This was originally intended to be a comment on a review, but somehow I got carried away and this has morphed into a mini review. Oh well ...

I own the Sonorous X and with no disrespect to those who call these neutral I can honestly say they are an acquired taste. I use them with the upgraded Final Audio OFC silver coated balanced cable and the Final Audio "E" pads instead of standard cable and "C" pads. That's quite a bit of cost to add to an already expensive headphone, but in my opinion that combination of cable and pads provides the most linear representation. Nevertheless, if the Harman curve is your bible the X is not neutral and never will be.

In the stock configuration they are a very mid centric headphone that can sound gorgeous with well recorded vocals, but overdone, congested and quite frankly strange on other tracks. To compound the matter, although the low impedance and high efficiency makes it easy to drive with even low powered devices it also means that any upstream nastiness in the chain is quite easily heard. Because of this, a high performing, clean, linear, highly detailed amp is a necessity.

Even so I'll go so far as to say on a first listen they might actually sound broken to some. Especially with the stock configuration it typically takes a while for your ears to adjust to the profile especially if switching from a more linear transducer. However, once the ears do adjust the X brings a very different presentation to music where the focus is definitely on the power of the midrange. This is especially obvious in complex mixes where it becomes very easy to follow the vocals and reverb trails become very obvious. Rather than a midrange hump it instead sounds like there is a low plateau that extends over quite a wide range. As a result the midrange sounds more forward than peaky at any one frequency. Treble is recessed, but sounds like it is fairly free of any strange spikes. Similarly, there is a fall off in the very low bass that is not immediately obvious unless listening to programs with lots of low bass info.

Switching to the upgraded cable and "E" pads smooths out the response a bit on both ends. Low bass becomes a bit more prominent, but the more obvious change is that the treble appears to be better balanced with the midrange. I suspect that the pads are probably lowering the midrange a bit as opposed to adding anything at the extremes. I could still use a bit more "air" in the presentation, but this is offset by the very detailed presentation. The phrase "lush, but detailed" immediately comes to mind.

Those who disparage these headphones do so because the presentation is so different given the high price point. I can't really argue with that perspective as I am one who also thinks TOTL headphones should at least make some attempt at neutrality with perhaps minor variations to represent the manufacturer's take on a different flavor of neutrality. Final Audio has thrown all this out the window with the X and basically give a non-apologetic middle finger to those who don't like it. You have to respect that.

Accept them for what they are, open your mind and you might find these refreshing. Otherwise do yourself a favor and just say no.

The X has been in my collection for a while and will remain so for the foreseeable future.