General Headphone Audio
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Soldato
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Miy Dunu Titan S2's have finally arrived,
Soldato
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Always wanted them, never got them, still want them.
The headphone show talks about why you should not get the HD600
Even though the LCD-5 has a thicker wood frame and carbon fibre, I have to say the cold touch metal of the HE1000se just does it more for me, something about the metal when it touches the fingers as I grab them out of the case.
Even though the LCD-5 has a thicker wood frame and carbon fibre, I have to say the cold touch metal of the HE1000se just does it more for me, something about the metal when it touches the fingers as I grab them out of the case.
The headphone show talks about why you should not get the HD600
Interesting, although there's an element of 'click bait' to get you to click the video. It ends up coming across as bit of a love letter towards the end, but I think it probably flags up two very obvious headphones to target in the same price range. Maybe even a bit complimentary in terms of the Edition XV.
I do think that Resolves two main gripes; clamping and pad wear are a bit nitpicking. In that of the much smaller range of headphones I've experienced the HD 6x0 doesn't have a particularly strong clamp force. The HD 560S and PC38X are like vices in comparison. And the newer post-2021 revision pads on all of my HD 6x0 show very little little deformation. Which when you consider how easy available they are is something of a strength. Although I recognise his comment is somewhat in relation to testing.
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The wear of the pads will be directly contributed to the clamp force and because at least 2 of the 3 hosts on the show have massive heads, we can determine that the bigger your head the bigger the clamp force will be therefore the bigger the pad wear over a shorter period of time, we can plot this on a 4D graph as a visual exercise but perhaps not so necessary at this stage 
My HD650 pads lasted about 2 years a piece and that included revised pads from more later years too.
I do agree with them on soundstage though, HD6xx series is pure mid range timbre/intimacy, that includes the newer HD660S2 as well, though Sennheiser directly justified to me the near twice the price of those vs HD600 series was because 660S2 is much more expensive to make due to the new driver - Yet all that was audible to my ears was a improved sub-bass when I had them.
My HD650 pads lasted about 2 years a piece and that included revised pads from more later years too.
I do agree with them on soundstage though, HD6xx series is pure mid range timbre/intimacy, that includes the newer HD660S2 as well, though Sennheiser directly justified to me the near twice the price of those vs HD600 series was because 660S2 is much more expensive to make due to the new driver - Yet all that was audible to my ears was a improved sub-bass when I had them.
The wear of the pads will be directly contributed to the clamp force and because at least 2 of the 3 hosts on the show have massive heads, we can determine that the bigger your head the bigger the clamp force will be therefore the bigger the pad wear over a shorter period of time, we can plot this on a 4D graph as a visual exercise but perhaps not so necessary at this stage
My HD650 pads lasted about 2 years a piece and that included revised pads from more later years too.
I do agree with them on soundstage though, HD6xx series is pure mid range timbre/intimacy, that includes the newer HD660S2 as well, though Sennheiser directly justified to me the near twice the price of those vs HD600 series was because 660S2 is much more expensive to make due to the new driver - Yet all that was audible to my ears was a improved sub-bass when I had them.
True. I suppose if I was to list my main complaints with a HD 6x0 it wouldn't be fit, or comfort issues, it would be soundstage, bass extension and how picky they are on amplification. But I think those kinda leads into their strengths at the same time.
My 18-month old earpads on my 650 look pretty much identical to the new pads I have (I was sad enough to already buy the 050635 part with discs and pads which are sat in their bag still). Even my heavily used 58X don't look that different. I appreciate it's different for everyone, but my own experience is that other models like Beyerdynamic EDT 990 earpads wear out quicker. And I'm very limited in the number of headphones I've used vs. these guys. So I imagine there must be other examples. I sense some of the earpads complaints are slightly out of date and is a hangover from the original pre-2021 earpad revision.
I do enjoy HeadphoneShow editorials, albeit I think they miss DMS.
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The stock earpads on my 600s were still fine after ~10 years aside from maybe needing a little bit of cleaning, I didn't actually need to replace them but the only way to get decent foam driver inserts (which had degraded) was to order the official set so I might as well replace them. Though that said the official replacements now are an updated 650 part which does change the sound a bit, though with a little wearing apparently it does go back to essentially what it used to be, but apparently they don't last as long as the original parts.
Sennheiser always tends to have somewhat intimate soundstage anyhow but almost every time anyone I know has complained about the HD600s having no soundstage I've listened to their setup and been like yup your setup sucks for driving the 600s - that isn't to say it was bad equipment just not suited to these headphones. Same with the Fiio QX13 I picked up recently - it has a lot of output power and drives a lot of headphones well but stick the 600s on it and they sound tame, kind of neutered, compared to how they sound on some of my other equipment. In fact on the QX13 I have a hard time telling the difference between the 600s and the 505s aside from the 505s mid-range being slightly recessed giving the perception of a little more soundstage, whereas even on my AE-5 there is a notable difference between them.
Sennheiser always tends to have somewhat intimate soundstage anyhow but almost every time anyone I know has complained about the HD600s having no soundstage I've listened to their setup and been like yup your setup sucks for driving the 600s - that isn't to say it was bad equipment just not suited to these headphones. Same with the Fiio QX13 I picked up recently - it has a lot of output power and drives a lot of headphones well but stick the 600s on it and they sound tame, kind of neutered, compared to how they sound on some of my other equipment. In fact on the QX13 I have a hard time telling the difference between the 600s and the 505s aside from the 505s mid-range being slightly recessed giving the perception of a little more soundstage, whereas even on my AE-5 there is a notable difference between them.
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So I sat down last week to do some comparision between the iems I purchased the past 2 months. I started with the crinear Daybreak, which I'd previously thought was great. Only I found it a little harsh in the treble, so I EQ'd it out. Still, I cut it short, as I was tired and had a sore throat. 2 days later, I thought, I'd torn my ear drum, as my tinnitus was waaaay louder, and several regions in frequency had painful resonances in them. Even through speakers. my DCA Noire XO were unlistenable to, but could just aboiut do my Amirons. Went to the Dr, and turns out I have a middle ear infection, so I'm on antibiotics. Seems to be improving, as listened to both headphones the other night, even on a track where the vocal is very sibilance heavy. Still have some weird lower resonance reinforcement, and I still have a 9khz buzz in both ears which varies in intensity randomly. No interest going anywhere near iems in this state. It's just mental how it changed my HRTF, and turned "Oh I'll go and listen to some music to chill out" into "I think I'll go and listen to a banshee insert sharp implements into my ears". It's not been an enjoyable experience!
Was watching a review earlier on some other Audeze cans (LCD GX) and a common theme with the headbands on all Audeze seems to be the suspension strap stretches over time and your head ends up touching the top band, looked at the LCD5 and yep already a close gap and it's not even worn in yet so will no doubt get closer as time goes on:
The Fosi/Hifiman style headband where the strap moves with the adjuster is by far the best implementation, you get at least a full inch of gap from the top of the headband.
This song by SOHN is also really really well mastered, the placement of everything is so good:
The Fosi/Hifiman style headband where the strap moves with the adjuster is by far the best implementation, you get at least a full inch of gap from the top of the headband.
This song by SOHN is also really really well mastered, the placement of everything is so good:
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Was watching a review earlier on some other Audeze cans (LCD GX) and a common theme with the headbands on all Audeze seems to be the suspension strap stretches over time and your head ends up touching the top band, looked at the LCD5 and yep already a close gap and it's not even worn in yet so will no doubt get closer as time goes on:
The Fosi/Hifiman style headband where the strap moves with the adjuster is by far the best implementation, you get at least a full inch of gap from the top of the headband.
This song by SOHN is also really really well mastered, the placement of everything is so good:
Mine are 5 years old and still good, the strap stretches a little but usually when it's spread out across the top of your head it will be fine, I've demonstrated this on one of my stands which is much smaller that my head (I have a big head!).
Unless I am understanding it wrong it sounds like it isn't an issue with their new Lossless option, but more an existing lack of an option on their software client. So if they enable WASAPI/ASIO modes then his complaints are resolved. Although he goes on to complain about lack of hi-res, third-party APIs and artist royalties which aren't really related albeit I think he makes the points well.
Would be interesting to know if the problem is the same on iOS, Mac OS and Linux.
Would be interesting to know if the problem is the same on iOS, Mac OS and Linux.
Yes and Spotify confirmed in an AMA that WASAPI Excluisve mode is being worked on so hopefully not long to go, even still, this isn't really an issue IMO for the most part, the Very high compressed version is so good that it's basically inaudible, and whilst the lossless version right now not be bit perfect, it's still inaudibly good quality to the source file from the artists.
That's good news.
I don't think he is wrong to criticise Spotify though. They probably should have added the feature in years ago. I didn't realise as part of this that Spotify don't even officially support linux. The Linux clients are all the work of the community.
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Caporegime
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Just watched this....Spotify seems like a piece of junk and all the competition are better, cheaper, ethically more sound in terms of payment to artists???
The flipside is Spotify has the best AI recommendation system, Quboz and Tidal apps are also annoying in how they lay out the UX and some behaviour of their desktop or mobile apps from the comparisons I did a while back. The daily/weekly and "for you" generated playlists on Spotify for me come up with many new songs I ended up saving every week.
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True, but no other Music streaming service for me at least is able to offer such well curated playlists based off my music preferences which allows me to find new music almost daily, if you're someone that prefers to just pick an album and hit play then there are better streaming services definitely.
Caporegime
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That's what I do, I pick an artist and then listen to that discography, or 1 album from start to finish.
I tried "radio" or playlist but unless it's one of those Coffee Shop music play lists where it is all unknown artists playing chill background stuff, I find myself skipping tracks on these playlist and the point is I don't want to touch it.