I paid 1500EUR for the iBasso and 1k+ for the Shures.

Awesome, thanks for your reply :)

Does this set really cost more than 2k? Google showed me prices over 1k for each

It's the lack of distinctive features. Detail is just hearing what you want to hear. If your expectations are broad and balanced (Ie, not just honing in on what helps you hear the singer's fart at 1:37 the best) then to hear the proper detail you want a smooth response with rises in the right areas (ear gain) and no big spikes or elevated regions that mask detail in adjacent regions.

But if you are hung up on the singer's fart then you are listening for a distinctive elevation in whatever frequency region helps you hear that at the expense of other details.

When I say what aspects of the frequency response, I mean what distinctive features may cause us to experience a heightened sense of detail compared to others.

Are you sure it wasn't a hair or some debris on the drivers? I've heard that can be an issue for some of the planars.

Yeah I may end up sending them back and not trying to get a replacement. Any suggestions on a similar headphone by chance? What are you currently listening to?

I definitely think that some companies suggest the long burn-in hours as a means to cut down on returns tbh. I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea of burning in headphones much, and would agree that it's our brains getting acclimated to the sound more so than the headphones breaking in.

Although the Hifiman ef400 of mine had a light issue and I moved on to the RME, the ef400 sound was incredibly musical and awesome to listen to. I’ve got an eye on the ef600 which will come out in a couple weeks too. The R2R sound is awesome

I was 100% in the same boat. Loved the tuning & pretty much everything else about them except that one little flaw, really wanted to keep them but I just couldn't bring myself to.

With regards to burn in, this may be a little cynical of me but.. I somewhat believe that the reason companies suggest so much burn in time is to cut down on returns. As in, by the time the customer has taken the time to fully 'burn in' their equipment, most sites' return window will have closed. I don't have much to back that claim but it just seems to make sense. In my opinion 'burn in' is just our brains getting acclimated to different headphones' tuning. Sadly if you're already noticing it consistently, I don't see it going away unless you a.) EQ the bass waaaayyy down or b.) get enough hearing damage to not hear it anymore.

I mean the white square shaped stuff on the top left

Just a port

This is from Rtings.com. my headphones are Steelseries Arctis 9x. I have the Eq on flat and use dolby atmos on Xbox. Also on Custom flat. But it lacks bass and some highs are too sharp so I'm trying to dial in in.

U mean the driver in the middle? Meme Monday was yesterday /s

The target they have is pretty much harman

White noise filter? /s

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Thank you for your input. I had a feeling that might be the case which is unfortunate since they sound so good despite the plasticky buzzing noise. I might give them some additional time. I have until March 26th to return them if it doesn't go away. Hifiman said that their planar headphones take up to 150 hours of listening to break in, so I might just go nuts with them to see. But agreed, they shouldn't sound like that out of the box.

Yes, but the raw measurement is compensated against some target they came up with, so whether it’s “neutral” depends on how you like their target applied to your own ears.

The IEM with the greatest treble extension

I tried two pairs of XS, both had that "buzzing" issue you describe. One was worse than the other, but I didn't find either one acceptable for $500 especially after owning cheaper headphones that were built better and didn't have any sort of noticeable distortion like that.

I didn't expect it to ever get better since it seemed to always return after a few minutes of listening at any kind of decent volume. Even after I turned my system off and let it sit for awhile, the issue would be gone for a bit but always came back. Maybe it was a problem with the stock cables? Both times? I did try different cables.. No idea, but like I said I expect $500 headphones to not do that out of the box, so both pairs I tried went back and that was the end of that.

Thank you

Glad it worked out

In terms of headphones, ofcourse no, you have to try a lot of them to know what you like. And you can put a lot on re-sale, it's not a concern. I never went into the hyper expensive stuff.

I did regret investing in a marantz pm7200 just to use it as a headphone amp, but I didn't know better at the time. Also got a tube headphone amp that I soon regretted but I was very lucky to sell it for a good price. Overall, I'd say this hobby hasn't costed me much.

Thank you so much for saving my ears and IEM at the same time. Your help saved a life. 🙏

I love how you increased the core count by literally just looping the cable back on itself 😆