore knee and neck but nothing serious, thank you.

Unfortunately, I am without a headphone amp and I’m reliant on the plug input on the front of my amplifier. However, I may enjoy good results regardless. If the Focal Clear MG’s require less power to drive but are still hifi sounding phones, that seems like a more hopeful option.

OP,

Yes Focal Clear would be an excellent choice. Easy to drive.

I was using a Quicksilver Audio Headphone Amp with the focals. Initially they sounded really muddy etc. I asked a few people on a head phone forum about that.

"I was surprised it took about 75 hours before they settled in.

I even went to Dealer compared my new with Demo version and there was a big difference. They need time to breath out. 75-150 hours."

After this response I just let them play for about a month strait not super high volume but loud enough without clipping. I would check in on them and sometimes they would sound pretty good and then muffled. It might be that I didnt burn them in enough. Not really sure. They sounded muddy and undifferentiated to me. I am still a little in disbelief because I think I am in the minority a lot of people cant say enough good about thses.

Many good tubes require 150 hours or more to sound their best; that's down to the tubes more than the amp.