@Frabera @avkauppi @WDitters thank you for your quick and on point replies. I absolutely appreciate that. When you say "better", "magical", "the more you give it the more you get", could you be a bit more precise in what aspect of the Sol T experience improves with a better DAP? My aim is...

Hi all, I picked up a ST before reading this thread, now crawling through 110 pages of interesting read. Funny how this HP grows on some early adopters. I have FiiO X5 1st gen (with the grammophone style physical wheel) for passive and iPhone 14 pro for BT. My question: in passive mode, is...

@Maukey Picked up the solitaire T after reading your praise for it. Loving it mostly, much clearer and revealing than AirPods Max that I had before. However I miss some bass here and there, especially passive/wired mode. Any suggestions I might try? DAP I am still using that old FiiO X5 1st...

Hey all, I have the AirPods max (APM) and they are a great mix of functionalities: ANC, wireless, reasonable sound. However, I would like to have another pair of wired headphones for the "now I need a great HiFi sound" moments. What I would like: - wired is okay - best possible passive NC, by...

Granted, APP2 and Etymotic are probably too far apart to take this topic seriously. But please hear me out. I have always been into appreciating audiophile rigs, could barely afford middle ground. Have Triangle speakers (french, bought new 1985, MSRP around USD2500). Now exploring HP options...

Dear Joshamk, Thank you so much for your advice. And I apologise for taking my time to respond. I'm afraid I don't understand your advice completely. Are you saying that the full size ANC options you mentioned are more protective to my ears? What kind of protection are you referring to? My...

I have had my audiophile periods (HiFi sets, vynil, speakers) in the past but I have never tried any ANC cans or IEMs. Now that apple has released the AirPods Pro 2 I am considering to try. however, I have slight tinnitus in-ear damage in both ears and don’t want to make it worse. ANC might...

Hi! It is my understanding that the XC is a closed HP. However, isolation doesn't seem to be that good so maybe it's an open HP with a wooden cover on both sides.

Thank you for your help! I've had surgery so my response is slow. I'll dig into those. How about the LCD-XC compared to the T5p?

Interesting. I sent both Focals back just because the warmth in the sound was lacking. Apparently this is more important to me, whereas transparency is more important to you. It's totally clear that I ordered the Focals because I was looking for more transparency than my 1350s can provide...

You are correct, I must have misread the info. It's strange but the 1350's sound a bit louder than both of the Focals at the same volume setting.

This is very curious indeed. De Classic is warmer than the Pro, that is for sure. But the 1350's (my set at least) really reveals the warmth of the jazz bass instrument in Caro Emerald's "One Day" and also the conga drums in the Hell Freezes Over (acoustic live) version of "Hotel California"...

Hello,   After trying the BeyerDynamic 1350's (kept those) and Focal Spirit Professional (returned) and Focal Spirit Classic (returned) I am looking for another Head Phone.   After getting my FiiO X5 I suddenly found my music to sound so much better on my Beyer 1350's that I thought I could...

Thanks, I'll look into those.   Meanwhile, I continued listening to the Focal Spirit Professional and I also ordered the Focal Spirit Classic. I must say that the sound stage is way better than my BeyerDynamic 1350's. As I listened to Eagles - Hotel California Live (the well-known Hell Freezes...

It's funny, there are some songs that sound better on the Spirit Pro, but the majority sounds too aggressive in the mids to me. This is probably simply my preference, I have the same issue with loudspeakers.   I also think the Beyer 1350's have a stronger and more pronounced bass. Maybe the...

I apologise for not having read the entire thread, but I do have the following question:   I just got the Spirit Professional and after listening for about 1 hour find them too harsh in the upper mids. I am using a bare FiiO X5 as a source, playing lossless audio files. I tried Maria Mena...

I'm interested. How greatly will it improve and how much use (how many hours) will that improvement take? Would it help to simply plug it in mains (charge it continuously) and let it play with repeat on for a couple of days?

Thank you, that is nice to know

Took delivery of X3 and X5. Unboxed X3 first, then X5. First impressions:   Setup: Bare X3 and X5 with BeyerDynamic DT-1350s. Typical volume levels between 30 and 45. Anything louder than that will harm my ears. Played up to 70 for a short period for the hell of it though.   X3: FW3.2...

Since you mentioned "problems" I started looking for reviews outside head-fi. Boy there is a sh#tload to find that puts down the X5, no mercy. On Amazon there is this guy "caveatcomprador" who reports major problems concerning software, operation, battery charging and more. Coming from 5 years...

Thank you! Actually I never tried IEMs because I figured no good sound could come from something that small. Also, it scares me a bit for my hearing damage. But these may well be nonsense arguments coming from ignorance. If you say I should look into it, I will do so.

Hi Frank, Yes that is correct I hardly ever listen to my headphones from a computer source. But when I did occasionally, I noticed that the sound quality coming from my Macbook is better than from my bare iPod Classic or iPhone4s. So that is why I got the E12 Mont Blanc to use with my iPod...

Thanks for sharing that, I'll have 2 major operations in the next year so I'll be listening to music a lot in hospitals, meaning I want a small rig with a sound that is not fatiguing for the ears. After recovery, I want a small rig to play while on the commuter train. You say you would buy the...

Dear relic and loquah, Thank you so much for your input. Based on your help I will order both the X3 and X5, try and compare them and then decide and send the other one back. My reseller in the Netherlands has a 365 days - no questions - return policy. I'll post the results here.

Hi Frank, Forgive me for being slightly confused now. From your 1-2-3 post I understood that option 3 has the best SQ, but from this latest post of yours I conclude that it is not practical to load those HiRes files on a portable device due to to file size constraints. I should mention that I...