Need to build a headphone system

The selection of components is intimidating. I put my headphone system together over the last twenty years. I have owned a lot of headphones, amps, DACs and streamers… in many ways going back to the early 1980’s.

My desire is to have really musical, natural, and dynamic sound with great detail. I have owned electrostatic, and another dozen headphones. Amps from all over. For amps… Woo WA5 is so much better than anything I have ever owned or heard. This 300b design has enormous current and natural sound. It can grab any headphone and make it perform without a bit of analytical edge to it. While, I give so much credit to my Focal Utopia… turns out I listen to my Sennheiser 800s all the time over the top notch Focal, Audez, UltraSonde, Denon, and others. If all you need is the headphones and amp (not a top notch streamer and DAC)… then I highly recommend the Woo WA5… with a pair of Takatski 300B tubes… with Sennheiser HD800 headphones. This combo sounded so incredibly good to me it caused a $70K upgrade in my main system because my headphone system sounded sooo much better.

Given what you’re looking for I’d highly recommend the Hifiman HE1000 SE and the Quicksilver tube headphone amp.  The HE1000 SE rivals their $6000 Susvara headphones but are MUCH easier to drive and can be had for only $2799 ($700 discount) from their open box section on their site (I bought both my ‘phones from there and couldn’t tell them from brand new).  The Quicksilver amp can be had for only $1198 and is a huge value and would be a great pairing with the HE1000 SEs. So for $4000 you could have an awesome HeadFi system that rivals the best.  Here are a couple reviews FWIW…

https://soundnews.net/headphones/full-size/hifiman-he1000se-review-how-high-hifiman/

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/quicksilver-audio-headphone-class-a-triode-transformer-coupled-single-ended.25701/

Best of luck

If you want to think outside the box, literally, I could recommend the RAAL SR-1b earspeakers (nearfield ear monitors) with the Ti-1b transformer interface box.  You would need a headphone amp with a 4-pin XLR output that delivers a minimum of 2 wpc into either 16 or 32 ohms, so a pretty powerful headphone amp.  But there is nothing like the SR-1b in terms of spaciousness, speed, detail, and transparency with the RAAL ribbon drivers, and they should fit with your hearing aids since they have a pad that goes behind the ears.  Maybe not.  And the system should be within your budget.  The only downside is bass quality instead of quantity so some folks who like gobs of fat bass probably won't like the SR-1b.  Check out the RAAL Requisite website for more details.

http://www.raalrequisite.com

Go for the RAAL SR1b, at least on a home trial.

You could try out the SR1b with a $300 Schitt Jotunheim R RAAL amp (if you can still find one). Use the Star8 cable with the JR.

If you want to spend a bit more, the best amp for the RAAL is the VM-1a. It is a $7K tube headphone amp and really is the perfect match for both the RAAL SR1b and CA-1a phones. The SR1b sounds more like 2-channel and the CA-1a is more like headphones. With the VM-1a amp the CA-1a is incredibly dynamic. I think even bass heads would like it.

Word is starting to get out on the 2-channel community.

Oh, dear, the CA-1a is again something else! The HD-650 was already a bit of a revelation, but the RAAL quite simply steps up the game to an entirely different level. The increase in resolution is unbelievable, as is the further increased transparency. It’s that I know I just put on a headphone, but honestly, this had nothing to do with headphone listening in any way that I had experienced before. Jeroen is a more seasoned headphone listener than I am but he was as amazed as I was

In many ways, the CA-1a reminds me of Magnepan ribbon speakers, only with no crossovers and no room issues. Interestingly, that comparison also extends to the bass where the CA-1a is extremely fast and sublimely accurate, but not particularly robust or full. In fact, the entire frequency range is abundantly free from coloration and thickness, and the bass was simply no exception.

SAEQ Hyperion Ge and RAAL Requisite CA-1a | HFA - The Independent Source for Audio Equipment Reviews | Page 3 (hifi-advice.com)

The CA-1a is not even the best RAAL phone and the one that 2-channel folks should hear, that would be the SR1b.