Headphones

So I wanted to share, in simple words, my opinion, as a total non-audiophile person. Yesterday I had an opportunity to listen to those 3 headphones. I spent around 2 h with them in total.

Little background: Until recently I had been using Sennheiser HD518 which I admit I’ve never really liked. I mostly used it to listen to music at work, so sound quality didn’t matter to me that much. But I gave them away, and have been looking for new headphones ever since. So far I’ve tried HD600, Sundara, Bayerdynamic DT770, HiFiMan Arya, Fiio FT3.

I listened in following order: Celestee > Clear > Stellia. They were paired with Naim Uniti Atom. I’m curious how much (if any) this amp had influence over sound quality.

Bottom line: I feel like I enjoyed Celestee the most. I was least impressed with Clears. Stellia for me fell somewhere in between. I had impression that Celestee’s sound was the warmest. I believe Stellia did better on tracks with prominent electric guitars. I was surprised because, while listening to Celestee I was able to pick up a lot of details and the sound felt spacious. After listening to Celestee, Clears and Stellia didn’t wowed me. After reading different opinions and reviews, I was expecting to like Clear the most.

Maybe the order in which I listened influenced my feelings. I don’t know. Very possible that I just don’t have audiophile ears. Also, 2 hours is probably too little time to really get to know those headphones.

Well, after having listen to a few headphones already, I’m none the wiser. None of the headphones I’ve tried so far blew me away. Yes, most of them sound nice or very nice, much, much better than my previous set (obviously). But I can’t point one clear favourite of mine.