For some background, I game and i am an massive sound stage simp. I can't live without decent soundstage and while most virtual surround sound settings sound worse than any other headset, a few can be made to sound decent with very nice sound stage IMO.

BUT, everywhere I look I hear to get a nice stereo headset and not to bother with virtual surround sound, but I have an issue. Every stereo headset I've tried makes spatial audio sound like dogshit to me. I can feel the sound more on one side (not just hear) and I think it's because 90%+ of the bass is going to one ear and it totally breaks immersion and also just feels really uncomfortable. A sound loud enough to create base in real life should be heard through both ears without some special case.

What's worse is the headset I liked was discontinued and is manufactured terribly so it breaks fairly often, I got the corsair HS70 PRO, but it's what I'd call.. serviceable. The highs peak like crazy and if you equalize it much at all everything gets muffled and warbly.

So my questions are:

1. If this happens with a few stereo headphones, why wouldn't it happen with them all? they're all receiving the same input right? and without some sort of virtual surround why would it bleed the bass over nicely like Virtual surround sound does?
2. Where/how could I try nice stereo headphones without spending a crap ton of money? even shipping there and back gets pricey if i try just a few.

Thank you for reading through and for any comments left to help me!

^(PS: Idk if this counts as "purchase and shopping" as I'm not looking for specific recommendations, but I assume many will be used as examples)

Well I just grabbed a used pair of HD-6XX off r/AVexchange. They sound awesome through my SMSL iDEA dongle DAC, but I'm not very impressed with their build quality. My Final Sonorous III's are waaaay better. Are 650s built better than the 6XX? I guess I was just expecting more.

In any case it doesn't matter that much to me since the sound good. I expect they'll sound even better when my Schiit Midgard and Modius arrive in the next couple day.

I was just asking which version of the PR2's they were selling and wasn't given a real answer but this instead hahaha.

https://preview.redd.it/h1vzslbqf8zb1.png?width=598&format=png&auto=webp&s=81f97d265dc2e092ad0f9bb510283f4e2c536c21

I recently received my HiFiMan HE400se headphones, and I am unsure how I feel about them. From a detail standpoint, they sound amazing, and bass is clear without distorting the rest of the sound stage. However, I have noticed they are incredibly sibilant to my ears. EQ has helped with Peace on Windows, but it's terrible with vinyl sources (Project Debut III, Ortofon OM10, Douk Audio U3).

In fact, I thought I had an issue with my new stylus and bought a VTF scale to confirm it was tracking properly. I tested out my vinyl setup with my Kiwi Ears Cadenza, and suddenly, the sibilance was massively reduced to the point where I could appreciate my setup again.

Coming from the SHP9500s, which are notoriously sibilant, I didn't expect to have such a problem with the HE400se. The SHP9500s sound great with vinyl. I plan on keeping the HE400se because they do sound great with EQ, but I had heard that they sounded pleasant right out of the box.

Could it be my headphone amp? I know it's cheap, but some users on this subreddit seem to have no problems with it. I'm not looking to spend much on a new amplifier, so if anyone can recommend a budget headphone amp, I would greatly appreciate it.

I got new headphones that are wireless but none of the tips fit my ears they all keep falling out but I didn’t have this problem w any other headphones I use to have

Is it ok to use them without the silicone tips if it’s the only way they fit in my ears w out falling out?

I'm looking to buy a new cable, and I'm wondering if anyone here has used a fully split cable. A normal cable looks like a Y with a split in the middle, but I've seen cables that split at the connector like a V. How do these feel compared to a Y split, do they change the weight distribution?

Basically I’ve been using my Astro A40 headset for gaming for many years and recently had to get new headphones. I decided to go for the DT 900 Pro X, however I have a question about the setup.

The Astro A40 came with their “mixamp pro”. As far as I know this is basically just like the name implies, an amp, but has some features like different sound settings and a knob to alter the balance between game sound and voice chat.

Basically the main thing I’m wondering is if plugging the DT 900 into the mixamp could somehow worsen the sound quality? I have a pretty good motherboard (Asus Rog Crosshair VIII Hero) and from what I understood from doing some research is it has a built in amp/dac combo that apparently is pretty high quality. When it comes to the Astro mixamp, I can’t imagine it would be high quality as well.

So basically, if I just want the best audio quality, could the Astro mixamp somehow decrease the audio quality or does it not make a difference? Despite doing research I’m still not sure how this works. Does the mixamp replace the amp in the motherboard? Does it just add to the motherboard and increase “power”? The features on the mixamp are pretty nice so if it’s just the same quality I’ll just plug them in the mixamp.

Any help is highly appreciated :)

How do you hear people with headphones on? I’ve been wondering how to do this with two earphones in

(This is an edited version of a post I made on another subreddit.

This post is not here to cause debate or discourse but to try and research and study this topic

before you read I would like to say that this entire post is for discussion/theorizing please do not take this post as undisputed fact. The information presented comes from me asking a professor outside of the audio community what he thought the effects of cables would be on various audio devices)

I would like to state that personally I haven’t bought any of the super high dollar premium cables because I’m a broke lad, but that this is more of a theoretical discussion!

I think the answer is yes cables do make a difference but they also most likely do not matter to everyone (or a majority of people)

I am a mechanical engineering student that is quite fascinated in material sciences and the more I’ve seen the cable debate the more curious I have become. I am more on the side of the cables not changing much if anything, but I simply wanted to know more.

My curiosity continued to grow and I happened to be in a materials science class this semester! So who better to ask than my professor whose entire job/field is researching the properties of materials!

So I asked the professor after class one day and we began talking and of course he was excited to share with me his knowledge. He told me that the difference would be found in the metal itself! The higher the quality of the metal in this practice would be related to the crystal size of the materials being used. Ideally you would want your cables made of larger crystals if not one single crystal, but of course this process is expensive meaning that to make a profit brands have to sell this premium manufacturing for a premium price. He told me that you most likely wouldn’t be able to sell any sort of “single crystal” cable for less than a hundred dollars at least so there’s a good chance that a lot of the “single crystal” cables seen online are in fact not single crystal and that they’re just marketed that way to compete with the multi hundred dollar cables.

Now when I asked him what the benefit of these higher quality cables would be I noticed an interesting response! He told me that as the power and signal moves up the cable you can think of each crystal as having a barrier around it (called a grain boundary) and that every time the signal SMASHES past that barrier it uses some of its power and it can potentially mutate the signal a tiny bit. If you have a super cheap cable with billions of these crystal boundaries then that’s billions of times where your signal is smashing it’s face into a wall potentially harming your signal more and more as it makes the short trip up the cable and to your ears. In premium cables where there’s only one crystal or maybe only a handful of crystals that greatly reduces the amount of times the signal is being forced to charge across the barrier!

The reason this response really interested me is because while the professor is not present in the audio community his description draws parallels in the instances where people notice a difference in the budget vs premium cables the things they note are more volume and a richer (commonly) warmer sound! That could very well be explained by the grain structure differences in the cables themselves!

Now in theory this would mean that everyone could notice a more powerful and detailed listening experience by gradually upgrading their cables HOWEVER in practice unless you’re rocking premium premium headphones the chances of you noticing a big difference is small because you also have to consider the quality of the materials your headphones THEMSELVES are made of! If you buy a 700$ cable for your 15$ iems the weakest link is still most likely the 15$ iems. This does mean however if you’ve already spent thousands of dollars on headphones maybe you can squeeze even more performance out of them with a high dollar cable upgrade since the components of the headphones themselves might be held back by the quality of the cable.

The moral of the story and the true question presented is while yes the cables can vary in quality which undeniably causes differences, are these differences significant enough to change how a human perceives the audio?

In the other post some individuals have found research articles regarding to this topic and with the numerous amount of people present here I thought it would be possible to gather even more information!

I would like to again say that the point of this post is NOT to cause any debates where the evidence is subjective information but instead try to find objective/logical/numerical answers

Late October I ordered “open box” Focal Bathys advertised as “like new”. I was severely disappointed when they arrived and appeared to have been someone’s daily driver for 364 days then returned within the 365 day return window.

I reached out to customer support and they said they were sending me out a “new” pair. I assumed this meant they were sending another set of open box headphones and was okay with that, it’s what I ordered.

Fast forward to today, the second pair arrive. They sent me a brand new set of focal Bathys still in the original shrink wrapped box. Was totally not expecting that and I’m beyond stoked about it. Paid $550 for open box head phones and ended up with a brand new pair at the end of the day. 10/10 customer service.

I mean, I didn’t really know what the expect as they are my first IEM, I was looking for elevated treble and bass. I got the treble but feel I didn’t get much bass at all even after EQ’ing.

I’m just an iPhone pleb with Spotify

The tips just make everything better, like literally everything. I don’t know how tips can even make this much of a difference, but after going through about a dozen tips, this is the best that I found. They can uncomfortable depending on the iem, but it generally makes any iem better. :)

So i love the air max design but the beats studio pro seems to deliver the bass in a more clear sound where the air max it sounded like when bass is too high in a car. Anyone else agree and is there any setting i can manipulate to change it?

Recently, there was an Audeze sale in my local shop so I could get these for 670€. I wanted to try them for a long time so I finally gave them a shot. I've been reading that they are less resolving but more neutral than LCD-2C, which is also what I would say about M1570 in comparison to LCD-2C, so I was hoping they could replace my M1570. Both LCD-GX and LCD-2 Classic are the latest 2021 versions with open-cell pads (the OG version had memory foam pads).

DISCLAIMER: I was writing it like I would talk to myself so when I say for example that headphone A is more comfortable than headphone B, I really mean that I personally find it more comfortable. Everything I say is just my impression I just didn't want to write "IMO" in every sentence.

Comfort

So far, the LCD-2C has the best ergonomics of any headphones I've ever tried. I always thought that LCDs with magnesium chassis were the same in this regard. So considering the GX is even lighter than 2C (457g vs 530g), I was expecting them to be an improvement to the already comfortable 2C. And for the most part, they are the same. The same headband, the same cable, and the same pads, but there is one thing that completely changes the way they feel. Different yokes.

Yokes on the GX have a more aggressive angle and more aggressive offset. That results in a lot tighter clamping and most importantly, most of that clamping is shifted in front of my ears. So whenever I pitch my head forward, the headphones will fall off. Even when I don't pitch my head, headphones will slowly slide forward until there is a gap behind my ears. It feels really awkward wearing them. Because of that aggressive angle, the rods connecting the yokes and the headband are now larger and I need to extend the headband more on the GX. Also, because of that angle, the headband doesn't hold its position but wants to open up all the time so I have to constantly close it to my size (which is 5 notches on the GX and 2 notches on the 2C as shown in the picture).

Also, the back side of the spring steel is sitting on my head because of the aggressive offset. And one last thing, the yokes are now also bigger because they're rounded so when I want to adjust the headphones on my head by grabbing the yokes, I can barely stretch my hands around them because they're so large. None of this was an issue on the 2C design. I can barely notice the weight difference but when it comes to ergonomics, it's really bad on the GX while on the 2C it's the best I've experienced so far. Overall, I find the GX a lot less comfortable.

LCD-GX 2021 vs LCD-2C 2021

more aggressive headband offset (tried to align them with cups)

more aggressive yoke angle (tried to align them with rods)

2C yoke angle when stretched around the same length

GX yoke angle when stretched around the same length

longer rods on the GX - if they weren't longer the GX headband would be too small to fit normal heads

2C vs GX on the smallest headband position - GX would probably fit a cat when stretched

this is how the 2C headband sits on my head

this is how the GX headband sits on my head - btw I have a very average head

Practicality

GX is easier to drive (gets louder on the same volume) than 2C.

In terms of isolation, there's about as much of it as on the 2C, but I would say it feels a bit more closed in the higher frequencies and more open in the lower frequencies. Both are somewhere between open and semi-open in terms of total isolation.

What I don't like about 2C is an aggressive pneumatic effect, so it feels like wearing a closed-back. I can hear every movement, cable is microphonic because of it, and I can even hear my own breath and heartbeat which is pretty annoying. I don't get this issue on the GX, or at least not as much as on the 2C.

GX comes with an extra boom mic cable which retails for $180. The mic is pretty good. Sounds better than most integrated mics but not as good as the dedicated FOX mic I use. The boom mic cable is terminated with CTIA wiring where the mic and ground are inverted (common in China). But there is an adapter that fixes it to OMTP wiring where the ground is on the sleeve and the mic on the ring (common for the rest of the world - works with Apple dongle, phones, or any other amp). There is also a splitter if you want separate jacks for headphones and a mic. The splitter is wired for CTIA input so you should unplug the adapter first.

Sound

When compared to 2C, the GX has a more linear midrange which results in more cohesive imaging.

Unfortunately, it comes with a big cost of treble being very dull. It's not just slightly less detailed, it's a lot less detailed than both 2C and M1570. I would say it's competing with headphones like M1070 or Verum 1.

In terms of dynamics, it's still one of the more interesting features of LCD-GX but in comparison to other headphones for less money, it's really nothing special. M1570 or Verum 1 are more engaging than GX. I guess it's mostly because of that dull-sounding treble that makes everything sound compressed. It still has pretty good transience in the midrange and still sounds somewhat large, but it lacks that tactile feeling from the treble.

The soundstage feels a bit more intimate than 2C. I guess that could be also because 2C sounds generally more U-shaped so it feels more distant and more separated between left and right. I don't find 2C to be particularly spacious anyway. The soundstage is decent but nothing special. Comparable to something like Sundara.

The bass is similar but less noticeable and less textured on the GX.

Imaging, while being better than 2C, is still nothing special tbh. I tried them for competitive fps and while I didn't have spatial distortion like with 2C, I didn't find GX to be very competitive. Pretty average.

So all in all, LCD-GX are IMO very average-sounding headphones and that's the biggest issue considering how expensive they are. There isn't anything that makes them special. Anything interesting that's better than on other headphones. The best thing about them is that they don't sound offensive in any way. Their tuning is pretty casual and they're OK in every aspect. But there are cheaper headphones that are also OK...

Comparisons

LCD-2C is more detailed, more dynamic, more spacious, more neutral (general midrange to treble balance), and more comfortable, but also more U-shaped so they can get a bit too sharp at times and their upper midrange is a bit too dark and distant. That results in slightly unnatural imaging where you can't tell if something is in front or behind.

M1570 (lambskin pads) is more detailed, more dynamic, more neutral, and more comfortable (despite being very heavy at 689g), but the midrange is slightly less linear. Spatial qualities are similar.

Verum 1 is more neutral, more dynamic, more comfortable, and with better imaging, but the soundstage is slightly smaller. In terms of detail, they're fairly comparable.

M1070 (lambskin pads) is more neutral, but slightly less resolving, less dynamic, and there is a hole in the upper mids. Spatial qualities are similar. Trading blows with comfort.

Avantone Planar is slightly more detailed, significantly more spacious with a lot better imaging, but probably even darker and less comfortable than GX. Hard to compare the dynamics since Avantone is a bit rolled off in the sub-bass but more present in the mid-bass. I would say it's similar but different.

Thieaudio Phantom (without front foams) is significantly more spacious (probably even more than Avantone), and a lot more explosive, but less detailed and has a very weird tonality so it's brighter and more muffled at the same time, which results in inconsistent imaging.

HD660S is more neutral, more detailed, and with better imaging, but has a bit smaller soundstage and worse low-end.

HD660S2 is even more neutral, even more detailed, and with even better imaging, but still has a smaller soundstage. Low-end might be better on the 660S2. Feels more punchy for the very least.

Use case

I tried all kinds of genres of music, competitive shooters, ASMR, immersion, everything, and I really struggled to find anything that would sound impressive on the LCD-GX. It doesn't sound bad, but it didn't impress me at anything. The best experience I had with them was for immersion while watching some movies. But in the end, I still preferred M1570 or HD660S2 which are both cheaper.

Value

Even if there wasn't a boom mic making LCD-GX cheaper for $180. And even if it was on sale for 670€ like I bought them, I still don't think they're worth it. They are competing with headphones in the 200-400€ price range and they're more than twice as expensive...

Conclusion

As you can probably tell by now, I am very disappointed with the LCD-GX 2021. They aren't bad and I could enjoy them with certain content on lower volume. But I would expect this kind of experience for a lot less money.

Does anyone have experience with Shokz customer service? I had a pair of their OpenRun Pro bone conducting headphones that stopped working around 3 months ago. It was well within the warranty period.

I sent them in and I've gotten the run-around ever since. They said that a new set would be shipped shortly. I wait a few days or a week and email them. They're very sorry but they are having problems with their order system. The new set will be shipped soon. Rinse and repeat. At least a dozen times. No actual information; bland, stock assurances.

I don't believe them that they have not been able to fulfill any orders for the last three months. It doesn't seem like there is any good reason for the delay. It feels intentional for whatever reason and it feels like I'm just out the cash and will not get a new headset.

Does anyone have any insight? As it stands in my mind, Shokz is a garbage company that I will not use again. But the headset was quite nice while it actually worked.

I know you are supposed to put in your output impedence and sensitivity per IEM.

For my Blessings 3 I put: 14.8 @ 120

For my Monarch MK3 I put: 18 @ 99

I get totally different results:

When listening to the Blessings 3 "loud enough" is around 100-105 dBSPL.

When listening to the Monarch MK3, "loud enough" is around 80-85 dBSPL.

The only thing I can think of that would cause this is that one of the manufacturers spec sheets is wrong? Moondrop lists a potential variance of +/-15% on the output impedence, but even with those adjustments it doesn't come close to what I'm hearing from the Monarch.

Any tips?

Was so afraid of all those complains about the highs, cause I don't like overemphasized highs, but there's no problem at all - it's perfect, pristine. Bass is decent. Absolutely love them. I've been goosebumping, while testing them on songs I know pretty well for the past half an hour and I've heard things I've never heard before.

10/10

Preordered the MM-100 back in July from headphones.com and it seems like the date keeps getting pushed back on a shipping date. Anyone have any updates on this? TIA

I've been thinking of getting my first proper IEM (split between the Salnotes Zero, QKZ x HBB, Tangzu Wan'er, and CCA CRA+), and I wanted to know if it's better to have IEMs solely for at-home use or if they're durable enough for frequent outdoor use like going to school with them or going on a longer walk. Any response from someone who knows more about IEMs than me (aka anybody) would be appreciated!!

Apologies for the stupid question, but recently I have gotten a spotify subscription, hoping to notice some improvement in the songs I listen to.

From what I’ve read, most people should be able to tell 128 to 320/Lossless, and 96k and below is obvious.
But what I noticed was… nothing.

The songs i listened to sounded incredibly similar, if not the same to the free spotify quality (which was 160kbps)
I doubt it’s my equipment (LCD X + JDS Atom Amp), so I would have to assume all thats left are my ears. Should I be worried?

Thanks in advance!

Price is same, 3K USD.

Reviews:

• Resolve
• Joshua Valour
• DMS