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Yeees, any bass shaking option is a MUST imo if you want a proper movie headphones setup :)

Agreed! I no longer have the Utopia but I'm quite familiar with some of Hifiman's setup, excellent headphones!

If I didn't have a SubPac, I probably would have got bass shakers. Having true sub bass as well as tactile mid bass, makes a world of difference!

Aha the Utopias, very good headphones, I use the Hifiman Aryas so obviously pretty different technology going into this.

But yeah I fully agree that I can for sure see myself listening to and enjoying Dolby Atmos for headphones were I to acclimate my ears to that sort of sound. Unfortunately I use the Nvidia Shield TV Pro as my media player so even if I did want to use Atmos for headphones, I wouldn't be able to do so and I have yet to discover an external device that process Dolby Atmos for headphones—so maybe I had a bit of a subconscious bias against Atmos for headphones when I was testing it on my laptop as stereo listening is pretty much my only option when using my proper movie setup.

But I still tried to be as objective as possible and even if there are flaws with downmixing audio, I think there are also bound to be flaws with sound virtualisers as they try to convey something that wasn't intentionally engineered by a group of sound mixers. Still, the technology is very impressive but I believe that you can be just as content with simple stereo content—especially if you throw some bass shakers on your furniture to convey that tactile bass of films.

I understand what you are hearing. Absolutely, without DSP the discreet channel will be clearer. However, these discreet channels are meant to be heard with a bit of natural reverb, with room reflections that will naturally soften the sound. The audio engineer accounts for this, and the mix, positioning of instruments are created with this in mind.

A trick with any type of listening is that your brain acclimating to the sound. After listening to spatial DSP for a while it beings to sound more natural, and then switching back to regular stereo will sound incorrect.(hard-panned, no center channel, less depth, etc).

Furthermore, with multi-channel sources, if you are listening without DSP, there can be issues with the mix-down. In some cases the center channel isn't blended with the right volume etc.

I've tested Dolby Atmos for Headphones quite a bit using Focal Utopia for reference. The only thing that beat Dolby was Waves Abbey Road Studio. But this is a pro studio plugin and tricky to setup. It had very little artifact in its sound. That said, I'd put Dolby Atmos for Headphones up there. If you do try it again, check the settings. I believe the Gaming mode is actually clearer than the cinema settings with less overall reverb. it gives you a tighter spatial soundstage, with less spectral delay. It is more akin to listening to studio monitors.

Some people also just enjoy the interaction

As a cinephile I was very curious to try Dolby Atmos for headphones. While I certainly recommend everyone try for themselves to see how they like, I personally found it to be less good than just listening in stereo.

I tested lots of films, but one of my favorites references is the IMAX preshow trailer "Infinite Worlds". If you watch it, there's a part where a tiger growls in your right ear. Without Dolby Atmos for headphones this comes across with an excellent sense of texture in the growl, whereas with Atmos enabled I felt a huge loss of texture (and therefore also a little timbre).

I know this is just one example, but it's why I'm personally not a fan. But there is a free trial so I recommend everyone give it a shot and figure out for yourselves if it works for you!

It will dethrone the least expensive pair on the shelf

What happens when you inevitably get the next pair?

This looks nice!

Makes sense to me. Less variation means they can focus QA/QC on finer details.

As an Audeze and LCD-5 stan, the glued on pads talking point just gets old. I asked them for a new set of pads for my LCD-5 and they shipped out a pair for free. And they have videos on how to replace it. Just seems like a gripe that gets magnified because they're the only company that does it.

You either have a faulty pair or they aren't sealing properly in your ears, the wf-xm4 have unusually good bass for TWS and they have very tame treble, I prefer them to the over ear wh-xm4. In the app there is a seal test, I think its in the third section of the app, try it out. I usually have the volume at about 50%, I never raise it over 60% as it starts to get uncomfortably loud, I don't have super acute hearing.

Buy used, new is not worth 6K.

Thanks for sharing!

In the store waiting for me to pay and pick it up 😁

Thanks for the advice

Bruh where is Susvara?

What it does is, it filters the audio signals in a way that you will feel the sound is coming from everywhere even if you have 2 speakers or headphones. This can be good or bad for music depending on your preference but it is a deviated version of source so your music will not be how artist wanted it should be. Also in some cases artists themselves can release their songs with dolby atmos in mind so in that way you will hear their sound in their intended spatial way as opposed to their intended normal way.

I never had issues with my Elears or Elegia but I did have a click on my Elears when the ear cup would move a lot. Snapping seems surprising because they're pretty sturdy headphones.

Looks great, you definitely provided some inspiration for my end goal setup with this! I bet you can find some putty or something you could use to cover up the wire holes if you'd like.

HRTF. Basically

Got mine from b&h recently. The new ones have a shorter cable terminated in 3,5mm jack and comes with a quarter inch adapter. Also the headband is now made of a cloth type material.

Like someone already mentioned, the main difference seems to be the cable and adapter it comes with. I also got the refurbished ones around October and it came with the 3.5mm cable and 6.3mm adapter. I think the earpads might be different as well but I have no idea since I don’t have the “early” version to compare.

I don't measure anything tho?

I just inform myself before wasting money and poorly performing products :)

I thought those spaces were recessed and I was like "dang, that's a lot of work for headphones, but it looks awesome"