TLDR: Thanks to everyone on this forum, I finally achieved satisfaction from my audio setup. I still got my “End Game” setup specifically for my ATH-L3000 coming maybe July or August, but just wanted to post this and say thank you to this community since I will probably most likely go back to just lurking in this forum. I will make most likely another post when my other “End Game” setup specifically for my ATH-L3000 arrives in the ATH Thread. But just in case if I don’t talk anymore, thanks for everything, you guys are awsome!
My Current Audio Chain:
ROON Rock - Intel NUC 7i7 > EMM Labs NS1 > [AES] Mojo Audio Mystique EVO Basic > [XLR] Allnic HPA-5000XL > 
Onkyo A800
My favorite headphones currently are the Onkyo A800 > ATH-L3000 > A toss-up in my collection (Depending on my mood).
What I look for in a headphone is Natural or Sweet Vocal Reproduction > Instrumental Timbre > Music sounds engaging and intimate > Music Weight (Don’t want the music to sound thin) > Soundstage (Reverb) > Bass > Sub-bass > Clarity (I think you can achieve a good amount of clarity with the source rather than just relying on the headphone, but you kinda need both headphone and equipment to get a good amount of clarity)
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- Intro:
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This is my “End Game” headphone setup to me. Shoutout to MON on his legendary Shit List and High-End DAC comparison articles, NickMimi for selling me his DDC and opening my eyes to the importance of sourcing, and Orrman (posting the Roon Rock in the Used Thread) and Polygonhell (selling me his NS1 streamer) on the used market and giving me the opportunity to complete the final piece of the puzzle on my headphone system.
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- Road to Satisfaction:
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With this current setup, I actually feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from this hobby that I have not felt since starting this hobby. I had some wow moments as I described in one of my first posts in this forum like listening to the Sennheiser HD600 for the first time, hearing my first decent clarity from an Audeze headphone, getting my hands on one of the most beautiful headphones the L3000, and my first discovery of my favorite headphone of all time the Onkyo A800. They wow me, but never satisfied me, hint why I was continuing to spend money to find this satisfaction that I thought was just impossible to achieve. That’s when I started focusing more on sources like my DAC and amp. Thanks to MON shitlist, I discover proud ownership of the Mojo Audio Mystique Evo Basic and the Allnic HPA-5000XL. I know MON shitlist features the Pro version of the Evo DAC, but I did a little research on my own and discover the basic version was perfect for someone with an inexpensive source like me. Plus, I think I bought the Mystique Evo DAC basic for like $3200-$3400 bucks, so I think it can’t get better than that under $4K and I could always upgrade the Mystique Evo DAC basic to the B4B version whenever I feel ready (Ben said he doesn’t do the Pro version anymore, only the B4B version in one of the post in another forum). Then, fast forward, 1 short conversation with NickMimi, he sold me his DDC and completely open my eyes to the world of audio sourcing. It was like I had tunnel vision before and he got me out of that tunnel and I never look at the audio world the same ever again. Now, when I see someone with a 10k plus setup and using their PC without any reclocker, server/streamer, or any type of DDC, I just shake my head lol. Then, I forgot who, but someone in this forum ask why should they upgrade their Pi2AES. I was thinking the same thing because the Pi2AES has a black background 90% of the time. Was it really worth spending a couple of thousands more for the extra 5% - 8%? After everybody contributed to answering his questions, it kinda had an AoE (Area of Effect) and influence me as well on upgrading my Pi2AES even though I was only lurking. Then Orrman posted a pretty cheap Roon Rock in the Used deal thread. Frame 1, sent a message to the seller in USAM. The build seems good and the processor is a 7th generation i7 and a 256GB M.2SSD. I think that should be good enough for me. Then Polygonhell posted his NS1 streamer. That one I had to think about and research if it’s worth spending about 10x the price of a Pi2AES. After doing some research, I ask Polygonhell a personal question like his reason for buying the NS1 to help convince me on spending 10x on the Pi2AES I have almost no complaint about it. His reason pretty much aligned with mine and seeing him move up the food chain, I thought I will take the risk and completed the purchase. Of course, it goes without saying I’ve been completely satisfied with my purchase as now I feel there is no need in upgrading my system any further except for cables 
. I honestly can’t think it could get better than what I currently have unless I cross over that line of spending $6K plus on a single piece of equipment… Side note, I’ve also got my satisfaction on my DSD/portable itch with the Cayin N7 DAP .
Thank you everyone in this forum, this forum is truly knowledgeable and actually productive when it comes to learning audio and improving one’s gear.
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- Why This Is My “End Game”:
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The reason why I think I achieved my personal “End Game” headphone setup is that I can’t see myself spending more than $6K+ on a single product for my headphone setups. With everything getting more expensive nowadays, I got to get a salary boost if I want to spend 2k+ on anything again without taking more than a couple months to save for it. Luckily, before everything gotten expensive, I have gotten all my stuff used except my DAP, tube amp, and D8K Pro LE so I was able to not cross that line of spending over $6K on a single piece of equipment. I honestly think for under $6K for each product, this fits my needs. The most expensive product I paid for in my chain is the Allnic HPA-5000XL and that was because I couldn’t find that amp used, I had to buy it “new” but at least I got a 2 years warranty on it. The reason for wanting to stop here at $6K is that I got to draw the line somewhere. When starting this hobby, I was like, “wow, $100+ is so expensive, this must be amazing”. Then replace $100+ to $1000+ to $3000+ and now I finally decided to cap it to $6000 since I already went past $5000+ already… Anyways, point being is that I want to stop myself before I dig into the $10K territory, after that who knows if there is coming back from that… Want to start focusing that cash on other things like traveling more again like going to France Strasbourg for Christmas and start collecting guitars. I only got a Stratocaster right now, want to pick up a Yamaha next to be honest.
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- Why I Chose The $400 Onkyo A800 As My End Game Headphone:
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I love the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee headphone, it is a timeless classic headphone. I could try to get 1 more amp to drive the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee to its max potential, but I have 2 reasons that are holding me back. 1 is that the Allnic HPA-5000XL does a very good job already driving that headphone on a great level of sound quality. 2 is that my Onkyo A800 to me is the endgame for people that love the older Sennheiser headphones. The Onkyo A800 to me is the modern take on the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee and OG HD600 where vocals are the main star for those headphones, the smooth treble and the midrange is something to die for. The Onkyo A800 has all that but added more overall bass range (sub-bass and bass) to its sound signature. Because the Onkyo A800 covers pretty much everything across the board from the low-frequency range of bass to the high-frequency range in treble, it feels like I am not missing out on anything in my music. It hits the lowest frequency for the electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and cellos covering all of their range while at the same time still being able to make the violin sings when it needs to.
No other headphones have bested the Onkyo A800 when it comes to percussion instruments, bass guitars, and acoustic guitars. Every time I hear the boom bah bah boom bah bah boom from the snare and bass drums, it really gives me that punch and kicks to it on the Onkyo A800 (it might be thanks to the Onkyo covering the bass range well). The bass on the Onkyo A800 has some weight, physical rumble, and the bass is very powerful. Even though it has all this powerful bass, you can still be able to make the vocals (especially male) truly shine for the Onkyo A800 with the right gears. It truly has great synergy for any genre of music even if there are no vocals or isn’t bass-heavy. The only issue is that the sub-bass can get really crazy with the Onkyo A800 where it will overpower the rest of the music. That is where the Allnic HPA-5000XL comes in. My Allnic HPA-5000XL controls the sub-bass and bass, making the sub-bass have less decay there (less rumble), while still retaining a fantastic clean powerful bass sound that doesn’t bleed too much into the music, letting the midrange and vocals shine more.
(This bass paragraph review is from my Allnic 100 hours impression review, but I think it fit here)
Bass with the Onkyo A800 + Allnic HPA-5000XL is clean. For bass, I really like the Onkyo A800 > ATH L3000 > D8K Pro LE on the Allnic HPA-5000XL. The Onyko A800 covers everything in bass from sub-bass to bass. The Onkyo has that visceral sub-bass for the physical part of the music and still has a clean bass sound. I used the song Dove by Cymande and I was just jamming the whole time. Let me quote a fellow Redditor on how clean a bass guitar should be, “No rattle, no fret buzz, no compression twang, no distortion, no extra notes ringing, no amp hiss, and no hum.” That was really clean and I am not sure if any other amp could get cleaner than the Allnic HPA-5000XL at least under the 10K mark. For Rap songs with clean bass, I use Break the Bank by Schoolboy Q. As expected, the bass in that song was clean, not muddy at all, just very clean as it should be. Subbass rumble was tamer in the Allnic HPA-5000XL and didn’t really overpower the music. The Allnic HPA-5000XL had a nice balance of sub-bass rumble while making sure the songs have a nice amount of clarity. I use the song Brambleton by Pusha T. Sub-bass had more rumble in the B22 amp, but it muddied up the music and can overpower the rest of the songs. That is why I found the Allnic HPA-5000XL perfect for my favorite headphone Onyko A800. The Onkyo A800 actually has a good level of clarity. The Onyko A800 clarity will get overpowered if you cannot tame the bass. The Allnic HPA-5000XL tames the bass with added benefits. The soundstage on the Onkyo A800 and the Allnic HPA-5000XL is good enough. The Onkyo A800 has a more intimate soundstage, but it’s real dependant on the recording. The Onkyo A800 could easily achieve a more 3D soundstage with the Allnic HPA-5000XL. I’m glad I actually chose right on the first high-level tube on taming the Onkyo A800, only had to spend a big 1 time on my perfect amp for my Onkyo A800.
I want to say because of the amazing bass range of the Onkyo A800 and the Allnic HPA-5000XL tube distortion, male and female vocals have more weight and texture to them making them feel more organic instead of lifeless. It doesn’t have that clarity like the Audeze LCD-5 studio-quality vocals, but the Onkyo A800 added texture and weight makes the vocals feel and sound more alive. I think that’s also thanks to the Onkyo A800 sub-bass since that is the more physical part of the music and I can actually feel the sounds in my ears, but correct me if I’m wrong there (not confident on that one).
Onyko collaborated with Gibson when they tune the A800. You can tell because acoustic instruments in general sound very special with the A800. Piano on the song Spirited Away, film score: One Summer Day, the Onkyo A800 captures the piano sound beauty almost too perfectly to the point where tears were swelling up near my eyes. It’s also nostalgia, but I will give credit to the Onkyo A800 on that one. Then playing the song Piano Man by Billy Joel, even though I want to talk about the other frequency range like midrange and treble, the bass range is very important in music in my opinion. The reverb of the piano in the song Piano Man really gives the piano more character and the melody on it is just love. Let’s not forgot to talk about the acoustic guitar. With the song Roundabout by Yes, an acoustic guitar will echo in your ears at the beginning of the song. Then about 45 seconds into the song mixture of the bass and acoustic guitar play together. Even with all the other noise joining in, you can easily hear the acoustic guitar in your left ear being played intimately to you still providing great imaging. When listening to the drums, I got to listen to the song Give it Away by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Those snare drums reverb really hit and are impactful within the first seconds of the song. Again, I’m just praising the Onkyo A800 ability to replicate the instrument reverbs nicely. To me, the reverb is that special magic in the music to help give the instruments/vocals more character in sounding in a more realistic setting like in a room with acoustic reverb rather than them playing in a dry room.
Of course, Onkyo collaborating with Gibson, I gotta talk about the electric instruments! This is where Onkyo and Gibson nailed the sound of electric instruments and is the main reason why the Onkyo A800 is my favorite headphone of all time. For the electric bass, no other headphones come near the Onkyo A800. For electric guitar, the Onkyo A800 will always rank high on your list as electric guitar because they explode with these headphones in a good way. The only headphones that I think can match the Onkyo A800 for electric guitar are the king of rock headphones, the ATH-L3000 (hint, that is why the Onkyo A800 and ATH-L3000 are my favorite 2 headphones of all time). The song of choice I choose to test out the electric guitar and electric bass is From Now On by BAND-MAID (Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, and Drums). The song “From Now On” is purely instrumental with no vocals so I can truly focus on the instruments. A first couple of seconds into the song “From Now On”, the first thing you hear is 3 instruments, the Rhythm Guitar, Bass, and Drums playing at the same time. The rhythm guitar with that thick, destructive crunch guitar sound. While the bass and drums make sure to slam your ears making sure they got your full attention. Following up is the bright and clean crunchy guitar sound from the leading guitar riffs. The Onkyo unique music presentation let me lose myself in the music and just take me on a journey through these sick guitar riffs. Throughout most of the song, the lead guitarist is showing you why she is the star of the show. From 0:40 - 1:33, my adrenaline is rising with each passing note getting me even more hype by the passing second. I am just holding my breath, forgetting to breathe, because I am so entranced with her guitar sound. Then, I finally came back to my senses and remember to breathe around 1:33 when hearing the drums snap me out of the leading guitar spell. The bass maintains that ferocious growl in the song, making sure I get that visceral punch throughout the music. Then at 2:27 - 2:47, the bass is the main star of the show. The tone on that bass sound really digs deep into your soul making sure you remember her solo. That bass melody really grabs your attention leaving you in awe. Then for the rest of the song, head banger after head banger. The entire song From Now On by BAND-MAID is an experience and I highly recommend you give it a listen if you like the electric guitar and rock in general. What makes it an almost perfect experience is using the Onkyo A800 to listen to that song. I feel like other headphones compare to the Onyko A800, they are boring and lack excitement to me. The Onkyo A800 brings that musical energy with it making you want to stand up to every song and just move along with the music.
Even though clarity is not a strong point of the Onkyo A800, people will say it has a really good amount of clarity for its price range ($400). I think if the price is not a factor, probably won’t beat any of today’s TOTL in clarity. But the clarity is about $1500 for dynamic headphones in today’s market of headphones if I have to put a price on it and if you are able to tame the sub-bass range. And if you have my current setup, the veil is pretty paper thin. If you remove that paper-thin veil, then you got the D8K Pro LE. Yeah, the difference isn’t too far off in terms of clarity, but little differences matter a lot in this hobby, so not too far off actually means miles away in this hobby. I think too much clarity is a turn off to me like classic rock genres when looking for that creamy sound. I personally think the Onkyo A800 has a perfect amount of clarity for me to enjoy all genres, even the oldies. I think part of the reason the clarity and details are still really good on the Onkyo A800 with my setup is probably because of the Mystique Evo DAC and the NS1 streamer. Without it, clarity will be very veiled because of the overpowering bass. But I think the Onkyo A800 makes up for clarity with excellent timbre on almost everything making the instruments have more character and the way it makes music more engaging with its physical sub-bass.
Overall, the Onkyo A800 is my favorite headphone of all time due to its good balance tuning to let me enjoy any genre and media while still balancing a good amount of energy and fun in music and still retaining a good amount of technicality and clarity. Honestly, the Mystique EVO DAC really helps strengthen and maximize the Onkyo A800 positive traits of being an organic and musical headphone while still revealing a good amount of details in the music. Even though the Onkyo A800 is very easy to drive at 32 ohms, it is very picky on the source due to its very powerful bass range that can muddy up the rest of the music. The 32 ohms is a double edge sword, it’s easy to drive, but a lot of tube amps will make a lot of unwanted noises to the Onkyo A800 due to it being a sensitive headphone. With a powerful tube amp, you will be hearing hums and unwanted noise due to the Onkyo A800 being really sensitive. You will need a tube amp that will be able to drive basically iems with a black background. Also gotta find a DAC/AMP that won’t color the music too much while keeping a low distortion. Still need tubes to have more control on the bass and tube distortion is a must for me just because it gives the music a little more realism to me with the added body and texture to the music. I really think the Mojo Audio Mystique Evo is a match made in Heaven due to both bringing “realism” with their weighty notes and powerful bass. Both the Mystique Evo and Onkyo A800 combo truly deliver you that “analogue sound”. You will probably not find new details in your music, but you will find a uniquely refreshing experience with the Onkyo A800.
So the perfect combo for me is Roon Rock server and EMM NS1 streamer (No unwanted PC noises. Help retain a black background and clean signal, which helps hugely with clarity and imaging) > Mojo Audio Mystique Evo DAC (Boost the Onkyo A800 positive traits of being analogue sounding and organic with lots of details) > Allnic HPA-5000XL (Help drive the Onkyo A800 to its max potential with minimal added distortion and still retain a black background. The only added distortion is the tubes for a more musical sound of added body and texture to the music. I like the way MON describes it in his shit list, definitely a more raw, pure sound from its source. It only season (like a food seasoning) the music lightly instead of changing the music source sound drastically.) > Onkyo A800 using Caldera Thin Pads (the pads add more details while retaining a good amount of bass) with copper wires (sounds more organic than silver) / sometimes silver wires for the Cayin N7 DAP for more added details and bass.
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- Conclusion:
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I just wanted to make this post as maybe a final thank you. I will return back to just lurking in the forums. Can’t really contribute honestly because all the audio equipment I own is obscure and is my taste in music. I will make another post maybe in July or August on my other “End Game” setup specifically for my ATH-L3000 if there is no hiccup on that road…
Never tried Estats, but I don’t think I want to head down that rabbit hole especially after hearing a lot of issues about owning one without a warranty. One combo I do want to at least try is Stax 007 mk1 or Stax 007A mk1 (much prefer this one and I want this with the Blue Tact mod) + Stax 717 energizer amp combo.
For audio upgrades, I want to upgrade the Mystique Evo DAC basic to a superior version one day or just settle for basic. Buy a switch with some SFP ports. Change some cables here and there and buy at least 2 more Onkyo A800 for backups.
Another thing is that this hobby is pretty sickening lol. It’s like an enjoyable incurable disease. I can treat my symptoms, but watch me come back in 1 month purchasing a headphone and a new amp lol. My plan is after my other “End Game” DAC/Amp purchase for the ATH-L3000 in either July or August, I want to cool it from this hobby. Maybe buy some power cables and digital interconnect cables here and there, but that’s it. I want to cool it for maybe a year and just enjoy my setup without worrying about upgrades. And after a year, if I am still satisfied with my current headphone setup, maybe I can finally quit upgrading my headphone setup. After I quit, I want to focus on building a dedicated audio room, and start a room treatment so I can move to speakers 
. Told you, this hobby is sickening, quitting headphones so I can start speakers. Why speakers? I currently have a Polk Reserve R200 speakers and I really like the way it plays music around me. Like I currently have them on the floor with no stands and I swear I hear music coming from the top left of the room, but the speakers are on the floor. I really enjoy that. There is no happy ending to this story… Maybe if I become deaf like Beethoven when he enter his 40s, I could probably be free from this hobby completely. I guess with this hobby, you’ll never find a happy ending, but might as well enjoy the journey there until it’s over 
Again, thank you everyone in this forum, you guys rock! Keep writing those reviews and articles, I always enjoy reading those impressions and reviews from this forum!
since I just reached my 3rd satisfaction in this hobby which I feel like is a big wall to climb.
