Recent comments in /f/headphones

super_smoothie OP t1_iy8ptny wrote

Reply to Focal Clear are melting my ears and not in a good way (review) by super_smoothie

TL/DR: They are way too mid shouty for me, even more so than some Sennheiser's I've tried.

Auditioned on a Topping E50 and A90D.

Hopefully this can save some folks some money if they are looking at these and have similar preferences to me.

First the positives: the dynamics and resolution are amazing. Best so far from what I've tried. You can hear everything. They are very comfortable and look like a piece of art in real life, no exaggeration. My wife barely gives a shit about headphones and was making lots of comments about their looks. The bass impact isn't super pronounced at the very lowest end but has really good slam when it is there. While the soundstage is small, it is very very precise and would be good for a gaming/music dual purpose if you like the other qualities.

Now the negatives: The timbre is very metallic. I'm usually an "each their own" guy, but I legitimately don't understand how anyone thinks these sound natural. Maybe on something not solid state? Not sure. The real issue I have with them though, is how forward the mids are. For me, things like the 560s are too mid forward which gives male vocals and other pieces of the music just way too much energy vs the rest of the track. It makes the track sound like everyone and everything IS YELLING ALL THE TIME. These take that senn mid forward approach and push it to 11 for me. It doesn't really measure too hot, but I think the increase in dynamics really double down on this effect. My ears legitimately hurt after listening to these. I like my music on the louder side, but have learned to not go crazy after watching a couple friends get tinnitus. I have no issue listening to these volumes on some of my other sets which I'll go into more later. Also, after coming off of my Sundaras, the music sounds too constrained. That is partially from the smaller soundstage, but is really doubled down because the treble is being buried by this mid bump.

I have tried pulling the mids down around 1250 using PEACE but it loses a lot of dynamics very quickly doing that and I imagine that is why they are tuned this way in the first place.

At this point, I've tried basically every mid-fi headphone "style" and am working my way up the stack.

Some stuff I've tried and don't like.

Beyer DT 1990's (they sounded awesome but the sibilance was eventually too much)

beyer 900 pro x (worse 1990s)

Sennheiser 560s (Too mid forward)

AKG K712 (too dark).

​

Some stuff I do like.

Sundaras(still my fav so far just not enough bass energy for me. looking at the aryas. These sound so ethereal, have really decent bass roll-off, and are very precise with a wide sound stage. If these had slightly punchier low-end, I wouldn't be looking to upgrade at all. The only real unnatural timbre I hear are "lazer" type sounds. They come through HARD, but honestly I really like that, feels like my brain is getting scratched. If you have these, go listen to "Da Funk" by Daft Punk and tell me the lazer part of the track isn't piercing your brain.)

Grado SR60x(Super fun but very fatiguing. They get pulled out once a month to listen to some female vocals at 11)

Sennheiser pc38x(Use these for my ps5 and are scary good. These are my hardest rec for newer audiophiles/gamers. If you don't own these, buy them and use the darker pads which help balance the upper mids for me)

Beyer 770. (I love these headphones so much. I've owned them the longest. They are on the treble heavy side without melting my ears and my only true closed backs)

Harmonicdyne Zeus (I don't usually like a darker headphone, but these are just too good. Listen to some funk or concert hall music on these and you are literally there. Just not enough low end for my tastes)

Stuff I'd like to try/where to head next:
I should have just followed the "buy once, cry once" method and bought the Aryas. I need more oomph in my bass and that seems like the best way to get it without losing the qualities I like in the Sundaras.

I also really want to try some AEON noires, but the measurements look so funky I need to find a place to try them before buying. I can't trust reviewers because almost every one out there likes things more mid forward or darker than I do

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AntOk463 t1_iy8pico wrote

Reply to Finding obscure musicians by UnnecessaryMovements

Sim Dane makes Formula 1 parodies of popular songs, and his versions sound really good, but he only posts youtube videos and his songs aren't on streaming services. I would love to play his music in a car, but only his earliest songs are available for streaming. You can't even use youtube music because he is recognized as an content creator and not an artist.

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Mysterious_Arm2593 t1_iy8oqdk wrote

Reply to comment by BGpolyhistor in Just EQ in resolution. by TheFrator

They willfully ignore the diaphragm on BA, EST & Planar are totally different to how DD's work. Not to mention the 5 ~ 10% bass THD on HD600 seems to get ignored when they claim you can make It act like a LCD-X or Saundra.

Feel like a long term troll baiting folk since you still get people who think the ER2XR is anything close to the ER4XR with 4db bass lift.

1

Dragonbut t1_iy8nwrf wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in I do use Spotify more nowadays by UnnecessaryMovements

Idk, Spotify is fine. I'm convinced people only hate on it because it's popular. My only real problem with it is that dealing with the queue can be a bit annoying, but for the convenience of not having to download music and having playlists sync across devices I won't complain. Tidal's UI is basically the same and people love that because of its placebo "audio quality"

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Chance-Concentrate-5 t1_iy8nsey wrote

Reply to Finding obscure musicians by UnnecessaryMovements

There’s this one guy I listen to I discovered while random queuing on r6. Talked to the guy, he had a small following but it was notable enough to be impressive. He hasn’t dropped new music in a while and honestly I thought he was dead until I saw he was actively posting on twitter. The only good part about twitter is I can check it occasionally to see if my favorite down to earth musician I met is still alive and finding new inspiration to make music 😂

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PassiveAgressiveCan t1_iy8nawu wrote

Reply to comment by StanGenchev in Headband on the SRH840A’s won’t extend enough to fit my head causing the pads to push up on the bottom of my ears. Is there any way to extend them more than they already can? I really like the sound of these, and would hate to return them. by Dogemaster_420

I’ve got a fat head so you must have a damn watermelon. Stock the fit was very uncomfortable, had to bend them out to the point I thought the plastic would break while also bending the metal bands that extend.

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StanGenchev t1_iy8n15j wrote

Reply to comment by PassiveAgressiveCan in Headband on the SRH840A’s won’t extend enough to fit my head causing the pads to push up on the bottom of my ears. Is there any way to extend them more than they already can? I really like the sound of these, and would hate to return them. by Dogemaster_420

That works if you have a smaller/leaner head. For bigger heads nothing helps. I tried bending both the plastic and metal parts, stretched over books and even used a heatgun to melt the headband in an effort to widen it. It didn't help. All this on a second hand HD 600, so it was already "broken-in".

1

JohnFromNewYork-LI OP t1_iy8lm0a wrote

Reply to comment by A_LANDGREN in A few of my favorite things by JohnFromNewYork-LI

I definitely have an obsession - I eat drink and sleep headphones now... I even dream about new ideas (that's where I came up with the fractal mesh I use to de-fract sound after reading the scientific papers published by The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America) but... I can say I used the peerless from parts express (its very good as many other people tune the heck out of it to include Kennerton and Aurora Borealis) and tried dozens of others from all ranges of price- it cost me $9K so far to date to get where I am now and two years of dedicated trial and error- many drivers I throw away due to imbalances - the profits are very small and outlay in $$ is too much work but I'm in too deep now to go back- I found what I think is the best available and now its ready for others to try - I couldn't have picked a worse time to do this I think since economy is soo poor BUT I keep my prices cheap so I think I will have many happy people

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A_LANDGREN t1_iy8jnw6 wrote

Reply to A few of my favorite things by JohnFromNewYork-LI

Damn this is intriguing. If you can, you should try to give some attention from reviewers.

I wanna get in the business of trying to make my own pair of headphones aswell. Do you have any tips on where to look for decent drivers outside the regular tymphany peerless drivers?

2

MathiasAudio t1_iy8jnmp wrote

Reply to comment by Taraxian in Headphone wizardry by SupOrSalad

> A lot of audiophile woo can be dismissed by fully internalizing that human hearing is a purely "one-dimensional" sense

I don't really think that dismisses anything tbh. Also, saying it is one-dimensional is just factually incorrect. There's a reason we represent audio waveforms on a two-dimensional graph; our perception of sound is dependent on time.

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