Recently purchased some new cans. They should show up tomorrow. I'll see how they sound going straight into the PC, but I'll probably be back to this sub with lots of questions about amps and dacs.

I agree with the assessment. Of all those, the dragonfly black is probably the 'worst' sounding. I didn't much care for the total airhead, either. I really liked the ES-100 and the sound of the BTR5. Just loved the supermacro and kind of grew resentful of apple for doing away with the line level output of the original 30-pin.

As I mentioned in another comment / reply, the apple dongle is kind of the bar for performance and cost. But a favorite? Like all things, it's complicated. The ES-100 sounded great with the 535s. It worked flawlessly, but the battery is just insufficient for long-term use. The BTR5 app isn't anything to brag about, but I really like the sound signature (not so neutral) but I've grown to loathe the battery life and hassle of getting it to work on iOS. The Echo wasn't bad at the time, but couldn't carry around a laptop in your pocket. Strapping on amps like the bithead and the supermacro to your DAP was cumbersome and yet, i'm going back that direction with the ifi Hip Dac 2.

And my age is also a factor. I've lost the ability to really discern the differences between FLAC and MP3 320, especially in 'noisy environments' where I would be listening to portable gear. And after a while, what is the next level of bit rate? Especially on art created and recorded in the tube era or even the 70's? That's not even mentioning really early recordings that I still enjoy.

I do like the dynamics of the original recordings where things were soft and then other things were loud. The crescendos and decrescendos which adds to the adagios and the allegros. The way some singer-song writers used space when they performed. The subtleties of finger picking verses finger tip picks. These days, and all these overly produced, compressed, and remastered recordings just wear me out. It just drones on and on and I feel desensitized, like I need a bigger fix. That's one of the aspects I really like about the balanced verses unbalanced when it comes to outputs on these little guys. Their extra power feels like there's a lot more headroom for turning up those quiet, original recordings.

Not OP but Keychron, 60%? If it's not a Keychron, Keychron will very happily sell you something identical.

Alphanumeric keys are razer style keycaps though.

This was a good read with lots of nice info, Thank you!

How is the treble? I've seen some reports that the treble is a bit too spicy.

I have blessing 2 dusk as well and love them! I would recommend looking into a fiio Bluetooth UTWS5 adapter for the blessing 2s to turn them into a Bluetooth pair instead of carrying two different iems.

I think the apple dongle is the threshold to start. I mean, it's really quite good, and exception on a cost vs performance perspective.

So what do we get for money we spend over $9? Bluetooth? An absurd bit rate? Frustrating short battery life?

I've really grown to love the wireless charging. I have the mag safe on my desk and on my nightstand. Car isn't magsafe, but it's still wireless. That frees up the lightning port for fun stuff like amps that don't want to adhere to apple's low power requirements...

or post on reddit!

Speakers and headphones are very similar in nature. Just like how a room can really influence the sound of a speaker, similarly the pads on headphones can have huge impact on the sound signature of a headphone. A pad after all is the "room" for the headphone driver.

Density of the material (velour, leather/sheepskin/lambskin, suede) plays a major role here. Higher density materials tend to absorb the high frequency, hence elevating the bass. Materials like leather/sheepskin/lambskin and suede are of higher density and are usually used to increase the bass response of the headphone, pushing towards a warmer sounding headphone. However, materials like velour and any sort of fenestration in leather pads are of lower density and have emphasis on the higher frequencies. Bass is not as elevated as the leather or suede pads.

Density of the memory foam plays a role in increasing the soundstage. If the stock pad was less thick than the aftermarket pad, then you will observe a perceived increase in the soundstage, as the headphone driver is further away from your ears.

These are my generic set of observations, and of course YMMV based on headphones. It is wise to read the frequency response graph for each pad-headphone combination. Folks from Dekoni Audio do a great job of measuring their pads, plus their pads are of great quality too!

True, although I think for a lot of use cases the space settled on things like the Apple Dongle. Cannot be bothered with batteries beyond my phone/

>I think, that the extra sharpness might be because of lost detail

It may be because of high output impedance as well. But maybe yeah, it's a distortion.

I personally found Xiaomi phones to be problematic with software sound chains by default (effects, equalizers that you can't turn off, problems with gain, etc). So maybe DAC/Amp in your Redmi are not that bad, you just need custom firmware like Pixel Experience or something like that to keep software sound chain clean.

That pcmcia card is really interesting I’ve never seen anything like it

I don’t have motion sickness. I do feel the cabin pressure of ANC headphones. I stopped using ANC 20 years ago. I use IEM when I need to block out sound. And I have Apple AirPods Pro and Shure Aonic with ANC, but I don’t use ANC fearure.

I think it’s due to the constant sound pressure from the ANC - I used to feel very ill from the original quiet comforts back in the early 2000’s. Maybe my brain had a: “why do I have the sensation of sound on my eardrums but am hearing no sound?”

One long haul flight in 2016 I happened to have a pair of QC25’s available, and despite the sick feeling they always gave me, I decided to wear them - somehow over the duration of that flight I went from not being able to stomach them, to being fine with them!

Ever since then I have worn quiet comforts constantly at work and have had no problems! Currently have the QC45s.

So maybe try wearing the QC45’s in a VERY noisy environment to let your brain acclimatise to the feeling of the ANC while a little bit of outside noise still gets through - that might mitigate some of the weird: “sound but no sound” feeling?

See you at the alter of Fang Bian. ;)

As well as polishing with the special £80 cloth.

Idk an answer to your question, but Iems with a triple or biflanged tip might be another option

The whole thing goes in your ear

https://imgur.com/a/FsTGfev

They will never fall out, but you won't be able to hear

I actually have the same headphones. I wouldn't say they are a weak link, especially because they are very well built and super comfy if you upgrade them with Dekoni Choice pads. But I think that they benefit greatly from EQing, you could give that a try if you haven't yet. The stock sound was too muffled for my taste.

Neat

Yeah, this was out of the box and I tried pairing it and resetting and with bluetooth turned on and off. Nothing worked so far. But I will try to update firmware before I return them.

Good video, Thanks!

Thanks, this is some good info!

Said while performing ancient, forbidden strengthening rituals. I only produce children to feed them to the Hifiman gods.

Headphones Show did a pretty good video overview of how pads affect sound. Link to it - https://youtu.be/pPcMxmwDw-c

You can read about it in different manufacturing sites, eg. Yaxi, Dekoni etc.

Just one example: https://dekoniaudio.com/articles/so-you-want-some-focal-measurements-with-the-dekoni-audio-ear-pads/

When interested in experiencing even subtile changes: Cut out rounds from coffee filters and put in your cans … you’ll be astonished how noticeable the differences are.