$150 Audiophile Headphone System
Music makes things happen in my life – cooking, writing, sex, working out. (There’s a reason I’ve worked for two music-focused companies.)
And the tools that make that happen are important to me – speakers, headphones, amps. Audiophile equipment is one of those nerdy things I like to dig into, spend too much time researching, and find bargains that get me high dollar sound without spending a lot.
Anyway, I’ve built a 2.1 home system and a headphone system for working, all in, for about $500 or so. That’s how much people spend on just headphones.
Today I’m covering my $150 headphone system.
Three components:
- Headphones.
- Cables, adapters. Connect to your source and your headphones.
- Headphone amplifier. Enhance the quality of your headphone output.
Headphones. DBI-700. $45-$60 shipped. They’re competitive with headphones at the $250+ level. I’m not the only one to say so. And they’re built like tanks. Apparently record stores use them, but as those blink out of existence, liquidators are getting them out the door for cheap. You can find them on eBay. Or someone may sell them over at headfi.org
They sound pretty good un-amped, but with an…
Amplifier. $108 shipped. Schiit. It’s sexy. It’s small. It’s well built. It makes your headphones sound fucking amazing.
Cables, adapters. I like Monoprice. It feels meaty, its cheap, and it’s delivered to your door. You need a standard 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA adapter. And if you lost your headphone’s 3.55 to 6.55mm, you need one of those too (Radio Shack of all places is best).
All in: $160, shipped. It’s competitive with systems ~$500+.
300% ROI isn’t bad.
-Shlok
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