Headphone + amp for 600$

[spwath]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 11:17 PM, Wolf_Lbh said:

Meh, not excited about tubes. Simply not worth it. And software can replicate many aspects of the coloring tube amps have to offer. As for the other benefits tubes offer I consider the longevity of a decently expensive quality product to be of higher importance.

Planars being notoriously hard to drive is what makes the fact that these are not so much more impressive. They are literally using brand new technology to make them driveable by anything that has a headphone port on it.

Just a comment on this: No. I have the HE-4XX on my head right now. They need about as much power as my HD650's. That's not "easy to drive"

[Wolf_Lbh]

1 hour ago, spwath said:

Just a comment on this: No. I have the HE-4XX on my head right now. They need about as much power as my HD650's. That's not "easy to drive"

How? Estimated ship date is December 18th...

[spwath]

1 hour ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

How? Estimated ship date is December 18th...

 loaner. Serial #00004. Pic evidence coming

[Wolf_Lbh]

13 minutes ago, spwath said:

 loaner. Serial #00004. Pic evidence coming

That's cool, was it loaned to you by someone that got a review unit or by massdrop to review it?

I've only seen one review up on youtube so I'm just curious why they didn't promote it more during the sale. If you are reviewing them I'd love to hear your thoughts as I won't get to test drive mine for another few months.

Also as stated these aren't out and about headphones so if they need an amp it shouldn't really have any impact on their use, just their total value, and I factored a dac/amp into the budget anyways.

[Dackzy]

8 hours ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

That's cool, was it loaned to you by someone that got a review unit or by massdrop to review it?

I've only seen one review up on youtube so I'm just curious why they didn't promote it more during the sale. If you are reviewing them I'd love to hear your thoughts as I won't get to test drive mine for another few months.

Also as stated these aren't out and about headphones so if they need an amp it shouldn't really have any impact on their use, just their total value, and I factored a dac/amp into the budget anyways.

You can see on the specs that they need an amp. Look at the sensitivty of them,  it is below 100dB which no matter if they use dB/mW or dB/V means that they are hard to drive. It is actually all the way down to 93 dB and they are most likely using dB/mW. 93dB/mW is low, you can just compare them to HD 650 which is rated at 103dB/mW and those are known for being on the hard end of things and if we look at a headphone that is made for easy to drive and portability then we will see 115-125dB/mW example: look up sennheiser urbanite and look for their sensitivity and you will find they are rated at 118dB/mW. The jump in power needed from those to HD 650 is already huge, now you basically need to make that jump again and then you are at HE 4xx. The only redeeming factor is that their impedance rating is low,  and a lot of amps have more power at low impedance Vs high impedance so they are going to feel like they need about the same power as hd650, unless you get a OTL amp.

[Wolf_Lbh]

7 hours ago, Dackzy said:

You can see on the specs that they need an amp. Look at the sensitivty of them,  it is below 100dB which no matter if they use dB/mW or dB/V means that they are hard to drive. It is actually all the way down to 93 dB and they are most likely using dB/mW. 93dB/mW is low, you can just compare them to HD 650 which is rated at 103dB/mW and those are known for being on the hard end of things and if we look at a headphone that is made for easy to drive and portability then we will see 115-125dB/mW example: look up sennheiser urbanite and look for their sensitivity and you will find they are rated at 118dB/mW. The jump in power needed from those to HD 650 is already huge, now you basically need to make that jump again and then you are at HE 4xx. The only redeeming factor is that their impedance rating is low,  and a lot of amps have more power at low impedance Vs high impedance so they are going to feel like they need about the same power as hd650, unless you get a OTL amp.

I'm not really debating if they need an amp or not. Literally just said it doesn't matter and asked about his thoughts on the headphones; as in sound, comfort, and build quality.

[Dackzy]

10 minutes ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

I'm not really debating if they need an amp or not. Literally just said it doesn't matter and asked about his thoughts on the headphones; as in sound, comfort, and build quality.

I wanted to clairify it since you seemed to believe what they showed and on the low impdance= easy to drive, which is really wrong.

[Wolf_Lbh]

Just now, Dackzy said:

I wanted to clairify it since you seemed to believe what they showed and on the low impdance= easy to drive, which is really wrong.

I'll still plug them in and test it out but regardless it won't make a difference for me.

[spwath]

16 minutes ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

I'm not really debating if they need an amp or not. Literally just said it doesn't matter and asked about his thoughts on the headphones; as in sound, comfort, and build quality.

Comfort, I find the clamping force to be a little high, but actually after wearing them for a bit, they don't feel uncomfortable.

Pads are very nice too.

I like the regular headband instead of suspension headband on most hifiman.

They feel kind of heavy on my head compared to HD650, but planars will be like that.

 

Build quality feels really good actually.

Metal swivel points/hinge things, solid plastic cups. Feel quite nice.

 

Sound, initial impressions:

Bass is really nice. Emphasised a bit, extending down low, punching hard.

Mids/treble are pretty good, but something seems a little off to me, maybe a bit of a recessed mids. treble is recessed a bit too, but I prefer that.

 

Overall, initialy, they sound great. Amazing for the price. I would buy one if I did not have my HD650's, and they have better bass than HD650's.

[Wolf_Lbh]

6 minutes ago, spwath said:

Comfort, I find the clamping force to be a little high, but actually after wearing them for a bit, they don't feel uncomfortable.

Pads are very nice too.

I like the regular headband instead of suspension headband on most hifiman.

They feel kind of heavy on my head compared to HD650, but planars will be like that.

 

Build quality feels really good actually.

Metal swivel points/hinge things, solid plastic cups. Feel quite nice.

 

Sound, initial impressions:

Bass is really nice. Emphasised a bit, extending down low, punching hard.

Mids/treble are pretty good, but something seems a little off to me, maybe a bit of a recessed mids. treble is recessed a bit too, but I prefer that.

 

Overall, initialy, they sound great. Amazing for the price. I would buy one if I did not have my HD650's, and they have better bass than HD650's.

Awesome, can't  wait to get my hands on them and compare them to my current headphones.

[spwath]

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 11:42 AM, Wolf_Lbh said:

Awesome, can't  wait to get my hands on them and compare them to my current headphones.

Yeah, doing more listening, I am liking them more. They seem to have slightly more recessed mids than my taste would like, and I overall like my HD650s better, but these are really good. Especially at the price of $170. These should cost like $250-$350.

Bass is great, but that should be expected of a planar. This is my first listen to planars, other than Fostex T50RP, but those are not very good.

I am just trying to convince myself to not buy a pair. 

 

Doing my listening from a Valhalla 2.

[Wolf_Lbh]

4 minutes ago, spwath said:

Yeah, doing more listening, I am liking them more. They seem to have slightly more recessed mids than my taste would like, and I overall like my HD650s better, but these are really good. Especially at the price of $170. These should cost like $250-$350.

Bass is great, but that should be expected of a planar. This is my first listen to planars, other than Fostex T50RP, but those are not very good.

I am just trying to convince myself to not buy a pair. 

 

Doing my listening from a Valhalla 2.

I'm looking around at other dac/amp combos right now and what I'm trying to get is one with a usb + spdif inputs and balanced + quarter outputs. All I've seen so far is the Aune S7 and the Topping DX7.

Hopefully I'll figure something out by the time mine arrive so I can test them out balanced vs unbalanced.