ZMF Headphones - Bokeh Open

My dt1990 or the ZMF Bokeh Open.

I was lucky enough to have some extra money so I bought a ZMF Bokeh Open. It's an incredible headphone. I use it A LOT. I know the drivers are insured for the life of the headphone. And they are built of metal and wood so im not worried about them breaking. The juice was worth the squeeze with the Bokeh Open. It sounds exquisite. And they are easy to drive with a 103db sensitivity They also have a high enough impedance that they work with OTL tube amps. Its a genius design. Im saving for the Bokeh Closed now, they have a different sound signature so its not redundant. Im happy I bought the ZMF. But im also very happy with my less expensive cans.

The macbook has a great DAC/amp, the hd490 don't need that much power. The DAC/amp will not magically make your headphones sound better. This is partly why I like my ZMF Bokeh open, it does not need an expensive amp to work properly. The hd490 is supposed to be one of the best hp period, regardless of price.

I think best bet would probably be ZMF Bokeh they are super easy to drive have a 3.5mm straight to your laptop or even phone with a small dongle if needed. They will eat your $1000 budget through. Or you can get 6xx or 650 with a small dongle all will be under $500.

Tied for first (still own): Dan Clark Closed X and ZMF Bokeh. Second (sold): SJY Closed Carbon Third (sold): Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart

Bokeh is good. Colored sound compared to Closed X. Punchy and fun, I love it with anything that gets my toes tapping and prefer the Closed X with everything else.

I think you would love the Audeze LCD-XC, they are closed-back and they are exceptional, but they are heavy. You can, however, modify the headband or get their carbon fiber headband. I think you would also like the ZMF Bokeh. I personally think these two headphones are the best value closed-backs for the money. I have the Sony MDR-Z1R and they're my number one closed-backs but they're more expensive. For your amp/dac, get the Burson Audio Playmate or Burson Funk and you will have all the power you need as well as some upgradeability to the opamps. Burson makes exceptional opamps and will absolutely blow you away. This is my personal opinion as I have actually listened to the hardware mentioned above aside from the Burson playmate/Funk, but I owned the Burson Soloist 3XP and 3XP GT which are the big brothers. If you wanna go "bit" cheaper, maybe the DCA Noire X. I recommend these headphones solely based on your music preferences since they're similar to mine.

I can't even tell the difference between wired and aptx adaptive anymore. I don't feel like I'm missing anything when I use my PX8 S2 instead of my HE1000 Stealth and ZMF Bokeh.