That might be worth a shot. But I wonder if that would ultimately help for me, as I actually find the treble to be fine for me. Detail is there without fatigue. It's the lower frequencies that muddy the picture. If the protein leather ear pads effectively boost the treble by fixing those...

I fall into the camp of finding the Nighthawks overly warm - muddy is the word that always comes to mind when I listen to them. This is even after extensive burn-in and frequent listening sessions over the past year to acclimate myself to their sound. I really wanted to like them, especially...

I'll preface my response by saying my primary motivation for getting the AK380 was support of higher resolution files than what the AK240 supported (i.e. DXD). Otherwise I was very content with what I experienced with the AK240. Probably a foolish reason to spend so much money on the AK380...

In case anyone's interested, I'm listing my AK240 for sale. Only selling because I obtained an AK380.

Doesn't look like this thread is very active, but In case anyone's looking (and interested!), I'm listing my AK240 for sale. Only selling because I obtained an AK380.

In case anyone is interested, I listed my Nighthawks ("Liquid Wood" model) for sale. Despite the comfort I never grew to enjoy their sound signature.

One possibility is the MEE Universal MMCX Balanced Audio Cable with adapter set. Only $99, balanced with various adapter (even to single end). I think it meets your requirements except for the memory wire.

I'm not sure if the same applies to the HDP R10, but I purchased a replacement battery for my DX100 directly from IBasso last year. Good price (don't recall exactly but much less than $50). I would check with them.

That is interesting. Maybe whatever defect we had that eventually caused our headphones to die were the cause of the less-spacious sound stage?

I wanted to add another comment regarding my replacement Utopias. When I purchased my initial set back in January my first listen was after using HD800S almost exclusively for quite some time. My initial reaction when I first switched to the Utopias was "where did the sound stage go?!". After...

I'll add on another kudo to Focal NA support. The replaced my Utopias (lost right channel) with a new set and paid for shipping both ways.

I had several units from the same vendor that had the phantom swipe issue. Both became progressively worse over time. Fortunately Paul was able to set me up with a new unit that works flawlessly. I wouldn't waste any time trying to live with the issue - definitely contact Paul and follow his lead.

It's definitely taken much longer to resolve this than ideal. It's been a slow process.

yeah - I was hoping is was a simple issue with the cable itself. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

I did but they ended routing me through the folks in Canada. Fortunately shipping was covered.