Honestly from what I'm seeing basically every planar / high end planar brand has questionable QC. Maybe the monster you know is better than the one you don't? Aka at least you know what to expect with Hifiman.

Would be awesome if you get the magrid up 2 for review and compare it to the top.

Really wanted to know how they fare out.

I really want someone to review these and the magrid up 2. I want to see how they fare with each other, as the up 2 is "only" $60 expensive.

I got an Aeon X Closed, overseas I might add, and the right channel is like -15dB right out the box. Luckily Drop handled it wonderfully. So I was wondering what is the general consensus about Dan Clark Audio headphone's quality and longevity? I've had close to 30 Hifiman headphones myself or sold on with warranties and had only one case needing replacement. Anecdotal of course, but just makes me think.

Convenience.

just bought edition XS two days ago and have similar concerns

Grado Hemp, Sash Tres 16ohm. Both open backs.
I mainly listen to pop, metal, electronic, indie.

I'm working from home and I have my own room for working so the openess doesn't bother anyone.

I think buying headphones has to be a journey. I didn't start with $1000+ headphones. I started with $150 headphones and after 3 years and about 40 pairs of headphones later I KNOW what I like and what I don't. I now own multiple pairs of headphones over $1000+ and they all still wow me to this day and I have hundreds if not thousands of hours in them. They are that good.

Sound is so subjective that no one can tell you what you will like. I have absoluyetly hated beloved headphones and adored trash headphones. Reviews only work if the person reviewing the item has a similar taste to you. If they don't then whatever they say is meaningless.

Start cheap. It seems fruitless but it pays off in the end.

DX1 is hella underrated

The Topping DX1 is more like a "super dongle" than a desktop amp, it's USB powered and has power output similar to higher powered dongles.

>280mW X 2 @32Ω THD+N<0.1 %
>190mW X 2 @64Ω THD+N<0.1 %
>51mW X 2 @300Ω THD+N<0.1 %

The Fiio K7 entry level desktop amp (to take an example), does a bit over 10 times the power of this, out of its balanced. You may not need this, but it's a lot more.

Highly suggest you go to a store and test some headphones, only a couple headphones have wowed me that I decided to keep. You may have not been driving them properly with a decent amp or maybe they didnt fit your head. I have sone decent cans, not the best but I think you will be wowed by a set that will fit ‘YOUR’ parameters, not anyone in this subs if you try some.

makes me wonder if hifiman driver issues are a hifiman problem or a planar problem since i read about other planars having issues too (audeze, monoprice, etc.)

…or worse its a hifiman and a planar problem

hopefully their customer service is good and you get that fixed

had the ananda stealth and sold it. Better alternatives Focal Clear OG (better tone, slightly better detail retrieval, worse soundstage [ananda stealth had a “tall” soundstage) or the Stax L300 setup with srm 252 energizer (severely lacking without eq, peace eq has a great auto eq feature, I think I use the headphoneanalyzer eq for the L300). Nothing else matches it from the stuff I tried at that price range.

So there are a few things to dissect here. A number of years ago, there was a lot more emphasis on alternative measurments like impulse, square wave, CSD, ect. But over time it became much more clear that SPL frequency response is most of what you need when it comes to headphone measurments. Due to them being mostly minimum phase, time relevant measurments are most often consistent and predictable. So simplifying things to just frequency response removes a lot of confusion, and is more representative of audible differences when it comes to headphone measurments.

On to your point about speed. How fast a driver can respond to a signal, it's common to initially think about inertia and how mass causes some lag in motion, but when it comes to headphone drivers, they are so light and thin that most are capable well beyond what is required. Many drivers are capable of over 40khz, but the audible range is up to around 20khz at best. That means any thing within the audible range will be reproduced "fast enough". If it wasn't able to respond fast enough, you would see a drop in the frequency response and an increase in distortion. Similar to what you may see in some sub woofers when they try to play above their frequency range.

On to your point about playing multiple frequencies at once, it's good to look into fourier series. When multiple frequencies are played at once, the amplitude is all added together. So when there is a rise, the amplitude is added together, and if there is a rise in one frequency and a decrease in another frequency, it's subtracted. This means many different sound waves are able to be layered in a single motion, and your ear works as a fourier transform to separate the frequencies and phase from the single combined motion into its individual frequencies. So when playing multiple sounds at once, the driver can make seemingly simple motions, that contain all the frequencies needed to hear multiple sounds at once which is then separated into its frequencies at your inner ear and brain

Yeah I really wanted to try the Arya SE but seeing the dozens of weekly posts on here, no thanks

I think the line between audiophile & what’s subjectively enjoyable to each person based on preference is often blurred. I don’t like most things classified as ’audiophile’ (except my jds element)

I recommend looking into IEMs if you want more of a ‘wow’ factor, plus they’re often cheaper and easier to drive efficiently. Another benefit if you try some IEMs is I always gift extra to friends since they aren’t outrageously priced and anyone can get great sound from their apple dongle. I’m currently satisfied with tygr 300r for over ears and ikko OH10 for IEMs. The Ikko’s block out 100% of outside noise and are insanely wide & immersive.

I've met people who even modest audiophile grade headphones were able to change their entire perspective on the potential of sound. I've met others of whom I've put 8xx on their heads, and they couldn't tell the difference between it and airpods.

I think it really comes down to the individual.

Try monoprice monolith maybe?

Have heard a lot of positive feedback about their products and they seem very affordable, especially when discounted.

Unfortunately never had the opportunity to try any, so I can only speak about stuff I've read about them.

I use tidal master files, though any decent quality will work. Spotify is fine. MP3s work too. The biggest issue with these is that they play exactly what the sound engineer produced. If it is a bad track, you won’t like listening. If it is a well put together track, your ears will be rewarded. Crap in crap out. Quality in, quality out. It will not make a bad track sound good. The tube amp will do that though…

I have 250 Ohms Beyer DT 990 and they comfortably run even on my Plenue D2

I mean, there must be a lot even more demanding headphones out there, but most desktop amps also deliver a lot more power...

waiting for my edition xs to come in. I heard the original HE1000 a little over 5 years ago and finally something has come out in my price range with large planar drivers.

fingers crossed for chifiman quality, that's really disappointing to see for such an expensive set

I’m glad I don’t like the sound of planars. No worrying of a lot of them failing after warranty period.

It wouldn't be trivial, you'd need to open them up and find some space for the unit inside, wiring the + and - to the driver. You'd need to mod the case to connect the charge points to something on the outside to charge them. Having these modules in there could affect the frequency response too as it's an open back.

Someone did a very involved mod with the TRN BT20S Pro and the HD660S, which involved 3D printing a load of parts and re-fitting these into them

/r/headphones/comments/10h4psm/second_iteration_of_hd_660s_bluetooth_adapters/

Even in this case though it would be easier as the 660S is at least a dual sided headphone to start with, the HD560S is single sided so you have two mono adapters (for L and R) but you only have a port on one side. So you'd need to get more involved than that and I think re-wire it internally.

If you're super into modding/DIY projects. But it's not some easy thing to make this work.

Easiest way to make the HD560S work, as it's single ended, is use a single cable output stereo BT adapter and plug it into the one side, and then tie the adapter to the headband or something.

Instead of spending like $1500, try the Edition XS planars for $500. I recently added this to complement my HD6xx and it’s a very, very different sound (in a good way, IMO). The fit is weird but it sounds great.

The golden question.