Huh. For me, the Elegia is already an uber-warm and full tuning out of the box (many people don’t like it precisely because it leans so heavily into warmth and richness). Haven’t heard the Celestee myself, but on paper and in others’ takes, it looks like the Celestee moves in the opposite...

Curious to hear all these new impressions on the Project M. In FR graphs, looks kinda like a less bassy version of my beloved Symphonium Meteor—with a very different driver config, obvs.

Just depends on what problem you’re trying to “solve.” For me, the Dekoni Stellia pads smooth out the treble response a bit and slightly improve the bass boominess, and they are also significantly more comfortable than the stock Elegia pads.

You try driving them with a different amp/dongle?

...reviewer" muscles a bit, I'll say that the question of "bias" is real and totally unavoidable. Bias comes from everywhere. As Mark Ryan (of Super* Review) once said, buying a product with your own money promotes another kind of bias. People are much more likely to speak positively of...

Her pandemic-era performance for Tiny Desk remains one of my favorite ever from the series. Such an Incredible voice.

As someone who used to write reviews professionally (gaming), I can say confidently that this is less common than many people imagine. Very rarely do retailers or manufacturers cut ties with a reviewer for negative coverage. It happens, but it’s very much a “nuclear option” that means as a...

...taste relative to my own lets me calibrate my own expectations. Also, yeah, it’s the thoughts about an IEM after six months, a year, or even (*gasp*) two years that mean a lot more than someone’s immediate OotB thoughts. It’s fun to be excited for new things, but this hobby is expensive. I’m...

JHC, man. I can't even quote that post. Didn't realize I had a "thing" about ear/eye hybrids until now.

Seriously. They could sound like $2000 angels weeping for sheer beauty, and I'd still never touch them. Those things freak me the eff out.

Totally. Nothing like performance and concert-going experience to give one an innate sense for things like instrument timbre and the spatial effects of performance venues. And nothing like headphones and IEMs to remind us that we all have unique ears to translate what we each hear.

Agreed on all points but this last one. Ear physiology can’t be trained. Unlike with loudspeakers, headphone tuning preferences are much more a matter of biology than taste.

Cool. All good. Even if "accuracy" is the aim, in-room speaker response and headphone response are two very different beasts. While linearity is measurable and (more or less) achievable with speakers in a room, there's still a lot of open and unresolved research/debate when it comes to what...

Ha. No, not that kind of literal. I mean (and presumably he meant) that it measures as flat as flat gets. To me and my ear that is not “accurate.” As the Harman research has proven, bass preference varies widely (6-9db spread) below 200Hz, and the average preference is well above a flat...

Agreed. As is probably already evident, I strongly prefer them EQed over stock. Just as I also strongly prefer them with a different headband and ear pads over their stock ones. They are indeed a fantastic bargain, but they also come with a lot of caveats out of the box, including the need for...

Only thing I’d add is that when Amir says “dead flat bass,” he means that literally. It measures almost perfectly flat from 20Hz-200Hz.

Sometimes this has as much to do with synergy between the DAC, your amp, your headphones, etc, as with the DAC itself.

Sounds like it. Also it’s possible your laptop USB outputs a low amperage, so it takes a while to charge. Chord recommends at least 2A, but many laptops only output 0.5A via their USB outputs.

Never heard an electrostat, but good to know.

You mentioned above that you’re charging it from a laptop, right? So it’s probably only charging when the laptop’s on. Maybe loses some charge overnight, then recharges once the laptop’s back on.

“Plenty” is of course in the ears of the beholder. Based on the poster’s use of all caps to describe what they’re after, I’d assume they’re talking quantity over quality. While I’m sure they’re out there, I have yet to hear a planar that didn’t benefit (to my preferences) from some elevated...

Not sure if we’re talking about the same thing. I mean enclosure resonance. Should only be one of those, and they’re easily identified by an impedance peak. Most dynamic drivers have one in the low end. Maybe you’re referring to what I’d call harmonics (usually subsequent peaks that are...

If you want bass, I wouldn't be looking at planars (unless you want to learn some EQ basics).

Whether they sound okay or not depends on your own tuning preferences. Without EQ, they'll have the infamous "Hifiman scoop" at 1kHz-3kHz that many Hifiman headphones have. Many (myself included) think it makes them sound light and thin (and potentially bright) with stock tuning. They're also...

For all their tuning flexibility, I still dig the super-stanky stock tuning of the Sivga Nightingale. Intimate, soulful, and funky as funk. Voodoo (2000), D’Angelo An all-timer whose production history is as classic as the album itself. The high-water mark of the Soulquarians that has as much...