audiokatapult

Shame on me re Parsifal. Could you expand a bit more on Stax? not looking for audio mates, just some input. But thanks anyway. not exactly what I was asking. Re amplification, I'm looking more towards Violectric or Aurelic. Re Dac, it's Chord or nothing

This is my first post on head-case, so I hope I'll get some helpful input without being judged too harshly. Intro: I used to own a pair of Martin Logan speakers Summit, paired with a 200W integrated amp from McIntosh. I sold the lot a few years ago as I moved to another continent... I've longed to get back to this sound ever since. I'm now looking for headphones that'll recreate somewhat (I know it's impossible) that ML sound. I've been into hifi for a while, and though not a professional myself, I've built some deep knowledge of how the market works. I've never had that much of a knowledge base about headphones however... but I have some serious reserve about the legitimacy of new companies like HiFiMan and Mr Speaker in a headphone market largely dominated by portable / iPhone buyers. Now: I recently tested some hp, all of them powered by a Moon amp, streaming from a Mac mini with a Roon/Tidal software duo. The test tracks I'm using are all the same for the past 10 years and include: Mojo Pin (Jeff Buckley), some tracks of the Mozart Requiem, track 2 and track 7 of the 1985 electronica album Rendez-Vous (Jean-Michel Jarre) and a couple of Wagner tunes including Parfical's intro. My other tastes include Jazz and Rock but are not part of the tracks I use to test audio gear. I was utterly underwhelmed by some of the headphones I tested, including Focal Utopia (seriously, $4k?) and the HE 1000 (seriously, this thing looks like a 1920's car radiator). I was however fairly impressed by the Mr Speaker Ether Flow despite a less than engaging low profile design. I also tried the Ether Flow C, but didn't like them. During that session, I sometimes enjoyed listening to the HE 1000 that performed a lot better imo with string instruments and the electronica tracks. The Ether Flow's level of clarity was however incredible with Mojo Pin and performed the brass instruments powerfully and without distortion. Regarding soundstage, the HE 1000 and the Ether were both fine... nothing comparable to a pair of ML or Wilson Audio loudspeakers of course... I'd give the Ether a ++ for presence in that regards. A little voice in me says I should stick to 'sure' values and buy either into the new Sennheiser HD800S or the new Stax SR L700. But I must say, it's a real dilemma. I've read a tons of articles and forum posts already but I hope I can get some helpful, constructive input from the head-case community.