Hello there! tldr: he4xx kinda fell apart and I’m deciding if I should fix them (headband, rattle, ear pads) or upgrade to something with better build quality and a better planar experience? I got He4xx’s a couple years back and had some rattling and the pads were coming unglued. I ended up going back to my hd6xxs, which I adore. I recently wanted to get back into planar. I pulled them back out and really enjoy them (although initially something sounds off). I was going to get replacement pads and realize the head parts is shedding everywhere. Is it worth investing in repairing these with a new headband and pads, while seeing if I can fix the rattle, or should I just upgrade. If I upgrade I would probably want a plane around 500 or less. Is there a recommendation? I was looking at the dc aeon x or the edition xs (although I’ve seen those might not be comfortable. Is there any suggestions for how to proceed? I appreciate you taking the time!
Aug 2, 2024
I'm looking to spend under $350 AUD on a tube headphone amplifier, which comes out to around $250-300 USD, and am looking for some suggestions.
I'm struggling to track down a Little Dot MK III which would have been my first thought, but can get a Maverick Audio TubeMagic A1 w/ Raytheon 6AK5 tubes for under $250 USD including postage which is a pretty tempting proposal.
From the wise users of Massdrop I was looking for some other suggestions that I may not know about.
For reference, I'm only interested in the Headphone amp aspect, not bothered by DAC or Stereo Amplification as I have an SMSL M8A and I'm not planning on driving speakers.
I currently use HiFiMAN HE4XX's and Oppo PM-3's and will be looking at getting some Monolith M1060's in the future.
Thanks in advance for your Suggestions everyone!
Cheers