General Headphone Audio
- Thread starter garyfl
- Start date
If you have the time I imagine it'll be fun. Certainly never going to get that mix of headphones in one place elsewhere. I'm really only interested in the Fiio stand and that's not enough on it's own to do it I think. I was also a bit surprised to not see Custom Cans in the exhibitors. I want to put an order in for their HD 6X0 mod kit and wondered if they would be there.
Caporegime
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Pics!
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
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- 77,654
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- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
I have time to go but it's also SOOO far away from me. Would've been good to finally meet Jude lol I believe he is there.
Sat eating lunch after leaving canjam, I managed to try everything I wanted to and most things matched with my expectations.
Fiio:
K15/k17 - not as physically large as expected but very beautiful design and great screen, the touch interface works well. 5 gain modes seems excessive though. When running the ft1 pro on the top gain setting the k15 was at 60%, when advertising 3w of power something seemsoff.
K13 r2r - fixes all issues i had with the k11 r2r sound, soundstage is now how it should be etc, I compared them side by side for a while. It's physically much larger aswell.
Ft1 pro - bought these and returned them despite liking them previously, listening at the show with everything else there just reinforced how good they are.
Their little retro snowsky dap is just ewaste nostalgia bait, control are fiddly, it feels cheap and tatty and the display is crap. Worse than just using my phone in ever way possible.
Hifiman
Listened to the entire range they had, really confirmed for me that their current sound signature is just slightly too harsh, I don't find vocals sound natural. The arya organic were less harsh than the standard arya but it was only slight.
The new he600 and edition xv were both very good and I think more natural sounding, my preference out of their entire modern range was the he600 however the round ear cups were too small for my ears and not overly comfortable.
Dan clark
Expanse - feels like the pair there must have been broken, for a 4k price tag they were just crap, really bloomy bass and overly harsh treble. Very track dependent, some sounded great on them others awful.
E3 - not bad, a bit boring and nothing really stood out about them.
Noire x - tonally a perfect match fornmj preferences, just vey well balanced and open sounding for a closed back.
Noire x open - a bit more aggressive than the noire x but that could just be because they are open and its not the quietest environment.
Aeon 2 - tonally very similar to my original aeons, probably not worth it as an upgrade.
Topping
Dx5 2 - absolutely tiny unit, sounded fine, screens not amazing.
Caveat here that its obviously not the best environment for open backs and only short auditions.
Fiio:
K15/k17 - not as physically large as expected but very beautiful design and great screen, the touch interface works well. 5 gain modes seems excessive though. When running the ft1 pro on the top gain setting the k15 was at 60%, when advertising 3w of power something seemsoff.
K13 r2r - fixes all issues i had with the k11 r2r sound, soundstage is now how it should be etc, I compared them side by side for a while. It's physically much larger aswell.
Ft1 pro - bought these and returned them despite liking them previously, listening at the show with everything else there just reinforced how good they are.
Their little retro snowsky dap is just ewaste nostalgia bait, control are fiddly, it feels cheap and tatty and the display is crap. Worse than just using my phone in ever way possible.
Hifiman
Listened to the entire range they had, really confirmed for me that their current sound signature is just slightly too harsh, I don't find vocals sound natural. The arya organic were less harsh than the standard arya but it was only slight.
The new he600 and edition xv were both very good and I think more natural sounding, my preference out of their entire modern range was the he600 however the round ear cups were too small for my ears and not overly comfortable.
Dan clark
Expanse - feels like the pair there must have been broken, for a 4k price tag they were just crap, really bloomy bass and overly harsh treble. Very track dependent, some sounded great on them others awful.
E3 - not bad, a bit boring and nothing really stood out about them.
Noire x - tonally a perfect match fornmj preferences, just vey well balanced and open sounding for a closed back.
Noire x open - a bit more aggressive than the noire x but that could just be because they are open and its not the quietest environment.
Aeon 2 - tonally very similar to my original aeons, probably not worth it as an upgrade.
Topping
Dx5 2 - absolutely tiny unit, sounded fine, screens not amazing.
Caveat here that its obviously not the best environment for open backs and only short auditions.
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Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
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- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
Which is larger? K13 or DX5 II?
Fantastic to hear. Reads as if, apart from the power discrepancy with the K15 power, that the K13 R2R was maybe the more impressive of the two?
I'm interested in the k13 r2r, likely won't buy it, but hopefully I can convince a mate who loves his k11 r2r to upgrade, so I can have a listen. How did you find the k15 and k17 sound?
I've never been sure on the Hifiman stuff, too many people having quality control issues doesn't help. Still that sort of stuff is prone to selection bias, as we're tuned to negative reports more, and people who have negative experiences are way more vocal.
As for DCA, I wanted to try the Stealth when they first came out, as I was interested in the technology, but that price! I'd heard about the Stealth/Expanse being a marmite thing. Also heard your observation on the E3 as well, although I think I'd get along with it. I've had my pair of Noire XO for a week now, and your thought on it being a bit more aggressive than the closed back version, might fit into DMS from the headphone show review of it, as he thought there was a slightly spicy treble. I'm really liking this headphone though.
Long as you bin the pads, the high end is nicely controlled, and I've owned and heard several hifimans now ranging from entry to top end. Even the HE1000se, the least bright of the bunch, is still bright, but never harsh, better pads make it even nicer still.
K13 by a lot
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The k15 has more features and connectivity, hard to tell fine differences in that environment but they both sounded good with no obvious defects. The k13 is how the k11 should have been and the k15 is just a solid feature rich unit.
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