They're my favourite Sennheisers under $500 (haven't really tried their high-end stuff), highly recommended.

You are right

endgame is a mindset

Interesting perspective for sure. I got into this mainly coming from live sound and studio work and wanting something enjoyable but accurate and detailed enough to mix on when I’m traveling (or just need to not wake up my kids mixing at 2am). I agree that critical listening can be fatiguing but I haven’t figured out a way to stop. Its definitely ruined some music for me that I liked before I was listening more critically. As far as gear I do the same as I do with gear for live sound. I buy the most practical thing that will give me all the tools I want/need. As better tools come out I sell old gear and upgrade, I think headphones are kind of the same idea. I don’t want 200 pairs of headphones sitting on a shelf but if I hear one that will do the job better than my daily drivers I’m probably going to upgrade.

> AKG K612 Pro

Always wanted to try a HD560s, never have though. I'm in upper middle class fi hell these days.

Do people really not hear the difference between cables? At least for my speakers, I noticed a significant difference in quality just from switching rca cables. Granted it was just going from a 5 dollar cable to like a 20 dollar one but it was absolutely audible

You're not an audiophile unless you sit with your amp on your chest.

With headphones my only ones are the grado sr60 and they are too shrill and don’t have enough bass for my tastes so I’m looking at getting either a focal clear or lcd 2. But As far as speakers go, I’m very happy with my wharfedale Dentons I got for Christmas.

I have 10+ iems and although I have a current favorite I enjoy trying new/different sets. Sometimes I'll grab a certain set when I feel like listening to specific music. This is most likely due to the wide variety of music I enjoy. I doubt I'll ever buy a set and decide not to ever purchase another. As long as you're not using your mortgage/car payment..... enjoy the ride!

I’m pretty close. Ifi PowerStation, IFI Silencer+ , topping U90, D90LE and A90 Discrete stack for my home setup.

I am a believer in cables because I kept wanting a lot more pricey gear until a UK provider called futureshop passed me some “audiophile” cables.

Thought they were bullshit at first but turns out these do what it says on the box, these cables genuinely make more of a difference than any digital/audio cable upgrade and they transformed the sound.

I had to swap my XLRS out because if you have a setup on good power cables there isn’t that much harshness in treble at all and if you add silver in it emphasises the presence region so symbols actually hurt to listen to. Moved onto copper xlrs and now I’m nearly satisfied.

Back in 2007 I was happy with my X-Fi Elite Pro -> Gilmore Lite / Little Dot Mk2+ -> Sennheiser HD580. I just moved on to other hobbies. Eventually my gear started to fall apart so I got back into the hobby

Same! I have a whole web of mounted cables under and around my desk for both of my over-ears so it's a pain to take those completely out when I want to walk around with one. Can't do anything about the DT770 cable but being able to walk the dog with my Sennys is clutch.

that has been an inconvenience, but I'll accept the tradeoff. like I said, it's a little bit like wireless once you hit a certain point. at any time I can get up and move around the room mostly untethered

Been in that sitch too. The K712 came with a small python, and it needs a cable switch if it ever leaves the desk

Yes. I stopped after picking up a pair of LCD-X and UM MEST mk 1. After trialing a bunch of top of the line cans and IEMs, I realized EQing my current gear got me close enough and I would need to spend $4k+ to get tangible results I can notice. Though I will say I’m still interested by novel gear such as earbuds and CIEMs.

You should be EQing things, I'm not saying you shouldn't. We can disagree about the details, that's ok but microphones and speakers are the same devices with the same limitations.

Is the CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram the entirety of a projected image?

I used to own Arya v2, and they were better in most respects. But I still went back to the 6XX for the tonality. Most of my listening is just quiet, background music while I'm on reddit, so it was worth it to sell the Aryas and put that money elsewhere. This is a fantastic combo, and I have my PEQ adjusted perfectly to my tastes. I haven't heard the HD600, but they probably sound about the same when EQ'd. I'm glad you've found what makes you happy. Satisfaction is elusive to too many.

> Tacables Obsidian

The spider graph that they include in product page explaining "sound features" of the cable is really funny.

I recently did the opposite. Bought a 3 foot cable to be able to listen to my HD600s around the house without having to buttfuck the cable with hair ties, lol.

Similar boat here. I adore my M1570's and I also have a set of ATH-R70x that are very good but can't match the soundstage of the M1570. I rarely use either of them for music though I've found both to be exceptional at it. The M1570's have spoiled me and thus far none of the budget hotness you read about on this sub are an upgrade so I've stopped for now.

Your mention of the HD800S has me intrigued, though, and I'm also very interested in the LCD-GX. Though I love the M1570s I've come to appreciate the lighter weight of the R70x. But given that I'm pretty happy right now the cost of an upgrade just doesn't feel justifiable to me.

As i know there is a rule, source output 1/8 max impendance of the headphone, where FR does not change. Its something different.

My setup:

WIN PC--> Apple Dongle-->Extension Cable--> Cable X or Y or Z--> Sennheiser ie 600

I hear a difference in all 3 cables, and prefer a cheap 16 core silber platted cable.

And for sure its not some placebo, and i hate the fact i hear a difference, but there is one.

Cant say what changes, and the fact companies selling this very expensive cables cant tell me hard facts like measurements too, makes me believe its not this relevant.

So in the future i will keep an eye on this, but never spend huge money on cables.

I understand it a little bit different obviously.

Imo applying the Harman Curve to a headphone is no different than running Audyssey or Dirac on your Stereo (or surround) setup.

Of course it is a little bit different because for a stereo setup the Speakers sound different depending on the placement. A speaker in a corner will be louder than a speaker placed against only one wall. Moreso the lower frequencies are amplified more than the higher frequencies. Straightening this change in FR is a good thing and i think most people would agree that hearing the "correct" frequencies (aka "as the artist intended") is better than hearing the unadulterated "original" speaker sound.

However the part of straightening the FR is the same for headphones. ...To an extent at least.

Because then there is a reason why all the Sennheisers and Hifimans do not play back a perfectly flat curve when measured off the factory. (And neither do any Speakers that are high rated and desired by enthusiasts.)

Recording and/or mixing equipment is inherently different in itself. This is why you are wrong with the microphone analogy. Yes, you can plug a headphone into a microphone port and even record something. But a headphone is designed to to play back what a microphone is designed for- recording this playback. This means that the merits and effects of changing a recording versus changing a playback curve are not really comparable.

Let me introduce an analogy about a different kind of reproduction. I work with printers, but also when "base lining" other devices, like TVs or Projectors, that reproduce color (in contrast to sound) you are limited by the weakest link. When you want a couple of devices to produce the same colors you test which device has the smallest color range and then tune down the other devices to this base line. You can only go "so" black for example and you can not make the brighter TV go darker, you have to brighten up the darker screen.

When comparing two speakers or headphones against a "known good" and/or desired FR and sample A has a dip at let's say 4k and the desired curve has no dip there this frequency IS THERE, its just "less loud". It is played back and you CAN add it, contrary to the color analogy. I agree that, applying an EQ has some effects on the signal and there are of course physical limits with the actual driver and at some point the driver can not "go higher" and will distort the signal there is a beautyful thing in it. Because you can just stop applying the EQ at a point before distortion and effects start occuring. And at normal listening levels you can do a lot of EQ or DSPing before a human ear will be able to make out differences that are actually caused by "physical distortion of the driver"... Unless we are talking about 1$ airplane earbuds. Then maybe... ;)

You may not be able to match 100% of any given target curve every time, but you can try to get as close as possible. So why not do it?

Right now I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel price wise and I'm pretty content. I'm using Moondrop Chus on my phone/Switch and KSC75 for my laptop and I'm content with this. Ideally once one of these break, I have the money to upgrade to something that replaces it, but for now I'm happy with the IEM/open back combo

I settled on ESP-950 as a long term setup after listening to nearly every high end option on the market circa 2015.

Once you achieve minimal distortion and can EQ to taste there's really very little difference between open cans in my experience. Minor differences in soundstage, maybe.

Then Raal released the SR-1a which to me seemed like it might actually be a step function upgrade due to the difference in presentation having significantly higher involvement of the pinna. Been enjoying it but damn is it placement finicky.

Hard to argue