So here is one I’ve just learnt over the last few weeks. If you get better gear then sooner or later things that were once loved will become disappointing. For me this has been caused by the Staccato opamp in the Whammy. It just… everything is either better or worse. Things like the DT880 (these come alive now), Focal Elegia sound amazing. I can listen for hours.
I also purchased the LCD 2C a couple of months ago and I like them a lot on this amp after the change to a better (suited) opamp. The Staccato put back all the top end that was previously missing with these. Everything except classical music sounds much much better, more sparkly and detailed, less heavy but still deep, deep controlled bass.
But…
Over the summer I just stopped listening to the Audio_GD R2R11, the Geshelli E2. Stopped using my Hifiman 400i, my first purchase when I got into headphones in a big way. They just didn’t do it for me. Turgid and loose bass. Thick and overly laboured mids. Not so fun when I could juuuuust reach over and have all the bass and mids I could ever want but better plus treble and detail. No worries I thought. I put the Audio_GD away - I am glad I have it, especially as it is EOL now, I learnt a lot listening on it. I gave the 400i to a niece who is into her music and didn’t have any decent headphones. She was ecstatic and she’ll love them. No problem, all set.
But…
I lost (I know!!) my single ended cable for the Senn 660s and only found it yesterday, too many holidays and summer commitments got in the way! I was pleased as this was previously my goto for chilling out to some nice beats and bass. My first ‘expensive’ pair, the first to make me go “oooh… there is more to hear”. They just sounded… meh. Fuzzy. Hairy. I just couldn’t. Tried them on the RNHP… nope. No better there any more. They just make me want to reach for the 880… the Focal… the LCD.
So I broke my previous darlings. They just sound average and un-engaging now. I realised I now either own the best I will ever be able to or I will have to deliberately save money to get even better and risk doing the same again.
I’ve just finished rebuilding my two stacks. Taken out the things that don’t work for me now. Moved the 660s to the back row. It feels bittersweet!
What gear did this for you? Have you had this experience?
Ah, yes, definitely. Actually dealing with this right now.
I’m currently listening to my entry-level Beyers (770, 880, 990) which I hadn’t listened to in ages. I’ve been putting it off as a phase, because I do often take my time rotating through hps. Unfortunately, turns out I stopped listening to them because I have other hps I prefer now. It’s a shame. While I listen, I now keep thinking “oh, they’re not as detailed as / not as clear as” etc.
I appreciate having the higher-end experience, but it is also a loss to know that hps I previously loved no longer have the same magic.
Addition:
I must admit I’d be curious to hear your impressions of even more higher-end gear. I’m sure your wallet would not agree, of course
The ZMF Verite is the one and only piece I’ve really had this with, moving up left them in a complete no-mans land for me, they just didn’t do anything I couldn’t get better from something else, and I felt listening to them was unengaging. I know this is an unpopular opinion.
There’s lots of stuff I no longer listen to, but it’s not bad, just price appropriate, and I don’t have a reason to listen to them. Most often when I occasionally pull stuff out to sell I listen to them again and I’m surprised how well they hold up.
funny, HD660s were like this for me as well. i loved them and daily drove them for months. easily top of my listening list for a year. I think it was the Focal Clear that ruined them for me. they did everything the HD660s did for me, only better. and i have not looked back since selling the HD660s. don’t miss them one bit.
DT880 600ohm are the opposite - just keep coming back to them and finding new reasons to like them every time i upgrade a piece of my signal chain.
The painful one for me has been IEMs. I’ve put a lot of money and effort into my headphone chain over the last 6 months. And I’ve let my IEM chain stagnate. I was certain a $1k DAP (Hiby RS6) and $1k IEMs (FiR VxV, MMR Gae Bolg) would cover me for a long time. Dare I say IEM endgame? … but no … it really bugs me to go IEM right now. i know exactly what i’m missing when i put them on because my main chain has become so much more resolving. so the IEMs are up for sale… and I’m eying FiR M5’s… $2k IEMs here I come
@elementze Haha. Yeah, love the imaging and SS on orchestral and jazz groups. With my retired guy budget I’m using the Asgard 3. Piece by piece thing, you know. Have Sundara and probably next tier headphones next, but as Wave Theory said to me they got “lightning in a bottle” with that 880.
oh yes, that’s the game for sure. pick pieces, and hope they scale with the other changes you have coming next. FWIW, I personally enjoyed the LakePeople G111 as a reasonable cost upgrade to the A3. i struggled to upgrade from the A3 because it performed so well for the money. For me, Jot2 was an overall disappointment, as was the Singxer SA1. But G111 really felt like a nice upgrade path from A3 - performance upgrade at a reasonable cost upgrade. BF2 + G111 + DT880/600 = fantastic!
At least you worked your way up…learning along the way. As @Gothique has
mentioned…things get ruined sometimes (you can’t unhear that better sound, lol.) btw she had a similar experience with BF2 and the 880/600.
What really made the 880 shine for me wasn’t just the BF2 it was having an amp that had enough output to make them work well. Quality power rather than just pure power. I think that 600 Ohm resistance is very demanding on an amp, especially for reproducing low end.
Interesting reading these replies.
That’s a more thoughtful way of putting it, more positive.
I feel like they might be even more susceptible to this effect?
I’m waiting on the new Violectrics that are apparently out in the next little while. Either save for one or maybe grab some of the second hand sales that it will set off…
I think that’s a good way to do it. I saw that advice numerous times. It let me learn a lot and while you could say I have wasted money I feel like I have wasted less than if I had just saved up and jumped in with some big purchases that I later regretted.
maybe? it was just out of neglect that this happened for me. when i got my current IEM setup, it matched my headphone chain pretty well. now it’s just fallen behind due to lack of $$$ to both buy IEMs and pay for food/shelter for my family
i would guess it’s equally susecptable to the upgrade and loose interest phenomina.
what IEMs are VERY susecptable to is “mid-fi hell”. or maybe it’s “chi-fi hell”. so many roughly equal options, you could die and never try everything at a given price point. to me, IEMs take a lot of discipline. stay wher eyou are at, or move up quickly. but don’t fiddle around in the middle. just giant wastes of money are possible here.
@Gothique Thanks for clarifying about the amp…appreciate that. I knew going in
that the Asgard is kind of mimimum for the 880/600 but now that I know that it’s
a “gateway” I feel better.
Sneaky addition! Thanks for the compliment though. I do enjoy trying to describe sound here, not something one gets to do much in daily life!
Yeah… I feel like I want to save up for a 1k to 1.5k delta sigma dac (I’ve been eyeing the Singxer SDA-6 Pro) and a similarly priced headphone, not sure which at the moment. Maybe the Clears or the Denon AH-D9200
To be honest that’s what stops me being interested. The amount of headphone gear is already getting to be a bit overwhelming and it is no where near IEM levels. Just too much to invest my time in comfortably.
I know that one can just use gain and volume and maybe an IEM attenuator but sometimes I think an amp designed specifically for iems would be an interesting thing to see.
That’s my feeling. I find some amps that can get them sufficiently loud enough just don’t make them sound good. I specifically picked a few components when I built my Whammy to work with higher impedance headphones and it paid off with the 880s. If it had a gain setting that would be perfect as most headphones won’t go past 25% volume and even the 880s will only go to about 60% comfortably. That power overhead seems to suit them though and I find I listen to them more than ever now. I feel like the abundant power lets them be a little faster and a bit more controlled in the treble.
As I went up the tiers, I just sold my older stuff as they weren’t getting used. It never made sense to me to keep an entire collection when the funds can help upgrade and when I have limited time and only one head and two ears.
I understood at one point that keeping the LCD-X, Arya and HD800S is basic the worth together of the LCD-5 that I bought when I sold all of them.
I sold the Atrium because the Susvara was better for me for the purposes I kept that type of headphones around. So yeah, happens all the time.
That said though, there’s lower end gear I miss, mainly because of synergy and specific matches. I’ve said this here so many times - Ares II to GS-X Mini with LCD-5 is still one of my favorite listening gear ever. I think about buying that entire chain again every few days. If I end up needing something for a secondary setup on my desk, that’s probably going to be it. And I had reasons to sell all three when I upgraded to higher end gear.
As I’ve always focused on having one chain, I never experienced it.
My upgrades, wheter it be the headphones, amp or dac, have always been pointed towards a better suited one for my HD800S.
If I hade to put in order of preference the amps I had I would put them it would look like this:
Violectric V200 < Feliks Audio Echo MK1 < Pathos Aurium < Bakoon HPA-01M < Bakoon HPA-21
Which is exactly the chronological order in which I bought them.
Same thing for the dacs, granted I have only used 3 with those amps (iFi Micro BL, Denafrips Ares II, Seokris dam1941), but my order of preference would too correspond to the chronological one.
I never really thought about owning multiple headphones. I have always focused my funds and energy towards creating my “ideal” sound on a single chain, starting from a nice headphone (my beloved HD800S) and going from there.
I really have no need/use for another headphone, and even if I did had a second pair lying around, I would always pick the HD800S 10/10 times, mainly because my setup has been built specifically to sound the best with death metal and its subgenres. As such, because my chain does such a good job with that kind of music, I would never in a million years pick a different headphone without also changing the amp and the dac, redoing the whole thing from scratch.
Focusing on specific genres and one headphone and one chain is probably the most cost saving way to go through this hobby and still progress towards high end gear. A lot of people though, myself included, listen to many different types of music. That’s where multiple headphones show their strength. When I pick up my 1266 TC it’s because my Susvara won’t be as good for trance music. When I listen to classical I can use both depending what I want to hear. When I listen to more vocal focused or acoustic stuff, Sus is king. And when I need to be quiet - that’s when the Verite Closed are used.
A solution for all the sorrow nostalgia is sell the gear to fund your future upgrades. You pass it off to a person who’ll love them all over again on their own journey. You’ll also be able to recoup a substantial amount of $ so you can continue on your own journey.
It’s the circle of audiophile life, don’t break it!
and I’m eying FiR M5’s… $2k IEMs here I come 
