[baritone]

Still I dont understand why there are no formal rebiews of the closed el8 so far besides the review of the open el8 (Mike)

I have the  opportunity  to hear the oppo pm1 with the ha1 and sounded sensasional (cobra sound paris)
at home with my new teac ud-501 and some clever fubar   2000  EQ  i got almost the same result with my closed el8
people afraid of using EQ should  not buy the audeze el8s others  will  be delighted with  the results

 

 

[hyunsac]

 
Nope. If you read the first post carefully, the poster mentioned that someone experienced a peak at 7.5KHz, which he attributed to the ear canal, ear drum interacting with the transducer. But that's not the actual case.
 
The headphone used was the Etymotic ER4S.
 
If it's anything like the Etymotic ER4PT, which Tyll also measured, then you'll find that Tyll's graph does note a huge spike at 8KHz:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/EtymoticER4PT.pdf
 
That is to say... what he experienced wasn't an isolated case. It was just because the headphone itself does have a peak at 8KHz.

That's not what I read at all. He says this phenomena occurred for every headphone he's tested, not just the ER4PTs. He mentions HD414, HD650 and even STAX. 

 

[hyunsac]

I used a signal generator to see if I could perceive a notch around 7.5KHZ with the closed EL8's. With a sine wave, I indeed hear a dip around 7.5khz. With pink noise, I did not hear any dip at all. With music, sounds lovely

 

 

[Bill-P]

  That's not what I read at all. He says this phenomena occurred for every headphone he's tested, not just the ER4PTs. He mentions HD414, HD650 and even STAX. 

His Stax is the SR-Lambda, which also has a peak at 8KHz. Here's a graph for it (made by purrin):

 
 
Some variations of the HD650 also has a peak at 9-10KHz, that would make the 8KHz region stand out as well:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD650.pdf

 

[hyunsac]

 
His Stax is the SR-Lambda, which also has a peak at 8KHz. Here's a graph for it (made by purrin):

 
 
Some variations of the HD650 also has a peak at 9-10KHz, that would make the 8KHz region stand out as well:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD650.pdf

 
His graphs show 10db peaks for DT880 and HD650's, which are much more severe than the headphone's raw response. He states "And the same anomaly will be present in any headphone you could think to test." not trying to argue with ya. Just telling you what I'm reading.

 

[Bill-P]

   
His graphs show 10db peaks for DT880 and HD650's, which are much more severe than the headphone's raw response. He states "And the same anomaly will be present in any headphone you could think to test." not trying to argue with ya. Just telling you what I'm reading.

Well, I'm trying to tell you that his observations are too localized to a few headphones that specifically exhibit the problem, and he's making sweeping universal statements out of it. I think he's only seeing half of the truth, but he's stating it as a whole.
 
If I have to be nice, he's mistaken about his hypothesis that the dip at 7.5KHz is desirable.
 
And that's just that. We can keep pulling graphs of headphones, but... anyway, here's one that doesn't exhibit the problem he's saying exists in any headphone:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/StaxSR009.pdf
 
This one also exhibits a dip at a specific frequency. Tyll has a bunch of SR-009 graphs on his website, and every single one of them shows that dip. I think the effect of a dip there is an "unsmooth" treble, that may sound a bit grainy/harsh. In actual practice, the SR-009 does sound ever so slightly harsh in the treble, too, or at least it does to me. But that doesn't make it any less of a world-class headphone.
 
The same thing can be said of the EL-8, a dip in the treble doesn't make it any worse of a headphone. It just means it has a certain "character" to it that some may not like... Just like some may not like the "unsmooth" treble of the SR-009.
 
But in no way is a dip at 7.5KHz or at any frequency desirable IMO.

 

[daphen]

oppo pm1/2 were warmer headphones overall for me. or else the lcd-x has solid bass quality. however neither headphone will give you bass where there is no bass. that is a source issue, not a headphone issue.

if your source doesnt have bass is a certain part of the song, nice headphones will not produce bass in that region. that is the whole point of many expensive headphones, to be true and accurate to the source.

I think you shld check out the vmoda m100s. bass emphasis even when there is no bass emphasis in the recording. 5db-10db bass boosted but relatively well done. From what it sounds like you are looking for, the solution is to go away from 'audiophile geared' or 'reference-geared' headphones that try to represent the source as is. A lot of times, a clean 'technically flat' representation of a song may not be what we are looking for, and that's totally chill. Check out the basshead club thread for solid recommendations for visceral bass that you can feel.

Haha, dude. I'm not a bass head. I don't want bass everywhere. I just want to feel low notes, like the low notes of a piano etc. 
I actually own the M100 and really dislike them.

 

[zephex]

Was planning on getting this, but the reviews and impressions so far have swayed me away. It just lacks what I look for in a headphone.

 

[money4me247]

Haha, dude. I'm not a bass head. I don't want bass everywhere. I just want to feel low notes, like the low notes of a piano etc. 
I actually own the M100 and really dislike them.

lol. well, it's really hard to get a sense of what your preferences are, the pm-3 measures to have great deep linear lower mid to subbass extension and I know one reviewer who thinks the subbass is a bit emphasized on the pm3s. If it isnt adequate for your tastes, so it makes sense to explore more bass emphasized options. the pm3s bass is also not as tight as some of the other planars (though relatively faster/tighter than a lot of dynamics) so you do get that extra reverb/bloom on the low end so you do get that extra weight to the low piano notes.

a lot of recordings simply just dont have that low-end emphasis to the piano notes and you won't hear it unless you get a more low frequency emphasized pair of headphones. you can have a high quality bass-emphasized headphones. the z7 may be another closed option for you to explore based on your relative stated preferences. gluck w your search.

edit: i havent really encountered a headphone where you 'feel' the bass like a good pair of subs, even w the m100s, pro 900s, he400, lcdx, etc (all having excellent bass quality). headphone bass does sound different from subwoofer bass and planar bass in particular will normally be tuned with faster transient responses so less reverb that contributes to that 'subwoofer feel.' if you are lookin for smtg with a bass exactly the same as the el-8 but different treble, it makes sense to just play with the EQ on the el-8s. even within the audeze line-up, the bass sounds a bit different between headphones.

 

[lamode]

  So someone answer this for me. In this thread, http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial and in previous posts, it states most everyone will experience a peak resonance around 7.5khz when using headphones due to transducer + ear canal + ear drum interactions. So with this fact, isn't a dip in the headphones frequency response around 7.5khz actually desireable? I don't hear a notch at 7.5khz at all when listening to the EL8 closed.

 
The top lines are already compensated for this effect:
 

 

[potkettleblack]

yes, there are ppl who think that. higher model number or newer tech doesnt mean the headphone fits better with your sonic preferences. more so w the lcd2 pre fazor than the lcd3

I didnt say that it did, and I'm sure you know I was referring to the amount of times Ive heard it and not stupid enough to think more is always better.
Out interest have you done blind tests with both?

 

[thune]

On its face, reads as if Audeze doesn't believe the $600 headphone market is worthy of respect. Something went wrong here, likely a combination of difficult technical issues and expectations for a large investment to yield a product. Trading on the Audeze name to sell this product is to risk driving the brand into the ground. EL-8.2/EL-9 has no ring to it, but it can't come fast enough.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

I was fooling around the other day and discovered the EL-8 sounds really nice with an OTL amp.  I actually like this pairing better than with solid state.  I love the vocals on EL-8 and with this pairing the mid-bass is nice and heavy.   Stereo separation and soundstage is nice.  EL-8 is not an LCD in refinement.  There are some things that could be better, but it's not a bad headphone in any way.
 
EDM fans will love EL-8.  
 

 

[C.C.S.]

  On its face, reads as if Audeze doesn't believe the $600 headphone market is worthy of respect. Something went wrong here, likely a combination of difficult technical issues and expectations for a large investment to yield a product. Trading on the Audeze name to sell this product is to risk driving the brand into the ground. EL-8.2/EL-9 has no ring to it, but it can't come fast enough.

 
I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Audeze has, thus far, produced headphones which have all received quite a bit of praise from professional critics/reviewers and enthusiasts alike. While some people don't like almost any of their offerings, nobody can deny that all of their offerings have been at least good enough to appeal to many people looking for quality headphone audio.
 
This time, they missed their mark. Even the best manufacturers in the business don't make a winner every single time they put a headphone on the market. That said, I am still pretty disappointed with how the open-backed version came out, and I haven't heard lots of praise for the closed EL-8, either. I certainly wouldn't buy EL-8, with the information currently available to us.
 
Who knows? They might iron this out and turn it into another winner. From what I've seen on this forum, being an early buyer for an Audeze headphone is kinda like being a beta tester. Maybe revision 2 is gonna nail it.

 

[Beagle]

  On its face, reads as if Audeze doesn't believe the $600 headphone market is worthy of respect. Something went wrong here, likely a combination of difficult technical issues and expectations for a large investment to yield a product. Trading on the Audeze name to sell this product is to risk driving the brand into the ground. EL-8.2/EL-9 has no ring to it, but it can't come fast enough.

Utter nonsense...