Subjective sound impressions + quick look at FR is a good combo. I like the way DMS does it but I don't trust him too much.

Just my two cents, I don’t think you want to be sweating on ear pads. You’ll have to replace them very often, and could possibly cause actual damage to the drivers if I had to guess.

Best practice to just use earbuds with water resistance instead.

Well if at all possible I would recommend going to a store and trying some out in person.

That said, the Sennheiser HD6XX or Hifiman HE 400 SE are pretty good. Hard not to be warmer than Beyers tbh

Depends on how they are made. Some are vented which relieves this. Others are totally sealed which causes this.

I don't mind it as it in improves isolation if I need it.

They're divisive. I haven't heard them myself, but some reviewers think they sound horrible, while others think they sound nice. It's a "try before you buy" case.

In my eyes the only true gaming IEMs are Final VR3000 but they aren't the greatest at music because of tuning. Tbh it's not necessary, any IEM can work fine for gaming because it's skill that matters.

Boring

wait what they've got closed back sundaras?

somehow I've literally never heard of this. are they any good?

Flattest is probably somewhere close to the Etymotic ER4SR. Most people will say that they have no bass though. They measure flat in the bass with a rise where the lack of ear gain would be.

Open

Sorry for just dropping the video earlier and dipping, I was at work but really wanted to chip in on this topic.

Ok so first, it's good to have an idea how we hear and what the driver is doing in regard to pressure waves when generating sound. https://imgur.com/a/AYU9ciU So in this image it depicts individual frequency waves and then they are combined in an analog signal for the driver to create them, they are all added (and subtracted) together into a single waveform that the driver follows. That creates the pressure waves that our ears pick up and extract information from. Now when applying that to frequency response, the varying SPL of differing frequencies has a direct affect on the shape of the waveform due to differing amplitude in various frequencies.

With that in mind it's also good to know about things like auditory masking. When multiple close together frequencies are played, if one is substantially louder than other similar frequencies being played, our brain filters the quieter ones out. The range of frequencies masked is dependent on how loud the peak is. So with headphones that have substantial variation in it's FR, it may sound either more "detailed" or less "detailed" than another based on it's FR. Personally I believe this is also one of the factors that causes the perception of "fast or slow" headphones, despite their drivers not actually responding in a "fast or slow manner" (in the sense its often described).

That said, it's not discounting headphones, different drivers, and the research or quality put into them. Different headphones and drivers may have their own unique frequency response due to various factors, and EQing is more like bending that overall tonality, but specifical characteristics of the FR that may make them sound unique will still be present.

So no you can't just look at a graph and know exactly how it will sound, or use a FR graph to EQ it perfectly to you because of differences in transfer function and acoustic impedance. Even if they measure the same on a graph, it may differ at your eardrum.

To summarize, FR at your eardrum in theory contains all the information you need, but actually extracting that information from FR is not reliable and FR made on standardized rigs is better used as a tool, but still trust your ears first

Thank you :)

I made it myself :) Its really simple to make, all you need is foam to make the shapes, a material to cover the foam and glue gun to stick it together.

Same here, I recently bought a pair of s12 pros for iem gaming when i don’t want to use my larger over ear sets.

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if a company can make a closed back version of an open back headphone and it sounds about right, then that is a success. ZMF pulled it off with the verite which is great. however, sennheiser failed massively with the HD820

You may look at the oriolus szalayi it’s on sale now for 750 on musictek ( don’t know how long ) and is a good tribrid set has a headfi thread too

head-fi and specialized reddit groups like this and facebook are different beasts. Facebook you get spieled on cheap chinese crap, here you get spieled on extravagant headphone setups that most people would never be able to afford.

Yeah, you just have to realize that after a point, and that point depends entirely on each individual, you get to where you see huge diminishing returned after a certain price point. If you already have a ndh 30, I would imagine you are pretty much there. If you are happy where you are at then stay there. If not you might need to look at where in the line you can improve things, like whatever headphone amp you have. Throwing thousands of dollars on headphones is something I know I can't afford... I wish I could though, lol.

Frequency response graphs show the most important single metric of a piece of audio equipment—the linear distortion. Linear distortion is far more easily audible and objectionable than nonlinear distortions. I don’t think anyone claims that FR is ‘everything’ but it is definitely the most important thing.

That sounds like a good idea, what other headphones in that price range would you recommend? Maybe something that’s a bit warmer then the 900 pros

The 900 Pro X are excellent for the money.

But honestly, the biggest caveat is that sound is subjective and ultimately only you will know what you like. It's definitely possible that other headphones in the same price bracket will blow you away way more. I would rather try that, maybe some Sennheiser or Hifiman headphones, than jumping to the 1990 straight away.

Although if you generally like the 900 Pro X, the 1990s are definitely a good choice.

Give it some time and swap back and forth between them.

I hear you on that. With some of these wireless designs, I like how the mic is an optional component and you can tune the way the headphone sounds so you can alternate between gaming and music. Bonus points for headphones that don't have crazy gamer LED lights all over the place draining battery.

I'd say so. Although both are extremely soft systems, the x9000 sounds natural and tasteful while the bravura literally sounded like your ears haven't popped from a pressure change.