[HiFiWar]

Looks sweet, and I love that they included R2R ladder at this price point. I know Bluetooth isn't everybody's preferred connection choice, but IMO for the cost of a $3 chipset everyone should just include it by default.

I'm not anti bluetooth, but it doesn't feel like this really needed it. It would have required more than just $3 worth of parts to be any good. It would have needed a pairing button, connection light, probably APTX, and it would have missed the intent of the 400 I think. Grab the Fiio k9 for that. Or, since this has usb-c, just connect a Bluetooth DAP.

 

[Thomasr]

Crossfade could potentially help with that. Any example of a track that is problematic?

A problematic example would be Count Basie's Jumpin' at Woodside, where the brass is panned hard left and the sax is panned hard right.


An example where I find the imaging tolerable in headphones would be Duke Ellington's Christopher Columbus, which seems to have been mastered with some cross-channel reverb that helps create a more enveloping stage.

 

[HiFiWar]

A problematic example would be Count Basie's Jumpin' at Woodside, where the brass is panned hard left and the sax is panned hard right.


An example where I find the imaging tolerable in headphones would be Duke Ellington's Christopher Columbus, which seems to have been mastered with some cross-channel reverb that helps create a more enveloping stage.

Check out Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles. It has a similar issue - actually pretty annoying.

 

[IgeNeLL]

I'll kick the discussion off here with a relatively controversial topic: Focal Utopia - Love it, Hate it, best headphone ever, not worth the price? Make sure you list the version as there are at least 3 I can think of.

My take on my Utopia 2020 - excellent detail with a very neutral sound. Also, quite boring in my opinion. My purchase of the Utopia taught me a LOT about my audio preferences. I enjoy more bass and pronounced Mids because that is where the music lives. I grabbed a HE-1000v2 and enjoyed it more, but REALLY enjoyed the Rosson RAD-0 until I realized that they were still missing some of the bassy parts of the song I could hear on other headphones or IEMs. Excellent detail can often lead to a loss of other areas of the music - bass and mids are constantly competing for presence. I have a couple of new sets on the way to try and see if I can fill the full-size hole in my currently-slim collection.

I have heard utopia 2022 recently, I agree that with stock cable it lack of detail very much.
But after changing the cable to Siltech Duchess Crown, the vocal is more smooth, detail and pronounced as I can hear 80% percent of word clearly more than before.

Focal Utopia is well engineering product, its noise floor is good, the background is silent and there are noproblem of resonance. Hence, the music representation is solid and you can clearly hear multiple music line in the composition.

Transient response is excellent due to the diaphragm material, which explore the shape and harmonics structure, envelope clearly.

Bad thing. Uhm, it is kind of quite heavy with 500gr on your head. The sound stage is quite narrow and bass extension is roll of going down to 20Hz. The subbass extension is less pronounced.

IMO, it is a clearly showcasing for how berilium should sound.

 

[Shane D]

Check out Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles. It has a similar issue - actually pretty annoying.

Have you heard the remastered Red album? I bought it as all of the music sounds SO much better, to me.

I tried out the Blue album, but it was a little too smoothed out for me.

 

[HiFiWar]

I typically hate live music - might as well be there if I'm going to listen to live music, but this album rocks in the CA-1a: https://tidal.com/browse/album/218005919

 

[spittis]

A problematic example would be Count Basie's Jumpin' at Woodside, where the brass is panned hard left and the sax is panned hard right.


An example where I find the imaging tolerable in headphones would be Duke Ellington's Christopher Columbus, which seems to have been mastered with some cross-channel reverb that helps create a more enveloping stage.

I just did some testing, this seems to be an issue with that specific remaster (maybe in other versions too), the two versions found on Spotify do not have this same problem, everything is smack in the middle kinda inside your head. But when I listened to this version on Youtube it had the issue you described:



I listened to it while fiddling with the crossfade setting on my ADI-2 DAC, it gets a lot better with the highest setting. Bauer binatural method, filter frequency 700 Hz, -3 dB.

 

[DivineCurrent]

I tried the HD650 a decade ago and since then my little audio world was turned upside down. Been addicted to the Sennheiser neutral/warm sound for that long. I’m daily driving the HD660S2 and Focal Clear MG right now. The Clear MG has amazing dynamic punch, speed and resolution. The 660S2 however is currently my tonal reference. Nothing high end I’ve heard, even the Utopia 2022, does mids and treble quite as naturally as the 660S2, or also the HD600 and 650.

Since a lot are talking about the Utopia, figured I'd also chime in about it. I had the chance to try out the "Nutopia" 2022 version for a full week on tour earlier last year. I came to the conclusion that while it is indeed an incredibly detailed and resolving headphone, I do overall prefer the Clear MG for most music, for it's punchier bass and it's warmer less analytical presentation. I also could not justify owning such an expensive headphone right now when the Clear MG is very similar and could be had for a third the price. Pad rolling has also been fun with the Clear MG. Currently, I'm running the Elex pads on them, as I find it brightens up the sound just enough vs stock pads to give more clarity without taking away the warmth and punchiness, and it resembles the Sennheiser HD6XX house sound closer than stock pads. Utopia pads are similar, they add yet more air and clarity but also lowers the bass too much for my preferences. I have not had good results with any other pads from Dekoni or other third party ones, they mess up the mids too much.

Another fun addition to my collection a few years ago was the Dunu Zen Pro. Even though this thread is for full size headphone discussion, I just needed to mention it since it is one of my favorites. This little thing can take EQ like a champ, and competes with the $1-2k flagship range of IEMs in my opinion. It has incredibly resolving, fast, and powerful bass, better than most any dynamic driver open back or closed back I've heard, and on par with great planars like the Hifiman HE-500.

I’m using the RME ADI-2 DAC FS, old AKM version, and for portable the Qudelix 5K. Love that both these devices have built-in EQ and other features.

 

[HiFiWar]

Alright Drinking Fountain, time to rank your favorite headphones of 2023 - we're about 10 days late already. To rank, you must have owned them for any period of time in 2023.

My list:

1. JM Audio XTC Open V1
2. Rosson Rad-0
3. DCA Ether 2
4. Hifiman HE1000v2
5. Hifiman Ananda Nano
6. Focal Bathys
7. Focal Celestee
8. Sendy Aiva
9. Beyerdynamic BT1990 Pro

 

[Albinosaurus]

Allright. I'll give it a shot.

1. Hifiman Sundara
2. Beyerdynamic DT1990
3. Beyerdynamic DT880
4. Philips Fidelio X2
5. Beyerdynamic DT990
6. Beyerdynamic DT770
7. Oh that's it.

Got some BT headphones too but don't want to put them in this list. There's a vintage Sennheiser HD430 on it's way. This year I want to expand my collection headphones with 3 or 4 more. Thinking about AKG K712, Sennheiser 660S2 or Audio-Technica ATH-R70X. Or some vintage stuff that stumbles on my way.

 

[HiFiWar]

Allright. I'll give it a shot.

1. Hifiman Sundara
2. Beyerdynamic DT1990
3. Beyerdynamic DT880
4. Philips Fidelio X2
5. Beyerdynamic DT990
6. Beyerdynamic DT770
7. Oh that's it.

Got some BT headphones too but don't want to put them in this list. There's a vintage Sennheiser HD430 on it's way. This year I want to expand my collection headphones with 3 or 4 more. Thinking about AKG K712, Sennheiser 660S2 or Audio-Technica ATH-R70X. Or some vintage stuff that stumbles on my way.

Nice choices there. Went through a Beyerdynamic stint huh?

 

[kman1211]

My favorite headphones of 2023, splitting between open-back and closed-back as it's hard to properly rank them for me otherwise.

Open-backs:

1.) Beyerdynamic T1 Gen 3
2.) Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
3.) Sennheiser HD 660S2
4.) Kaldas RR-1 Conquest
5.) Altiat Cal.1H
6.) Sennheiser HD 660S
7.) Sennheiser HD 650
8.) AKG K612 Pro (needs new pads and some tlc)
9.) AKG K245

Closed-backs:
1.) Beyerdynamic DT 480 - 25 Ohm (modded)
2.) Audio-Technica ATH-A990Z
3.) AKG K275

 

[HiFiWar]

My favorite headphones of 2023, splitting between open-back and closed-back as it's hard to properly rank them for me otherwise.

Open-backs:

1.) Beyerdynamic T1 Gen 3
2.) Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
3.) Sennheiser HD 660S2
4.) Kaldas RR-1 Conquest
5.) Altiat Cal.1H
6.) Sennheiser HD 660S
7.) Sennheiser HD 650
8.) AKG K612 Pro (needs new pads and some tlc)
9.) AKG K245

Closed-backs:
1.) Beyerdynamic DT 480 - 25 Ohm (modded)
2.) Audio-Technica ATH-A990Z
3.) AKG K275

Nice, I had to look up a couple of those. Always wanted to hear the T1.

 

[kman1211]

Nice, I had to look up a couple of those. Always wanted to hear the T1.

Each T1 is very different from each other. Gen 1, 2, and 3 are all different sounding headphones. Gen 1 is treble leaning with laser like imaging. Gen 2 is a bit of a warm v-shape (at least later black edition pairs, early gen 2s may be more akin to gen 1, haven't been able to confirm this) and the gen 1 & 2 are 600 Ohm. The Gen 3 is 32 Ohm and very warm sounding with a large bass shelf. The fidelity of the gen 3 does not take a hit despite the lower impedance, it's just as resolving if not more resolving than the gen 2.

 

[SolarCetacean]

2.) Audio-Technica ATH-A990Z

Ah, that was my first audiophile headphone when I got started in headphones back in early 2018 I think. I wasn't particularly fond of it with the stock pads because my head is too narrow for the wings, but after I swapped to Brainwavz XL pads, I really liked it. Still some of the best vocals I've heard. I'm keen to add AT back into my collection.