I loved the Sundara, but it hurted my ears because of the clamp. I saw someone was selling the XS with 1 years for $120 less than base price, so I upgraded right away. I had demoed the XS in store before, the XS fills out what's missing in the Sundara for me.

Audeze have an open box/B stock sale at least once a year, usually in November. That's where I got my LCD-X, $699. They will ship internationally, I'm in Asia, shipping is around $100 and you would have to pay VAT on import and any warranty needs to go back to the US at your cost. But it's still a good deal IMO.

If you CAN get them locally, obviously do, it's better for the warranty etc. But this maybe an option for you. Audeze LCD-X is $1,950 retail here, and the only shop that has it even listed it looks like the old one, with the old headband, which was much worse.

I can't see any reason whatsoever as to why it is B stock, it looks perfect. And Audeze say with the B stock, it's never sonic issues, they don't sell anything with a sonic issue. It's anything that came back to them for any reason, and I think most of it, it's pretty much mint, I also have a B-stock Euclid IEM and it's also perfect.

7hz Salnotes Zero

The 2021 version isn't quite as bad as that, it's still recessed in the upper mids and needs EQ but it's not as bad as the previous version.

https://crinacle.com/graphs/headphones/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,LCD-X_(Fazor),LCD-X_(2021)

There won't be audible timing issues from equipment designed to vibrate more than 20,000 times per second.

Edit to add: I don't know what nonlinear means in this context.

>a constant volume one-tone sweep, which doesn't really catch anything nonlinear

That's what it costs. If you don't have issues with the current headband, no need to swap it. It's a relatively marginal weight saving.

The weight is very well distributed with the headband, I have no issue at all with the LCD-X but get hotspots with the Hifiman HE6SEV2 which is only 470g.

I agree with this take, but the problem with this take is that it's functionally useless. FR is heavily smoothed because of how inconsistent it is with fine-grained measurements, especially in the treble, which is mostly what affects perceived detail. The way FR is measured is also just a constant volume one-tone sweep, which doesn't really catch anything nonlinear. Time-related response isn't measured either.

The more specific take would be "FR, split across all frequencies, of the sound reaching your ears, across all different speeds and volumes, is all that matters" but it's basically useless trivia at this point.

This should be the question first answered with any headphone review, really

Any earpads other than OEM will change the sound, so if you like your headphones with the OEM pads, your best bet is to just get another pair of OEM pads.

FWIW, I've tried several non-OEM earpad varieties on the HD 560S and they all affected the sound in a way I didn't like.

Good points, but the 70s headphones that I know are all midcentric, not just the monitors.
I owned K370 and heard some orthos. I also have Fostex T40RP right now on my head and it's the only vocal monitor. Unfortunately I know also some less expensive headphones including the common man's Sennheiser HD414 and boy were they awful. K370 only covered the full-ish range because it was a dual driver. After that model bass in AKG really went extinct. Stax had the same issue. They were all midcentric headphones even though they were not studio workhorses. The tuning back then was just mostly mids. They were close, some were better than an average headphone today, but the general trend is quite clear. Yamaha was probably an exception, although today the age might obscure that, because they lack extension. The Soviet Echo headphones that are easier to find where I live are plain midcentric like the rest of them.

I have had a couple of vintage Pioneer headphones in the past . The last was a pair of Pioneer SE 405 which looks really similar to those. They were built well, (the volume knobs even worked) but really, really heavy. I wanted to like them but I just didn't. They were boxey sounding, had no top end extension, no sub bass, overall a dull, dark sound.

Nvm figured it out. Just disable background app refresh in the apple settings for Snapchat

Hi, just get the adapters/converters for the IE 300/600/900, AKG N5005, etc. It should work with any MMCX connection, though it'll be loose and prone to falling off, at least with some of them.

Like the OKSC one on Amazon is loose with the IE 200 and my FiiO UTWS3/5 TWS adapters, it falls off easily with certain angles and movements. But it works pretty well, just don't move too fast or tilt your head that much.

Try buying from Amazon UK (Amazon USA, Amazon Japan, et cetera also ship to some places Europe), lol.

Here's more info on TWS adapters like the FiiO UTWS3/5, KZ AZ09 Pro, etc. alongside adapters/converters, AptX Adaptive dongles (KB9P, YET-T10P, etc.), and so on needed for them: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/11565qg/need_help_buying_a_bluetooth_wireless_adapter_for/j9033u7/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/10hfuxn/wireless_earbuds_for_gaming_with_plugin_to/j58i33j/

Here's a more direct link for the adapters/converters required for the different IEMs and headphones: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/t3v7wp/looking_to_make_my_arias_wireless/hyv14dn/

Don't forget the versions (adapters/converters for the IE 300/600/900, AKG N5005, etc.) from AliExpress, there's a few other ones there.

With quality control of Chinese IEMs, AliExpress shipping times, see here for a bit more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/10sna0p/i_have_it_engrained_in_my_mind_as_an_american/j7395yr/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/zav570/is_hifigo_a_scam/iynrt65/

For the cables, you can ask custom cablemakers like XINHS on AliExpress to add microphones, different colors, longer/shorter length, etc. to the cable. Make sure to specify what you want, it might be extra costs though.

Here's a bit more info on how to get cheap cables and also customized cables to your liking: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/z931n3/mmcx_cables/iyfic2p/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/10hg005/help_finding_cables_for_sennheiser_ie_600/j58j4t8/

Extra info on wired IEMs/headphones/Bluetooth/et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11a550d/how_can_i_learn_the_basics_about_soundheadphones/j9r9r48/

All I know it's my favourite colour (brown)

Your dac didn’t change the headphone.

They are cool af

I bought seinheisser 458bt headphones yesterday. They’re pretty good, slightly uncomfortable, but I can deal with it. The main problem I have is whenever I open a camera or send a message, mainly in Snapchat, the music just cuts out and the headphones go into this dumb transparency mode, that I can only disable by going into Spotify, pausing, and replaying the music. Every time I send a message or open a camera this happens. I have sidetone disabled in the app, and I’ve looked everywhere and there’s no settings to disable it. I just wanna listen to music, I don’t want a dumb transparency mode. Thanks for any help.

I mean you could list them on av exchange or eBay and get most of your money back. That’s my take. You could try new pads. Amazon has a few options for focals. I’d give it 1-2 weeks and 10+ hours of use. They might grow on you.

but bluetooth dac amp is an amp/da~~~

No experience personally, but did read a lot of those kind of headphones will take some time to loosen up a bit. Give it time, especially since you can't return it.

I also believe that FR is the main part, the HD600's are within +/- 3dB from 30-20khz and they sound detailed to me.

That's.... pretty inaccurate to say the least.

Headphones were designed for vocals only in the beginning. Hence a lack of anything but midrange.

It was a quick process from late 60s to 70s in which companies saw the potential of Headphones to consumers and threw the everything at making a good sounding pair, we got electrostatics and orthodynamics because of this. Headphones would sound pretty good from this point onwards.

Now in regards to bass, we never needed big fat bloated bass until the loudness wars. It was perfectly fine to have a grado or senn with a bass response you heard rather than felt and it was deemed a better approach to messier, cheaper sets. The famed Sony mdr10 was always regarded as bloated in the bass and therefore an aquired taste, now its relatively little bass if you compare its freq response to modern headphones. Once mixing became garbage tier, throwing bass everywhere became the 'preferred' sound, since everything sounded awful on a more neutral set. It has nothing to do with nonsense like laptop speakers haha. Just consumers buying shitty mixes.

Found some cheapo JBL iems in a movie theater seat someone left behind.

Get lost