Taking away the peak makes for a more natural sound reproduction –but hey, whatever floats your boat I suppose.   In fact though, the peak is not actually removed completely –it is simply reduced in amplitude by the Helmholtz resonator (which in this case is acting as a partial absorber...

  Think I am going to have to disagree with that one Jozurr.   Reason:  Bass  may be inaccurately presented to the listener for variety of reasons,  and many these won’t necessarily cause the bass to bleed into other frequencies.

  Or another way of putting it…   The H10 uses two dual channel op-amps for the input stages (located at the rear where the connectors are), and two single channel op-amps on the long side of the unit for the headphone output stages.

  I don't believe for a single minute that this album was recorded with a single microphone.    Binaural recordings are typically done with a dummy-head style of arrangement where there is a microphone at the left ear position, and another at the right; hence two microphones.   Clearly...

  Yes, when comparing JFET transistors to vacuum tubes…   Source -is the equivalent to Cathode Gate -is the equivalent to Grid, and Drain -is equivalent to Anode / Plate   Another interesting aspect of JFET’s is that, unlike vacuum tubes, they can operate with different voltage polarities...

  Successful ?? Really ??   If this AKG product was successful, how long was it sold for, and in what quantity?   And if it was widely accepted and not a technological dead end, then where is this AKG product, or its descendants available for sale now?

      +1   Yes mbritt, I appreciated being able to read about your impressions on the Ethers also.  Thanks for the write-up!   Edit: And thanks also to MattTCG and others who given us their impressions also.  Cheers guys.

  Thanks for your concise and interesting report pfillion, it was a pleasure to read.   Just thinking out loud here; but regarding your observation that “The EL-8’s are more picky than the LCD-2 with low-res files”:    Could this be simply due to the EL-8’s having a difference in frequency...

  I also downloaded it from you  -thanks

  No need.  We have all moved on now.   -ie:  More people have got their own EL-8 cans now, and for better or worse, more widespread opinions are being disseminated.     And just like any survey, greater accuracy is gained by larger sample numbers.     PS: When you do post next, do you...

  Well I can’t speak for the companies concerned; but I’m guessing that both companies were encouraged by the reception of their products when they first came out -where about 50 % of the audience liked the strong bass, and about 50% didn’t (approximately).   But they wanted to achieve better...

  "yes flag ships are geared towards accurate mids and highs" Not correct -those models truly aspiring to be of flagship status will be endeavouring to be tonally accurate for all areas of reproduction -ie: Bass, Mids and Highs.   "...to achieve this. The bass suffers" Again, not correct. ...

  This being my first post here, so it's a pity that I feel the need to respond in this manner, but gosh...   ...That's a bit of an over reaction isn't it?   This problem you report could be something as simple as a bad connection somewhere -and yet you appear to be making the...