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 backward 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 favorite one in this segment is the Meze 99 Classics. I have said this over several videos, this is easily one of my favorite 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 additionl amount required from the DAC and Amp and the balanced cable I do believe makes this a phenomenal setup. So for a budget of ust 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 popularheadphone 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 homein 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 mmas 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 the 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 andchoose 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 4.4mm 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 23,99 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 remainingamount 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 andIEM, 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 comedown 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.