monsterzero said:

  I wouldnt say theyre "too audiophile",but it is tuned more towards the neutral sound than the Atticus. I tried the Atticus first and cued up "Painkiller" from Judas Priest.Those opening drums just thumped hard without sounding slow or muddy.With that much bass I was expecting the intro riffs to be recessed....Boy was I wrong

 They just ripped out and slapped me around,and then when Halford kicked in the vocals were really sweet as well.It was a very powerful+aggressive(but not overly so) presentation that hit me in the sweet spot for metal.

I then tried the Eikon,and all that impact disappeared.To be honest,after only about a minute I took them off and forgot about them,so its hard for me to be more descriptive about the Eikon with such little headtime...for me it was a no-brainer as to which I preferred.Im sure Hansotek can,and I believe already has,done a fine job of comparing the two.

I didnt demo The Sonys as Ive read theyre too bassy,and since I had 2 hour train ride each way I only had about 2 1/2 hours total at the meet,so some products didnt make the cut.

I should mention I typically dont like too much bass for metal,in fact my LCD-2s never get metal time.I prefer a fast,clean aggressive sound for metal,and typically bass is the sacrifice,but for me,The Atticus brought the best of both worlds.Theyre not as aggressive nor as fast as my sextetts or AD2000s,but with all that impact,its hard to complain.

Its also worth mentioning that Zach was a very cool,down to earth person,with zero ego or attitude,and that goes a long ways in my book.I'd rather support a guy like that as opposed to some corporate giant,or a maker who makes a new flagship every two weeks and triples the price each step of the way...that company will remain unmentioned

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ytsejamer said:

Ah man, now I'm confused again

Zach will probably want to kill me and I'm asking him again to modify my order. lol

My initial plan was to go with the Atticus but after reading the feedbacks from the Chicago meet here and on Reddit, I wasn't sure anymore about my decision.  I have also exchanged a couple of PMs with @Hansotek
 before asking Zach to upgrade with the Eikon.

I thought that the Atticus would be too polite with Metal music.  (Like the LCD-2/Elear/NightHawk)

So the Atticus are better than the LCD-2 with Metal ?

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hansotek said:

Also remember Monsterzero listens to all old-school metal, so YMMV. Atticus is great w/ Priest, etc.

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hansotek said:

Also remember Monsterzero listens to all old-school metal, so YMMV. Atticus is great w/ Priest, etc.

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monsterzero said:

  I didn't bring my gear with me,so no a/b was done,but to my ears,and through my set-up my LCD-2 mids are,for a lack of a better term a bit "one dimensional". The mids are nice,but more neutral for how I like metal to sound...guitars and vocals are there,but they dont jump out at me and give me that "Whoa" moment.

Hansotek and I both agreed that the LCD-2s and Atticus share similar characteristics and fill essentially the same role in a headphone lineup,I just felt that the mids of the Atticus were more upfront than the LCDs,and thats a win in my book.I most def would not call the Atticus polite in any sense of the word.

FWIW I was not impressed at all with Elear...perhaps with all the hype I was expecting too much,but they did nothing that headphones I already own dont do.The Utopia on the other hand was really nice,but that price tag tho....

EDIT:

Hansotek has spent a lot of time with both of the ZMFs,so I would be prone to listen to his thoughts between the two...My observations were made with about 5 minutes total headtime combined,but you know what they say about first impressions...

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socks mk2 said:

So... Aeon. Yes/No?

Sold my T1 (AGAIN) and HE500 this weekend. I can throw those funds at it. Still on the fence. There's just something about pre-ordering that's unsettling. Lol.

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socks mk2 said:

So... Aeon. Yes/No?

Sold my T1 (AGAIN) and HE500 this weekend. I can throw those funds at it. Still on the fence. There's just something about pre-ordering that's unsettling. Lol.

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hansotek said:

ÆON is incredible, IMO. I got a review unit from Dan Clark, so I'll be diving deep into it.

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hansotek said:

ÆON is incredible, IMO. I got a review unit from Dan Clark, so I'll be diving deep into it.

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socks mk2 said:

Excellent. Glad to hear it. Something that should deliver on the hype. Are they as comfortable as they look?

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socks mk2 said:

Excellent. Glad to hear it. Something that should deliver on the hype. Are they as comfortable as they look?

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thyname said:

  Probably not the right to describe it, but is there such thing as "crisp" headphones?
 
What I mean, is a headphone that have the following:
 
1 - Great soundstage 
 
2 - Sound very crisp on the highs. Something that I cannot describe, but I hear on my home audio system, and fail to hear a lot in my current headphones (HiFiMan HE-400i open-back, and Audeze EL-8 Titanium closed-back).
 
3 - Good separation of channels

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thyname said:

  Probably not the right to describe it, but is there such thing as "crisp" headphones?
 
What I mean, is a headphone that have the following:
 
1 - Great soundstage 
 
2 - Sound very crisp on the highs. Something that I cannot describe, but I hear on my home audio system, and fail to hear a lot in my current headphones (HiFiMan HE-400i open-back, and Audeze EL-8 Titanium closed-back).
 
3 - Good separation of channels
 
Does it make sense?
 
What I have sounds missing to me. I am not very familiar with HiFi on headphones, as this is the first really endeavor on them. But I do feel like what I have is not good enough for me. I am now "wow-ed" if you know what I mean. 
 
Currently listening through Oppo HA-2 (portable) and the built in Cipher cable on the Audeze. I do have a decent desktop DAC/Amp coming tomorrow (TEAC UD-503), so maybe that will change things around.
 
I am looking at something sub $1K, with potential candidates (all open-back):
 
1 - HiFiMan HE-560
2 - Focal Elear
3 - Audeze LCD-2
4 - Oppo PM-2 (I hear it is the same with PM-1, except for build)
5 - Sennheiser HD 600
 
Any helps is appreciated! (and pardon my "newbie" stance).
 
P.S.: I got the following recommendations from another thread:
 
1 - Beyer T90
2 - AKG K712 and K812

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thyname said:

  Probably not the right to describe it, but is there such thing as "crisp" headphones?
 
What I mean, is a headphone that have the following:
 
1 - Great soundstage 
 
2 - Sound very crisp on the highs. Something that I cannot describe, but I hear on my home audio system, and fail to hear a lot in my current headphones (HiFiMan HE-400i open-back, and Audeze EL-8 Titanium closed-back).
 
3 - Good separation of channels
 
Does it make sense?
 
What I have sounds missing to me. I am not very familiar with HiFi on headphones, as this is the first really endeavor on them. But I do feel like what I have is not good enough for me. I am now "wow-ed" if you know what I mean. 
 
Currently listening through Oppo HA-2 (portable) and the built in Cipher cable on the Audeze. I do have a decent desktop DAC/Amp coming tomorrow (TEAC UD-503), so maybe that will change things around.
 
I am looking at something sub $1K, with potential candidates (all open-back):
 
1 - HiFiMan HE-560
2 - Focal Elear
3 - Audeze LCD-2
4 - Oppo PM-2 (I hear it is the same with PM-1, except for build)
5 - Sennheiser HD 600
 
Any helps is appreciated! (and pardon my "newbie" stance).
 
P.S.: I got the following recommendations from another thread:
 
1 - Beyer T90
2 - AKG K712 and K812

Click to expand...