There are thousands or millions of ear hairs that vibrate with different frequencies to the sound received and these vibrations signal the nerve cells of that hair to send information to brain. We need individual driver for each ear hair for true hifi sound

yeah stop reading graphs and just listen to stuff and figure out what you like.

So true!! I also have the XM3 in addition to the QC35ii. So whatever I get next should be an upgrade for sure. Even though the headphones I have now are good, I’m still itching for even better noise cancelling quality. I feel like I still struggle with noise bleed when out and about on the train and stuff.

You, sir or madam, are what everyone should aspire to become in this hobby. Someone who actually listens to gear instead of reading graphs, or parroting the same narrative without having much experience in said parroted narrative.

My gear isn’t the typical stuff you usually find. I got the Elekit TU-8200 tube amp and the Questyle CAS192D DAC. I also have a Peachtree Audio DAC•iT^x and a myriad of other amps. Why do I have such relatively esoteric gear? Because I listened to a bunch of different crap when I first started. That’s how I knew that DACs do in fact make a difference and how I learned that tube amps aren’t just distortion galore. My favorite solid state amps sounded similar to tube amps so I was like… I’ll just get a tube amp that’s easy to fix!

Ok, why should other people looking at FR impact his enjoyment?

I’m waiting on geshelli making my case orange to go with my new orange pc build. Until they do I have my dt880’s plugged in to the little dongle dac that came with my motherboard and it’s surprisingly not shit. It’s full volume for gaming but everything footstepswise is like cheating as it should be. Apple Music isn’t loud enough but YouTube, tidal and my own collection are all at good volume (admittedly with nowhere left to go). Can’t wait for the added orange power!

If you like either QC45 or XM4 over your QC35ii, then it makes sense to buy it now because it is an upgrade, not "just in case".

U can use your QC35ii as a backup or use it in a rough condition. Many people has more than 1 headphone. Mine included 😁

What is considered a fortune?

There is definitely hardware out there that doesn't support it..but it isn't very good hardware.

I'm happy to lose your game.

I'm glad I have my scarlett solo.

I have a policy to transfer full albums on mobile devices so my songs don't get lonely and start missing their friends.

Yeah, it makes sense unless you learn more about lossy formats, then it becomes too hard to make a decision and you try to simplify things lol.

I went to Opus VBR 256 kbps after a lot of ABX tests, gaining information and analyzing it. Wasn't an easy decision though. Would be easier if I was like "screw it, I'm OK with 450-500 kbps bitrate", then I would just go with lossyWAV + FLAC))

I contacted the support on Elekit (Japan) and their response is below.

>We checked your headphone in the internet and found thatHE6 se v2 requires very high power to an amp.As all of our tube amps are not so high powered,we do not recommend TU-8200R or any of our tube amp to use with your HE6 se V2

I'm honestly torn.

I tried QC 45, XM5, and XM4 at an electronic store near me. I was really impressed with the XM5 in terms of sound and ANC. QC 45 sounded good, better in the higher-mid range. XM4 sounded better with songs that had heavy bass. The QC 45 and XM4 had the same pros and cons that I experience with the 35 ii and XM3 but with slightly better ANC and sound quality. So ultimately a very hard decision to make with all 3 of them! I feel like you can’t really know what headphone suits you best until you actually bring them home and try them out, but that’s not a very accessible thing to do.

The big knob was the only reason why I bought the JDS Labs Element II.

Pretty close!! The only difference is flac is an audio format and I don't know if you're aware but mpeg-2 is a video format, so it's slightly different. Try not to downvote!

Sorry 'try not downvote' is a game I like to play sometime, kinda like those try not to sing along playlists. Everyone thinks they can just not but then when the moment comes it just takes one little click to show me how much I'm getting on your nerves and should just shut up.

Edit: haha I'm winning so much

I'd probably do the same but my dumb brain goes, "500 = bigger so it better"

Understood. It is obviously up to you.

Have you listened to XM4 before?

I honestly have no idea if a preamp would help, hopefully someone smarter than me can chime in. I believe a preamp’s job is to boost a low or quiet signal to line level by increasing the voltage. It will make the headphones or speakers louder but they won’t sound as good since they won’t have the required current to drive them properly. That is my understanding but I could be totally wrong. (I’m not a scientician)

That issue can be solved by using the Elekit as a preamp instead, then hooking it up to some monoblock amps to have more than enough current. EDIT: It doesn’t have to be monoblocks, a stereo or multi-channel power amp works too. Unfortunately, the Elekit TU-8200 doesn’t have pre outs. The TU-8500 is an actual preamp so it does. Something like this might work to convert the banana plugs into pre outs. But… I’ve never used it so I’m not sure if the Elekit’s noise floor is too high. That could be solved by adding a passive volume control but now there’s hella crap in the signal chain lol!

But the Elekit by itself is a great amp. Really fun and easy to understand. My older brother did the soldering and I assembled it. It took a total of 8 hours to build, but we went slow lol. It sounds fantastic! Definitely rivals some $2000+ tube amps I’ve heard. I highly, highly recommend it.

My Asgard 2 has a far better knob than my atom tbh.

Got them during the Shenzen sale a couple of weeks ago, delivery took forever. They are my upgrade from the Chu's and I'm really surprised by how similar they sound, it's a testament to the Chu's quality. I equipped them with the TRN T2 cable because of the straight plug for the Applel dongle when I'm on the go and they're superb in terms of comfort.

For now I'm done with IEM's and I'm looking to upgrade to some better headphones (got a couple of ideas after testing some at a local hifi bar).

Jokes on me, my tinnitus is the noise floor.

Thank you for your insight! You make good points. I hesitate with buying refurbished electronics. In the past when I’ve done that there’s always been something wrong with them. New products will always last longer and be more worth the investment. But it is still an option.

I was worried about them discontinuing their products because the XM5 is so different from the 4, if they continue to move in that direction, they will quickly disregard the 4 and its predecessors. Having headphones I am already very used to and that fold for travel is helpful for me.

And yeah I’ll definitely get new ear pads for the Bose if I decide to keep using them.

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