Soundstage is a subjective thing and is perceived very different by everyone.

Ive heard people tell me about headphones such as the HD 800 sounding as though sound was coming from in front of them, whilst for me only the sides rech beyond the cups but frontal image, no matter the headphone, will never leave the inside of my head.

Regarding detail: Every headphone will reproduce every sound, what varies is the loudness of that which results in different frequency responses.

A lot of headphones people call detailed are just boosted in the treble really.

Instead of straining your ears to try and hopefully maybe imagine ti hear something that might not be there, ask yourself:

Do I enjoy the sound more? If not, then don't bother.

All this "give em time" ain't something I believe in, as you are essential forcing yourself to get used to something you dont really enjoy.

I hate blue cheese but I am sure Id get used to it eventually if I just ate it every day but thats hardly a solution to the problem of blue cheese tasting bad :/

But the Hifiman to have one thing up their sleeves, if the out of the box sound aint to your liking: Low distortion (in most of their headphones) allows for equalization.

You can change their sound as you see fit and thus turn em into something you enjoy, without getting horrible distortion out of them.

If you don't wanna use EQ or simply think the grado sound is peak headphone, then just send em back, since youve obviously found your ideal headphone :)

Which model Grados do you have? I personally think that Grados are great headphones, even the sr60's punch well above their weight in terms of sq, and the soundstage and imaging is unbeatable for the price.

The first thing is, and I learn that every time with every new headphone: they are never impressive, just different.

Give it a week or two of heavy use, don’t switch back to the Grado, and your brain will adjust to how the XS sounds.

THEN switch back to the Grado, and either learn that it sounds worse than you remembered, or that you still like it and don’t really care for how the XS does things :)

There ya go then.

i just use them for casual listening my more referential headphones are 660s (which themselves have recessed highs and quite a bit of bass roll off.) Besides i think the other commenter basically just said the actual sound quality issues i have in balanced mode is an EQ problem, I’m using something to EQ that isn’t supposed to be used that way.

How are you testing them? What other headphones do you use?

nah the tuning is correct and i’m using it on apple devices but if you look at the frequency response it’s like a 30° line going into sub-bass and the highs really fall short.

Yo, for me the tuning is perfect. Maybe you got a defective pair? Everyone’s ears are different, however, so it’s a tough thing to discern sometimes.

Are you using them on Apple devices?

im not sure how much more permanent of a solution ur trying to get. its really simple just put your hands on each cup then grip them and pull them outwards off of your ears/side of head/jaw. then as you have flexed the clasp off of your head proceed to lift the headband off of the top of your scalp in a vertical direction and once they are completely off of your head, you can rest them on a headphone stand provided you have one for them.

Yep I do that but sometimes i learned a painful lesson. Just looking for a permanent solution.

not sure how you remove the headphones yourself but i just pull the earcups outwards then lift the phones upwards. thats what i love about these headphones, you can just pull the earcups outwards and it isnt like a stiff molded clasp (if that makes any sense, hard to describe)

It doesn't show up in FR, that's the point. The detail and separation sucks, theres no dynamics or stage. The only people I see call it good are the ones who are already biased based on the measurements and don't have much listening skill.

Fwiw, the noise floor isn't the only problem with the DAC. There's some weird clock drift or buffer issue that makes it literally pitch shift up and down every few seconds, and it's very much measurable (and audible if you play a tone)

You’re on Reddit so that first part is already false lol

Get the 660s. They're just as easy to drive as the HD 560s, so if you don't wanna get into amps and just wanna play stuff out of your phone, they work great for that. They have a smooth, rich sound and they're very forgiving. Every song sounds awesome on them, which I couldn't say about the 560s as sometimes they were way too bright.

Yeah honestly the whole thing is that once you have a ton of competing products at a price point that low it's natural for everyone to end up collecting a bunch of them as the "flavor of the month" changes, that's just how people work

That's honestly the whole reason you can call chi-fi IEMs a "hobby" and not just, you know, a product

Can you show me the technical ability con in the FR?
The only con I can give the QDSP is the noisefloor if they could fix that it would be the perfect IEM for me.

I had three pairs off chus “die” on me. They work fine if I pull out the filters but then they don’t sound as good.

Ahhhh. The endless drivel of cheap Chi-fi ear plugs.

Eh I don't really use them anymore due to their treble lmao.

Also come on Chus and 7Hz Zeros aren't anywhere near as bad as the DT990s are.

The OG Quarks, but it has different tuning. The magic of Quarks DSP is in its usb c jack. It came pre-EQ'd out of the box.

DT990, your used to awful treble

Like I already said it's irrelevant in the sense that you shouldn't buy it if you are looking to spend $20 and get the best you can.

What the bloody hell do your ears/ ear canals look like.

Then again I don’t have to fork out for customs so there’s that.

I’ve slept in AirPods, AirPods Pro, Chus, random low profile Sony ones

Exactly. We are not on speaking terms lol

So, were the Chus being proudy, gave attitude, and would no compromise?