It's mostly not the compression on youtube, but what happened before it.

Put a FLAC on youtube and it'll sound amazing as opus ~128kb (more or less what youtube uses) is pretty transparent to most. But download some music off youtube with a yt2mp3 converter, remix it into a new MP3, make it a video with AAC audio, upload it to youtube and now we're talking.

Yeah, most dB charts you find indicate 70 as "loud traffic." And as someone who lives by a major Chicago highway in Lake Shore Drive, I can tell you that that's more than loud enough for music listening. My measured listening is generally 60-65, with peaks around 70, and I never feel like I'm missing anything - and also never experience ringing afterwards.

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html

Assuming you don't have any hearing problems, your listening volume should not be able to damage them. Have the e10k in low gain just in case an application tries to deafen you.

You can buy in bulk i buy from Kennerton in bulk and HiFiMan and other suppliers like express parts and alibabba

You can look for a second hand Auteur OG.

Ok thank you. I live 3 hours east of Dallas, and will be going to see friends and wife's family

I wanna know where you get the headband and yoke kit

With that much time in between listening you probably won't even be able to tell a difference.

They are very close.

utopias are a probably a little less peaky in the mids but similar character. I don't find them "shouty" but the timbre is a bit off, I EQ them.

It's a great pair of cans and I love them dearly. Here are some of my favorites which sound amazing on those:

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter is my favorite, but the whole discography is solid.

Masayoshi Takanaka - On Guitar or All of me, easy-to-listen jazz rock.

Steely Dan - Aja, Gaucho or Katy Lied , but once again - other albums are great too!

Stereolab - albums after Dots and Loops. They were making fantastic lofi-ish music before.

Dire Straits - Alchemy: Dire Straits live. One and a half hour of fantastically recorded live concert, with crowd sounds and all that good stuff.

Japanese city pop records usually have immaculate production and are fun and easy to listen to. Some of my favorite artists are Anri, Miki Matsubara, 1986 Omega Tribe, Wink (duo) and Tomoko Aran.

Venetian Snares - Traditional Synthesizer Music. That sweet modular synth goodness mixed with high tempo mangled beats, I'd say it's a perfect entry-level album if you want to get into breakcore, since it's surprisingly easy to listen to compared to the rest of Vsnares' discography

I'm hoping there's another version with more bass in the future. Everything about it seems great except the low end.

This is down way too low.

Buy your children kids headphones so their hearing remains good!!

I don’t want to damage them

Are you trying to damage them? If so, why?

This is good advice, I did the same and purchased a decibel meter to see how loud I am listening to my music as I was concerned that I might be listening way too loud. I was pleased to see my listening levels I like to listen at is between 65-75dB with 75dB being the high end.

Don’t drop them.

Just got mine in and listening to them. Actually bought them because of your post! I’m enjoying them quite a bit honestly.

Read again... after showering. By that I mean, half an our after that. Obviously I don't listen to music with my IEMs while being in the shower xD My ears were barely damp, I couldn't feel any moisture on the IEMs.

👆🏻

I thought the focal clears were shouty as well. Sold them. Does this mean I would have a similar experience with the Focal Utopias?

Second the recommendation of the HifiMan HE6se!

Oh I already checked with them before I found mine. I don't think they have anything good in stock or available for demo.

"And we will share them ofc". He might.

No offense meant, but I cannot be be sure making such a statement. How can we be for sure? Has there been a verifiable validateable scientific experiment on this? I personally switch between my headphones to make sure that I’m jot getting used to their sound signature which helps avoiding bias. What U can tell from experience is that mew headphones sound like crap regardless of brand if driver type. From materials science point tod view though it may make sense to me that the drivers calibrate over time and adjust 🤷🏻‍♂️ We seem to need some funds to run unbiased scientific experiments 😉

Ok thank you. I live 3 hours from Dallas, and will be going to see friends and wife's family

I mean, I've been listening to FLACs for more than 5 years. I surely don't need anyone else to tell me how big is the difference. Also, everyone has different ears. So you may not perceive what I do and I may not perceive what you do.