Can recommendations

[Vinyl-ant]

As mentioned in outher threads which i wont pollute with this, i have lost the magic somewhat with my main system. not in terms of sound it still sounds as it did, but in terms of motivation, time, circumstances and apathy.

I have found abit of the magic in a small more personal way with the little headphone system that i have put together sort of on the cheap. Cheap in relative terms.

At the moment it consists of my jvc ql-y3f, benedict audio phono stage, wad hd83 amp that one of my friends loaned me, and a succession of different cans.

This initially started as tidal on a phone and some b&w p5s. Then added an astell and kern bluetooth dac. Mr fretless kindly sent me some p7s which are at the moment with my dad, the collection grew into several pairs of sennheiser momentums (wired) which are in use by my kids, then onto some planars in the form of fostex t50rps.

I then dropped on some really cheap hifiman deva planars that were cheap because they didnt have the bluetooth widget so are wired. Didnt bother me, i have the astell and kern

It then morphed again.

And will morph slightly again shortly

Now i am a lazy godfornothing government pleb rather than an enterprising small business owner according to the daily heil, i have some actual honest to god actual money to spend. And its burning a hole.

At the moment the stage 1 of the 'im getting a little bit obsessed and want to tweak around' plans are to have the jvc replaced by my oracle delphi with an sme 309 on it because the jvc is playing up a little. I'll do this first. the wad is currently in and out of this little setup as i bought a myryad z40 can amp which is really quite nice, and i have another can amp built by a friend of mine that he asked me to audition and see what i think of it.

I have added a linn mimik cd player because the myryad has 4 inputs

So as of now, i have jvc, benedict audio phono, linn mimik, myryad z40, hifiman deva

I have plenty of decks to shuffle in and out, a cyrus cd7 if i want to faff with the cd, 3 headphone amps to play with and a load of cans.

But.

I think that the devas are the right path, between the fostex t50s and the devas i have settled on open back planars. And i want to improve on them.

The devas were a definite step up from the t50s in terms of clarity and realism, so whats the next step.
The sundaras are an obvious port of call, but wether they are a small increment better or a sideways move is the question. The devas cost me 60 quid. The fostexes cost me about 90, the sundaras are a fair whack more at 239 quid new from a couple of suppliers or somewhere around 200 second hand.
Its a bit of a punt to be shelling out 240 quid if they are just a bit different to the devas.

So what sort of alternatives are there? This is where im not altogether confident, because the amount of bollocks out there, as we all know, is astronomical.
And as a lowly government pleb, i cant have the daily fail accusing me of being an overpaid lazy leftie for spending too much on something no better.

I was looking at the quad era 1 secondhand which pop up every so often for 350 ish, im not averse to spending some decent coin, but what to do, what to do!

Suggestions for something to look at, research, pine over, in the 250 to 400 range, that are open back planars, from people who i actually consider to have a valid opinion are rather more useful to me than the online rantings of billybollocks21 on the hifiwank forum who is a rabid [insert company name here] fanboy

Answers on a postcard....

Onwards!

[savvypaul]

I've had Sundaras here and enjoyed them. Not compared them to the others. Deals normally available so do shop around.

Tomasz does some work for HiFiMan, so he can probably give you a good insight into the sweet spots in their range.

(I'm telling a Yorkshireman to shop around )

[Fretless]

I also have a pair of Sundara's and find them very pleasant.

Have a look at the German Maestro GMP 400 and 450, these have a planar-like speed and accuracy (need a solid amp though).



Edit: for advice on cans try George Hincapie - he has heard just about everything.

[Vinyl-ant]

Edit: for advice on cans try George Hincapie - he has heard just about everything.

Hopefully he will be along at some point, seems the sundaras are well regarded.

Budget has gone up, or should i say, can go up if i keep my mouth shut, got some tax back that she who must be obeyed doesnt know about...

[Vinyl-ant]

Well i decided on the sundaras after looking at a load of other stuff, looked at the ananda and arya but declined as practically every reasonably coherent review i could find said that both tended towards a midrange dip and a top end peak, less so with the arya, but its something i do not want.

I cannot abide screech, and those two models seem easily provoked into it from my research, perhaps even voiced into it deliberately to sound detailed.

So, we will see what the sundaras are like, id much rather have something that is balanced top to bottom than something that is emphasised in some part of the range. If the sundaras are like the devas but nicer and fit my apparently small bonce better, then ill be happy enough.

Got them new from audio affair, (either 239 for black or 279 for silver with a case, got the black ones) breaking the habit of a lifetime by buying something new.

And as audio affair had the wiim mini streamer in stock, and offer free next day delivery, i bought another one of them at the same time to go with the cans.

I will be keeping my eye on the prices of the quad era 1's, they are, i think, the next port of call if i get upgradeitis

[Fretless]

I found this reasonably-priced cable to be a good upgrade for the Sundara's.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HansnBy-Upgrad ... bXRm&psc=1

And if you don't like it - just send it back!

[Vinyl-ant]

Cool, ta for that, ill look into that cable once i have got a handle on the stock cans.

Plenty of faffing potential

[Vinyl-ant]

These sundaras are bloody good straight out of the box

Fit is much better than the devas for me and they seem to be tuned very flat in terms of frequency response. (They wont be the response graph is probably gently u shaped) Doesnt seem to be a hole anywhere, the devas seem to have a dip in the midrange compararively. They seem more dynamic, and better balanced.

I can see straight away why these things are still the darlings

The devas are a little warmer, a little smoother, a little diffuse compared. tuned a bit different. These are right up my street.

I think these probably require a bit more poke up them to get the best out of them than the devas which are probably a bit more portable friendly

This is with the myryad z40 and the wiim mini using its own internal dac. I can see these things scaling very well with better source and amp components and it taking a lot of money to get something appreciably and obviously better, rather than just a slightly different flavour or something that has a different emphasis on some bit of the frequency range.

Next port of call will be the jvc. Or the oracle if i sort myself out and get it plumbed in.

Onwards!

[Vinyl-ant]

So we have had the sundaras a week. Ive used them for a number of hours and they seem to have got better, as you would expect.

So where are we at?

Wot i av dun, is to add a jds labs el dac 2+, and send the linn mimik back over to my dad, he was using it as he had no cd player before i cadged it back. So the headphone system stands as follows. Wiim mini into jds labs dac, jvc y3 into benedict audio phono stage, all into myryad z40, with the sundaras

The devas have also gone off to mi dads, he is using them off the end of an iphone or his ipad and says they are really good. The iphone/ipad must have a decent headphone out, he has some sort of little lightning to 3.5mm adapter. They actually fit on his head properly too.

I am really rather happy with this setup. The jds labs dac only has a few hours on it, but it seems very even handed and neutral, seems to be getting a bit more natural with a couple of hours on it. Exactly what i wanted from it. Better than the topping e30 on the end of the other wiim mini in the main system? Who knows, i cant be bothered to piss about finding out.

I still havent got around to swapping out the oracle for the jvc. It will get done eventually.

Need to stop spending though, this little lot (myryad, sundaras, wiim and jds) has cost me around 670 quid. I had forgot how fast it can get out of hand if you dont check yourself. I found myself looking at interconnects for it and then thought id better get off the internet immediately

Leave it the heck alone and just enjoy it you fool!