Slaphead
500+ Head-Fier
I've been rocking these for the last week and a half, and I have to say that overall I'm impressed.
The ANC is really good, a bit like magic if you will, and compared to that last set of so called ANC headphones I had (back in 2010) this actually works. The noise of a bus engine is pretty much totally negated. Voices remain, but are well recessed and slightly tinny in nature, but that's par for the course with ANC headphones. Unfortunately I'll never be able to try these in flight as I go pretty much completely deaf ten minutes after take off, and remain that way until about half an hour after landing - I've had stewards and stewardesses shout at me from 3 feet away and all I can hear is a muffled voice that sounds like it comes from 200ft away. I guess I have my own homegrown ANC when in an aircraft.
They've got a good soundstage which frequently throws the sound seemingly outside of the earcups - I was listening to a track today which had some ambient conversation in the background and I was looking aorund to see who the hell was daring to interupt my listening session, only to realise that I was in a mostly empty carriage with nobody anywhere near me.
They've got a nice pacey delivery, with rythms coming across in such a way as it makes me want to tap my foot and nod my head - they're nice and tight in this respect. Transient response is actually pretty good.
The bass is a bit recessed for my taste but easily accomodated - this improves with ANC active as yu would expect, and the treble, while detailed and relatively smooth is just a bit more forward than would be perfect for me, but again easily acommodated.
Midrange is pretty good in tone and texture for this type of headphone. However voices, male and female, do suffer from sibilance from time to time, but it's not overly harsh and easily liveable with.
There are a couple of things that I have to give minus points to however. The first is that they do sound slightly synthetic, as if it's a very good computer's best guess as to how something should sound. That said given the amount of digital trickery going on in these headphones it's not really surprising. The other problem is a slight creaking of the earcups when I walk - no big deal, but when ANC is activated the creak turns into a thump as the ANC seems unable to handle this.
Oh and I have a love hate relationship with the earcup touch controls. Overall they work reasonably well, but I've had volume adjustments misinterperated as track skips, and when you're listening to hour long DJ mixes this is a real pain. Also random accidental touches are a pain as well. While the technology is ineteresting and cool, I don't think this is the best use of touch, and quite frankly I'd prefer hard buttons.
Nice HPs and a good contrast to my B&W P7W (which really do win out on the fun factor)
The ANC is really good, a bit like magic if you will, and compared to that last set of so called ANC headphones I had (back in 2010) this actually works. The noise of a bus engine is pretty much totally negated. Voices remain, but are well recessed and slightly tinny in nature, but that's par for the course with ANC headphones. Unfortunately I'll never be able to try these in flight as I go pretty much completely deaf ten minutes after take off, and remain that way until about half an hour after landing - I've had stewards and stewardesses shout at me from 3 feet away and all I can hear is a muffled voice that sounds like it comes from 200ft away. I guess I have my own homegrown ANC when in an aircraft.
They've got a good soundstage which frequently throws the sound seemingly outside of the earcups - I was listening to a track today which had some ambient conversation in the background and I was looking aorund to see who the hell was daring to interupt my listening session, only to realise that I was in a mostly empty carriage with nobody anywhere near me.
They've got a nice pacey delivery, with rythms coming across in such a way as it makes me want to tap my foot and nod my head - they're nice and tight in this respect. Transient response is actually pretty good.
The bass is a bit recessed for my taste but easily accomodated - this improves with ANC active as yu would expect, and the treble, while detailed and relatively smooth is just a bit more forward than would be perfect for me, but again easily acommodated.
Midrange is pretty good in tone and texture for this type of headphone. However voices, male and female, do suffer from sibilance from time to time, but it's not overly harsh and easily liveable with.
There are a couple of things that I have to give minus points to however. The first is that they do sound slightly synthetic, as if it's a very good computer's best guess as to how something should sound. That said given the amount of digital trickery going on in these headphones it's not really surprising. The other problem is a slight creaking of the earcups when I walk - no big deal, but when ANC is activated the creak turns into a thump as the ANC seems unable to handle this.
Oh and I have a love hate relationship with the earcup touch controls. Overall they work reasonably well, but I've had volume adjustments misinterperated as track skips, and when you're listening to hour long DJ mixes this is a real pain. Also random accidental touches are a pain as well. While the technology is ineteresting and cool, I don't think this is the best use of touch, and quite frankly I'd prefer hard buttons.
Nice HPs and a good contrast to my B&W P7W (which really do win out on the fun factor)
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