What's the difference in sound quality between the 9038S balanced and the 9038D unbalanced?

For 600 ohm you will surely need the PowerDAC v2.1 as no 9038 variant will be sufficient.

I think that it's the perforations that brings the better sound quality.

I will have to get me one of those combined Amp/DAC's for sure... don't want my headphones to sound less than what it should. You got two pairs of pads?! Now I'm jealous as I only got a single pair of pads in perforated plastic.

So if you put perforated pads on the red closed Aeon 2's it gives the exact same sound? Are the pads glued into place? Sigh... and I prefer the look of the red ones.

I bought mine used on ebay for $61 and for that price I have nothing to complain about since they are not $200 headphones.

Has these ever been in black walnut wood with grade first and seconds? https://www.mcilvain.com/news/walnut-grades-explained/ African padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) would look good too and always with brass grilles.

What is really the difference between the Aeon 2 (the red ones) and the Aeon 2 Noir? (the black ones) Don't tell me that it's just perforated pads on the Noir and the colour of the headphones.

I don't want them to be bassy and I was planning on using them when I travel so if they go easy on rechargable batteries then that would be a big plus.

Are these worth spending $379 on?

The 555's has different (I would say inferior) drivers than the 595's. It really isn't... the sound stage is exactly the same, the only difference comes from different pads or different earpads.

K-MONEY, you are correct on all acounts, the 595 and the 598 are exactly the same when it comes to it's sound stage and the only thing that differs is the colour of the plastic that it's made of, the colour and shape (maybe even material?) of the headband padding and the colour of the pads.

I'm quite happy with my pair in bubinga, the only small gripe that I have is that they don't fit as tightly on my head as my Sennheiser HD 559's.

I don't think that the Sennheiser HD 800 S are worth their high price, instead look into planar magnetic headphones for the same amount of money. I would purchase these if I could afford them https://shop.zmfheadphones.com/collections/stock-headphones/products/zmf-auteur but in walnut wood and...

Hello everyone... I'm Mikael from Sweden and I discovered the world of planar magnetic headphones a year ago or so. And I don't own any DAC's or amp's since the impedance is so low on the headphones that I own.