The Bridge is a VERY good set. It’s always in heavy rotation for me.

Killer price. I might grab a second pair.

Raptgo still has a firm toe hold in my collection. I spent a couple days with the Bridge and now I’m listening to the Hook-X. Both excellent but I think I prefer the more holographic sound of the Bridge. I wonder if Raptgo has follow-ups to these in the works?

The short stems are the only downside in my opinion. In my collection the P1 Max and the OH10 both have short nozzles and both need different tips than these. But they work great on most other sets.

Totally agree. I don’t need some geeky attempt at objectivity. I want to know what you personally like. Once I see a few of the sets you like and hear what you like about them I’ll get a feel for what your style is. That’s enough for me. None of these guys can or should be chasing objectivity...

He’s right.

I really like the Fan 2. There’s no doubt that it has a unique fit and tune. Obviously it isn’t for everyone. But it seems like those of us who like it really like it and those of you who hate it really hate it. I don’t see any middle ground on this set and from my perspective as someone who...

Right. There are degrees of available bass presence. The live performance of a loud rock band is a full body experience. A recorded playback on big speakers can be powerful but won’t reach the same visceral level. Moving to headphones removes all but head rumble. Not that any of those...

Only time will tell.

I haven’t listened to it recently but I agree that it’s a great set. Also, I’m listening to the ARTTI R1 again today and it still sounds excellent to me too.

The Timeless II is LONG over due…

That looks like a ton of fun. I have a Novation Circuit groove box that’s like a very basic version of the Roland Verselab.

They look good. Cool color. I’ve been an advocate of the i3 Pro so I’m planning on adding the MK3 to my collection unless it pulls negative reviews, but I doubt it will.

Those XL Penon tips are the only ones I’ve ever bought that are too big for me.

Nice. My Edition XS is approaching two years old and it’s in excellent shape.

Depends a lot on the set, but take the Edition XS (my favorite.) I don’t think anyone would argue that the build quality is especially high. It uses very run of the mill materials and isn’t repairable in any meaningful way. Meanwhile the Meze 99 (a set I recently purchased) has an amazing build...

I didn’t say they protect the driver from everting.

Actually, I’d suggest that that’s a fallacy. The sort of thing people who spend too much money like to tell themselves. “You’re poor and jealous.” A deflection from criticism.

Uh huh. Then why does every single other open back headphone have a grill over the driver? As I said: the grills are there for a reason. Removing them is non-trivial.

If I could remove one word from the audiophile lexicon it would be “veil.”

Right. My concern exactly. Exposing the driver is asking for trouble. Now, we have to assume that Hifiman isn’t stupid and hasn’t missed this, so I wonder what their rationale is and/or how they believe they’ve addressed it? The covers I guess, but that only helps when you’re not using them.

To your point, no one is going to be casually tossing this set around given the price, so I suppose an extra level of care is kind of built in to that extent.

I’d imagine it depends on how many they actually sell. The more in the wild the more likely one will get damaged. But at that price I do wonder how many units they will actually move.

No doubt. But the number of potential variables in real world scenarios mount up very quickly. Any vulnerability is going to be exposed in every day usage and removing the grills introduces a serious point of vulnerability to the driver. Look, I’m not saying everyone is going to break their...