[silent-circuit]

If at some point you really get in to EQ, look in to Sonarworks. No affiliation, but very impressed with what they were able to do with some lesser and some much higher end 'phones.

 

[sennfan83261]

I am confident the Sundaras are head and shoulders above the Avatones. Having just read through at least part of the Avatone thread, there's a lot of 'oh god these are the best' going on which always rubs me the wrong way and leaves me thinking the people writing don't have a lot in the way of comparative experience. Not saying you don't occasionally find a diamond in the rough, but a $400 planar that looks to be built to a fairly low standard from a company I've never heard of, vs a $350 planar that debuted at $550 from one of the better known names in the industry... yeah, that's not much of a fight on paper.

It read like marketing-speak to me when people in that thread were falling over themselves fawning over a FOTM can on the first several pages. Cans at that price point will almost always have a compromise build-wise or sound-wise. Other more even-handed impressions that came about the past week or two seem to suggest that those cans are V-shaped, which makes them pretty good at spotting sibilance in a recording, but I'm not convinced for pleasure listening. It looks like good cans for monitoring, which seems about right since Avatone targets music professionals. Anyways, the Avatone Planars are supposedly "Designed in NY, Made in China."

 

[michael4321]

This seems to be a pretty hard sound signature to find, so I figured I'd start a post on it. I currently own a pair of HD-598, as well as some KZ ZS10 Pro IEMs. I'm generally pretty happy with the 598, but would enjoy something that's a bit of an upgrade overall, as well as having a stronger response at 80hz and below. In addition, great extension would be wonderful; something that doesn't start rolling off before 30hz would be ideal, and a bit of a boost ~50hz and below would be great.

Neutrality at other frequencies is prefered, I'd rather hear music the way it was recorded. A small boost over 10khz would be welcome for these old ears, though.

Price, sadly, needs to stay under $500, preferably under $350, although i wouldn't mind hear about more expensive cans that fit the criteria that maybe i could aspire to own in the future.

I remember there was model matching your description stores in the "Ark of the Covenant".
All the best wishes with your quest to find the holy grail. Hope you are successful. I would love love a 598 sounded headphone which does not have typical drop of bass below 100hz like any other headphone in the 350$ area.
Addiionally you should also look of a wider soundstage, good detail separation and smooth Highs as well as warm Mids.

Lets get serious for a moment. The Hifiman 4xx is probably the closest to you description. But the differences to the 598 are really minor. From my experience the base was a little but better and the whole music presentation was little bit more in your face compared to Sennheiser 580, 600.

 

[WyldRage]

I am confident the Sundaras are head and shoulders above the Avatones. Having just read through at least part of the Avatone thread, there's a lot of 'oh god these are the best' going on which always rubs me the wrong way and leaves me thinking the people writing don't have a lot in the way of comparative experience. Not saying you don't occasionally find a diamond in the rough, but a $400 planar that looks to be built to a fairly low standard from a company I've never heard of, vs a $350 planar that debuted at $550 from one of the better known names in the industry... yeah, that's not much of a fight on paper.

I have heard the Sundaras and may at some point buy a pair, but for now my (admittedly eclectic) stable of headphones does what they do better, it just takes... 5 or 6 different models and is situation specific. High praise for the Sundaras really. I may get a pair eventually, regardless.

Glad you found them and are happy OP!

Well, I'm not so confident that the Sundara are so very dominant against the Avantones, even if they are a FotM, which is why I'll eventually get a pair from a store with a good return policy (I'm curious, not trigger-happy).

The Sundaras are pretty good, but they and other Hifiman headphones have several known issues (non-swivelling earcups, build and durability issues, dead drivers). My HE-5LE died twice: once when the metal piece holding the earcup broke (which the company repaired since it was less than a year old), and once when one of the drivers died. There is no guarantee one is better than the other just by looking at a brand name or a price point.

As for one of the better known names in the industry, I remember when Hifiman was that Chinese company trying to beat Audez'e to the punch, and all the iterations the original HE-5 had to go through before being good enough, or when Mr. Speakers was making T50rp mods. They have to start somewhere.

 

[plakat]

Avantone seems to be a known name in studios, so its not coming out of the blue.
I have to admit that I never liked any Hifiman model I heard, and given such blunders as with HE1000v1 together with their staccato of upgrade models and what I read about Sundara (I'd never buy a headphone I have to EQ to my liking -- EQ is not free acoustically), I don't think I'll ever event try them out. What irritates me about the Avantones is their lower frequency limit of 30Hz (OK, maybe just honest... plus it misses the cutoff used when measuring that, -3dB or -10dB would make a lot of a difference), their weight (problem with most planar designs) and the material of the pads (looks scratchy and seems to be according to reports).

I solved by problem by acquiring a D9200, unfortunately rather far from the price limit the OP mentioned. But it does fulfill my needs very well, with a very linear FR, lively character and very good extension with good structure and authority, but never imposing bass onto titles that don't have bass in the recording. Easy to drive as well.
Going from that maybe the smallest of the Denon line, the D5200, might work within given budget limits.

 

[iamalex]

I solved by problem by acquiring a D9200, unfortunately rather far from the price limit the OP mentioned. But it does fulfill my needs very well, with a very linear FR, lively character and very good extension with good structure and authority, but never imposing bass onto titles that don't have bass in the recording. Easy to drive as well.
Going from that maybe the smallest of the Denon line, the D5200, might work within given budget limits.

Interestingly, the D9200 did the trick for me too. Isn't the whole Dxxx line from Denon the brainchild of the same engineer, so maybe the sound signature may hold true with the D5200. With a bit of luck you maybe could snag a B-stock D9200 for a bit over $1000, but that's still more as the target price.

 

[silent-circuit]

Interestingly, the D9200 did the trick for me too. Isn't the whole Dxxx line from Denon the brainchild of the same engineer, so maybe the sound signature may hold true with the D5200. With a bit of luck you maybe could snag a B-stock D9200 for a bit over $1000, but that's still more as the target price.

Very happy with my D7200 and would describe its sound as very similar. You can find them for around $500 in good condition, so that might be an option if the 9200 isn't an option.

 

[bgpolyhistor]

Not sure if you’d consider an IEM but the Empire Ears Bravado comes close to your description. They have an “L” shaped signature. Solid emphasis on the bass and sub bass, mids and treble present themselves equally to me.

lots of reviewers claim the mids are slightly recessed, I don’t hear that but 1) I may be sensitive to mids and 2) I don’t own any mid centric cans because I’m a bass head.

Half of my collection is fairly flat, the other half is an aggressive V signature (CA audio Polaris II, HiFiMan HE 300).

the bravado’s are kind of a unique tuning and I enjoy listening to them over other IEM’s that I own.