This is how I felt as well. Had the 560s, got the 660s, and then an 800s. I have a laptop and desktop PC, and was originally using the 560s on the laptop paired with a SoundBlasterX G6 and the 660s w/ a JDS Labs Element III. Once the 800s came into my life, the 560s got sold, the 660s moved to my laptop, and the 800s now live on my desktop :)

I also have 3 pair of their "gaming" headsets (EPOS/Drop ones): PC37X, Game One, and the GSP 370. I think I'm done spending money now...

Yeah, I do have a Class AB speaker amp, which I use from time to time on a separate desk setup. It is a richer listening experience for sure, but lately I've been relegated to my WFH desk for the majority of my waking hours, so the convenience of using the Asgard 3 there outweighs the desire to fire up the other rig. Especially since the speaker amp only really works well with the Susvara and HE6se v2, but the Asgard 3 is more than "good enough" (to me) for all other headphones in my stable - including the aforementioned two. :)

For what it's worth, I also like to run the Susvara through a humble Massdrop CTH too, which is severely under powered by most standards, on paper. Yet, something about the synergy between the two keeps drawing me back to that combo, and thankfully the gain levels are truly obnoxious so I cannot even get the volume knob up to ~40-50% before it becomes too loud to bear.

Honestly the bass issues don’t concern me as much, the Dusk bass was fine for me, even though I do really enjoy the MEST bass. I have been eyeing the Monarch and wish I could test them against the MEST. In Dan’s Audio Reviews, a video he recently took down, the MEST sound more open and lively than the Monarch but the Monarch sounds more textured and weighty, but I know audio demos on YouTube are far from accurate representations.

techradar hypes everything up

You can sell it on Reddit or another audiophile forum for no cut other than PayPal’s guarantee.

You need an amp/dac and a little eq,buy some soundblaster product.

$80 Aria is a pretty safe choice.
If you want to get spendier, the Blessing2 Dusk is more of a palpable upgrade instead of a sidegrade with a different tuning.

This is great thank you! I was actually nervous about what to buy. Been doing research for about a year. Came to the conclusion that for price and consistency of positive reviews from people who care about balanced and clear audio for production and editing these seem to make the most sense. I had a pair of $280 sennheiser’s for years and I never really liked them.

It’s been two days now with the mdr 7506 and I’m so impressed. And the fact that their half the price or a third of the price of others is just a bonus.

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It’s a game zero, my mistake

Go to EQ. Then if it is inconvenient to use EQ all the time or you don't want to for any reason then you will know where to go.

Also you could try listening to some frequency sweeps and see if you get any big treble peaks in your ears. These can be hard to EQ perfectly and if you have them you might be better off finding a set that doesn't produce them as much.

This is seriously important. No matter what the price range, whether an IEM works with your ears to produce a smooth response is far more important than what any reviewer says or the set's reputation for "technicalities". Most people seem to think the Aria is better than the Chu but for me the Chu is very good and the Aria is the worst thing I have ever heard.

But how to find the one that sounds best to you? Well that's hard. You can start by looking through various reviewer's databases and notice how they show different peaks at different magnitudes. If one reviewer's measurement of an IEM that you own shows treble spikes that correspond with what you hear in your ears then that might be an indication that that particular's measurements are more relevant to you than others'.

For example, I don't find Crinacle's measurements useful to me at all. Many of his measurements do not show treble spikes that I hear and that other reviewers' measurements pick up on. I particularly like Precogvision's measurement database. Most of his measurement's show nasty treble spikes above 10k but notably the Blessing 2: Dusk did not and most other measurements showed it as smooth as well so I bought that one and lo and behold, it sounds good to me. It has no flaws that I can't improve with EQ so it is total endgame for me.

So I’ve got an idea that may help with the cost. If you have a Best Buy nearby, and have some time to work there part time, get a job there for a few months. Once you’ve been there a month, you get access to employee pricing which is cost + 5%. (Last I knew anyway.) Headphones have some of the biggest markups, so it should knock that price down quite a bit, plus the extra paycheck can be your source to save up for them.

That's a sound decision. It is a major jump in price, but I think it was well worth it. Some people make small incremental upgrades and eventually spend much more to get to their "end game" 'phones.

Edit: FYI, I do use some EQ on these 'phones. I use a Schiit Lokius to tune them to my preferences. The sound stage, to me, is the main selling point.

What your post says Game One but you said you got a Game Zero. Which is it? I love the Game One's but hated the Zero's.

Thanks for the detail, yea once you have the Mest I wouldn’t suggest the Dusk, you’d be pretty underwhelmed. I use a Motu M 2 to power it and everything sounds at least 3 times better on it and fuller.

It will take you a while to adjust based on the difference in sound signatures. If you want a fun bassy headphones Edition XS is not it.

And yes there is more to DACs and amps than power. If you are looking to purchase more enthusiast headphones in the future an upgrade will be worthwhile

Monarch Mk2 is close to an upgraded Dusk, with very similar tonality.

https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Dusk_S2,Monarch_Mk2

I have it and the OG MEST and I prefer the Monarch Mk2. MEST has more "holographic" soundstage though, that's the party trick it does. MEST Mk2 is meant to be better tuning than OF MEST but slightly worse in the technicalities.

Monarch Mk2 still has very decent soundstage for an IEM, just not quite on the level of the MEST, but also arguably sounding more natural. The other technicalities are, possibly even better.

ThieAudio Oracle is even closer tuning to the Dusk, but I think less on the technicalities than the Monarch Mk2. I think. I have both, I haven't A/Bed them. I enjoy the Oracle very much though, the main tonal difference is the Oracle has just that smidge more mid-bass than the Monarch Mk2.

https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Dusk_S2,Oracle

Oracle has better treble than the Dusk, I think it is an upgrade. But if you want to spend ~$1,000 and want a better Dusk, I think just go straight to the Monarch Mk2, it's the obvious choice.

The Diva looks interesting, I haven't heard it. What I'd be most concerned about with it is the bass, in the min bass, it looks like too little. In the max, too much, although I could see that being a "fun" tuning and I think I would like it with the max bass, but not all the time. The max bass puts the rise in the same place as the Dusk, but it goes up a LOT more, like it's +15dB which is nuts. I have the Variations, and it's nowhere near as much bass as that, and it's sometimes too much, I think as a general tuning the Dusk, Oracle, Monarch Mk2 are better tunings.

While the issue with the half bass, it looks like it is pushed too far down, and just starts the rise too low. I have a few IEMs like this, it almost identically matches the curve on the Symphonium Helios, which is a great IEM with the best treble I have ever heard, but simply sounds too lean due to the bass being pushed so far down.

https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Diva_Half_Bass,Helios_Sym

The Dioko also suffers from this problem. It's just too far down. Dusk is great, Truthear Zero is also fine. Dioko is too lean. Dusk and Oracle, which are near idenitcal, it's enough further up, it makes all the difference.

The Monarch Mk2 does look pretty close but it's still a little higher. I don't find it problematic. But the Diva is also an all-BA set, like the Helios, and I think this makes a difference, the Monarch bass although it doesn't graph THAT much different from the Helios, it's far more present and impactful, I think because it's DD bass.

I went from 598’s to 820’s and never looked back.

The clarity was a no contest and I liked the comfort and tonality more. But I prefer my 598 over my 600, I disliked the 600 so much (comfort, sound, tonality) that I gave them straight to my wife.

Now I rotate between 8xx and 820, with a splash of sr80x

describe worse. I assume your previous one had powerful bass and the g1 has less of it.

With eq the 8xx’s can get pretty much the same sound as 800s; or you can go risky and remove the stickers.

Post Description / Background

So, black friday came around and I saw some deals I just couldn't pass up on. Long story short: Here I am with my trusty companions the HD 560S and Monolith M1070 switching back and forth with two newer contenders the Ultrasone Edition 11 (I am curious, too!) and the cult favorite Focal Clear OG.

I have had the chance to listen to the Clear for a couple days now while the Edition 11 just came in today, so keep that in mind. Headphones I've owned/auditioned for more than a few minutes, but are not on hand anymore include: HifiMan Sundara, HifiMan Ananda, HifiMan He400i 2020, Philips SHP9600.

Anyways: if you have any questions or wish for comparisons, I'd be more than happy to oblige :)

Happy listening, everyone!

People are saying parametric EQs and i wouldn't mind that but my wants and wishes include some other stuff.

There are a bunch of amp/dac manufacturers today making exactly the same products over and over again at different prices, shapes and sizes. These products are getting a little redundant imo since they all perform the same.

1- Real sound signature presets:

iFi does that in 100 dollar dacs, why can't Topping's 600 dollar dacs have these functions? Would be incredible if these devices had presets like some powered monitors do "Vocal, Dynamic, Monitor..." modes. I have powered monitors from Edifier and i am constantly playing with these modes, Vocal mode really puts voices forwards in the soundstage making it sound warmer and its great not only for music but for movie dialogues as well.

Those filters "apodizing, fast cut out, slow etc" are utterly useless.

Functions such as crosstalk levels, reverb, bass shelf, or even some coloring configurations that mimic tubes or increase artificially soundstage would be great.

2- physical knobs to interact with the signature:

Remember your dad's Pioneer integrated amp with those cool Bass and Treble knobs? That would be cool in these high end dacs on top of on-board presets too. Alot to mess around with on discrete functions.

This is the only way I see this drove of high end devices to be any appealing to me since there's no difference in sound quality from a 100 dollar dac to 1000 dollar dac anymore. All of these ess/akm/burr brown based devices sound the same.

I don't get why I should spend that much on any of these new dacs nowadays honestly.

Squig.link Also they have a piezoelectric driver that's full range and winds up acting like a bone conduction driver. It gives bass you can actually feel.

Thanks for the suggestion! Do you mind sending over the graph for these?

They will be great!