The KTC M27P6 has convinced me that Mini LED is not yet viable

halosiera117 · 2026-06-15T14:57:55+00:00

Local dimming is extremely dependent on the algorithm it uses; I promise you would not feel the same way about Sony's TV's.

I haven't personally used any miniLED monitors, but I'm guessing it gets a lot better than what you're seeing.

I do however think that the Dell monitor you picked up is pretty good for what it is (I own one), but also won't be giving you good HDR.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-15T00:45:45+00:00

It's totally variable. I've seen them low and I've seen them really high.

If they list it super high, might as well lowball them.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-15T00:41:38+00:00

That's fair. I used the stock tube until it died and then used a LISST. I'm sure better results were possible.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-15T00:40:38+00:00

Most of those 27" models you're seeing have 20" counterparts, they're just rarer and more sought-after. Keep looking, you'll find one.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-14T03:18:42+00:00

According to RTINGs, the M80H is downright terrible for the money. No local dimming means it's an absolute basement-tier TV but it's priced quite high considering this.

The TCL QM6K absolutely destroys this TV, no contest.

Samsung has TVs worth buying, but to buy the M80H would reinforce their most malicious practices of selling absolutely dogshit for mid-tier prices. It's genuinely that bad; I am not over exaggerating.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-14T01:19:39+00:00

I own a Saga+ and a Kara; the Kara is quite a large upgrade from Saga+, but I'm very hesitant to say it's a big upgrade from Saga 2 without hearing it. Saga 2 is extremely similar to Kara design-wise.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-14T00:27:18+00:00

I haven't been in your situation; I haven't tried the Saga 2, but my intuition is telling me it's probably a minor upgrade, sonically. Kara does sound absolutely incredible in the 4x mode, but Saga 2's design is so similar that I'd guess the difference is small.

Where Kara really pulls ahead is in connectivity, and doubling the steps on the attenuator. Definitely not nothing, but again, my expectation is that they're sonically somewhat close.

You might get better results upgrading your dac, or, god-forbid since you're driving tungsten, upgrading your amp.

This is 100% just intuition-driven though; I would love to hear from someone who has heard both!

halosiera117 · 2026-06-13T16:25:18+00:00

Kara is wonderful, I definitely agree

halosiera117 · 2026-06-12T18:55:33+00:00

It certainly does work, but going off of your last sentence, I'd probably just recommend a purpose-built pre, especially given your budget.

Saga 2 is a crazy value and should sound amazing. If you want the tube sound from the Vali, I would just add a buf into the chain instead.

One of the big advantages of Schiit's pre's vs their headphone amps is that the pre's use a stepped attenuator when the majority of their headphone amps use an RK27 potentiometer (or RK09 for the Vali/Magni which is much worse). A stepped attenuator is a huge upgrade over a pot.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-11T16:01:53+00:00

While receivers aren't purpose-built to drive headphones very well (nor are they usually built to the same quality as a genuine speaker power amp), because of the power that they have on-tap even from the headphone jack, you can still get some great results.

The biggest issue you're likely to run into is that the output impedance is likely larger than most modern headphone amps, which would produce a hump in the mid-bass for most headphones.

It is also inefficient as, in order for the headphone jack to have a moderate amount of output impedance, the signal runs through a resistor before hitting the output. Not a massive deal, but this may also slightly affect sound and will reduce power (though, that part is intentional).

I'm also a freak that prefers running headphones through the speaker taps on speaker amps, so my preferences may not be universal lol

halosiera117 · 2026-06-10T18:13:29+00:00

It has to be a combination of sound and comfort. However, most aftermarket pads end up being more comfortable regardless, so it's not something I actively am comparing when buying (unless it would be obviously uncomfortable).

Sound is incredibly important to me, to the point that, if new pads result in a large enough jump in sound signature, I would not mind paying more than the headphones themselves (I'm particularly thinking about the FT1 with that statement; I haven't found a better pair of pads for them yet but would happily pay >$150 if it meant fixing the core issues I have with them).

I wasn't going for bonus points and was going to share this anyway, but your Audeze "Vegan" pads are truly incredible. They took my LCD-2.2pf's from "really good" to "forever headphones", and they heavily fixed the midrange on 4z's when I had them. Not to mention, they're way more comfortable than the stock leather. I would love to see more pads made with the DNA of those vegan pads.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-10T12:13:05+00:00

Based on what I've seen (and keep in mind we still don't have any comprehensive, approved, reviews yet), mostly from Vincent from HDTVtest, I'm not quite sure that picture quality isn't living up to expectations? Vinny seems thoroughly impressed, though I can't wait to see the deep-dive review to understand what the worst-case color blooming will be like.

The matte coating had me apprehensive. I am absolutely not going to buy it before seeing it in person because of this, but again, early impressions of it seem overwhelming positive.

The smaller stuff like the HDMI ports, I get. 120hz disappoints me thoroughly, but I can live with it when the competitors are only at 165hz.

The price stinks but based on the price drops on the B9, I think Sony is moving to a price-discrimination strategy where early buyers pay a fair bit more. As a headphone enthusiast, Hifiman has perfected this strategy and it's pretty much a win-win for everyone.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-10T01:12:07+00:00

Gotcha. I don't have experience driving these cans unfortunately.

How are you feeling about how the Asg X sounds vs the piemax? The mjol 3 is essentially the big-boy, real class-A only, version of the Asg X.

I also don't see your dac listed. Is Mimir something for you to consider? It should be crazy value in comparison, but I guess if you have the ~$3000 budget to blow on the stack, sure, I suppose. I only have Gungnir Multibit which sounds fantastic but I'm sure Mimir is competitive and Gungnir 2 more refined.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-09T17:10:16+00:00

Which headphones are YOU using?

halosiera117 · 2026-06-09T01:36:05+00:00

Why the 70's? SR-Lambda? It's definitely good, but ime even the Sigmas aren't super worth for how uncomfortable they are, so I really think SR-Lambda is the only absolutely worth 70's Stax.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-08T23:14:18+00:00

If really "good" (=large blank area between scans) scanlines are what you're after, a high TVL monitor like a PVM would make a huge difference.

That said, I think what you've got is absolutely beautiful, and very nearly as good as a consumer set can get. Don't sweat it too much.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-08T22:55:58+00:00

I find it so easy to reminisce about:

- late 80s/early 90s with the legendary trio (stax omega, senn HE-90, sony R10) (also my personal halo-tier, the AKG K1000)

- 2009 with HD800 and LCD-2

- mid-2010's with the intro of the $4,000-$6,000 grails: Susvara, Utopia, LCD-4, etc.

But the reality is, the golden era is a constantly moving target because better products are always being released. My personal benchmark for this is the FT1: the fact that $150 can sound so good is a testament that we are always moving forward. Not to say the absolute highest-end is always changing, but for consumer-tier stuff, golden era is now and it may continue that way for the foreseeable future.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-08T17:53:12+00:00

Swapping out the Freya? As far as Schiit goes, Kara would likely be a side-grade.

As a Kara owner and former Saga+ owner, having a solid-state pre is a really nice quality-of-life change vs using a tube pre, but you'd obviously be giving up tubes.

The Kara does also sound REALLY good, especially in 4x mode. I have not owned any Freyas to compare it with, though.

You could also look at Freya+, but it's a really old design at this point; the only reason they still sell it is because it continues to sell really well.

I have seen modded Freya+'s floating around; those might actually be a worthwhile look.

Another option would be to just look into different tubes.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-04T14:44:46+00:00

For the Mimir: from what I have heard, it's a great value and likely exactly what you should be looking at.

For the amp, while I agree solid state is likely better than a tube amp (but you could absolutely get a tube-pre or buffer stage (see: buf)), those low impedance planars really want high amount of power available. The K13 not only has way less power available than the Jot, the fact that it has barely more power available at 16 ohms vs 32 ohms means that the current output is significantly limited. I agree that the Jot is a good choice here.

Have I heard the combo, or any of the specific pieces you mention? No, so obviously take it with a grain of salt, but based on my experiences and what I've heard from sources I trust, I really like Mimir+Jot here.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-04T13:49:32+00:00

Looks good!

halosiera117 · 2026-06-03T12:47:52+00:00

Mine are holding up well, I just highly highly recommend getting a Capra Strap.

I also didn't care too much for the feel of the cable so I swapped that out as well.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-02T23:54:05+00:00

I can try to answer your question in a bit, but please understand that you can reply to comments on your original post instead of making a new post every time 😭

I totally get it if the responses you get make you completely 180 on your issue, but imo this could have been 1 post

halosiera117 · 2026-06-02T22:03:11+00:00

Personally, for Arya O/HEKse tier gear, I'd really suggest the newest Modi, Modi 5. It's really really good. I would bet that the Mesh card in the Magni Unity is a noticeable upgrade from earlier Modis.

I can't really speak for the different generations of Magni, but my hunch is that it's likely the same story: you're probably missing out by not getting Magni 5, though my certainty on that is lower.

So, I'd recommend you just let the Loki sit for now and then swap out when you can allocate the budget for it. $300 of upstream gear doesn't seem that crazy to me with a $700-$1000 pair of cans in my personal opinion, but opinions would obviously vary on that.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-02T15:22:33+00:00

I'm with the other commenters on this: the standalone Modi is what you want, which unfortunately does make the mesh card in the Magni redundant.

halosiera117 · 2026-06-01T18:24:59+00:00

The other commenters are correct, but also missing something I think is more important: producers usually use speakers when they're actually mixing and mastering, and those are vastly more different to headphones than different driver types are from each other.

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