I’ll go ahead and share my setup, beginning with the star of the show: a 15-year old, $25 Walmart pair of Altec Lansing speakers that came with a subwoofer. They’re plugged into the bedroom computer, which I watch TV/movies on. You have to position them on the rear edge of the desk so that the weight of the cord holds them up, otherwise they immediately fall on their nose. They’re tiny like most computer speakers, but they don’t sound it! Not bad at all, the hubby and I love em.
My husband is a musician who does his own mixing and mastering, so he has more appropriate speakers in his studio. They were passed along by a friend of his family who hand-built them. However, he does most of his mixing on headphones. Thanks to me, he uses the PSB m4u1. He also does some mixing with one of my pairs, the Onkyo A800.
The A800 is unfortunately discontinued and hard to find, and when the pads go I’ll probably be SOL, but as of now it’s my clearest, most accurate pair. I mostly use it for classical / jazz / acoustic. It was my pair for all genres until I tried the iBasso SR1.
For whatever reason, the SR1 was limited-edition and so it, too, is discontinued (but is still available from third parties). This pair made me a believer in different pairs for different genres. It’s not particularly good at classical and jazz, primarily because the timbre is off. However, I don’t believe I’ll ever hear a better pair for rock! Before hearing the SR1, I thought I was already at the stage where any additional gains in this hobby would be diminishing; I was wrong because the SR1 blew my mind. Whereas the A800’s sound is neutral / Harman curve (therefore perhaps similar to a well-EQ’d Beyer dt-880), the SR1 has its own tuning which is darker in the 7k+ region and also dialed back in the upper mids. This tuning is apparently magical for rock, sounding more balanced and full-bodied to my ears. It’s like somehow all instruments/elements stand out at once, like the song was mixed on these headphones.
Those two headphones complete each other, but before hearing them, I tried a DIY planar-magnetic called the Sash, which remains in my lineup. A guy named Sasha in Ukraine makes it to order. So far it’s the only planar I’ve tried and it’s wonderful. (Ukraine is game to you? Another guy in Ukraine makes a more widely known DIY planar called the Verum One, which is regarded as another success.) The Sash is versatile genre-wise and has a fun sound; the Senn hd6xx (which I liked) sounded boring next to these. The sound is colored by a hump in the lower mids (iirc), giving it a lush sound which is more noticeable in some songs than others. For instance, it makes Thom Yorke’s voice sound like a cool filter effect is applied–an interesting way to listen to Radiohead! This pair’s unique presentation earns it a continued spot in my listening rotation.
As for source, I mostly listen from my DAPs, which are no-frills. The Hidizs Ap100 is my main driver, but when I want a built-in portable amp I use the Hifiman HM-603. The drawback of the Hifiman is that it can’t play very low frequencies like the rumble in this song. Currently, the Sash is my only pair that needs amping, for which I use a clean solid-state desktop amp of modest power (when not listening on the Hifiman).
