So What's Your Gear?

In an effort to help folks know what your personal experiences are and make it search able, I thought we could start off by listing the gear you have now and what you have used in the past. Feel free to embellish with stories ;-)

I'm relatively knew to headphone listening getting rather serious in the last couple of years. I don't have a separate head phone rig for the house yet, but am considering one. All my experience is in the portable field.

For Players I started with and moved too:
iRiver H10 20gb (brick) > Sansa E230 > Sansa Clip (still used for Audio Books) > Cowon J3

For IEM's:
Sony Ear buds > Bose IE2 > Phonak Audeo PFE 112 > Westone 4r's

For Head phones:
Koss Porta Pro > Audio Technica M-50's > Audio Techinica ANC7b's Noise cancelers.

Bluetooth:
Motorola SD10 - HD
Used for mowing the lawn, yard work, and building projects. Not the best for sound but make it convenient for answering the phone and not having the player in my pocket or being encumbered by wires.

The Porta Pros still get used in the garage. The M-50's get used in the house on one of the rigs, and the 7b's get carried with me for flying and listening to audio books. The 7b's haven't got any music duty yet because the I prefer the sound form IEM's.

I don't have any experience with head phone Amps or DACs. All of the impedance ratings of my phones don't really require them. All of my music is ripped to FLAC. A time consuming process, but well worth the time.

I'm so happy with the Westone 4r's that I'm considering getting some custom IEM's from JHAudio.

So what's your gear?


Scott

I only use headphones for my work setup. That consists of Sennheiser HD-650, Wadia 170 iTransport, iPod Classic (Apple Lossless), and a Benchmark DAC1.

I use a couple different headphones for a couple different things..
Sennheiser HD 650 along with a MSII DAC for morning listening

Iphone and B&W P5 for lunch listening at work and while traveling.

Audio Technica AD700 for gaming connected to my Yammy AVR

would love to try some Denon woodies at some point as well as some other travel ones that might be better value than the B&Ws, also would like to get a decent Amp/DAC at some point. such as a Burson or CEntrance Dacmini or others.

Work I use SkullCandy HESH on my Soundblaster MP3+ DAC.

Home I use AKG 271 MKII's

IEM's I use Etymotic HF3s for my iPhone or whatever I plug them into.

Right now my Sennheiser HD600's and Denon DVD 2900 sit waiting till I bring home one of these to complete the headphone rig...

http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa6se.html

I got to listen this with my headphones at the Capital Audiofest...and was blown away!

When I use headphones I put on a pair of Grado SR80i. A great sounding headphone at a low price.

@ the gym:

Klipsch Image S4 IEMs w/ foam ear plugs + iPod Classic filled w/ AAC lossless or my Galaxy S2 w/ FLAC

@ home:

Sennheiser HD 600s, but only used in my bedroom system. X-Fi Titanium HD SPDIF or SB Touch -> DACmagic -> NAD Integrated -> pre-out (not affected by NAD volume control) -> Schiit Asgard headphone amp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Strong Bad

Right now my Sennheiser HD600's and Denon DVD 2900 sit waiting till I bring home one of these to complete the headphone rig...

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Is this system going to be completely stand-alone?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madmax

Is this system going to be completely stand-alone?

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Yes, completely stand-alone.

Headphones: AKG K-550, HiFiMAN HE-6, Shure SE420-K, Koss PortaPro

Headphone Amp: Wyred 4 Sound mINT

Portable Player: Zune HD

Headphones: Alessandro Music Series One, Sony MDR-V6, Westone3, Yuin PK3, Polk UltraFit 1000, Koss KSC-35

Headphone Amps: Meier Porta Corda II, Meier Headfive, Audioengine D1 (DAC and Headphone Amp)

Players: iPhone 4, iPad (third generation), iPod Shuffle 1st Generation

Short list of Headphones I want: Alessandro Music Series Two, Westone 4r, Senheisser HD-800, PSB M4U2, TBD pair of Shure closed headphone. JHAudio JH16s, and many others too numerous to mention here.

Short list of Headphone Amps I want (in decreasing order of likelihood of me actually purchasing them): Fiio E7, something with Tubes, Something made by Ray Samuels Audio.

Headphones
Senn hd-650 with cardas cable
Grado sr-100
Stax sr-202
stax sr-404
stax sr-40

Amps
ASL mg-head
Stax srm313
Stax srm1 mkII
Extata hybrid

DACS
Audio gd nfb3
Pico
Monica NOS usb

Quote:

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Originally Posted by coolsax

I use a couple different headphones for a couple different things..
Sennheiser HD 650 along with a MSII DAC for morning listening

Iphone and B&W P5 for lunch listening at work and while traveling.

Audio Technica AD700 for gaming connected to my Yammy AVR

would love to try some Denon woodies at some point as well as some other travel ones that might be better value than the B&Ws, also would like to get a decent Amp/DAC at some point. such as a Burson or CEntrance Dacmini or others.

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Out of curiosity, did your Frisco buddy ever jump into the hobby?

I just recently sold off my modded Darkvoice 336SE. I'll probably be picking up another amp within the next couple of months, but for now I am content having my stereo system and revamping the headphone setup that I used all summer. Amp/DAC at work is just a Nuforce uDAC 2.

Headphones are HD650s and D2000s. The Sennheisers are completely stock, but I swapped the cable on the Denons to be modular (mini-XLR connector in the line so I can swap between balanced/unbalanced/short/long cables, if a situation calls for it)

By the way, the Darkvoice/Sennheiser pairing - amazing. My next amp will probably be a SET tube design as well. Maybe I'll build a Bottlehead Crack.

Players
Mainly I just use my Galaxy Nexus phone unless I'm on a plane then I'll bring my iPod 80gig.

Earbuds
Polk UltraFit 6000 except on my laptop which I use a pair of Wicked Audio Wicked Little Buds (I really don't need sound quality watching YouTube videos)

Headphones
Beats Solo HD until I get my UltraFocus 8000 then my wife is getting the Solos. On my gaming PC I use a pair of Plantronics Audio 360.

Bluetooth
Motorola MOTOROKR S305 for those times I need to be hands-free and expecting a call.

Beats by dre, with android galaxy epic 4g slider and nuetron app utilizing ambiophonics, 32bit da converter and 5 band continuously adjustable parametric eq! Niiiice! And when I'm not using that I have an ipod with all music downloaded using apple lossless compression with a 5 band earthquke parametric eq for the headfone amp

Damn Tony, just reading that hurt my ears. :cheesygrin:

You should come try it! Stuff rocks and sounds awesome specially with that nuetron app, if you have and android try it out, you won't be dissapointed!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DSkip

Out of curiosity, did your Frisco buddy ever jump into the hobby?

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No he hasn't really though he did finally pickup a pair of cheap sennheisers. He just doesn't really have the means to really get into it as much as I think he'd like to.

I Love listening to Headphones of a LIVE concert event..... it makes me feel like i'm there.

DAC: Stello DA100 Signature
Headamp: Darkvoice 336SE (upgraded)
Headphones: Sennheiser HD650, Denon AH-D2000

The buyer for the 336SE sent it back because it wasn't a "big enough upgrade" over his other amp. :evil: Not that I'm upset to have it back. It's awesome. :cheesygrin:

PC Setup
Asus Xonar
Sennheiser HD598

Headphones
Ultrasone Pro750, Beyerdynamic dt770, Sennheiser HD240 - these are mostly used for recording. Looking into getting some nice open back full size headphones for listening and mixing.

Earbuds
Had Shure E3c and E4 - my world changed when I got my Westone UM3s. Polk Ultrafit 3000s for the gym.

Players
Have had a variety of Cowons and a few iPods over the years. Now, primarily Macbook Pro or Droid RAZR. Going to pick up another Cowon product at some point.

DAC/amp
HeadRoom Total Bithead. Variety of pro audio interfaces.

Headphones shmedphones!:razz:

Headphones: AKG Q701
HP Amp: AMB M3
DAC: Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 :cheesygrin:

@blehmbo - the Q701s are definitely on my short list for next purchase. i am mainly looking for accuracy and detail. comments...?

I only have Blutooth Plantronics back beat 903 I think. They are great for MTB rides. Battery lasts a long time and the wrap around does a good job of helping them make it home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atoysruskid

@blehmbo - the Q701s are definitely on my short list for next purchase. i am mainly looking for accuracy and detail. comments...?

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I think they sound very accurate and detailed. Some say they lack bass, but to my ears the bass is accurate. Have you listened to a pair?

For gaming I use Sennheiser PC 360 + Astro Mixamp. But the mixamp is a bit wimpy and can't drive the PC360 very well, so I also use a FIIO7.

If anybody has a better suggestion for gaming I'm all ears! Something that could drive my PC360 headphones a little better.

In ear: Bowers & Wilkins C5
Listening: Sony MDR-V900hd, Fanny Wang 2000 series
Gaming: Turtle Beach Ear Force PX21
DJ: Technics RP-DH1200