Pyrate Leaderboard
The old one was getting stale. Bringing this back in a slightly different format. Still a work in progress.


DYNAMIC HEADPHONES

Koss KSC-75
Buy one for yourself, and several more to mod and give to your friends.

NVX XPT100
Otherwise known as Fischer FA003, Brainwavz HM5 etc. Good clean sound, good mids, good tonal balance but with some minor treble funkiness which can be overlooked because of its low price.

Sennheiser HD558/598
Find it for cheap - the occasional special. This is where to start for open backed headphones. A touch more upper-mid  / lower-treble than HD600/650. Less clear and resolving as HD600/650. Not quite as high fidelity sounding, but that's OK considering discounted street prices. A great entry level open headphone to start with. The next logical step would be the HD600/HD650.

AKG K7XX
Nice warm sound as opposed to the leaner and colder K701. Tonal balance less irregular than Q701. Slightly sharp and rougher in treble compared to HD600, but also less shrill in upper mids. Also a bit less resolving than HD600, but has marginally better quality bass. A Massdrop special at $200 that's hard to complain about.

Beyer DT880-600ohm
Even frequency response except a little hot in the mid-treble which can be corrected with EQ. Some people run tubes to take the edge off. The higher ohm versions are considered better sounding with smoother less metallic treble. Avoid 80 ohm version. Semi-closed back.
 
Focal Spirit Pro*
Warmish and mostly laid back but sometimes with a touch of upper-mid forwardness or mid-treble sizzle. Voicing reminds me of the big Focal speakers. Overall a good tonal response. Conditional recommendation because of fit issues. The original owner of mine sold them to me because of fit issues. And I sold them to someone else because of fit issues. Small ears and hobbit sized heads may fare better.

Sennheiser HD600/HD580     
Well balanced open-back headphone. Make sure pads are in good condition, otherwise vocals can sound shrill. Smooth treble. Bass quality, especially sub and low bass is biggest weakness compared to most orthos. Scales like mad - keeps on resolving. Throw this headphone on a TOTL amp with good power and you will be amazed. Many of us have commented that we would have saved a lot of money had we started with this headphone.

Sennheiser HD650     
Darker with laid back upper mids compared to HD600. Make sure you have newer silver driver version. The older driver versions are supposed to sound more veiled.

Sennheiser HD800*
Extracts low level information like no other. Conditional recommendation. Requires pristine non-bright recordings, suitable gear combination, and/or modifications. I don't think much more needs to be said about it. Tends to work well with a lot of classical records - because of the way most classical recordings are mic'd and mixed.

Fostex TH900*
Thunderous but very clean sub-low bass which does not intrude into the mids. Nice clear sound - possibly the clearest sounding dynamic around. These two qualities (clean bass and clear sound) are very notable for this dynamic can. However, sharp treble, b ut can be made to work with appropriately chosen upstream gear. Technically, it's a closed headphone, but don't expect it to seal well. There's lots of sound leakage. Quite expensive, but materials quality is top notch.


PLANAR HEADPHONES

HE400S
Holy crap amazeballs deal! Fairly neutral sounding headphone, lowish distortion. Slight mid-treble peak, and some bass roll-off, but tweak with Focus pads $40 or wrap electrical tape around the stock pads to extend bass down low. A no brainer introduction to orthodynamic sound.

PM-3
A bit fun bassy and lush sound. Great comfort, great form factor, at the right price. Drive with a good solid-state amp or low output Z amp.

HE-560*
Needs careful matching and maybe some tweaks like the Focus-A pads or various mods which reduces treble shrillness. I've heard this can sound bright. It's recording dependent. I've heard it sound neutral. More comfortable than the prior generation. Efficient, but avoid most tube amps. Really picky with equipment. Significantly more resolving and high quality bass than the HE-500. Transient response not quite at HE-6 levels. At its best in a good setup, sounds like a baby Abyss.

HE-6*
Outperforms all other HFM headphones in technicalities, but conditional on mods and appropriate amp. Ask Clem, Gourami, or Purplegoat on what they did to theirs as I could never stand the treble etch stock HE-6s. Need high quality amp with decent power. Vintage amplifiers with the high output Z headphone outs tend to work as they soften the treble edge; however they also leave a lot of things behind.

Abyss
Best bass quality evar. Separation and layering akin to high performance two channel setup. Realistic non-diffuse image. Very clean with great blackground. Fast transient response. Not as resolving as the resolution king, the HD800. Infinitely tweakable with cup angle, pads, cables of choice. Somewhat rough treble. Heavy, but suspension headband works for most people. Make sure amp and DAC treble characteristics are smooth. Insane price, but fills a unique niche. This is the SR-009s evil twin.

ESP950
Get it whenever it goes on sale. Comes with free amp. Neutralish electrostatic headphone. No deep bass, but hey, nothing's perfect.

STAX SR-009
Headphone with the best "get out of the way" characteristic of any other headphone. Mid-centric headphone that lacks visceral bass. Takes the trademark STAX ethereal delicate sound to another level. Smoothest treble evar.

Paradox/Slants
Closely related so counting them as one. Paradox is more neutral. Slants more a tad more bassy with better stage depth. Has a slight emphasis in mid-treble, but otherwise two of the best tonally balanced headphones out there. The most "coherent" or "together" of the T50RP based headphones. Built to order. Not cheap, but not priced fairly for its performance.


IN EAR MONITORS

Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitor
Since they are based on the Yamaha NS10, very neutral. Maybe too neutral, therefore match with appropriate gear. Most people will bitch about no having enough bass. Purists will probably not complain. One of the most coherent and together sounding multi-driver CIEMs. Every other founding pyrate owns this.

Noble 4C
Warmer and larger space. A noteworthy alternative to UERM.

Fischer DBA-02 and Variants (Brainwavz B2, Rockit R50)
Deep insertion required for extended bass response. Can be slightly bright.

Ety ER4S*
Classic. Must play with tips and insertion to avoid overly thin sound. Filters or a little EQ might help. Single driver coherency and purity of tone.

Zero Audio Carbo Tenore.
Warm relaxed listen for an OMG price.


PORTABLE GEAR

Geek Out 450
Amazingly powerful, black background, hyper-detailed, for its price. Get rid of your Hugo. Now. One must is to install the latest firmware which fixes the coarse volume control (now controlled via PC instead of the two buttons) and offers two digital filters. One digital filter has a more full-bodied sound for those who are allergic to SABRE.

Leckerton UHA-6S
All variants. Forget the built-in DAC. The amp is best part and actually beats a lot of desktop crap. Every other founding pyrate owns some variant of this.

Astell & Kern AK Jr.
Good UI and sounds good - maybe better than some of its bigger brothers (Wolfson chip > Cirrus), although less features. Actually sort of affordable at $500.

Sansa Clip+
Rockbox it. Dirt cheap and it works.

Schiit Fulla
Dirt cheap and has a volume knob. Needs a device capable of providing juice from a USB port.


DIGITAL (value)

AMB Gamma2
Great tone with good slam for such a small DAC.

Schiit Wyrd*
USB power conditioner and data-reclocker. Wyrd can add focus, balls and bass extension to $99 Modi, making it sound like a $400 DAC. Wyrd can make an MSB DAC sound better. Wyrd can make a lot of DACs sound better. Or it can make a DAC sound different. Or possibly worse.

Schiit Gungnir Gen 2 USB
Ensure quality power or use a Tripplite Isobar for best results. Add a Wyrd too to improve microdynamics, microdetail, and deepen soundstage. Smooth. Not SABRE. Sweet vocals. Hits damn hard. Sounds like a DAC some dude from Theta would make.
 
Matrix X-Sabre
A tad lean sounding with some Sabre treble hash in the last octave that some may find difficult. Otherwise tonally cohesive and pretty darn resolving with good attack, clarity, and blackground. Real-time convert PCM to DSD and feed via DoP to the X-Sabre for best results. This Sabre DAC stands above other Sabre DACs near or above its price range, give or take a few hundred.


AMPLIFIERS (value)

Schiit Vali
Holy schiit Jason, this is better than the Lyr (1)! Yeah, yeah. No one will believe me.

Schiit Valhalla 2
Neutralish, clear, highly resolving tube implementation. Best with high impedance or high sensitivity headphones.

Bottlehead Crack
The speedball upgrade is highly recommended. DIY or have someone else build it for you. Roll tubes and tweak parts like capacitors to your delight. Doc Bottlehead's contribution to good sound must be noted. High output impedance, so ortho headphones need not apply.

Project Ember V2


DIGITAL (no limit - make Nwavguy minions barf and ridicule you for your stupidity)

Bricasti M1
Best delta-sigma DAC we've heard so far. Hyper-detailed but not hyper-detailed, dynamic but not, bassy and trebly, but not. Making no sense at all. I think that's a good thing.

MSB Analog + Power Supply
Smooth and buttery. Natural timbre. Neutral response. Dynamic. Great soundstage. Porsche like options do add up.

Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 5
One of the best USB digital transports out there with most connectivity options. Even the standard no-frills version sounds good.

Schiit Yggdrasil
No comment. Read stuff about it on this forum and HF.
 
Berkeley Alpha DAC Series 2
Find one for a great deal now that the Reference Series has been released. The downside is that it needs a top notch transport or USB converter. Has a lot of similarities to the PWD2 (upgraded from 1) units, but with better tonal characteristics, i.e. less digititus.


AMPLIFIERS (no limit - make Xnor and other nwavguy minions hurl and get very very angry at you)

Eddie Current 4-45
Space, the final frontier. Doubled output tubes to handle orthos.

Cavalli Liquid Glass
Do not use crappy new production tubes. Only as good as the tubes you throw in. Plenty of power and smooth.

Donald North Stratus 2A3
A touch of intimate tubey goodness. Appease the gods by lathering her toobs with soapy suds. Avoid power hungry headphones.

Schiit Ragnarok
Team America! Fuck Yeah!


FOR CONSIDERATION (still debating)
Beyer DT1350
V-Moda M-80


VINTAGE OR OOP STUFF

Joe Grado HP1000
STAX 007mk1
STAX SR-Omega
Sony MA900
HiFiMan HE-5
Sennheiser Orpheus
Theta Gen V
Theta Data III
Sonic Frontiers TransDAC
Spectral SDR-2000
Code-X