Last time i used it was a month ago, and ut was still working, but i didn't try if anything changed as of now

I only have the Dusk as a reference for classical music and they sounded pretty good and clear with it, but the MEST makes it much more immersive and detailed as a whole and kinda closes you into a vortex of sound, which I enjoy. But yea, I'd imagine the Diva or something like that would be more appealing for classical music and vocals.

What in your opinion or experience would you say is the best?

Good looking out. Got me an arya for a deep deep discount. Already shipped this morning

I tried downloading an EQ software to my Mac but it didn't work. Will have to try again and experiment.

Here is the bike I sold to buy these and amp/dac https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1082953412380389/

If you really want me to explain, I bought the headphones out of pocket, before bike sold. :)

Yes you can take the stickers out, it's a common mod and it changes the sound significantly.

I do want people to know about these. Look me up Greg Rodie on facebook from Shreveport Edit: I like to help people save money. I had to cut through all the marketing and reviewers to find these. I easily spent $900 on "best" recommended headphones over the years. I could have just bought Emu Teaks, but I was scared. These headphones are on another level than Teaks.

If it's shipped by Amazon there's no VAT. These for example are even sold directly by Amazon, so the price already includes VAT.

... I kept one pair of SR-404, for nostalgia. Don't tell my parole officer.

But the ones and zeros are better quality!

I thought you got past your Stax phase?

Are you talking about those flat ribbon cables? Those are designed like that for a reason: the shape keeps the distance between the wires constant, which reduces variability in the capacitance of the cables. Capacitance is one of the variables that's important in estats (high capacitance makes it difficult for the amp to drive the high frequencies) and keeping capacitance low in the cables is more important in estats than on regular headphones.

Not all estats use those flat cables. IIRC, the DCA Voce uses a cylindrical cable that's more similar to regular headphone cables. The Hifiman estats use a thinner nylon mesh cable, though it's still roughly flat. The Warwick ones also use a round cable. I think the Audeze CRBN also doesn't use a flat ribbon cable either. It's mainly Stax that does it, but for good reason IMO. Personally, I don't like the handling of those ribbons either, but there's a valid reason for it.

And regarding voltages, most modern estats have standardized on the Stax Pro bias voltage (580V DC). Only a few estats use other voltages (Warwick and Sennheiser), and Koss uses a weird connector, but their estat is decades-old.

If you want to avoid/dodge/etc. taxes and so on, go to the Chinese websites, like AliExpress, Linsoul, HiFiGo, et cetera. It usually takes 1-3 weeks to ship from China. Sometimes the shipping is free or like say $5-10.

Look into the new S12 Pro too as it's also often on sale. Like in general, I always see the S12 on sale, it's real wild actually since that's been the case since like this year or its release, definitely really good value.

Use parcelsapp.com and 17track.net to check your package progress. Usually it'll be a week before it actually leaves China by the airport and then the rest of the time is just waiting for your country's customs and the national/local mail delivery service.

Here's a bit more about ordering from AliExpress/Chinese companies in general: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/xky24f/americans_and_europeans_ordering_high_end_iems/ipgtsuk/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uwk248/should_i_order_shuoer_s12s_from_conceptkart_or/i9t7zo0/ <--- this second one talks about Shuoer/LETSHUOER and their own website.

Here's a bit more info on AliExpress shipping times: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uw4uq1/earbud_advice/i9q7fql/

I have a sneaking suspicion this is an advertisement from the guy selling the headphones, just him simply posing as a happy consumer. It happens a lot for deepweb markets lol thats what i got the notion from

I love my ribbon cable and will never give it up. Also I have no alternatives. It’s a forced love, but a good love.

If you think the cables are ugly, you should see the headphones themselves. :P

We Stax fans love our 3 meter ribbon cables from the 1990's and there's nothing you can do to stop us!

Yeah this is the way. Find a decent deal that it would be easy to recoup your initial purchase price in case you don't like it.

there's well and there's excellence.

If it sounds ridiculous it usually is ridiculous.

I’ve never heard of the Game Zero. If it’s what it sounds like, a new budget spin off of the Game One, then I think it could well be shit. I’ve owned and really liked the GameOne, but Sennheiser sold off its gaming headphone division a couple years ago (why they’re “EPOS” now), so if they’ve designed something new, they haven’t necessarily done it to Sennheiser’s standards, and it’s deliberately cheap and directed to gamers. All red flags.

To me, the HD560s has better "clarity" compared to the Clear OG, but it also can be a bit too bright at times, depending on the recording.

No, I said that tweaking anything mentioned by the op's post won't help you get more out of using ASIO, WASAPI or even Windows Direct Audio , I never mentioned that either of those protocols were placebo. What I was talking about was the case of setting their process to a dedicated processor core and that affecting their sound quality.

It had a gigantic 12k peak for me which I have seen more or less backed up in some measurements though the exact location of the peak often changes somewhat.

You sure it's not busted somehow? I'm not a huge fan of the Aria (it has some kind of large >10KHz peak I find fatiguing) but it's pretty inoffensive all-rounder, like a slightly darker, bassier Chu.