009s is fairly intimate to me, like it's less than say LCD 5 but with sufficient volume it's very close and center imaged, and it has some peaks, compared to the x9000, so comparatively it sounds like there's a lot of artificial forwardness in the 009s.

When I got the 009s to begin with I was hoping for a relaxed sound to compliment 1266 but it wasn't at all.

Also heard very good things about z10e, not sure how that compared to the cayman and t2.

Also yeah funny we have the same experience switching between the two, but I can see me enjoying both still, 1266 is just a fun boom cannon, and going back to x9k after adjusting it sounds the most correct to me.

The BHSE has been surpassed IMO. Try the Grand Cayman if you get the chance. I think it’ll end up priced right around the Kerry T2.

If someone could make a headphone that sounds as natural as the 9k and stages as naturally as the 9k but with the visceral physicality of the 1266, that’d cover the bases for me. With the T2 the 9k gets a taste of that, so that could really be endgame, but it isn’t the same as the 1266 of course. I have the same experience switching between the two. 1266 sounds unnatural, recessed in the mids, and boomy when going from 9k to 1266, and the 9k sounds totally flat and boring going the other direction, but it doesn’t take long for me to adjust, and the 9k’s natural staging is starting to win me over. Both headphones are absolutely the top tier performance you can get from a head-fi system, so I hope my comments aren’t taken as otherwise.

And if you go down the speaker rabbit hole, if you haven’t already, check out Kharma speakers. It’s the first experience I’ve had that I felt surpassed Magico M Series and Rockport Lyra. I’d have to do some A/Bing to confirm, but my most recent experience with Kharma was one of the best experiences I’ve had in audio.

Robotic recessed mids, linear non rounded bass, and treble that makes it feel like icicles are getting gouged into your ears.

Well, who knows? Your motherboard could have a well-engineered headphone out that transparently reproduces sound across human-audible range... or it may not. I doubt anyone has measured its performance, and mystery headphone jacks are a crapshoot. But I'd say if you can turn the volume up to 100% with loudly mastered music and bear to listen to it, you don't have enough headroom. That said, if I'm going to shell out for a standalone unit that lives on my desk, I'd get something a bit more endgame than the E10K (in the $150-200USD new range)

i have the 560s too! they're pretty great, but i'd say definitely don't expect to be WOWED right away, just listen to them for a while and get to know them :)

Yeah man, I'm generally curious about BHSE or T2 and SRL as well, but honestly don't have any plans to get them anytime soon from budget restraints lol, KGST so far has been quite good and maybe I'll look into trying out T2 when I sell some of my other headphones.

Also yeah I didn't think 1266 can be beaten really, and even now if I get used to 1266 and switch back to x9k, x9k end up sounding very very "flat and boring" until I get adjusted to the soft sound. But once I do, and switching to the 1266 sounds way too boomy.

I think you’ll enjoy the 9k. Staging isn’t more intimate or closer on the 9k (actually a bit further) vs the 009, but it’s much more natural and coherent. Not as artificially airy between instruments. HE-1 takes the crown for me for a more intimately staged experience, but for that money I’d rather build systems around other headphones.

LOL, yeah bravura was good but I canthandl the comfort, and it image and stage nothing like the x9000, also aren't all that natural compared to even 009s, and nowhere near x9k.

Generally speaking according to what I've heard these are the closest to ShangriLa and Orpheus than anything else, and probably he1?

How do I access the setting to do so? Thanks!

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oh... good point, I currently have the Odin and AirPods Pro 😃 guess I know what I'll be using outside in the winter.

Yeah I definitely feel the "sounds about right" part of it. As I have a lot of background noise (city + roommate), I'm thinking I'll stick with the closed back because the open back literally block out zero sound (not even a tiny bit like some open back gaming headsets such as PC38X).

Mine are coming tomorrow also!

Yeah at first they didn't sound very good, but with a standard v/U shaped EQ on both Sundara versions I really couldn't tell much of a difference, even when using earcup from each driver at the same time. The closed back do have a slightly lower impedance though so they are easier to drive.

I would be mortified of damaging the balanced armatures from simply being out in the winter weather. I was daily driving my Monarchs until I realized how easily the drivers can break compared to DD IEMs. I went back to the Etys on commuting duty.

It might be worth getting some more breathable earpads for this purpose (something like velour or perforated leather, as opposed to sealed leather). I'm in the same boat - I have the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT2, and the stock pleather pads get way too hot for me when doing any sort of activity with them on, so I'm looking for a replacement that will stay cooler.

Note that any alternate earpads will change the sound signature, and also noise cancellation performance in case of active noise cancelling headphones like the XM4.

Headphones shouldn’t be flat on an FR graph like speakers because of the different way they interact with your ears. That’s why there isn’t a Harman curve for speakers. So if they sound like crap truly flat, that’s why. That being said, how do you know if it sounds flat? I’d say you’d have to have a trained ear and try to use songs with real unamplified acoustic instruments. If they sound natural, then it is probably close to flat. Not a huge fan of the sine wave technique because it isn’t real music so if you care about the music aspect rather than technical aspect I’d go with what I suggested above.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/comments/d4lk1i/what_were_the_impedance_of_the_tested/f0f09o6

Very important to note that you won’t be able to hear a difference anyways if the game supports 48khz, and if it doesn’t support it, you might get some nasty artifacts from converting if I’m not mistaken. On my opinion, best practice to just use 44. You literally can’t hear past it. Not only that, but 44 itself is generous, because I don’t think each ear can hear past 20khz. And your hearing probably can’t even hear that high.

Don't get too excited. I'm sure they are great, but first time impressions can vary person to person. You might need time with them to begin enjoying the difference. I had this experience with multiple headphones, especially the Hifiman HE400se. It sounded weak and harsh at first, but after two weeks I began to really notice the great amount of details and overall precision of the sound, it sounds neutral bright-ish to my ears today.

I just bought a pair of 560S to upgrade from my HyperX headset and it’s been a good experience. There’s a bit less bass but I think basically everything else sounds better.

If you’re gonna use them on a PC make sure you set your front headphone jack to use the same channel as the jack on your motherboard. I forgot to do that and thought I had a busted pair with how muffled everything sounded. I played csgo to test the sound and an awp sounded like a blowgun

If you look at RTings, in addition to frequency response there are other objective measurements that can describe headphone performance, and you can maybe learn your own ears and head and how they'd transfer those numbers into the phenomenology of listening...maybe.

It's not perfect, but your other choice is watching Christopher Suede videos and trying to assign meaning to words like thick... ephemeral...euphonic...dark...bright...warm...analytic...fast...tight...velvety

Maybe UTWS3/5 will make sense for you. I have both BTR5 and UTWS3, sound is almost the same. But true wireless capabilities are the thing.