I don’t know much about headphones, and what to buy a pair.
- Thread starter liam rtr
- Start date
Geigartt
Active Member
Let me start by saying my inner ear(s) have been compromised by at least 20% for 10 months; local ENT doctors are not worth salt. I will try one more specialist in NYC and then resign myself to - I don't know what yet. Seems like not productive to throw money at cans, but I keep coming back to the base thought that good hearing aids are $5K and not all that great I hear (pun intended).
My TT goes to Pho tube preamp, goes to Rotel 1572 Intg amp, to the phones. I auditioned Sennh HD 820 using their HDV 820 preamp. Those two items are about $2100 each for both units; was disappointed with pad quality/fit out of the box and not appreciably better than the Lirics. Sent it back to Crutchfield who are great with their 60 day return policy.
The Hifiman Susvara cans are in the same price, tech category, in that you need their pre-amp as well; $4K to $8K depending on new or used. Can anybody explain pros and cons on Planar Magnetic, and Electrostatic ? Also it seems the Pho is primarily useful for accommodating MM or MC carts. I cannot find specs on any of these preamps re gain. Seems they all have a secret sauce, that shall remain secret., complicated by the cables/pins they utilize.
I'm open to medical advice as well as info on Stax and other units. Very slippery slope here when you get in this $$$ range that requires dedicated preamps with 5-pin cables and 580 V preamps that are pretty much required for the Stax cans.
Great thread, I admit I haven't gone through the links above yet, but I will.
My TT goes to Pho tube preamp, goes to Rotel 1572 Intg amp, to the phones. I auditioned Sennh HD 820 using their HDV 820 preamp. Those two items are about $2100 each for both units; was disappointed with pad quality/fit out of the box and not appreciably better than the Lirics. Sent it back to Crutchfield who are great with their 60 day return policy.
The Hifiman Susvara cans are in the same price, tech category, in that you need their pre-amp as well; $4K to $8K depending on new or used. Can anybody explain pros and cons on Planar Magnetic, and Electrostatic ? Also it seems the Pho is primarily useful for accommodating MM or MC carts. I cannot find specs on any of these preamps re gain. Seems they all have a secret sauce, that shall remain secret., complicated by the cables/pins they utilize.
I'm open to medical advice as well as info on Stax and other units. Very slippery slope here when you get in this $$$ range that requires dedicated preamps with 5-pin cables and 580 V preamps that are pretty much required for the Stax cans.
Great thread, I admit I haven't gone through the links above yet, but I will.
Last edited:
swechsler
Frog Whisperer
I'm not a big Apple fan, but the AirPod Pro 2 can supposedly function as a hearing aid. Sound quality is supposed to be pretty good too (probably not top of the line, but up there) for a Bluetooth headset. Might be worth investigating, especially if you already own an Apple device.
FWIW a good friend of mine who is both an audiophile and a musician has those $5K hearing aids you wear in your inner ear (they are invisible to others) and says headphones -any headphone of acceptable quality- have never sounded better in his life even though he's in his late 50's. He controls them via an iPhone app but he uses standard cans (mainly Focal Clear Pro), not AirPods. I don't know who manufactures his hearing aids but it's not Apple, who only provides the app. No Android version yet.
Fostex "T60RP" over here. There are many better ones for sure. But I am satisfied with these Fostex.
Sure thing, I'll give him a call tomorrow.