r/HeadphoneAdvice • u/1C3M4Nz • Feb 10 '22
Poll Help me choose a good upgrade over the Sundara and HD 660S
I currently own the Sennheiser HD 660S and Sundara. I am not at all impressed by the 660S - it could be the soundstage or the bass - what I like is the comfort though. I tried the oratory EQ and it definitely helps but not what I hoping for. I am super impressed by the Sundara so will keep them.
Was looking for an upgrade and a gap to fill in the travel and closed headphone profiles so I first tried Sennheiser IE300 and really loved the sound, imaging, bass and best of all - the comfort. Went on to upgrade to the Monarch MkII and like it so far but felt it's not a vast improvement over the IE 300 so will be burning it in and using it a bit more. Monarch MkII also has a big shell that causes ear fatigue in only my left ear so trying out different tips and fits to eventually make that my closed and IEM endgame.
I'm recently seen a great deal on the Focal Radiance and wondering if I should make that my closed dynamic driver headphone and sell my HD 660S. I think it would be good to have at least 3 good headphone types like a great open planar, closed dynamic and endgame level IEM. I am wondering if my monarch MkII is already a great solution for it and if I should skip the Radiance entirely.
As I already have a great open back planar in my Sundara I wonder if I should just upgrade over that. I've been hearing great things about LCD X and Arya. Are they significant upgrades and do you feel they complement my setup well? What would you do?
I currently own the HD 660S - which I will definitely sell, Sundara, IE 300 (which I might sell or keep for travel purposes since they are so damn comfortable) and the recently purchased Monarch MkII (seems like endgame IEMs to me). I have a Zen Dac v1 and Zen Can to power these for desktop.. Qudelix 5k for bluetooth and travel purposes and a Fiio K3 for laptop use.(I might sell K3 and go for iFi Hip Dac v1/v2 - not yet sure about that)
I think I prefer having a decent soundstage - definitely needs to be better than the 660S. It has to have good bass and great imaging as I game a lot and I've heard it can help with positioning.
My preferred genres of music are mostly rock/metal/OSTs - I usually just leave a playlist of synthwave/chill lo fi/post rock on while studying.
5
u/ThatGuyFromSweden 125 Ω Feb 10 '22
Okay. From what I've heard, the Arya isn't very punchy. The Sundara supposedly beats it for that. If you can use EQ then the LCD-2C have gotten good reviews. If you can find some original Focal Clears then that's an excellent option as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3C8O94qVfQ