Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Headphones?

That sounds a bit more down to Earth. Thanks.

Here it is they call it a SOHA. The one I have being built is slightly different but this will give ya an idea.

That looks like a pretty fun project to build. My DIY skills are limited and I would have someone build it, like you did. I like the fact that the 12AU7 is used, as that is a very common and easy to find tube. It's fairly inexpensive, too.

When you get it, let us know what you think!

Will do. Right now he is waiting on the jisbos Group buy @ headwize to come through.

Eric, I'm not really a headphone enthusiast, but I do use the AKG 501s that I've had about five years for occasional middle-of-the-night Rachmaninoff. You might consider the AKG 701s for maybe a little more detail and less heavy bass than the 650s. The Stereophile review attracted some favorable attention when it came out. The Amazon sellers have some good prices and some of the reviews are interesting. The fairly low impedance and relatively high sensitivity should work well with the headphone outputs of most receivers.

Thanks. All options are still open at this point. I have already decided to push this buy a month or so, especially if a need to have an amp for it. In the meantime, there are lots of hi-fi stores in Montreal that must have them to try.

I just ordered a pair of HD650. I had the chance to try AKG and Grados. They are GREAT headphones. But, for what I listen to: mostly classical SACDs (or DVD-Audio when they exist!) I really liked the 650. The only hic is that I was able to try the AKG and the Grados (lended from a store and a friend) with my 805 and they were great. Unfortunately, I could only try the 650 at the store (that had an Oppo-980 so I could bring a few SACDs). So I might have an issue with 300Omhs. I'll keep you posted.

They're suppose to be a great set of phones, congrats. I know Rich uses an Onkyo headphone out with his 600s (300 ohm) and likes the results.

While we are on the topic, I need a low cost replacement for my MP3 player, a Creative Zen 5GB. All my music is MP3 at 256 kHz so not bad but it's still compressed and I mostly just use it at work and when traveling so I don't really want to invest in a $250 plus set of audiophile earphones.

Any recommendations for under 100$. I'm not a fan of noise canceling via ambient noise but I would like to avoid listening to the crazy people I tend to always get put beside on planes.

Any suggestions in that price range or are they all about the same quality around there as long as I avoid obvious duds.

I tried spending some time at headfi.org but they seem to concentrate on only the high end products.

I did not go to any big length of trials and errors, but I am using (for iPod) a pair of Panasonic RP-HZE-10 that are usually retailed around 40-45$. They sound very natural.