Please Help Weed Them Out
Hello All, I'm interested in a set of headphones to plug into my Benchmark HPA-4 pre-amp with headphone amp. My needs are as follows:
Over the ear closed back with good isolation
"V" shaped sound signature as my past headphones Senheiser HD600 had almost no bass to speak of. Music taste mostly soft rock and jazz
3.5mm TS connectors so I can use a 15 foot Balanced cable I already have.
Now for the kicker... my budget is $100 to $300 I have seen some (Hifiman), but I don't know if they have good bass, or if they're like the Senheiser 600's
Please any suggestions to start me on the right path will be helpful.
The Hifiman HE-R10D is available at a steep discount and worth looking at if you can stretch a bit. Here’s a review that does a good job describing its sound characteristics — seems like it provides some of the things you’re looking for… https://headfonics.com/hifiman-he-r10d-review/ Another one you might wanna look at is the Meze 99 Noir. Hope this helps, and best of luck.
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The Sundara seems to be a bit bass shy, which is why I didn’t recommend it… Here’s a review of the R9 by the same chap who reviewed the R10D and he makes several helpful comparisons. The R9 seems to be even more bass heavy and colored with less treble detail — sounds like they were shooting for more of a Beats sound than a more neutral and linear audiophile tuning. Depends what you’re looking for. |
Just a word of warning. Most preamps with headphone outputs have extremely inferior ones. I don’t know this for certain about the Benchmark, but it is very, very likely. It takes a lot of effort / cost to produce a good headphone amp (think building an amp). You can see my current headphone system under my user ID. I took me over ten years to learn / assemble a great headphone system My headphone amp produces enough current to power speaker.
Given the poor quality of most preamp outputs (in particular, lack of current) I would recommend getting headphones that are very easily driven. There are two that come to mind Focal and Ultrasond. Go as high up (think used) as you can go. |
