General Headphone Audio

There are some real Chi-fi bargains to be had. I bought a set of Hifiman Editions XS’s this week and for the money they are hard to beat. The headband on them is pretty pants tho.

Thing is they tend to be innovating, can afford to innovate or even if it doesn't work out as profitable and kills them they are still innovating while a lot of the traditional brands aren't really doing anything particularly new.
 
Is the Capra one a plastic material? Custom cans also do headbands which are leather which some may prefer.
 
Yeah that’s my next purchase. Maybe a decent set of IEMs then thats me done.

On my head, I actually don't need the Capra strap, I bought it to try and it made it too small lol. Instead I have a similar one with more slack made of leather. I also ordered some pads that mrk swears by, they should arrive next week.

I have noticed after having my HD580/600, i5 and now Bokeh is that the XS has the strongest clamp force, in particularly the bottom/back of the ear.
 
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Seems that Fiio are Seattle Seahawk fans...More seriously they have called that new K13-style external PSU; Darkside Pro and it appears to have its own page; https://www.fiio.com/DARKSIDEPRO

My unrealistic dream of owning one to power both the K15 and K13 is confirmed as silliness. Seems to be £160ish on import / I guess more landed. Will be interesting to see some reviews of this one.

Also noted from their 2026 Headfi thread there are a couple of gaming headphones (wired & wireless) due over the summer. And loads of other stuff.

And if that wasn't enough Sennheiser have a new flagship; HD 900 incoming. Only £2,500 / $3,000. I only go on Head-fi periodically, but it seems, at certain times of the year you can miss the relentless release schedules.
 
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Seems that Fiio are Seattle Seahawk fans...More seriously they have called that new K13-style external PSU; Darkside Pro and it appears to have its own page; https://www.fiio.com/DARKSIDEPRO

My unrealistic dream of owning one to power both the K15 and K13 is confirmed as silliness. Seems to be £160ish on import / I guess more landed. Will be interesting to see some reviews of this one.

Also noted from their 2026 Headfi thread there are a couple of gaming headphones (wired & wireless) due over the summer. And loads of other stuff.

And if that wasn't enough Sennheiser have a new flagship; HD 900 incoming. Only £2,500 / $3,000. I only go on Head-fi periodically, but it seems, at certain times of the year you can miss the relentless release schedules.

The HD900 is just speculative rumours that have been doing the rounds for years - there has been zero official input.
 
The Sennheiser (Sonova I think) rep was teasing what would essentially be the HD900 in YouTube comments but under the new (confusing) naming system I don't think it would be HD900. I'm not sure Sonova is really pushing anything truly new at the moment (other than wireless tech wise) though rather than tweaking/derivatives of existing lines.
 
I wasn't planning on reviewing these headphones but because the Sendy Egret won't be here until likely end of March I figured why not, closed backs have not been on my head for a long time and these are £180 so not exactly cheap cheap, but still pricey enough to have some good expectations, using real wood covers and a nice quality cable and looks sleek so..... What could go wrong??

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Turns out a lot lol. Loads of microphonics because of the earcup and jack design amplifying the cable clatter, the midrange where vocals are sound lifeless and "floaty" with no sense sense of placement, just hanging there in the middle of my head, and whilst the bass is surprisingly good for a dynamic driver, the upper end of the treble gets lost in the wonky midrange sounds and lacks any sort of excitement.

I watched a bunch of reviews afterwards and to my surprise even channels that I thought would otherwise point out similar findings did not :/

The other negative is that you cannot use them with a balanced connection, seems the jack terminals inside are not set for balanced connections for some reason only 1 pole design, so you're stuck with single ended.

For this price I don't think they meet the original expectation I had, should be RRP at below half that price. They look great and the pads are very comfy (soft PU leather with microfibre contact patch and memory foam).

The storage pouch they come with is also cheap and nasty, feels like those bags you get with rice grains.

I feel this is an example of a headphone that has had much of its R&D budget put into style rather than sound quality.

I'd give it a 4 out of 10.
 
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Seems free image host thinks headphones are nudity???

Updated and hosted the pics myself, gotta do everything yourself these days to get the job done!
 
The pictures were banned because you're resting an HD 600 on its grille on a wooden desk. Tut tut.

These the SIVGA SV021's? I remember watching reviews of those on Youtube. Those earpads look super comfortable though.
 
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Reactions: mrk
and whilst the bass is surprisingly good for a dynamic driver, the upper end of the treble gets lost in the wonky midrange sounds and lacks any sort of excitement.

Always a struggle with closed backs - the first gen Sennheiser Momentums have great bass but comes at the expense of some mid-range articulation and upper treble issues albeit fairly minor but mean that on some types of music they sound slightly congested. (But on the music they work well on they are sublime).
 
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That's ok though, this is completely changing how music sounds by massacring the recording. I suspect if someone buying these for the first time as a stepping stone into expensive headphones heard them then they might think they sound good, but the moment you put on any other decent closed back like let's say the sub £150 DT770 Pro (32 ohm version), thoughts would immediately change!
 
I wasn't planning on reviewing these headphones but because the Sendy Egret won't be here until likely end of March I figured why not, closed backs have not been on my head for a long time and these are £180 so not exactly cheap cheap, but still pricey enough to have some good expectations, using real wood covers and a nice quality cable and looks sleek so..... What could go wrong??

2026.02.12_2153-23_00001.jpg


2026.02.12_2154-01_00002.jpg


2026.02.12_2200-55_00012.jpg


Turns out a lot lol. Loads of microphonics because of the earcup and jack design amplifying the cable clatter, the midrange where vocals are sound lifeless and "floaty" with no sense sense of placement, just hanging there in the middle of my head, and whilst the bass is surprisingly good for a dynamic driver, the upper end of the treble gets lost in the wonky midrange sounds and lacks any sort of excitement.

I watched a bunch of reviews afterwards and to my surprise even channels that I thought would otherwise point out similar findings did not :/

The other negative is that you cannot use them with a balanced connection, seems the jack terminals inside are not set for balanced connections for some reason only 1 pole design, so you're stuck with single ended.

For this price I don't think they meet the original expectation I had, should be RRP at below half that price. They look great and the pads are very comfy (soft PU leather with microfibre contact patch and memory foam).

The storage pouch they come with is also cheap and nasty, feels like those bags you get with rice grains.

I feel this is an example of a headphone that has had much of its R&D budget put into style rather than sound quality.

I'd give it a 4 out of 10.
The frequency response for those looks pretty wild
 
20Hz to 20KHz? That's fairly normal for dynamics though, unless you mean measured FR in which case I've not taken a look at those yet!
 
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