Headphones

They are good!! something i would not have expected after all the bad reviews. i liked them better then clear mg, lcd-x, d9200 and dan clarke aeon, senn hd820. I wanted a pair of canns with a more intimate sound and way more bass slam then my hd800s. These were best by far.. maybe i got weird ears...

I don't really like Focal or Sennheiser pads either but at least they're consistent with their choice.

• on the left is Hifiman standard ring pad for he400i he6se he400se sundara etc.
• middle is an egg shape but you can use standard pads and it's fine. for deva 5xx r7 r9
• on the right is just for sundara closed

They also have the teardrop style pads for arya/he1000 but they're fine. But both Susvara and HE-R10 use their specific pads installation too for no reason.

tbh I reach to some of the chinese pads factory if thay will do sundara closed pads? They won't.

I recently ordered some OPENHEART 4.4mm balanced cables for my Hifiman Ananda Stealth. I couldn't decide between the 8-core and 16-core cables, so I bought both.

The weights are as follows:

• Hifiman original: 51g
• OPENHEART 8-core: 37g
• OPENHEART 16-core: 56g

I tried to measure resistance, but my DMM has some low-ohm drift. As far as I could tell, all cable connections were roughly somewhere around 200 milliohms end-to-end (correcting for lead resistance). I know there are methodologies for more accurate measurement, but honestly I think all these cables are sonically indistinguishable.

All three cables were extremely flexible. The Ananda Stealth came with Hifiman's updated cables that address the complaints about their previous stiff cables.

I was surprised at how flexible the 16-core cables were. The 8-core cables were so "stringy" that they had a tendency to tangle when unhooked. The relevance of this would depend on whether you left them connected all the time or connected/disconnected/packed them up in daily use.

Anyway, that's it. I figured I'd share since I had both in my hands.

Afternoon!

I was on the hunt for some new headphones these last few days after running the Airpod Pro 2’s for the last year.

After watching hours of reviews I decided on the B&W Px8’s, had them in the basket about to buy before the Mrs chimed in and said “shouldn’t you try them first”. So did a Google and found a Richer Sounds audio shop not to far away.

I went in this morning, they didn’t have the B&Ws but they did have the following:

Focal Bathys Sennhieser 660s Sony MX4s and 5s B&W Px7 s2 Sennhieser Momentum 4s

Now, I’m really pleased I went in because to me all of them just sounded…boring? With the exception of the Momentum 4s and Px7s. The other three were quiet, dull, had no warmth or fun to them. Tiny amounts of bass and almost no sub bass.

I found this odd as these we’re supposed to be top of the chain wireless (excluding the 660s) headphones, but I found my Airpods sounded better, or at least more fun. The B&Ws and the Sennhiesers sounded just as good, probably better on reflection but worth me dropping £2/300 for them? Absolutely not.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m open minded here but what am I missing? Maybe I just don’t appreciate what others consider “good sound” maybe I’m comparing in ear vs over ear?

I still want some new over ear headphones but now the Px8s seem like they could be a waste of money.

I do a cleaning on all my peripherals once every 4 months. I have an Asus TUF gaming h3 headset and every time I clean the cushions, it will always feel like its wet with oil and grease even if I already had washed it and wiped it with alcohol. I always have to wait for at least 3 days for it dry away and become manageable for me to wear again since I don't like the feeling of oil in my ears.

I'm confused. I went to a pretty big and renowned store. I was told that EF600 is not enough for HE6se or Susvara. Way not enough. But that's what I'm using at home! It's working fine with the knob at 9 o'clock for decent volume. I didn't believe this info at all. Am I mistaken or was he just saying nonsense to sell more expensive gears? What's your thoughts?

I'm trying to set up my JBL Wave Beam with the Wavelet app but there is no auto preset and I'm kinda bad at making my own EQs (I tried the official JBL app EQ settings and messed up😅). Any good tips or presets you could share with me?

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I had a footspa under my PC desk, I accidently knocked them in the tub as I went up to go to the toilet, they were in there for about 1min turned on, I've recovered many earbuds in the past using the typical methods, what are my chances of saving these?

Was wondering how good are the 1000xm4s for gaming if 95% of what I play is single player story driven games. Does spatial audio work in game if I have Dolby Atmos setup with it and is there any noticable lag with Bluetooth connection. And how is the audio quality compared to other higher end gaming headsets. I know using the built in mic isn't an option so for the few games (Destiny 2, final fantasy XIV) that I would use a mic I will have a dedicated mic so that isn't an issue.

I could not find any comparisons between SR80x and RS2x. I know they are built for different purposes but is RS2x really better in terms of soundstage and technicalities?

I recently exchanged the pair of QC45 I had for a (I had hoped) better and more adjustable pair of QC Ultra headphones.

Unfortunately, background white noise in low sound environments seem to be amplified by the headphones (while hums are handled well just like with the QC45/), even if in Quiet mode, and sudden sounds like fingers snapping and dogs barking are much louder than they were with the QC45s

This has been an issue on both pairs of Ultras I’ve tried today, and I’m just wondering if this is the norm, or others have had similar issues/experiences

I decided to eq a pair of $30 intime sora 2019 light iems which use a piezoelectric driver in a tiny shell to match my favourite iem the yanyin x hbb mahina, a higher end $650 tribrid, using a iec711 clone mic and a qudelix 5k

People make it seem like it isn't possible for them to sound similar and claim "frequency response isn't everything", " you can't fix this and that with eq" etc, I get that it's physically impossible to make them identical, but I felt like they could get close

After eq the sound signature was almost identical to the point i'd forget which pair I was listening to when going back and forward and simply just enjoying listening to the music, of course when you really pay attention you can hear the quality difference, but it gets WAY closer than people would have you believe and if you're simply listening to music for the music it's more than adequate

The sora's sounded all wrong beforehand and I simply put it down to the fact it uses a piezo driver in a tiny shell, but eq really did "fix" the way they sound, i'm sure you can't fix every iem with eq but if a $30 piezo iem can suddenly sound warm lush and open like the mahinas i'd definitely be weary of people claiming frequency response isn't everything

Of course I do expect people to disagree, "ackshually the 3rd harmonic of the piezo causes the roll off of the cymbal strike at 5:34 in this particullar song to sound sligtly incorrect ruining the song entirely and causing me migranes 🤓"

I personally use the sora's when riding my bike, the tiny shell minimizes the amount of wind turbulance woosh noise, and since i'm not fully focused on the music when riding I don't notice the quality difference and can have my favourite iem sound with no risk of breaking an actual expensive pair

Has anyone tried leather pads on the Clear or Clear MG?

Are these rare? I see them on eBay for $95 and I’ve never seen these before. I see no others for sale. Any information on them??

So for prices got my Devialet Gemini for £70. My razer opus (2020) for £50. Got my truthear zero today for £20. My impressions truthear zero sound amazing I love the sub-bass and the upper mids I guess my only gripe would slightly better extension but that’s way too much to ask for at £20. Then next the razer opus just sound very neutral it really nice signature I can listen to on long commutes and with a good seal the anc was near silence on the plane. Devialet Gemini probably the worse sounding of all of them it has big subbass boost and the treble is peaky with eq it is an easy fix and the anc is extremely strong. It ain’t much but covers all my needs

I just got the truthear HEXA as my first IEM. I was a bit underwhelmed by the sound (not immersive). Given they are pretty highly reviewed, I suspected that the fit might be the reason why. Tried all sizes of included tips but they all kinda slipped out after a few minutes. So I bought the Dunu SS tips and that seemed to improve things but not perfect. Now I'm thinking of trying the SpinFit W1 to see if those are even better.

However, now I'm starting to think maybe this is a result of the IEM itself. I was considering the Truthear zero (blue or red). But I'm concerned that I might run into the same fit issue because they are the same brand (Truthear). Can anyone comment on this?

Has anyone experienced a similar story and found success with a different IEM? Maybe IEMs are just not for me? IDK.

Note: I like listening to big orchestral/OST. Also, I have been listening exclusively to the Harmonicdyne Zeus for the last year, maybe I need to manage my expectations...

Thanks in advance!

As the title suggests, I just upgraded from the Sony WH-1000XM2s to the WH-1000XM3 and found the noise isolation in the xm2s to be much better than the xm3s. It seems that the earcups on the xm3s just don't dampen as much noise as the ones on the xm2s. Did anyone else experience the same thing?

Hi everyone, I'm chasing a warm and easy to listen to sound.

The HD6XX is already a warm pair of headphones, and if one swaps the pads with this, the upper midrange and treble are toned down even further.

With that in mind, why would anyone go for a tube amplifier? Do the budget tube amplifiers (schiit and xduoo hybrids) change the sound in a way that cannot be emulated with pad-rolling?

In short:

1. Has anyone tried these pads/similar pads for the HD6XX? How do they sound?
2. If the point is to have a warmer sound, why not just pad-roll + normal solid state amplifier vs purchasing a tube amplifier?

Thanks!