[princent]

Well, I've ready every post here regarding these. 
 
They sound great!
 
But after just a few hours of use, the cable connector to cup was glitching. I ignored it and just adjusted it. Finally the sound gave out. I cleaned the male and female connector and could sometimes get sound in my right ear. I decided to glue, using something similar to shoegloo (liquisole in europe). 
 
One connector works perfectly glued, the other one does not and I won't probably get this on warranty since I glued, event though they are only 5 hours old. 
 
And the crackling in the left ear cup - I have it too. I have tried sticking a pen underneath the pad and that works for me. It's just not a nice solution
 
Should you buy? No. I spent something like €900 on these and they will probably just go into the trash or I have to pay for repairs.Try to find something else that sounds good. 

 

[Naim.F.C]

Audeze, I would recommend maybe creating or hiring an entirely new quality assurance or manufacturing tolerance analysis team. These sorts of QA issues are far too common in your product lines. Not just with this particular headphone, but random issues with pretty much all of them. I don't think I've read about so many issues or defects with any other headphone manufacturer out there. It wouldn't be as perplexing if your headphones didn't consistently release at the very premium end of pricing. If I'm being brutally honest, it gives a bad reputation to the whole "made in the USA" audiophile marketing.

 

[artur108]

Hello, its my first post here, and I am sorry for my English.
Does anyone have problem like this with Audeze el-8?
When I put them on the sound depends on what pressure air make with my ear and scull. I mean if the air gets pressured inside the pads, they plays less loud... If pressure gets back to normal, sound too. I dont like it. I also have that krk sound in both earpads, when I move my head...

 

[Beagle]

  Hello, its my first post here, and I am sorry for my English.
Does anyone have problem like this with Audeze el-8?
When I put them on the sound depends on what pressure air make with my ear and scull. I mean if the air gets pressured inside the pads, they plays less loud... If pressure gets back to normal, sound too. I dont like it. I also have that krk sound in both earpads, when I move my head...

 
Yes, I've had this pressurizing/vacuum effect problem with two different sets. Sometime all it takes is just to move my head or my jaw....the pads shift slightly and the sound fades out on one channel or the other.

 

[cadama]

Just to chime in with my experience and opinion -- both I and another person in my office pre-ordered the EL-8's when they were announced and have owned them since.  I also own LCD-X and a Sony MDR-v6, and Shure 535 IEMs.
 
My EL-8's have been replaced once, during the warranty period - the plastic hinge cracked, and the connectors became loose & crackly.  Since they were replaced, I've used them very sparingly, instead using a Sony MDR-v6 at work (no comparison, of course, but not going to break!), and the LCD-X at home (which is done /right/ -- everything serviceable, and mini-XLR is /never/ going to break).  They were always treated gently -- a stand on my desk, slip them over the head, just sit there and work.
 
My co-workers EL-8's have also been replaced once, under warranty, for the connectors that had become useless.  Same work environment as me; not some busy production studio, gigs, or on musician's heads as they bop and play in the studio, etc.
 
Both times, when my co-worker, and I, contacted Audeze support, Audeze seemed totally unsurprised that we'd run into the these troubles.
 
It may well be that these connectors constitute a long term play for features and capability, but if they result in a product that is /guaranteed/ to fail under normal use, as these seem to be, then ... what's the point?  As far as my wallet goes, there are no features that are worth premium dollars, but can only be enjoyed for 1-2 years.
 
Look at Mini-XLR -- a bomb proof standard (albiet available only up to 6 pins, not 8 like Audeze wanted/needed for this design; production video people have /beautiful/ high density, tiny, durable, higher pin count connectors as well).  If they were going to go to the expense of a bespoke connector, why not try for something that at least met the spec of currently existing pro-level connectors -- this is pro-level pricing, for people who are going to /care/ about it.
 
The hinge-crack issue is another shake-your-head moment.  Think about it -- screw a 2" long 3D piece of plastic to a very flexible metal band, which is going to be repeatedly flexed, and which attaches only with tiny screws, and tell me that you couldn't predict significant forces where the band attaches to the plastic, which could (and demonstrably does) over time, result in cracking, even with gentle use.   It /could/ work, but you'd have to re-enforce it a lot more than it has been, in my personal opinion.
 
Also, replacement did take a very long time in both cases; I was without my pair for about 3 months, and my co-worker almost 2 months.  Fortunately, owning alternate headphones is easy, and it's non-critical listening that we used them for.
 
If I were an executive at Audeze, I imagine my plan for the connector would be as follows:
1) Abandon the current custom connector -- it was a mistake, and no amount of wishing will change that.  Dedication to quality requires /realism/.
2) Determine a new connector immediately that has the features, but not the flaws (no wear, locking, small, impossible to insert wrong, sense of high quality.  I would avoid proprietary -- DiY people bring dedication and /life/ to a platform.)
3) For future product, new connector.
4) For existing product, have a refurb program people could pay for that would get them upgraded to the new connector.  Would be a some replacement parts, and tech labour, but should be able to break even/not lose a tonne of money.  Make an adapter from the old cable->new plug, so that you don't have to buy the whole world new cable assemblies.
5) For people under warranty, they could send in product for refurb.
6) Depend on the market to recognize the integrity that this approach demonstrates.
 
My plan for the headband cracking issue:
1) design a metal/much higher strength plastic replacement part, and offer it as a paid refurb to out of warranty customers, or free refurb for in-warranty customers.  Either redesign the band, or just used the fixed parts going forward.
 
 
I'm selling mine while they are still very nearly NIB condition -- I love the sound, but I can't pay that much for something that is /guarenteed/ to die under normal use.
 
I love Audeze overall, seriously considering iSINE20's, etc.  I worry because talk of this connector being the center of a long term bet makes me worried for the the future of Audeze mid-market headphones.
 
-Cedric

 

[Audeze]

  If I were an executive at Audeze, I imagine my plan for the connector would be as follows:
1) Abandon the current custom connector -- it was a mistake, and no amount of wishing will change that.  Dedication to quality requires /realism/.
2) Determine a new connector immediately that has the features, but not the flaws (no wear, locking, small, impossible to insert wrong, sense of high quality.  I would avoid proprietary -- DiY people bring dedication and /life/ to a platform.)
3) For future product, new connector.
4) For existing product, have a refurb program people could pay for that would get them upgraded to the new connector.  Would be a some replacement parts, and tech labour, but should be able to break even/not lose a tonne of money.  Make an adapter from the old cable->new plug, so that you don't have to buy the whole world new cable assemblies.
5) For people under warranty, they could send in product for refurb.
6) Depend on the market to recognize the integrity that this approach demonstrates.
 
My plan for the headband cracking issue:
1) design a metal/much higher strength plastic replacement part, and offer it as a paid refurb to out of warranty customers, or free refurb for in-warranty customers.  Either redesign the band, or just used the fixed parts going forward.

 
@cadama - Yes, we recognize some of the issues you have pointed out. When we designed the connector for EL8, we tried to do too many things. The male and female connectors were manufactured initially in different places and the tolerance issues in pre-production vs production made things worse. This was the first product we had done manufacturing on scale and we learnt our lesson. For the Sine and iSine we have used standard connectors used in the industry. (3.5 mm for Sine and standard two pin for iSine). We have been cognizant of these issue. For EL8 we went back and redesigned it to be more robust and made a running change in production. The units shipped since jan 2016 all had the redesigned connectors that are sturdy and have much better retention force.
 
The plastic issue you pointed out was not caused by flexibility, but more due to misalignment. This was caused in the initial batches and we corrected it. We have offered free replacements / repair to any EL8 customer who faced these issues. 
 
In addition we had a packaging issue and we redesigned the packaging to make it more secure. We also recalled all the stock from our dealers and replaced them. 
In addition, we received valuable feedback from customers that we incorporated. we have also revamped our entire QC and Customer service team to be able to better serve our customers. 
 
Even if it was painful, we learnt from the initial mistakes we did and the Sine and iSine products have largely benefitted from them. 

 

[Audeze]

 I won't probably get this on warranty since I glued, event though they are only 5 hours old. 

Please send the unit back to us and we will make sure it is upto date and the connector is fixed.

 

[rudzits]

Had my EL-8 open backs for less than a week and today noticed a crack on the plastic headband plate on the right side. Purchased them from Scan.co.uk, i'm not from UK, had to wait for more than two weeks for the headphones to be back in stock, and from the certificate of authenticity, it seems to be the 2015 model (date is 10/6/15). So disappointing, I really like the sound, even if this is the old model, but if they crack, eventually it will break. https://goo.gl/photos/xq9qjL3q3hh56jan9

 

[slankoe]

After a few years of being out of the loop regarding what we enthusiasts might call "head-fi," I had finally upgraded my trusty but now broken Bose QC20 with the Audeze EL-8O. Thank you Bose for the excellent product. it lived a good life, and now it can rest in pieces.

So aftwr a lot of research I purchased the EL-8 open almost two months ago. That is where my problems began. What I assumed to be one-off defects experienced by a loud minority of customers would soon become my reality.

The EL-8O has been replaced twice, and on this third pair, I noticed just today that the right driver is suddenly quieter than the left even after swapping cables, reversing L/R cables, different sources etc.

All white box. All inspected ... I think Nov 2016 was the earliest and later for the replacements of course. the replacements had the new credit card shaped certificate of authenticity whole the original had the white card.

The store I bought them (the Gramophone in Edmonton) from are really good and have been taking good care of me, and so has Audeze I must say. However I am going to try to get my money back instead of a replacemrnt this time. Sorry, but this is the third strike, the EL-8O are out for me. Very sad, because this is one of the finest headphones I have heard, and this is my preferred sound signature. The outside build is amazing, but something on the internal components needs to be addressed.

I really do believe that I have been somewhat unlucky, but I say only somewhat because three broken 'phones in two months tells me there is a bigger issue than mere luck. At this point, it's the universe telling me to stay away from this headphone.

I can also speak for the breaking cable. In fact on all three headphones the long cable had the left channel cut out after a short period of normal use. Though my use may be rougher than most peoples as i am known to put my music player in my pocket. That being said, having all three cables break is nothing but a confirmation for me. The third pair had the cable break the next day. Luckily that one came with an extra iPhone cable which works veey nicely on the go. That doesn't fix the long cable, though.

This is all the more sad for me because I feel that this headphone gets a lot more hate than it deserves when it comes to the sound. The 2016 white box revision sounds fantastic, with only minor irregularities in the treble, and what I'd consider a pretty good soundstage. It is such a shame that faulty design can ruin an otherwise awesome set of headphones.

I really hope Audeze can get their game on because I feel like they missed a seriously huge opportunity here. Perhaps I would be better served by something like the iSines, which is a product I would consider getting... But I am going to wait and see if people on the forums experience durability problems before I buy. It's the reasonable thing to do after what I've gone through.

The search for my headphone continues...

 

[acia]

After a few years of being out of the loop regarding what we enthusiasts might call "head-fi," I had finally upgraded my trusty but now broken Bose QC20 with the Audeze EL-8O. Thank you Bose for the excellent product. it lived a good life, and now it can rest in pieces.

So aftwr a lot of research I purchased the EL-8 open almost two months ago. That is where my problems began. What I assumed to be one-off defects experienced by a loud minority of customers would soon become my reality.

The EL-8O has been replaced twice, and on this third pair, I noticed just today that the right driver is suddenly quieter than the left even after swapping cables, reversing L/R cables, different sources etc.

All white box. All inspected ... I think Nov 2016 was the earliest and later for the replacements of course. the replacements had the new credit card shaped certificate of authenticity whole the original had the white card.

The store I bought them (the Gramophone in Edmonton) from are really good and have been taking good care of me, and so has Audeze I must say. However I am going to try to get my money back instead of a replacemrnt this time. Sorry, but this is the third strike, the EL-8O are out for me. Very sad, because this is one of the finest headphones I have heard, and this is my preferred sound signature. The outside build is amazing, but something on the internal components needs to be addressed.

I really do believe that I have been somewhat unlucky, but I say only somewhat because three broken 'phones in two months tells me there is a bigger issue than mere luck. At this point, it's the universe telling me to stay away from this headphone.

I can also speak for the breaking cable. In fact on all three headphones the long cable had the left channel cut out after a short period of normal use. Though my use may be rougher than most peoples as i am known to put my music player in my pocket. That being said, having all three cables break is nothing but a confirmation for me. The third pair had the cable break the next day. Luckily that one came with an extra iPhone cable which works veey nicely on the go. That doesn't fix the long cable, though.

This is all the more sad for me because I feel that this headphone gets a lot more hate than it deserves when it comes to the sound. The 2016 white box revision sounds fantastic, with only minor irregularities in the treble, and what I'd consider a pretty good soundstage. It is such a shame that faulty design can ruin an otherwise awesome set of headphones.

I really hope Audeze can get their game on because I feel like they missed a seriously huge opportunity here. Perhaps I would be better served by something like the iSines, which is a product I would consider getting... But I am going to wait and see if people on the forums experience durability problems before I buy. It's the reasonable thing to do after what I've gone through.

The search for my headphone continues...

isine 10 is not even as detailed as sine closed.

so won't be surprised that isine is even worse than el-8.

also got broken el-8 driver. second strike. definitely would sell the replacement for the next victim. have asked for refund. only credit refund.

however,audeze claims responsibility in a timely manner.

new game now, is buy cheap chi fi iem, dump it, lose it, won't regret, instead of going back and forth about warranty issue in a time/money consuming manner.

the kz-zs5 i got am utterly surprised by its quality. easy to custom build replacement/upgrade cable. unlike sine/el-8.

so far i cannot find anyone to custom build cable for sine/el-8, which is really annoying.

the lcd series is using mini-xlr, easy to find people to build cable.

 

[IlluminatiTri]

Not sure how relevant this is still, but I bought my EL-8Cs directly from Audeze in early/mid 2017 and they have none of these issues. It was a fresh batch I know because they told me they'd take a bit to ship because they were still making them.

I don't have any issue with high-end, and certainly no lacking low-end (although they're not for bassheads, they have incredible extension. Listen to "Why So Serious?" from the Dark Knight OST around 3:30). They're also very comfortable, and I don't have the physical sound issue.

The connectors, while proprietary as heck, don't seem to be getting loose for me, and I appreciate how they're more difficult to break off than a 3.5mm plug. I also have no issues finding aftermarket cables for them (see Charleston Cable Company, for example).

Also, they changed the packaging, for whatever that's worth.

 

[ithilienrp]

I own EL8s both O and C, both black boxes (should be earlier production batches) .... both cracked. Sent back for replacement, got new pairs for both (one in white box, another in the original black box, which was reused -- the serial number differed, confirmed by Audeze).

The C took about 3 months, the O is funny .... I had to ask Jaben Thailand to send it to Jaben Hong Kong (since I bought it 2nd hand from a person who bought it there), 4 months and it came back ..... with a closed version (a C) ... seems the distributor sent the wrong version to Jaben Hong Kong. So, it went back again .... I just got it back last week, and it had been "about a year". (Mostly for sending back and forth, custom clearances, etc, etc). And it costed me quite a bit of sending (twice) and re-importing.

That funny (and costly) story aside. Now I'm hoping that they both won't crack again or having any connector/driver problem.

At one point, I was seriously thinking of just cut the potential future lost by selling it for cheap. That would be kinda sad though. I quite like them, especially the current revision. Sounds so much better than the original as I remembered them both.

However, since I haven't heard people talking about the cracked hinges for a while now ... maybe it's not the problem any more. Hopefully.

 

[The Torrent]

I have enjoyed auditioning the EL-8 for the past few days. The general build quality is good. IMHO the sound is as good or better than many other closed cans. I prefer the EL-8's over the Oppo PM-3 and the Beyer T5p. I am keeping the EL-8s.

I have one serious concern: The EL-8 connector is HORRIBLE! What were you thinking Audeze?



It looks like an Apple Lightning cable but only works in one direction. Flip it over, and the cable doesn't fit. Audeze even includes a warning in the box, saying "don't try forcing the cable in the wrong way". What?

Once inserted (properly), there is significant lateral movement in all directions. You can even induce small amounts of noise by moving the cable vigorously. As such, I really doubt the long term reliability of this funky connector.
If Audeze was looking for a competitive advantage with this connector, I believe they failed

.

I am seriously considering gluing this connector in place to reduce wear on the contacts.

How’s the connector holding up now?

 

[The Torrent]

Regarding EL-8 cable connectors, the EL-8 is one of the most innovative headphones on the market, from its magnetic structure to the ultra-thin film diaphragm and driver design. When we designed the connector it wasn’t meant as a differentiating factor but instead we were thinking long-term aboutthe EL-8 as a platform upon which to introduce new, easily accessible features.

The new connector has 8 contacts per side (see more below) and is part of the overall plan. The gold-plated connectors were designed with very low contact resistance and capable of carrying up to 2 Amps per connector for a total of 16 Amps. The current EL-8 connector has 4 contacts wired in parallel for each positive and negative signal with very low contact resistance (measured in micro ohms) while typical 3-pin XLR connectors are measured at 3 milliohms per contact. It also features connector redundancy and magnetic latching to prevent cable damage. Plus the cables are very robust with a minimum of 20,000 mating cycles.

A new Apple MFI-compatible cable will be introduced for the EL-8s in the next few weeks. A couple of weeks after that we’ll make balanced cables available for Sony, Astell & Kern and Pono players. The new cables are are straightforward swap with the current ones.

In the longer term, hopefully in 2016, we planning to introduce cables that can process signals like noise cancellation, DSP, etc. For some of these applications we have to take the signal from inside the headphone and return it after processing, thus eight separate connectors per side.

We've received reports that the connectors can become loose with increased lateral movement. We’ve shipped many, many EL-8s by now and find connector issues are only a small percentage of the total. If you have any issues with the connectors, please let us know immediately (support@audeze.com) so we can examine them. For most users they hold fine, others say they're not tight enough; perhaps we have to find a better "hold tolerance." We're definitely looking into it and pay attention to the comments made here as we continue to improve our products based on feedback.

In the end, the EL-8s are a product that, in a year or two from now, you can add new features.

Did those cables ever come out?

 

[ragekx]

By any chance anyone is selling their EL-8's for parts? My headband needs replacement, cracked, and Audeze does not have parts anymore