[Sylverant]

Quote:

Better in all possible ways, but not as good. Okay.

Mike's journal on HD700 seems to fit in with his very open bias towards dark, smoother sounding headphones. His colorful words do help to make the entry more interesting to read but take from his legitimacy. Even so, he does fully explain where he finds the HD800 to be technically better than the HD700; as well as why he personally likes the HD700 more.
 
Rather than a review, this really is a journal entry more so, and he admits very openly in this article that its all about his opinion. It doesn't seem like Mike tried to write an actual review here. It's fine that he is honest, but this brings up coq de combat's point about whether or not it is acceptable for reviews to be openly, outlandishly biased, just because the reviewer is being honest about the fact.
 
I prefer these reviews to all the silly shill reviews the site normally gets hit with (all the one line "product announcements" in the Recent Reviews section cough cough), since at least these detailed reviews have some shred of truth to them, but in an ideal world it would be nice if the reviews around here could be more free of bias. 

 

[tomscy2000]

Quote:

Yeah , so any update about the Heir?

Heir shipped it out on Wednesday noon, and it appeared to be leaving Chengdu by that night, but it suddenly decided to teleport all the way back to Chengdu and leave again, four days later.
 

​

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

On the whole, we will probably hear in different ways, and probably be more sensitive to different ranges of frequency. To this extent, we will probably disagree over whether a headphone, considered purely on its own merits, is bass-heavy or light.
 
However, if we were to compare two headphones, we would probably be in agreement as to which of the two has more bass, unless the measurable difference is subtle.
 
This is the problem being posed by the HD 700 previews so far: Various claims that it's either brighter or darker than, say, the HD 800. This is possible, if there are variations in the models being circulated, or if the headphones each react in profoundly different ways to variations in components upstream. Neither seem as likely as a horde of reviewers trying to rush their first impressions out before everybody else.

Part of it is that these sort of definitions are really amorphous.  If something has elevated treble but that treble is smooth, peak free, doesn't have much ringing in the drivers, and has low distortion like many Stax models or the PFE 232 (and surely some other things I haven't heard) then I wouldn't really think to call it "bright" or even notice that it has elevated treble because most other 'phones with even slightly elevated treble exhibit some combination of the things I mentioned above which really calls attention to the treble and make me dislike it.  When I say why I dislike its because of the treble so it must be too "bright", right?
 
Taking all the impressions as a whole it seems likely to me that the HD700 hasmore bass and less treble than the HD800 but that the treble exhibits more of the issues I mentioned above and calls more attention to itself than the HD800's.

 

[turokrocks]

 
Quote:

Heir shipped it out on Wednesday noon, and it appeared to be leaving Chengdu by that night, but it suddenly decided to teleport all the way back to Chengdu and leave again, four days later.
 

​

At least it went out for you, so when do you expect to receive it at the earliest?
 

 

[mutabor]

Quote:

From my understanding Kitekis parents are asian and australian, but Kiteki's Swedish. I could be very wrong as well.
 
I'll leave it to Kiteki to clarify if Kiteki feels the need .. 

" I'm Swedish and Australian". I think he/she meant that one of his/her parents is Swedish and another is Australian. Who is an Australian then? A person with roots from Britain?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/571081/the-diary-entries-of-a-little-girl-latest-memoir-o-pn-u/945#post_7937129
 

 

[mutabor]

Quote:

I'm 99% sure English is not Mike's mother tongue, in which case his English is actually very good, though obviously not perfect.
 

Mike is from Indonesia and he does make mistakes in English. It is difficult to write in a language which is not your mother tongue.  I still can't get articles ( an/a, the) in English language, they don't make sense to me.

 

[music_4321]

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[music_4321]

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[a_recording]

Quote:

The Headfonia review is honestly laughable in its hyperbole. Some choice quotes:
 
 
"the sound coming out of it is clearer than the HD800, the Beyerdynamic T1, the LCD-2, or the Stax O2"
 
"I was blown away. Simply brilliant and mind-blowing. It was had a crisp electrostatic-like transients, but without the typical weaknesses of an electrostatic driver"
 
"I was awestruck. The design team, which is apparently a different team from the HD800, has pulled off something brilliant. Out of this world. Genius" 
 
"I wish my HD800 sounded like the HD700. I really do"
 
"It was revolutionary and I’ve never heard anything like this being done with a dynamic driver"
 
Oh, but the article then goes on to say...
 
"The HD700 is in no way going to replace the HD800 as the flagship model"
 
So we have hyperbole AND contradictory sentiments...

I don't know, I take away this impression from the review: Mike wants to say that he absolutely hands down thinks the HD700 is better than the HD800 because its easier to listen to. For some reason though - either taking into account Sennheisers displeasure if he states he likes the lower model over the higher, or maybe its what other 'audiophile' readers will think, he is not prepared to say explicitly that the HD700 is better then the HD800. Thats why the review is being watered down as a 'journal'. The HD700 suits his personal tastes better, but he thinks for some reason that the HD800 is still more technically correct and it would probably rub some people the very wrong way to declare the HD800 the loser.
 
It's like the case where you enjoy a really bad movie, but then feel guilty admitting to you fancy movie watching friends that you liked it - so you say that the movie was good, but of *course* movie x/y/z was better. 
 
Of course this kind of behaviour is not helpful when writing a review but its understandable.

 

[MuppetFace]

Oh, I understand where he's coming from... I think. Really I have no problem with his writing love letters to the HD700 and singing songs outside its bedroom window at 2 in the morning.
 
 
But the journal / review / impressions / whatever he wants to call them come across as ridiculous to some people because of the hyperbole. I mean honestly. Like nothing ever achieved by a dynamic driver before? Clearer than the Omega II? These are obviously opinions, but he needs to reign it in honestly. If you look at the comments section, you see people are already declaring they've placed their preorders after reading Mike's glowing supernova-bright impressions.

 

[compoopers]

Hey guys, my birthday is coming up very soon so I'm finding myself at the deciding point in my headphones quest.

The final question: The Philips Fidelio L1s or the Sony Z1000s.

I come here because Muppet has been helping me a lot in my threads and I know that she just recently got L1s.

I was wondering if she, or anyone else, had any last minute thoughts about the comparisons between these two phones, and if either of them are superior to the other.

To give some criteria, I listen to a wide variety of things, so I really want headphones that are not niche to a certain sound. However, to keep in mind, jazz and classical music are very important to me, as well as jazzy hip hop and smaller orchestral stuff (like video game music).

I am 'upgrading' from Sennheiser HD555s because these ones leak too much sound out and I need something that doesn't leak much sound (thus the search for good closed headphones).

Let me know if you guys have any thoughts.

Addendum: I plan on purchasing a dac/amp in the future, if that changes anything.

PS: Wonderful thread here. I can't keep up with all the technical stuff but I learn a lot just by reading this stuff

 

[Sylverant]

Hmm. Mike said why he felt that the HD800 was still better in specific technical areas though; claiming that it wasn't as large in sound stage size and didn't layer as well.
 
I can't help but wonder what "layering" actually means in this case, or sounds like  from headphone to headphone. I see that everyone is applying there own meanings to them but it doesn't explain much. Mike even has a glossary explaining what these terms generally mean on his website if I remember. His article only serves to point out how difficult it is to write a headphone review properly...actually, what is a "proper" headphone review?

 

[MuppetFace]

Well, if you're looking for a pair of closed headphones that don't leak much, the Fidelio L1 shouldn't be on your list of considerations. It's semi-open I believe. Doesn't isolate well.

 

[compoopers]

Oh, shoot. Well, I guess that answers my question. The Sony's it is.

At $300 the Z1000 looks like my only option for great sound from a non-leaking headphone. Not that I mind that... people have said good things about them.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

Really I have no problem with his writing love letters to the HD700 and singing songs outside its bedroom window at 2 in the morning.

I pictured this and LOLed.  If I wasn't at work right now I'd do a photoshop...