For a little bit of down and dirty discussion, and because a lot can be learned from exclusion rather than inclusion, I figured I’d start a thread here and if it works out, maybe we can do the same for amps, DACs, whatever.
So the question is simple. If you could only have one pair of headphones what would you choose and why?
I’ve been sitting with my ZMF Eikons for a while and I’ve found myself paralyzed as to an upgrade. Space is limited for me and I am more of speaker guy than a headphone guy, so I’ve been steering my funds into my 2 channel system. But the paralysis isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’m very happy with my Eikons and there are many times I’ve experienced listening bliss with them. It’s just a good all around pair of headphones and from everything I’ve gathered it’s a better “value” than its VC big brother.
I hope to one day listen to a VC and make that determination myself.
This is an easy descision for me to make as my current stable of cans consist of the Eikons and a pair of HD600. For some of you with walls full of cans, I’m curious and look forward to read through responses.
I’ll take it further than headphone. If I could only have one transducer I would take mest mk2. They do everything well and I love the presentation. Everything else I like has at least one genre it falls on its face
For a long time my one headphone would have easily have been 1266tc. A few weeks ago I would have had trouble deciding between that and the susvara. As of right now, I’m leaning to the mysphere with the biggest reason I might not pick it being the fit/form factor.
I currently only have the TH900 Lawton Purplehearts but I think it’s still a tie between that and the TH909 with the edge toward the latter for being less aggressive.
Hd 6xx if I could only have one… I would have picked my VC but the weight and closed nature would make me not want to have it as my only set. The 6xx is just a terrific all rounder and sounds damn amazing on higher source gear, it’s also the set I’ve had the longest so I know it very well truly my reference can by which everything else is compared to.
But if we were including iems as well I might choose my u18s instead, I’m deep in love with this iem right now to the point where I’m thinking of going custom and making it a forever set
Th900 SB edition- as those are the first headphones that really wowed me while moving up the tier list. Honourable mention to hd600 on some tubes after very nice session I had yesterday.
It greatly depends on your situation. I very simply don’t use more than 1 iem regardless of how many I own, so as an all arounder I absalutely pick mest. That said, thummium, traillii, Mason FuSang, and MAD24 all undoubtedly outclass mest by 2+ tiers in technicalities. They just also all have one or more deal breaker for me as a sole IEM. Thummium doesn’t play great with all music. I find trailli can get overwhelmed and not separate the best with hyper complex stuff. FuSang can get kinda of disjointed and detached with complex stuff and vocals never seem to be able to get intimate. Lastly, mads just have too much mid bass. To top it off, none of them do the wierd involving staging that mests do that make me love them so much. The only thing I’ve found that could replace my sole iem is mad24 on a current druve amp. Problem is, thats massively inconvenient even though I own hpa-01m. Ultimataley, im kinda hoping mentor FuSang will be mest + more resolution but not going to keep ky hopes uo for a replacement for mests until then.
And yes btw, as an only transducer I do take mest also over d8kp/diana v2/susvara
I was having a similar conversation over DM earlier as well, since I recently sold both of my Focal Clears, but kept my Focal Elex and ZMF Eikon, both of which are lower-tier headphones. Use case matters a lot! (The Eikon is my work-all-day headphone and the Elex is my take-it-places, sounds-good-on-anything headphone.)
As for me, my headphones are still very much in flux: just in the last month or so, I think I sold four headphones (Clears, etc), I bought a used headphone (T1.2), borrowed another headphone to demo (AWKT), and I have another demo headphone en route in the mail (Mysphere 3.1), so I don’t feel like I can really answer this question for myself just yet. Maybe once my headphone collection gets more stable.
I’m currently thinking of giving up the Fostex Tr x00 with the Emu Ebony mod and looking for something else with a dynamic driver.
Or if I should dare to invest in the Lawton cup again.
On the other hand, I realise that my own demands have risen and that I could end up with a Zmf.
The Focal doesn’t really appeal to me, if it does then maybe the Celleste.
Apart from that, I haven’t found anything better in the dynamic driver range.
I would like to stress the Euforia amplifier more with more ohms in the headphones.
On the planar headphone side, I’m quite happy with the Lcd2C and Aeon R/T and enjoy it.
But that can change again if more punch is needed.
Of what I’ve owned and/or have had an extended in home audition with, I think I would choose an LCD-24. There was something with that piece I had on loan that just “clicked” instantly. I don’t know if was that particular unit, chain synergy, just fit the genres I listen too, or the fact it wasn’t for sale and I knew it had to go back.
I listened to it almost exclusively for the time I had it. It displaced a couple of my early favorites and had me questioning others…
If the circumstances of causing me to only own 1 headphone were due to sudden financial issues, I’d keep my Porta Pros, lol. If it is just a question of which one I own that I like the best, it is the Abyss Diana V2.
