All in all I’ll be needing the system and headphones - the headphones for when I’m out and the system when I’m home. I understand these will be different experiences. Since my system isn’t properly set up yet I’m simply curious as to what to expect after being very very happy with the headphones. From dabbling with the temporary integrated I’m using now and the (probably) badly paired speakers I know a lot of my disappointment is due to the mud coming from an untreated room compared with the spectacular clarity of the headphones. These Totems are tiny but probably perfect for a small room like this but the mud I’m hearing when I swap them out (175mm cones compared to 125mm cones) really sound awful in this untreated room at present which has me wondering if I’m going to be able to use a subwoofer in that room. Anyway, I’ll find out in a couple of weeks once my Benchmark DAC3 arrives to complete my Benchmark setup.
This will be a dedicated listening room - I’m planning on hanging thick curtains on three walls (behind the speakers and both side walls) to dampen echoes - is this advisable? I’ll have the curtains cut into sections that I can open at intervals if need be to experiment.