[pbui44]

Well,


Yes we hear differently. usually between 5kh~8kh. But typical audeze models have big dip in those fr. And sine seems no exception. el8 open or close has bigger dip around 7.5kh, but that dip is very narrow, and on the whole, el8 closed seems have more treble energy than any other audezes(so many audeze fans hate it).
And a headphones that lacks certain fr more than 5~6 decibel compared to 500h(after compensation) can't make you hear that fr, on-ear or not. again, on-ear can't make you hear fr that the headphones doesn't deliver.
Or, all this is just pointless if what you mean by 'clarity' is just means 'I like my new toy!', which is the case in head-fi many times before.

No, in music production, "clarity" can determine whether you still have a job or not. No job, no paycheck, no food. With that said, you tell me if you think the Sine would be worth the money in that case, and not seen as "I like my new toy!".

 

[dented42ford]

Hey, my 1st post - long time lurker, but this time I wanted to share my impressions.
 
I just got the Sines (no Cypher) and a Chord Mojo a couple of days ago.  I'm not going to go into comparative detail, other than to say I've heard a lot of things over time - these are my raw impressions.  I spent the last two days wandering around Madrid listening to the Sine & Mojo & iPhone 6+ combo - overall, around 11 hours of listening.  I used the stock Apple Music app, and files varied in quality - nothing less than 256 AAC, but otherwise ranged from 320MP3 to full-on WAV.  All the named albums and songs were in ALAC, except NOFX (320).
 
I'm just going to focus on the things that matter to me.  It should be noted that I have rather different preferences to many here - I am an audio engineer with a tech background, and tend to value transient response and clarity over any other quality, so keep that in mind!  Also keep in mind that this is basically stream-of-conciousness - it may not make the most sense, but they are my honest impressions.
 

1. The Sines have excellent transient response, especially in the lows.
2. They have very good overall clarity, with some caveats, which I'll get to in a moment.
3. Soundstage is smallish, but still bigger than HD25. Not an issue for me, but if you obsess over wideness, could be off putting. Just the name of the game with closed-back on-ears, though! It is on par with most IEM's, but not quite on the level of IE800's.
4. Comfort is very good. Takes a bit of getting used to, but better than most on-ears. Ears get warm, but not unpleasantly so. Once you get used to the shape of the pads, getting a good seal is pretty easy. I had no problem accommodating my sunglasses while walking briskly, something I find difficult with most other mid-sized cans - the HD25's can be torture in that regard.
5. On the same note, they won't fall off easily, though their clamp force isn't too high. It is about on par with well-worn-in ATH-M50's, but no where near the vice grip of HD25's.
6. Have a nice weight - not so light as to feel as though they aren't there (the 25's, again), but not heavy to the point of being noticeably so.
7. Isolation is good enough to use without issues on the subway - which is my usual standard for good iso!
8. Music (the 1st day) was an assortment of rock and electronic, in an assortment of formats (mostly ALAC, some Apple Music, some 320 MP3, some raw WAV). Spent about 4 hours wandering, so there was a fair amount of it - stuff that sounded notably excellent was Infected Mushroom, Queens of the Stone Age, and some of my own orchestral work. Stuff that was a bit "off" (not bad, just unexpected) was mostly Americana - for instance, The Old 97's Drag It Up (in ALAC) didn't really sound great - the downtuned, fuzzy lead guitar sounded a bit muddy, taking away from the excellent vocal presentation...
9. On the second day, I think I've found the Sine's Achilles' Heel - things that have a whole lot of dense detail in the lower mid and upper bass range.
10. The most strikingly "off" sounding album I listened to was Dinosaur Jr's Hand It Over. One of my reference tracks has always been "I'm Insane", not because I really like the song - it isn't one of Mascis' stronger efforts - but because it is just so dense. The Sines reproduced the density with far too much intensity - while it was possible to pick out all the details of the song - the many layers of guitars, the spastic drums, the horn and string parts over super-fuzzy guitars, and most importantly the bass - it was by no means pleasant while doing so!
11. The detail was there, but it was just overwhelming - overly dense. The same thing happened with Devin Townsend (not a huge fan, just looking for difficult material); Z2's "Midnight Sun" was almost overwhelming, and not in the way that it is supposed to be.
12. Another album which I didn't listen much past the first couple tracks was Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream. "Cherub Rock" in particular has the same issue that "I'm Insane" does - the guitars just don't sound right, even if all the info is there.
13. It wasn't all bad news, though - things that were sparser and less dense in the 300-1200hz range benefited greatly from the same effect that made the dense stuff fatiguing to me.
14. Wilco's A Ghost is Born sounded amazing, for instance. That's my favorite Wilco album (not their "best", but MY favorite), and though it is easily as dense as Dinosaur Jr in places - "Handshake Drugs", for instance - the density felt engaging, rather than fatiguing.
15. Amusingly, the same seemed to be the case with Prog Metal - Dream Theater (Images and Words, Metropolis Pt.2) sounded awesome as well, even in their most spastic moments (though nothing could make me hate LaBrie less). Same with more upper-mid-focused stuff like NOFX (So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes) and Jets to Brazil (Orange Rhyming Dictionary, one of my favorite albums ever) - both sounded "right", if that makes sense.
16. Drums in general sound great with this rig - and that is quite the trick. They even sounded very good on the dense stuff, excepting the DTP album (which has a crapy drum sound in the first place).
17. It should be said that the stupid-dense stuff sounds that way on most systems - the Sines handled the material with aplomb, bringing out all the details, they just didn't sound particularly pleasant doing it!
18. My theory is that it is the lack of an upper-mid emphasis to define the instruments - Mascis and Corgan's fuzzy, dense guitars in particular - leaves the sines with all "meat" and no "bones", if that makes sense. Basically they are the anti-Grado, and the material I found that they struggled with is exactly the same material that Grados can sound awesome on, in spite of their [obvious] flaws!
19. I wouldn't let this particular niggle of mine dissuade you from trying them - I have played guitar for over 20 years, and fuzzy, dense stuff is kinda my thing. I'm really picky with that sort of material, and someone else might not even notice the issue - it wasn't as though it were muddy, after all, merely overwhelming. Remember, I'm not an "audiophile" per se, so the same thing I find "overwhelming" someone else might find "engaging"! After all, I have a penchant for things most enthusiasts would call "painfully bright", mainly because I value transient detail so highly.

 

[Focker]

Okay guys so here is my ranking of SINE configurations:
1) SINE via OPPO HA-2 (lightning)
2) SINE via Cipher
3) SINE via minijack

I finally got around to comparing the Cipher to the mighty OPPO, and as much as I really like the Cipher, the OPPO easily bested it. The bass response was improved, instrumental separation was improved (better delineation), and soundstage widened a bit.

The Cipher is an improvement over the minijack, but a good quality dac/amp like the HA-2 seems to allow additional gains.

This Oppo has shown a ton of synergy with planars. It drives the LCD-X shockingly well, and both the he-400i and pm-3 sound great with it as well. I havent owned a lot of portable amps but this thing is fantastic.

 

[YtseJamer]

Just got my Cypher cable! Easy to use and first few songs sound quite good. Wil have to play with it for a while but I like the form factor. Cheers

 
Did you buy the Cipher cable directly from Audeze ? What's the price of the cable ?

 

[YtseJamer]

Okay guys so here is my ranking of SINE configurations:
1) SINE via OPPO HA-2 (lightning)
2) SINE via Cipher
3) SINE via minijack

I finally got around to comparing the Cipher to the mighty OPPO, and as much as I really like the Cipher, the OPPO easily bested it. The bass response was improved, instrumental separation was improved (better delineation), and soundstage widened a bit.

The Cipher is an improvement over the minijack, but a good quality dac/amp like the HA-2 seems to allow additional gains.

This Oppo has shown a ton of synergy with planars. It drives the LCD-X shockingly well, and both the he-400i and pm-3 sound great with it as well. I havent owned a lot of portable amps but this thing is fantastic.

 
Thanks for your feedback sir 

 

[mscott58]

Did you buy the Cipher cable directly from Audeze ? What's the price of the cable ?

I had arranged with Mark to have the full prepayment on the SINEs applied to the HPs first and then the Cypher since the original payment was 499 and then they changed that to be the price including the Cypher. Don't know what it will cost separately. Cheers

 

[AzNyCans]

Hello all! Great thread so far. I've been interested in these for a while now. Just curious if anyone can shed light if you've heard the Sines compared to the DT1350. How much better are they really? At all? Is it worth paying 2.5x as much?

 

[dented42ford]

Hello all! Great thread so far. I've been interested in these for a while now. Just curious if anyone can shed light if you've heard the Sines compared to the DT1350. How much better are they really? At all? Is it worth paying 2.5x as much?

 
I've only heard the 1350's a couple of times, so keep that in mind...
 
But yes, they do seem to be "worth it".  Given that the two products couldn't be more different, other than being on-ear, it is hard to give a real comparison.  The Sines are planar, while the Beyers are dynamic - not that you can really tell THAT much from that.  The Sines have a very warm overall feel, while the DT1350's are brighter and more analytical like most Beyers - which isn't to say anything about the detail.  I find the Sines very detailed for an on-ear, portable headphone.  They are very "clean", in the sense of lacking distortion, but also very "rich" sounding - they lack a bit of energy in the upper mids, as I said in my mini-review above.  This is [basically] the Audeze "house sound", and it is almost the polar opposite of the Beyerdynamic "house sound"!

In other words, it is up to you.  The Sines are kind of in a class of 2 - there are only 2 reasonably priced, reasonably portable closed-back Planars available.  Personally, owning HD-25's and having messed with the various Beyer on-ears, I wanted something different, and the Sines were that.  The cost is reasonable enough, so I bought them!

 

[AzNyCans]

Thank you for your feedback. Anyone else who's heard both have any insights? Greatly appreciated!

 

[utdeep]

I loved the 1350s once. I thought they were better than all the high end Ultrasone closed cans including the Signature Pro and the Edition 8. However, I found the Oppo PM-3 to beat them in every area that mattered to me.

I'm not sure if I think this is a better headphone than the Oppo. However, it is a headphone that I find more enjoyable. It is clearly an improvement over the DT1350 IMHO.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I'm not sure if I think this is a better headphone than the Oppo.

Retracted, I was misinterpreting ignore.

 

[iBrian]

Most definitely they share the same Audeze DNA imo...and now you can take it with you! These are just brilliant portable headphones!

I concur

 

[YtseJamer]

New review
 
http://www.wired.com/2016/04/audeze-sine-headphone-review/

 

[Maelob]

Thanks for the link- the reviewer made no comparisons or detailed sound impresions.

 

[YtseJamer]

No, it's a weird review..