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After debating on spending quite a big chunk on headphones I pulled the trigger and bought the hd6xx and little dot mkiii as my first set of real headphones and amp a couple of months ago. I can’t believe I spent years listening to music on crappy gaming headsets or stock apple earbuds and didn’t know how bad it was. This setup has been my most used possession since I bought it and I can’t wait to continue listening to more music with it.

Good buys. Now unsub from r/headphone and any other headphone community while you still can!

Nice! My Darkvoice 336se came in today. I was expecting for it to take some time for the tubes burn in but it sounds amazing out of the box through my 650’s. Tubes for life. My wallet is in trouble

Do the tubes matter at headphone volumes?

Best advice I've ever heard next to, "disregard females, acquire currency."

You want to hear another one?

Get a memory foam neck pillow.

If you have a recliner chair or a similar (we call it dad chairs in my country) chair, this works wonders and the HD6.. range is not bothered or moved off your ears. I've dozed off numerous nights in the chair listening to any kind of music since I've gotten one as a gift from my gf. Best hardware upgrade ever to my headphone listening system :)

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Nice! I have the exact same setup. It sounds so good! I'm using 6n6p-ir as power tubes and GE JAN 5654w as drivers.

But is the difference to solid state big? I have the TA-26, rolled tubes and all and I'm wondering what other people experience since I wouldn't day that sound changed by much.

I miss my little dot mkiii. Perfect amp for sennheiser 6xx series.

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Difference can be massive depending on which amp you're looking at. I had a Valhalla 2 and an A90 and the difference was like night and day. I actually bought the A90 to replace the Valhalla 2 but just couldn't convince myself it was better; it's just such a different experience.

Yes-ish, having the DAC control volume and just crank the tubes makes the 'distortion' of the tubes really come out.

Having the tube control the volume and the DAC cranked makes it less likely for the distortion to come through

I hear quite a big difference in sound signature between the few tubes i have.

Congratulations. Now make sure you keep these and don't want to upgrade for the next 5 years atleast. Us audiophiles always have that upgrade itch, just bought myself a Neumann NHD20!

This is a stupid question since I’m a beginner, but does this include a DAC? And if not do you need a separate DAC? I really like this look and would like to get it for my 650s at some point!

I don’t plan on upgrading for a long time

I’m using a focusrite Scarlett as a dac just because I already had it. You don’t necessarily need a dac but if you’re plugging into a pc for example there’s a lot of electronic noise on the motherboard dac that an external dac won’t have

There's really little noise to no nose on a good motherboard, also if you're using a PC prefer the jack port on the Mobo directly and not the one connected on the front

I just Got HD600s and JDS labs setup. Not looking at headphones again for 5-10 years. I hope...

The half-donut looking things mainly used for traveling?

Yep! :) They've come far since the ones where you had to inflate them and pass out from breathing too much :D

That's a fantastic combo!

No.

I have a SB AE-5 > Modi >Valhalla 2 stack with HD800S, and HD660S.

There is a difference between the combinations (plugging into AE-5 directly vs Valhalla 2), most notably in the bass.

The biggest difference is the HD800S vs the HD660S. The HD800S straight up destroy the 660S. It's like sitting in a concert hall versus wearing headphones. Worth noting I literally grew up playing in concert halls, and have a trained ear (cello.)

Interesting comment - currently troubleshooting high-frequency ground loop noise between active studio monitors - JDS Labs Atom DAC-AMP combo to PC via USB. About to try ground noise isolator tho would be good to solve at source.

What mobo would solve this? Using ASUS PRIME B660M-A D4. There are ways to mitigate but so far no solve at source.

Why the 600s over the 660s or 6xxs? Just curious im new to headphones.

I found a thread asking people their top 5 at different prices or something. Many people said HD600 over and over. They rate good from Crinacle. It sounds like audiophile "purists" prefer the 600. I do a lot of EQ tuning with all of my equipment. especially car audio. So a good reference is also important to me.

Also Sweetwater has 2 or 3 years no interest.. so I pulled the trigger. I've got the Atom amp + and a Fiio dac but I'm looking at the Dx3pro+ I like the screen and people like the clicking knob.

Sounds like a nice setup! Currently trying to settle on a good pair of headphones and a dac/amp setup. Thanks for the reply!

Did you sell it or it got damaged?

I ran that exact same set up for a long time. I now have an Ananda but find myself missing the HDXX from time to time. Someday when I have more money I would love to buy another one.

This AMP sales on Taobao for 179USD lol

Sold it. I had it for many years after moving I didn't need it in the (then) new apartment. Now one apartment change later I have every now and then checked if someone is selling ld.

From USB since it's digital and not signal I'd say it's a different problem and there shouldn't really be noise, I'm not sure it can come from a faulty power PSU but maybe check it, and your DAC since in the end he's the one converting the signal and probably at fault ? I'm really not sure of anything but I'd say those are you leads. USB is the same protocol on all Mobo, they should all output the same data (varying according to spec like 2, 3.0, 3.1, etc.), So unless you USB port is faulty the Mobo quality won't change the output

Multiple desktop PC systems create very comparable "garble computer noise" with the exception of my laptop for some reason. RCA ground loop isolator solves problem.

Why would he use a ground loop isolator on USB ?

DAC connects to AMP via RCA

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Nobody does on new gear day.