In typical fashion, ive dragged my feet and no IEMS yet but had this to share for those if interested.....
I've been using my headphoes a lot lately, ( remote working from home more these days at times..) always someone around the house these days and no one is interested in hearing my music on the m60's! They don't understand.
I recently signed up for Tidal to co-incide with the arrival of my Axiom Transformer. The DAC in the Transformer makes a HUGE difference as does the higher quality files of Tidal. I had some uncertainty as to how much a difference the higher res and quality DAC would make but it's very tangible . On the headphones ( NAD VISO 50 ) things are incredibly clear and well defined and just really smooth. I've had a few head spinner moments ( 4 specifically ) when I thought something made a noise behind me over my right shoulder and I spun around only to laugh because it was the song i was listening too. Maybe this is a normal occurence for folks but it surprised me for sure!
I bought my kids some Marantz MPH-1 headphones on line from Visions, $28, clearance. Can't beat that! they sound super good! Not as good as my NADs but for $28 they are a steal.
Another project is too try to reduce the white noise i can hear most times, mostly when listening from my laptop and not DAC thru the transformer. Just using onboard laptop DAC thru Tidal. I'm thinking an outboard DAC to travel with or use with laptop would be good... like a Dragon Fly Black or Red, anybody have experience with those? They get good reviews at least.
