Tungsten v2 double sided is absolutely fab - I currrently have one with me (not mine). Just make sure you have a serious amp to drive it. I run it on an Audio GD RE9 v2 and it is one of the most resolving and physical headphones out there. It hits like a sledgehammer when the need be and can play nuanced, soft and beautiful if you ask it to. The stage is deep, wide and also has a proper sense of height. 100% recommended. The only hifimans I will recommend are the OG HE6 and the Susvara Unveiled. Rest are not even in the same zipcode.

On 25/01/2026 at 1:04 PM, Ray H said:

Hi folks;

It’s been a while since I played in the Headfi space.

I am hunting a pair of headphones in the 2-3k price range. Something that sounds great, but particularly something that does well with soundstage and detail, without sounding too bright.

I'm curious to know how you get "soundstage" - as in a left to right instrument spread like you get from stereo spkrs - from headphones?

IME with headphones ... what you get is a sound which appears to come from the centre of your head! 🤨

This is a headphone recommendation thread.

But if you don’t understand, I recommend trying more headphones.

On 31/01/2026 at 8:23 PM, andyr said:

I'm curious to know how you get "soundstage" - as in a left to right instrument spread like you get from stereo spkrs - from headphones?

IME with headphones ... what you get is a sound which appears to come from the centre of your head! 🤨

Good headphones will sound much much wider than your ear lines. Certainly not centre of your head.

I find lot of the Hifiman a bit bright Ray. You probably will too. Susvara was ok, but gone are the days of snagging those cheap.

Bit left field but the RAAL CA1A with some EQ/convolution filter was right up there. Right right up there. Build is weird, pads bit weird, but light and super high performance for the $. Unsure the barktok amp stage run them well, generally worked best off lot of power, unsure what the bartok output is.

Everything Focal has no soundstage width. Couple ZMF units aren't half bad, might be worth a look.

I ended up over budget with a pair stax -007s and some of the Final 8000 dc. Pretty happy with them at this point.

Just need to sort an amp for the final’s.

I did listen to a lot of the Hifiman models including Susvara and HE1000 unveiled, they did soundstage very well, but I didn’t find them enjoyable per se.

Edited March 3Mar 3 by Ray H

I really enjoyed the 007S, nice pickup. Had them for a while.

And can't go wrong with a D8000. Any amp with good current will work well. What's budget?

I got myself the D8000 DC as well from the A2A sale :) Nice cans. I think they are a side step from my HE1000 Unveils though. The D8K DC works really well with my Cayin HA-6AMKII tube amp.. I am in search of a solid state amp to power the D8K as well for those warmer nights. At A2A I thought the Burson GT4 was'nt a match. A900 amp was better but not by much. What else would you suggest in the solid amp catalog?

37 minutes ago, Bengineer said:

I really enjoyed the 007S, nice pickup. Had them for a while.

And can't go wrong with a D8000. Any amp with good current will work well. What's budget?

Prefer 3k second hand, looking at Voyager soloist, headamp gsx mk2 or gold note hpa 10.

Edited March 3Mar 3 by Ray H

4 hours ago, Bengineer said:

Good headphones will sound much much wider than your ear lines. Certainly not centre of your head.

Aah, OK. 👍 Obviously I have never experienced good headphones. (I only listen to headphones when I'm out and about walking - Sennheiser HD569s.)

I don't know anyone who has bought a Burson and concluded it was a good choice.

Go one of the other two IMO.

30 minutes ago, tntman said:

I got myself the D8000 DC as well from the A2A sale :) Nice cans. I think they are a side step from my HE1000 Unveils though. The D8K DC works really well with my Cayin HA-6AMKII tube amp.. I am in search of a solid state amp to power the D8K as well for those warmer nights. At A2A I thought the Burson GT4 was'nt a match. A900 amp was better but not by much. What else would you suggest in the solid amp catalog?

Oh, very interesting regards amps. I thought the gt4 was ok, but I’m not very experienced with Headfi tbh.

I heard the Cayin Ha6 mkii at minidisc, nice amp.

Yes, I love the Final D8000 dc, but it’s a hard sell at the normal RRP.

I actually purchased the Fostex 919 during the sale. It’s a nice headphone as well, not up to the technical ability of the Final, but very comfortable and listenable. Easy to drive also.

Ray, the Cayin needs to be tube rolled. The stock tubes at Minidisc are very average.

Do you think the D8K DC is improving with burn in? Or do you think it sounds the same so far?

3 minutes ago, tntman said:

Ray, the Cayin needs to be tube rolled. The stock tubes at Minidisc are very average.

Do you think the D8K DC is improving with burn in? Or do you think it sounds the same so far?

Good point, I had heard from a few YouTube reviews that tube rolling is critical for best sound. Which tubes did you end up with ?

Regards the final, I actually purchased the D8000dc on the strength of the pair of OG d8000 they had in store to demo. I liked it and new from reviews the D8000 dc had a reported jump up in soundstage and bass. They didn’t have the d8000dc to demo at the time. When I picked up my pair (a few days later) I had a brief listen to a brand new pair, so it was hard to tell.

I haven’t run my pair of d8000dc as yet, because I don’t have an amp that can do them justice frustratingly, I only have a Fiio portable and a stax energiser.

Is your pair not changing much ? How many hours have you logged If I may ask ?

Edited March 3Mar 3 by Ray H

1 minute ago, Ray H said:

Good point, I had heard from a few YouTube reviews that tube rolling is critical for best sound. Which tubes did you end up with ?

At the moment, I have PSVane KT88 Summit (Very nice), Electroharmonix KT88 handed down to me, PSVane EL34 which I found are super smooth to listen to if you want to drown yourself in the music. I have a set of PSVane Horizon 12au7 which I find average. I'm using Shuguang gold leg 12au7 which are very detailed and holographic. As for the rectifiers, I have a pair of RCA 5u4g, a PSVane 5AR4 Horizons which are very good musically, the RCA has the best low end. I haven't rolled into much of the old stock yet. The Old tubes are just so hard to get these days and too expensive IMO.

1 minute ago, Ray H said:

Regards the final, I actually purchased the D8000dc on the strength of the pair of OG d8000 they had in store to demo. I liked it and new from reviews the D8000 dc had a reported jump up in soundstage and bass. They didn’t have the d8000dc to demo at the time. When I picked up my pair (a few days later) I had a brief listen to a brand new pair, so it was hard to tell.

I haven’t run my pair of d8000dc as yet, because I don’t have an amp that can do them justice frustratingly, I only have aa Fiio portable and a stax energiser.

Is your pair not changing much ? How many hours have you logged If I may ask ?

My D8K DC has about 20hours on them so far. The first 5-10h sounded bass heavy, and closed in at times. At first I thought it was my amp, so I changed my tubes around as I was rolling the EL34. All of the sudden last night, they just opened up! Although the midbass that was there has disappeared. Weird.. Maybe it's my ears? Lol. I'll give it more time. I have my HE1000 Unveiled as my reference, confirmed nothing wrong or changed in my setup.

None of that really surprises me regards the run in. I would think they need more time to level out. I would expect the mids to come back that’s for sure.

The HE1000 unveiled are pretty amazing and probably a good companion to the final. I imagine the Hifiman and the Final both excel at different music genres.