[HardstyleLoco96]

Thank you for all the details
The SH9 looks like a good solution for me. It's relatively cheap and I can always upgrade the DAC later. To be honest I'm using the Chromecast audio's own dac these days, it sounds better to my ears than the K5 pro dac. That's why I was considering a higher-end dac-amp combo as a double upgrade, but it seems like there are very few options in terms of THX products (except if I wait for the Fiio K7/K9).
I wish I could audition all these amps but it seems like the Chinese ones are mostly distributed online in Europe. Anyway, seems like I can't go wrong with the SH9.

Maybe wait a little while longer and do some research on some dacs and amps that interest you . Sometimes big sales also come along so maybe a little more waiting can go a long way for you. But I think the SH-9 is a great choice.

 

[mobbaddict]

Maybe wait a little while longer and do some research on some dacs and amps that interest you . Sometimes big sales also come along so maybe a little more waiting can go a long way for you. But I think the SH-9 is a great choice.

You're right, and I need some new pads first anyway

I just thought of doing something I never tested before: trying the Avantone pads on my Quad Era-1 to see their influence on sound. I have to say they don't sound bad at all. They make the Quad a bit mid-centric compared to leather pads, but the bass is still very powerful, albeit not perfectly controlled. This is surprising for full velour pads. Detail is decent but then again I do feel like these are slightly hiding/muffling the finer details and tend to make the transducers sound slower than they really do. This is not bad at all but I know that the Quad is capable of impressing me more. And so is the Avantone. This is obvious when I switch back to the Dekoni leather pads which turn the Quad into a detail monster.

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

You're right, and I need some new pads first anyway

I just thought of doing something I never tested before: trying the Avantone pads on my Quad Era-1 to see their influence on sound. I have to say they don't sound bad at all. They make the Quad a bit mid-centric compared to leather pads, but the bass is still very powerful, albeit not perfectly controlled. This is surprising for full velour pads. Detail is decent but then again I do feel like these are slightly hiding/muddying the finer details and tend to make the transducers sound slower than they really do. This is not bad at all but I know that the Quad is capable of impressing me more. And so is the Avantone. This is obvious when I switch back to the Dekoni leather pads which turn the Quad into a detail monster.

I am very curious to see how fenestrated leather or hybrid earpads from Vesper Audio would sound like on the Planar. I'm so far considering the Velour earpads but my curiosity wants me to try fenestrated leather or hybrid. I feel the fenestrated leather will be similar to leather but less low end and more mid - treble clarity, but not sure if it'll be too much or kill the low end on the Planar. I feel the Hybrid would be best of all. You'll get the low end but not to much. Treble and mids will shine through as well. Tricky tricky tricky deciding on just one earpad. I want the most balanced / neutral earpad. But I personally prefer leather over velour but there also is Alcantara. I like Alcantara alot, so maybe I could try that aswell. It's either a fenestrated leather, hybrid or Alcantara earpad for me.

 

[mobbaddict]

I am very curious to see how fenestrated leather or hybrid earpads from Vesper Audio would sound like on the Planar. I'm so far considering the Velour earpads but my curiosity wants me to try fenestrated leather or hybrid. I feel the fenestrated leather will be similar to leather but less low end and more mid - treble clarity, but not sure if it'll be too much or kill the low end on the Planar. I feel the Hybrid would be best of all. You'll get the low end but not to much. Treble and mids will shine through as well. Tricky tricky tricky deciding on just one earpad. I want the most balanced / neutral earpad. But I personally prefer leather over velour but there also is Alcantara. I like Alcantara alot, so maybe I could try that aswell. It's either a fenestrated leather, hybrid or Alcantara earpad for me.

The Dekoni I have are fenestrated and the bass works well with both the HD600 and the Quad. It's deep and controlled at the same time. I have some hybrid pads for the Quad as well and they are lighter in the bass and brighter overall (but the inside is fenestrated as well). My guess is that perforations are mostly taming the top end and getting rid of extra reflections in some cases. This is basically what Joshua Valour explained in his video about earpads (not sure if he's the most reliable source but this is consistent with Dekoni's charts).
I'm on the fence of ordering similar pads from Vesper anyway. Another option would be to get the Dekoni pads for the Koss ESP950 but these are a bit too high so not exactly fitting.

 

[Heldaeus]

I just listened to a sine wave sweep and the modded VA pads have some great benefits.

I usually start from 20hz and go up to 20kHz. Listening through the Fiio K5 Pro on high gain with the dial at 10:30 o'clock.

Between 20Hz and 40Hz sounds very linear. On the stock headphone, I remember barely being able to hear 28Hz and 25Hz was inaudible. Now, 20Hz is a little bit more than barely audible, 25Hz has a similar volume to what I remember 30Hz was like on stock, and 30Hz is now at the level of where 40Hz was on stock. I'd say this is linear if you account for the fact that, for psychoacoustic reasons, humans perceive equal volume low frequencies as quieter than higher frequencies. I remember there being a bump around 55-60Hz and a recession around 80Hz but now those areas sound quite flat as well. There does seem to still be the small hump around 100-250Hz.

Around 800Hz I can begin to hear the distortion spike of 1.3kHz as usual but when I arrive at 1.3-1.4kHz the resonance doesn't pierce my ears like on stock. It actually sounds pretty tame! That's not to say though that the hump is gone, it's still there. Moving on, what's interesting is that the 1.8kHz dip has been lifted too! Still not quite linear but a clear improvement and because of the leveling of this dip the 2.8kHz ear gain region sounds less like a spike in the FR. Above 3kHz is another lifted dip, the 3.9kHz valley is more or less GONE. This is a great win for these modded pads!

The range between 4.4kHz and 5.4kHz is still recessed but it's a less jarring drop. After 6kHz everything sounds pretty flat with the exception of the ear canal resonance. There's really no 10kHz drop off to speak of like there was on stock. Finally, on stock, I could hear up to about 13kHz but now I can hear up to almost 17kHz before the signal is inaudible. Great treble extension!

I'm pretty happy right now with the FR.

 

[mobbaddict]

I just listened to a sine wave sweep and the modded VA pads have some great benefits.

I usually start from 20hz and go up to 20kHz. Listening through the Fiio K5 Pro on high gain with the dial at 10:30 o'clock.

Between 20Hz and 40Hz sounds very linear. On the stock headphone, I remember barely being able to hear 28Hz and 25Hz was inaudible. Now, 20Hz is a little bit more than barely audible, 25Hz has a similar volume to what I remember 30Hz was like on stock, and 30Hz is now at the level of where 40Hz was on stock. I'd say this is linear if you account for the fact that, for psychoacoustic reasons, humans perceive equal volume low frequencies as quieter than higher frequencies. I remember there being a bump around 55-60Hz and a recession around 80Hz but now those areas sound quite flat as well. There does seem to still be the small hump around 100-250Hz.

Around 800Hz I can begin to hear the distortion spike of 1.3kHz as usual but when I arrive at 1.3-1.4kHz the resonance doesn't pierce my ears like on stock. It actually sounds pretty tame! That's not to say though that the hump is gone, it's still there. Moving on, what's interesting is that the 1.8kHz dip has been lifted too! Still not quite linear but a clear improvement and because of the leveling of this dip the 2.8kHz ear gain region sounds less like a spike in the FR. Above 3kHz is another lifted dip, the 3.9kHz valley is more or less GONE. This is a great win for these modded pads!

The range between 4.4kHz and 5.4kHz is still recessed but it's a less jarring drop. After 6kHz everything sounds pretty flat with the exception of the ear canal resonance. There's really no 10kHz drop off to speak of like there was on stock. Finally, on stock, I could hear up to about 13kHz but now I can hear up to almost 17kHz before the signal is inaudible. Great treble extension!

I'm pretty happy right now with the FR.

What's the benefit of using high gain with the k5? As far as I understood gain is just additional volume. I'm always on low. I noticed medium does bring the mid-range a little bit forward but not sure if that's good.

 

[fericske]

What's the benefit of using high gain with the k5? As far as I understood gain is just additional volume. I'm always on low. I noticed medium does bring the mid-range a little bit forward but not sure if that's good.

Switching between gains mean switching between amp circuits, that's the reason you hear differences more over on volume change. It's depend on the quality of design how is noticeable the change on sound by switch gain, but there is always some change.

Btw I had become a Planar (Planer??) owner two weeks ago, influenced mainly of your impressions, know you from Era1 topic, and I share your opinions (hearings) with that phones.
And yes, I'm not disappointed by the Planar and you as well , I got that in sound I expected.
Roll back this topic I can see how intensive the modding on this phone.
I think it's need just burn in, and that's it.
But I don't like its cable. Its springy, noisy design annoys me, and because its special wiring, my upgrade cables aren't compatible with.
Anyone of you use any other cable with, or know compatible cables?

 

[mobbaddict]

Switching between gains mean switching between amp circuits, that's the reason you hear differences more over on volume change. It's depend on the quality of design how is noticeable the change on sound by switch gain, but there is always some change.

Btw I had become a Planar (Planer??) owner two weeks ago, influenced mainly of your impressions, know you from Era1 topic, and I share your opinions (hearings) with that phones.
And yes, I'm not disappointed by the Planar and you as well , I got that in sound I expected.
Roll back this topic I can see how intensive the modding on this phone.
I think it's need just burn in, and that's it.
But I don't like its cable. Its springy, noisy design annoys me, and because its special wiring, my upgrade cables aren't compatible with.
Anyone of you use any other cable with, or know compatible cables?

Thanks for the explanation. And congrats on the new headphone Yeah it needs mostly burn in. But also different earpads if you want extra resolution. But I must sound like a broken record on this topic, I said the same thing a million times on the Quad thread lol.

 

[Heldaeus]

Yeah it needs mostly burn in.

Burn-in isn’t real.

 

[Heldaeus]

Has anybody tried listening to the Planar with the JDS Labs Atom or the TCA HPA-10?

 

[mobbaddict]

Burn-in isn’t real.

Maybe, but if I try again the EQ settings that I adapted from Oratory's settings, they don't lift a veil anymore on the Avantone, they make it sound artificially clear. And I have other good headphones to compare. So I'll just say give the headphone a couple of weeks of use before judging its sound signature.

 

[Heldaeus]

Maybe, but if I try again the EQ settings that I adapted from Oratory's settings, they don't lift a veil anymore on the Avantone, they make it sound artificially clear. And I have other good headphones to compare. So I'll just say give the headphone a couple of weeks of use before judging its sound signature.

I hate to beat a dead horse, because I don’t mean to be rude, but there’s been decades of research on this topic. There’s really no maybe when it comes to this subject.

I do agree that it takes time to become accustomed to a new sound signature and in my experience the pads take about 3 weeks to really wear-in.

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

I've been going back and forth comparing the Avantone Planar with the LCD-X and it's crazy how similar they are but the Avantone Planar is for me, the grown up and matured LCD-X. The LCD-X is a great headphone, but only has a few things that it can bring to the fight. Firstly build. Build is superior on the LCD-X. No questions asked, its simple. LCD-X wins. Secondly is the low end impact and slam. If you want bass kick, the LCD-X gives it. But that is it. The Planar for me does everything else better for me. Low end quality I already can say a few of us agree is stellar on the Planar, some of the best low end. The detail and texturing pops. The mid range is much more accurate, natural, detailed and clearer on the Planar. The treble is smoother, more accurate on the Planar while the LCD-X gets a little boost on the higher frequencies which can give some nice energy but also make things feel a bit unnatural. Imaging, instrument separation and soundstage goes to the Planar. Price to performance also goes to the Planar. With eq, same story, Planar is the pick for me. This just makes me more curious to try out some new earpads. And I also do feel that the more use, the drivers do tighten up and become cleaner. I'm not going to get into this burn in topic. Some do believe and some don't. From my experience, yes " driver/tranducer burn in" is a thing. But also our own ears and brain getting used to a sound signature is a thing as well. But from day one to now with the Planar, so a few months now, yes I have heard slight changes. I actually like listening to it without EQ now. But I still do use eq as well. What impresses me most is the price to performance of this headphone. You can read about the LCD-X vs Focal Clear, Ananda/Arya and a few other headphones and the LCD-X always puts a massive fight. For me to find the Planar to be a better technical performer and also have better tonality is crazy. But its true for me. Already a bunch of people prefer the Planar to all these higher end headphones. Do I need to list them? Nah, you guys already know which headphones. Avantone has made a very special gem here. Yes it has its flaws. Not perfect. But if Avantome were to up their game and make a MKII, with better pads and also replaceable optional pads. Better cable and choice to be used balanced. Better build quality. And somehow make the overall tuning even better. For all around the same price. It could be an end-game for some. My experience with the Planar has been nothing short of stellar. I love it more and more. I'll hopefully be ordering some new earpads soon. Still deciding what type. Most like velour or Alcantara, Alcantara really has my interest.

 

[Ettepet]

Thanks @HardstyleLoco96 ! You‘re not aiming to do so, but these kinds of posts cure any upgraditus I might come up with. Will try out some different pads at some point though.

 

[mobbaddict]

I hate to beat a dead horse, because I don’t mean to be rude, but there’s been decades of research on this topic. There’s really no maybe when it comes to this subject.

I do agree that it takes time to become accustomed to a new sound signature and in my experience the pads take about 3 weeks to really wear-in.

Is there any measurement of the same headphone before and after the alleged "burn in" period? That seems like the most obvious test to do on this topic. I think I've seen some for dynamic headphones but not sure about planars.
Edit: found a good one here
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/learn/break-in

I've been going back and forth comparing the Avantone Planar with the LCD-X and it's crazy how similar they are but the Avantone Planar is for me, the grown up and matured LCD-X. The LCD-X is a great headphone, but only has a few things that it can bring to the fight. Firstly build. Build is superior on the LCD-X. No questions asked, its simple. LCD-X wins. Secondly is the low end impact and slam. If you want bass kick, the LCD-X gives it. But that is it. The Planar for me does everything else better for me. Low end quality I already can say a few of us agree is stellar on the Planar, some of the best low end. The detail and texturing pops. The mid range is much more accurate, natural, detailed and clearer on the Planar. The treble is smoother, more accurate on the Planar while the LCD-X gets a little boost on the higher frequencies which can give some nice energy but also make things feel a bit unnatural. Imaging, instrument separation and soundstage goes to the Planar. Price to performance also goes to the Planar. With eq, same story, Planar is the pick for me. This just makes me more curious to try out some new earpads. And I also do feel that the more use, the drivers do tighten up and become cleaner. I'm not going to get into this burn in topic. Some do believe and some don't. From my experience, yes " driver/tranducer burn in" is a thing. But also our own ears and brain getting used to a sound signature is a thing as well. But from day one to now with the Planar, so a few months now, yes I have heard slight changes. I actually like listening to it without EQ now. But I still do use eq as well. What impresses me most is the price to performance of this headphone. You can read about the LCD-X vs Focal Clear, Ananda/Arya and a few other headphones and the LCD-X always puts a massive fight. For me to find the Planar to be a better technical performer and also have better tonality is crazy. But its true for me. Already a bunch of people prefer the Planar to all these higher end headphones. Do I need to list them? Nah, you guys already know which headphones. Avantone has made a very special gem here. Yes it has its flaws. Not perfect. But if Avantome were to up their game and make a MKII, with better pads and also replaceable optional pads. Better cable and choice to be used balanced. Better build quality. And somehow make the overall tuning even better. For all around the same price. It could be an end-game for some. My experience with the Planar has been nothing short of stellar. I love it more and more. I'll hopefully be ordering some new earpads soon. Still deciding what type. Most like velour or Alcantara, Alcantara really has my interest.

I was thinking about the right earpads for you and like you said maybe the hybrid would be a good match since you like a little bit of sparkle in your top end. I don't think I've heard any alcantara earpads but I'm curious about it as well. Looks like a compromise between leather and velour in terms of frequency response. My empirical view on this is that most high-end headphones go for leather, I would instinctually try to get similar material. Stax headphones for instance use leather and have both fantastic speed and timbre.