Yeah the Focal Clear MG had the same issue with the left driver rattling at sub-bass frequencies

I had a cushion thing like this about 20 years ago. From memory it was kind of silly and the cabling got annoying. I wonder what happened to it.

The hd660s were probably made just because the hd700 didn’t sell very well and they didn’t want to waste all that r&d work, so they stuffed it in a hd6x0 chassis. Hopefully sennheiser will make a proper successor to the hd6x0 lineup.

Does your girlfriend have a boyfriend already?

She's a keeper!

7HZ Salnotes Zero or Moondrop Quarks DSP?

Almost any headphone (and certainly every pair i have personally heard) is a downgrade from the Dusk in any metric besides soundstage width.

If it's permanent then try the SoundID app.

It actually is a small issue as 3.5mm can't provide a Balanced connection meaning you can't used a DAC/Amp with truly Balanced outputs, even if you adapt 3.5mm to 4.4mm or 2.5mm its not going to be able to benefit from a Balanced connection because the signal gets converted back to 3.5mm before the signal goes up the cord. I would reccomend buying a replacement 2.5mm to 4.4mm if that's something you care about and your dac offers it. Otherwise the 3.5mm to 6.3 adapter isn't going to make much of a difference because 6.3 connections are rarely if ever Balanced.

So it depends on your situation if that's an issue or not.

Nice future

I wish I had a gold for this already aged-like-wine-from-the-start wisdom filled comment.

The BTR5 and Qudelix have the same power into low impedances, both are 80mW on the SE and 240mW on the balanced. The Qudelix has very slightly higher power only into high impedances, as it has very slightly higher max voltage (4V vs 3.6V). At the 18Ω of the Edition XS neither is going anywhere near their max voltage, so it's the mW power number that matters and they are the same. Both use the exact same chip in the exact same configuration, so it's the same, BTR5 just puts a cap on the voltage slightly below the max.

Qudelix is IMO a better device but it will not make any difference to the sound or the power.

If you get it, I would put a balanced cable on it. The Edition XS is moderately hard to drive and either Qudelix or BTR5 are IMO OK with the balanced but limited on the SE, even more so if you are going to EQ. You can get a balanced cable for $10-20, no need to spend more than this unless you want to splurge for look/feel. I have a $10-15 FAAEAL cable on it, all the cables in the first pic are suitable for the EXS and except the Tripowin ($30-50) they are all under $20.

A balanced cable is not this big investment, and it's not something you can't just swap out when you want to. You can swap the cable easily if you want to use it single ended, OR you can just use a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter, or for that matter a 2.5mm to 6.35mm adapter, which is what I use. If I didn't use my 4.4->6.35 and 2.5->6.35 adapters I'd be using a 3.5->6.35 so it makes no difference and I just wire everything for balanced.

It's a different experience to the Dusk, it's "bigger" sounding. I don't think it blows the Dusk out of the water, but I don't think anything does really, the Dusk is very good. Edition XS is very good for the price it's at, it's very similar tonality to the Arya Stealth and is like 90% of that IMO for much less money.

You can also pour a little bit of olive oil into your ears (preferably not straight from the bottle) and let it soak in a little, like 2-5min per ear while your head is tilted. It softens up the ear wax and makes it easier to flush out. Press a paper towel against the ear pointing at the ground when doing the second ear. Then have a shower and flood and rinse your ears repeatedly.

You can also use sesame oil or white oil if you have any but olive oil is fine.

Only ever heard good things about Hart Audio, maybe gonna look into them, but international shipping to Europe + import taxes are a bit much for just a cable (close to 100€) :(

Rather than a better or worse experience it's a totally different experience - IEMs and headphones are completely different presentations so I'm not sure how to answer this question haha

I own an XS, demoed the B2D, have not A/B'd both together - I would expect the B2D to give you more detail, however the XS's soundstage is just going to be just one world above - XS's soundstage height & imaging is slightly above average, soundstage width however, whew!

I do not own any of the DAC/AMPs listed nor do I care for measurements (I only care to enjoy my music) so I really don't know whether your current dac/amp will do or not - my assessment is that the XS is moderately challenging to drive - not super difficult nor temperamental, so I am guessing you should be OK.

Regarding cables, for the Edition XS, I would highly recommend getting a new cable - while the stock cable is doesn't cause me any actual usability issues (it doesn't tangle/fray/etc.), one inconsistency/problem the Edition XS is notorious for - different stock cables have been measured to have wildly different impedances. I personally use a Tripowin GranVia.

What DAC/amp are you using? I'm interested in knowing how power-demanding these are.

For me piercing is an understatement. All cymbals and even speaking voices in youtube videos have extreme metallic ringing.

I’d say there’s a few primary factors at play, most of which folks have mentioned here. Neither of you are totally wrong, just maybe not considering or know the bigger picture.

1. everyone has slightly different hearing, and their ear/brain actually becomes accustomed to whatever they typically listen to. So, a different sound profile may sound wrong, even if it’s technically “right”. This is likely part of why your friend hears it as good, and you hear it is wrong - he’s used to it, whether it’s good or not.

2. game audio can’t often be trusted, given it isn’t nearly as high of a priority to make it neutral or natural, and compression for the sake of file size often plays a part. Ultimately, games vary a lot and the makers don’t necessarily have “studio” or “reference” audio gear in mind.

3. these beyers don’t play well with compression from my experience due to their treble peaks. To me, it made things sound harsh and digital in a way. They are also on the lean side for the vocal range, lacking things like “warmth”, “body”, and “fullness”.

It probably (!) Has noticeably better sound than the onboard dac on your Mainbord. And it is compatible with windows

I bought cables over at Hart Audio Cables and I love them. I mainly needed a fabric-covered cable to stop the cats from biting through them. Now I want these cables for all my headphones.

https://hartaudiocables.com/collections/hifiman

What improvements does the apple dongle dac give? Is it compatible with windows?

I have the Tripowin GrandVia for my Denon AD-H7200 with 4.4mm to dual 3.5. it fits the Hifiman as well and can be bought in different terminations for the player. They aren't cheap but really really nice and worth every penny!

I noticed that too when updating to windows 11. I would recommend getting a dac, for the 599 the apple dongle dac should be sufficient. It's only a few bucks.

Noice! How do you like them?

Yes this morning I reconnected them and now the front panel works. Obviously there's no change in sound.

I don't know if this is the case for you too, but apparently the Realtek Audio Manager has been replaced with the Audio Console (from the microsoft store). Kinda sucks I can't use the equaliser without enabling DTS, and there seems to be more options for a Realtek Digital Output (environment options, etc.) which my headphones apparently aren't (they're under the Speakers tab)