First, I’m SO SORRY to for your hearing loss as a fellow audiophile. If I was in your situation I’d ramp up a good headphone system with an equalizer. As someone who has some experience with headphones, I’d recommend Hifiman HE1000SE open-back planar headphones, a Quicksilver tubed headphone amp, and a Schiit Loki Max equalizer. What I like about the Loki, in addition to its quality, is that it has a remote so you can easily adjust specific frequencies on the fly to meet your individual hearing needs from song to song. Just one suggestion FWIW, and best of luck in finding a workable solution.
Recommendations for the best headphones with equalization after severe acoustic injury
I recently experienced an Acute and severe hearing loss between 1-4khz after a bike tire exploded in my face. My wonderful system is now rendered unpleasant (Apogee Divas with DAX refurbished, Velodyne active sub, D'Agostino stereo biamps, ARC SP20 pre, Rossini DAC/player with separate clock, Llyod Walker air bearing turntable...). I need to accept the loss and switch to the best headphones with equalization capability so I can listen without hearing aide distortion. Some have had this horrible experience and I wish to learn from your experience. How did you compensate for the hearing loss, and what are your best recommendations for equipment, and why? Cost is of little concern because music has been my saving grace for 59 years! Thanks to all in advance!
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Thanks for your excellent recommendations! I did try dCS LINA headphone amp with a few high-end cans and it had promise. I ultimately purchased Naim Uniti phone amp and Meze Elite cans, but even with equalization the sound was too much "inside my head". The Roon equalization is lifesaving, very versatile, has a remote app, but i still needed to equalize vinyl and cd playing. The Trinnov Amethyst has excellent versatility and room correction (that's more for my friends). Thus, most things can be made "flat", and I still enjoy imaging and such. The timber of some instruments and choral pieces is distorted by my ears - nothing helps that. Still, live and reproduced music is quite enjoyable - just not audiophile quality - and I can live with that! *While I'm at it I will highly recommend a couple recordings that are superb: Truro Cathedral Chorus performing Dobrina Tabakova's "Of a Rose We Sing" is a gorgeous choral recording with a foundation of organ (divine!), and an album named Postcards which includes "Pueri Hebraeorum" (beautiful cathedral space filled with 2 men's choruses, one in front of the other, echoing the verses). They are among the best recordings! |
I was speaking with Danny McKinney at RAAL Requisite on Friday. He told me that he had spent that last 6 years designing an equalization system. The tech details were a little over my head, but he was using some 1930s tube magic and other things that I did not understand. He sold the first unit to a very famous musician last week. He told me I need to hear this and he will build 7 more units. I hope to hear it next Saturday along with the Star8 XLR's for the VM-1a tube headphone amp. Now if you want what a lot of people consider the state of the art in headphones. Talk to Danny about doing a home demo of the RAAL VM-1a tube headphone amp and the SR1a earphones (a 2-channel replica sound) or the traditional headphone sound from the CA-1a. I was watching the Darko web site's coverage of the recent 2023 CanJam NYC show and I saw Danny in the video. He was demoing the SR1a using the Schitt Jotenhuim R RAAL only headphone amp. A bit shocking since I also have this $300 amp, but it is exponentially lower in sonics to the VM-1a amp. People supposedly loved the sound at the show from music playing from a RME DAC via an iPad. Way worse than what is an uber level setup, but it still sounds really good. My home uber level setup is Lumin X1 fibre stream to the VM-1a. I am going to upgrade the Lumin DAC to a PlayBack Designs MPD-8 DAC with fibre stream specifically, for the VM-1a headphone amp. For me, the very high cost of this DAC is worth it. Just extraordinary sound whenever I add better gear to the SR1a or CA-1a. I try to work with these earphones on, but I stop so many times to just listen and then it is about an hour later. |
Another option for EQ is to talk with Mitch Barnet of accuratesound.ca. Since you are ROON user you can get better EQ using Convolution filters inside ROON. This is better than the standard ROON EQ. Mitch can make them for any phone. He is a bit of a genius at this. He did the EQ for my small office, and I also bought his Convolution filter for the SR1a. I no longer use that with the Lumin X1 DAC and VM-1a. Not needed for the VM-1a amp. Digital Room Calibration Services, Convolvers, Headphone Filtersets (accuratesound.ca) Store - Accurate Sound (headphone stuff)
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