My CRA CCA mesh filters (earwax protectors?) started falling out. Seems like the 15$ only gives you so much durability (~6mo).

Any suggestions of how I could replace them? Does anyone know how essential the original materials are for sound?

Yeah IEMs are ideal for a situation like this assuming OP won't need to take them off every 2 minutes to talk with coworkers. My Tin T3+ blocks out a ton of noise when I get the seal perfectly.

If you’re on windows 11 you could get the android app but yeah iTunes kinda sucks

For now my "endgame" is the Hifiman HE400se. I can describe it similarly to how you described your Sundara. Super clear, great extension on both ends, nice fitment, but a little on the heavy side.

These cans impress me a lot, especially now that I have a $600 speaker setup for my desk and these headphones sound a lot better in terms of overall detail and extension but not when it comes to staging scale or pure enjoyment.

At the moment it is difficult for me to feel a need to upgrade my headphone setup as the quality of the HE400se already feels amazing, the value is truly great. So when I eventually upgrade, it will be a big one and not a side grade.

I am fortunate, maybe unfortunate? Enough that my father has a pair of hd800 that I can borrow. However I do prefer the clears still, the hd800 don't have the richness and thickness that come with the clears and are sibilant and fatiguing at times, which the clear are not. I would say the hd800 are more picky with source.

Open backs are great when you’re alone.

But if your reason is because you want to hear people in the office, maybe try AirPods Max or pro. Their transparency mode basically feels like an open back headphone, but you also have the added benefit of toggling them to block out external sound altogether.

Those are the two headphones I still have, too. I had Aryas, but sold them. They were better, but not better enough to justify keeping the money tied up in them. You can EQ both the 6XX and the 400i to the Harman target, and they'll still sound very different. I prefer the 6XX with these EQ filters. I prefer a flat bass response to the Harman bass boost on the 6XX, but prefer the Harman target on the 400i.

Even with EQ, I don't think the 6XX "wow" me. They're magic, often, but never exciting.

>It just didn't give me the "wow factor" that some others have experienced when first listening to them.

Time to try focal clear? Haha. I had similar experience, wasn't blown away, got sundara and then after comparing I realised the beauty of both. 6xx is not fatiguing due to the veil, and the presentation of intimate mids lend very well for simple mixes. Privateering by Mark knopfler is an excellent listen with 6xx. So is pretty much anything with vocal and instrument focus without too much going on.

Which do you prefer between the Fidelio X2 and X3?

They look like horror headphones from atomic heart or something

This might be the wrong thread but has anyone had any trouble with shipping delays for KZ IEMs? I submitted my order on the 14th of Feb and USPS is still awaiting the package. I tried emailing customer support but they have yet to respond.

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Yea I played a couple tracks and as soon as I heard how soft and muffled the highs sounded next to the Clear I had pretty much made my decision.

I suppose the Clear’s soundstage could be bigger but I’ll admit I haven’t really heard anything that sounds wider than the Clear or Sundara (aka haven’t heard the Arya or HD800S) so I’m not really a soundstage junkie. I do think they image very well, and have an adequate soundstage, and still sound open to me. They almost give the effect of a ring around the head

Agreed, they are an amazing pair of headphones and I haven't found myself using 6xx or sundara since. The 6xx sound veiled and a bit muddy now in comparison. The sundara also seems thin and tinny in comparison. I do wish the clear had a bit bigger soundstage sometimes though.

I've been thinking about getting their Crusher Evos for the giggles

yes high res music available

Tell me about it. My M1570 uses some weirdly wired miniXLR 😔.

Try enabling the bass boost profile. The pixel buds A are quite bright sounding (a lot of high frequencies) and I get ear ringing from low volume listening to bright headphones as well. The bass boost profile might make the sound more balanced.

The Cable Company “loans out” audio equipment - primarily interconnects, digital cables, and power cords, but also some headphones and headphone amps - charging you a lending fee of something like 10% of the retail price of whatever you borrow from them to try out at home. Those 10% lending fees are treated like store credits and get deducted from the price of anything you later buy from the Cable Company.

So if you borrow $20K worth of cables, you accumulate $2K in lending fees. If you buy something from the Cable Co, they will deduct $2K from the retail price of whatever you buy. But if you don’t buy anything because a lot of what they sell is absurdly overpriced snake oily cables, the Cable Company keeps all lending fees. It’s a savvy business model, because they incentivize you to buy from them and if you don’t buy anything, they still make a profit.

I got the Hesh 2 for $13 clearance at Walmart. If you use Bluetooth, they are terrible. Just BOOOOOOOM. But using an appropriate dac and wired connection? They sound pretty decent. Not the best, but decent

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HD 650/6XX don't have a wow factor, and that's kind of their thing. They just sound right to me. IMO, a wow factor comes from something being over done, whether its soundstage, treble etc. But after the novelty wears off, it becomes bothersome. I think people love the hd650/6XX and 600 because they are just easy and wonderful to listen to, even for long periods. They take a bit of getting used to if you're coming from something with a little more "pazzaz". But long term the 650/6XX are great. I suggest listening to them for a week or two exclusively and then go back to the akg and Hifiman and you'll probably feel differently about them..... or maybe not. 😁

Fair enough. But you made the sweeping generalization that all lossless streaming services use the same files. They do not.

And your "Tidal excepted" retort was lame because it's not like Tidal is some puny upstart in the lossless streaming space. Just admit you were wrong, just like I'm admitting that Qobuz, Deezer, Amazon and Apple pretty much use the same files, so my initial response was wrong -- Tidal excepted, of course. :)

> The whole thing is a lot of fun to listen to.

Ooh, this is whetting my appetite 😌

> Just make sure to get the 2021 version or later if you decide to go with an X

I'll ask about the release year, but since this is ex-demo, it could go either way - either pre or post 2021. The ex-demo unit sits at around £1.1k before open-box discount, but they have a brand new one at £1.5k - which might point to the cheaper one being the older model.

While I won't buy if I have any doubts about the sound, I suspect I won't be able to exercise much patience based on tuning 😺. But, who knows, I might prefer the Focal!

It's fine, but the main issue is Windows compatibility.

Right, now you have to go through iTunes, which is a bloated shitshow of a program and doesn't support lossless. There's a beta Windows 11 app, but it's not really built for nitpicky audiophiles - no audio output settings at all, let alone proper exclusive mode/asio support or whatever. And of course, if you're still stuck on Win10, you can get fucked. Another annoyance is that installing the Windows app prevents you from using iTunes at all. So if you still use it to manage your iPhone's library, I can guess you can get fucked too.