Intro

In today's video we're going to be looking at complete audiophile headphone
setups for a budget of 40,000 rupees. Now very often you'll find that we're
always talking about amazing sounding headphones or IEMs but we always
recommend that you use them along with a headphone amplifier a digital to
analog converter and balanced cables but each of these adds to the cost of the
overall setup. In today's case we're taking a complete budget of 40,000 rupees
and working backwards to fit all the components in within that budget to give
you the best sounding setups for a budget of 40,000 rupees and in today's
video I've got 3 full-sized headphones and three IEMs that I think sound
amazing and hopefully this video is going to help you pick the right one for you.

Setup 1

All right guys my first setup is a full-size closed back headphone and my
favourite one in this segment is the Meze 99 Classics. I have said this over
several videos, this is easily one of my favourite headphones and I use it quite
extensively. It's priced at 28,999 so a good portion of a budget goes towards
using a great headphone and I’ve got enough budget left over for me to do the
rest of it. So you'll find that in this budget the Mezze 99 Classics is easy to
drive so it does not need a very powerful amplifier. It's a closed back so you
can use it on the go. It's got a beautiful sound, it looks amazing and for the
price I can't think of another headphone that I can recommend enough. What I
will do though is that from the remaining budget I'm going to spend 4,499
Rupees to get an balanced oxygen free balanced cable from Meze Audio and
you can swap the cables out on the Mezze 99 Classics. Balanced cable does
make a big difference and I do think it's a worthwhile investment especially
because I'm going to be using the Shanling UA2 plus as my DAC and Amp of
choice in this setup. Now this is a tiny little dongle DAC. It's not something very
very difficult to use you'll find that it comes with a detachable USB-C cable so
you can plug this straight into your Android phone and boom you're good to go.
You can also Swap this out for an iOS lightning to USB cable if you want to use
it along with your iPhone. Now it's not very powerful but that's okay it doesn't
really matter because the Meze 99 Classics is not a headphone that use a lot of
power to drive it. More importantly though what this does have is a 4.4 mm
balanced output that I can connect this balanced cable to and the balanced
output on this DAC does improve the sound a little bit. The bass becomes a
little bit tighter, the vocals become a little bit clearer, the soundstage just opens
up a little bit and the additional amount required from the DAC and Amp and the
balanced cable I do believe makes this a phenomenal setup. So for a budget of
just over 40,000 rupees you find that you've got a complete audiophile grade
set up. Something that you can use at home or on the go and it sounds
incredible.

Setup 2

Okay my second setup for today is a full-size planar magnetic open back
headphone that I think you're going to like listening to. It's a very very popular
headphone from HiFiMAN, this is the HiFiMAN Sundara .A lot of people start
their audiophile journeys with this particular headphone and I highly
recommend this kind of a setup especially if you're listening to music at home
in a quiet environment. With an open back headphone you're certainly not
going to be carrying this around with you everywhere and more importantly a
planar magnetic headphone like this requires a lot of power for which you need
a DAC and Amp that's capable of driving it. The HiFiMAN Sundara is priced at
28,999, so we're taking a good portion of our budget and giving it to getting a
very very nice full body, full size open back headphone like the Sundara. With
the remaining amount of budget I need to pick a good DAC and Amp that's
capable of driving these planar magnetic drivers and my choice is the Topping
DX1 which is priced at 8,999. It's quite powerful, it pairs with your mobile phone
or laptop via USB and it draws power from it and the power is more than
sufficient to be able to drive these headphones. You find that this has a 3.5 mm
as well as a quarter inch output and you'll find that with that the volume control
has more than enough headroom to be able to drive the HiFiMAN Sundara really
really well and for grand total of 37,899, well within our budget of 40,000
rupees I believe you've got a phenomenal setup that sounds nice for any
audiophile at home.

Setup 3

My next choice of headphone is the Sennheiser HD650. This is an absolute cult
classic - the HD650 has been around for decades now and still continues to be
a very very compelling offering, one that audiophiles swear by. Now why is it
called classic because a lot of people really believe that the sound signature of
the HD650 is absolutely unique and nothing else in this price segment comes
close to it. It's got a very very vocal forward sound signature, one that
audiophiles swear by. The Sennheiser HD650 is priced at 24,999 so we're
giving a good portion of a budget to getting these Sennheiser headphones.
They're using traditional dynamic drivers with one that has a relatively high
impedance, so you'll find that we need to pick from the remaining budget and
choose a DAC and Amp that's capable of driving the Sennheiser HD650 and
doing it justice. So for 16,999 I have with me the iFi Audio ZEN DAC V2 one of
the most popular DAC and Amps in this budget and you'll find that it's been
chosen for a very specific reason. You'll find that it has a quarter inch
headphone output one that the HD650 plugs into and one that is powerful
enough to drive the HD650 reasonably well. The iFi ZEN DAC V2 connects to
your laptop or even your mobile phone via USB and draws power from it and
you'll find that it's powerful enough to do the setup justice. What this also has
is a 4.4 mm balanced output that we are not using for this particular setup
because you're going to end up spending an additional couple thousand rupees
to get a balanced cable that's not included with the Sennheiser HD 650, but if
you had to I would say that that would of course be a worthwhile investment
allowing you to give the much more powerful 4.4mm output on the ZEN DAC V2
an opportunity to shine and even without that for a budget of 40,000 rupees
this particular setup I do believe sounds very very good. It's the kind of setup
that a lot of audiophiles start their journey with and therefore it's one of the
most popular ones for a grand total of 40,000 rupees.

Setup 4

My next setup is a portable setup that's got an in ear monitor or an IEM along
with a portable dongle DAC and Amp and I'm taking my budget of 40,000
rupees and splitting it right down the centre half of it for the IEM, half of it for
the dongle DAC so for 19,999 I'm picking the Sennheiser IE 300 which is a very
very popular IEM from Sennheiser. They make some incredible IEMs at various
price points and for 20,000 rupees I do believe in the IE 300 is great deal. You'll
find that it's using a single dynamic driver, it's full bodied and covers all the
frequencies really really well. Its reasonably well balanced and it's got a 3.5 mm
cable that's included in the box that I'm gonna plug into my portable dongle
DAC - the Cayin RU6 which also priced at 19,999. The RU 6 is using an old
school R2R DAC chip in this form factor which is absolutely incredible. R2R
DACs are very very popular for people who are into speakers and full-size
headphones and have very very expensive setups. R2R DACs can sound very
organic, they can sound very very realistic and at the same time very very
detailed. People enjoy it for giving a little bit of a you know old school organic
sound signature rather than a very sharp metallic analytic sound signature and I
think it complements the sound of the IE 300 really well. So this has a 3.5 mm
output as well as a 4.4 mm balanced output. We're going to simply plug the IE
300 into 3.5 mm output and it sounds very very good for grand total of 39,998
we have what I think is a fabulous combination for a portable setup that you can
use with you everywhere.

Setup 5

My next setup is again with a very very different IEM. This is the Moondrop
Blessing 2 priced at 28,999. Now what you're getting for 28,999 rupees is
phenomenal. The Moondrop Blessing 2 has five drivers per side and a hybrid
configuration. One dynamic driver and four balanced armature drivers per side.
This makes it is one of the most capable IEM for this price segment and one
that I swear by. I don't think I've heard any other IEM which in this segment can
sound as sharp, as accurate and as detailed as the Moondrop Blessing 2 and I
had to include it amongst my favourite setups in this price bucket. Now if you're
going to take 28,999 for the Moondrop Blessing 2, you're left with a reasonably
small budget for the DAC and Amp and I'm gonna go with the Shanling UA2
Plus which is priced at 7,490 rupees. What the Shanling UA2 plus does is pretty
nice it's got a detachable USB-C cable so you can plug this straight into your
Android phone to complete the setup or you can swap it out for a lightning to
USB-C cable if you're using an iOS device. Now the Shanling UA2 Plus is not a
very powerful dongle DAC but that's okay, the Moondrop Blessing 2 doesn't
need a lot of power. What it does have is a 3.5 mm unbalanced as well as a 4.4
mm balanced output and I fully intend to take advantage of the 4.4 mm
balanced output on this DAC because it does make a big difference to the
sound signature and the overall performance of the Moondrop Blessing 2. What
we're going to go for is the Tripowin Petrichor balanced cable. It's got a two pin
connector that you will use for the Moondrop Blessing 2 and a 4.4 mm
termination that goes into the Shanling UA2 Plus for a grand total of 40,179 just
a shade over of 40,000 rupee budget but I do believe what you are getting is a
phenomenal sounding setup especially if you're looking for a highly detailed
and accurate sound signature, which is exactly exactly what the Moondrop
Blessing 2 is known for.

Setup 6

My third IEM setup and I must say is probably one of my favourite setups is
featuring another IEM and a Bluetooth DAC and Amp so this makes it very very
portable and easy to use. My IEM of choice is a brand new IEM from Final
Audio, this is the Final Audio A5000. It's a single dynamic driver IEM and Final
audio is known for making some beautifully sparkly sounding IEMs that really
really have a beautiful top end but in this particular case they balance that out
with a really nice meaty low end as well. So what you get is a very nice
powerful, fun sounding, energetic V-shaped sound signature from Final Audio
and for a price of 23,999 it makes it an absolute winner. I love these IEMs.
Mostly Final Audio IEMs are known for having a very analytical forward sound
but this is the most fun sounding Final Audio IEM from the entire lineup and
therefore I had to have it a part of this list. You'll find that with the remaining
amount of budget I'm going to get one of my favourite portable DAC and Amp
from FiiO - this is the BTR7. It's a very very popular Bluetooth dongle DAC.
You'll find that it pairs along with your phone over Bluetooth. So if you're using
an Android device you can connect over the LDAC codec and it gives you
almost close to lossless audio performance, making sure that the fidelity
remains really really high, there's absolutely no loss in transmission. You'll find
that this has a 3.5 mm as well as a 4.4 mm balanced output. I'm simply going to
connect the Final Audio A5000 using the 3.5 mm cable that comes with this
and you'll find that, this is a complete hands-free operation that you can now
put into your pocket, have wireless connectivity to your Android phone or your
iOS device and listen to these IEMs. I think that for the price you're getting a
phenomenal DAC and Amp that sounds very very nice and an IEM that sounds
very very fun for a grand total of 39,899, right within our budget of 40,000
rupees you have a phenomenal complete audiophile grade portable setup with
an iFi Bluetooth DAC and Amp for you to use on the go anywhere.

Conclusion

That's six different audiophile setups guys - 3 involving headphones, 3
involving In Ear Monitors, portable setups and setups that you can use at home
that have a complete audiophile grade headphone system - headphone and
IEM, DAC, headphone amplifier and balance cables all of which sound very very
good together for a complete budget of 40,000 rupees and which I think is a
great budget for people who are starting off in the audiophile journey. I'd love
for you to listen to all of them and if you use the same principles that I've used
I'm sure you'll be able to put together an audiophile setup that you would like
from all the components that are available and one that sounds very very nice
where they all complement each other very well. You’re most welcome to come
down and try these out at our experience studio here in Mumbai or listen to
these at a Headphone Connect event that's happening near you. Thank you
very much and goodbye.