The Hifiman HE1000se are my daily drivers and known for not being too power hungry. I have two chains in which I listen to them:
- Living Room: Marantz DAC-1 -> Schiit Asgard2
- Desk: Schiit Bifrost2 -> Schiit Lyr3
I wonder whether the HE1000se benefit much from better amps, and if so, what price range we are talking about… Are amps like the Feliks Audio Euforia or the Flux Labs Volot a complete overkill? Is there something worthwhile in between? Or is even the DAC the better component to tackle here?
They “do” but honestly with anything the scalability is so minimal and not really worth pursuing if you do not like the headphone already, just play with EQ or get a better headphone. (To which EQing might require a decent amp if you’re seriously playing with it a ton, like; adding a lot of dB to some parts of the sound and preamping it down so its not too loud). I think a better DAC would be better suited, to which it would require an amp most likely?
I got the Piety since people said it was good with the HD600, and much better than my Heresy. Differences are quite minimal between the two. Obviously they’re the same price point, but most people I know who have way more expensive sources say even with more expensive amps; they say that source memeing is not worth it, unless you know you’re only getting minimal improvements in things you like.
I think amp decision would probably just be preferences and whatnot anyways, and the most powerful and expensive one will likely not mean the one you like most.
Different amps and dacs handle things slightly different from one another. Perhaps you’ll notice small details between some you prefer over the other.