[Nostoi]

I am looking for that boring but not so boring resulting headphones. Need them to have presence but need not be too bright or forward or recessed in any regions.

Focal Clearly definitely fulfill the criteria for being boring.

 

[KING DRANZER]

I am already disappointed with Stax sr-009 as it needs to be paired with D50. I cannot test it on a equal ground with other headphones using same AMP. That has me bit worried about different sound signature going from Benchmark AMP to D50 AMP even though I will be running them through same DAC. Not good.

Will let you know how the experience is tomorrow.

 

[KING DRANZER]

Okay I will start from the most shocking revelation of the day. That is surprisingly not related to headphone comparison. I have Monoprice THX-AAA-788 I have using it for a Year as I have the two Analog inputs populated from my Gaming and Movie needs of 7.1 surround. I have Sennheiser GSX 1200 Pro plugged in and the THX-AAA-788 being ADAC does nothing much to the signal and delivers the 7.1 surround audio. I was planning to test the new headphones and check how they handle the surround. What I initially did was to plug the GSX 1200 Pro directly to HPA4 and was fine with it. But then the person who owns this stack asked me to plug the GSX into DAC3 RCA Input. When I did I was left speechless. I was surprised why no one discusses its ADAC capability. DAC3 literally cleaned it and boosted the clarity. I even plugged it directly to PC Headphone output to test the noise but result was same as plugging directly into AMP had that noise when volume dialed up but when passed through the DAC it went down by a lot. I thought DACs usually don't have effect on Analog input. Is it specific to this DAC or even other DACs on lower budget range which support analog input do the same. That was most shocking thing in the entire day.

Now coming to headphone comparison. Sadly I was not able to source in D8000. @Deolum which Clear were you referring to? I hope not the Focal Clear as I sourced it in and it was no where near being neutral it was U shape with mids recessed. Nor was extremely high on detail. Had to do lot on EQ to get near others on the list. And still the detail retrieval was not great either.

Stax SR-009 + Stax SRM-D50 is the combo I was able to source in. I am not sure how much the amp is effecting the Headphone and what to expect from either of those but the combo was also U shape with mids recessed and treble being bit to forward. Had to bring up the mids and bring down treble a notch. Detail was good, clear, had good . But accuracy was bit off. Was great for the game test even without EQ but had to bring down the treble and boost mids for movie. Overall experience left me unsatisfied.

Audio Technica ATH-ADX5000 is a bit odd. Little forward on Mid range but is fine and be adjusted with little EQ completely acceptable without EQ. Detail was good, clear, accurate. Trying to be bright but with lack of protrusion of elements in the audio it falls apart. Like for example Susvara and Utopia and even SR-009 had good presence and all the elements in the audio were noticeably put forward where we don't have to try hard to search for what we need in song and can just enjoy all the detail outright. ADX5000 does deliver Detail and Clarity for separation but sadly lacks in protrusion of elements. We have to concentrate while listening to audio through them as we have to specifically search for the details we need to find and point out as they are not put forward like its competitors. It got almost everything right besides the fact that you need to Concentrate a lot while listening to them or would miss out detail even though it is present there. Decently good for gaming. Not so good for Movies.

HiFi Man Susvara wow. It was treble forward so had to dial it down a bit and had to raise high-mid a bit and get bass a notch down. Detail was very good, clear, accurate. Level of detail on this and Utopia was a level above the others I tested above. Some may argue that ATH-ADX5000 has similar Level of Detail which can be true but sadly its lack of presence makes it feel to be anemic. One shortcoming was the treble roll off which was steep. Bass was brighter on this than on Utopia. Good for Gaming. Need to bring down the treble a bit and then it is good for Movies.

Focal Utopia simply superb. Had to adjust the bass a little bit by bringing it up a notch and it was perfect. Detail was very good, clear, accurate. Level on detail on this and Susvara is level up. Hard to decide between the two based on detail but both are very close possibly Susvara edges out in some cases by a hair but cant go wrong either way. Treble response of Utopia the detail and balance is better than Susvara. And treble has smooth roll off. Good for Gaming. Good for Movies.

Hard to decide between Utopia and Susvara. Susvara edges out Utopia in Detail by a little. But Utopia has better balanced frequency range and handles the Treble better than Susvara.

 

[Deolum]

Okay I will start from the most shocking revelation of the day. That is surprisingly not related to headphone comparison. I have Monoprice THX-AAA-788 I have using it for a Year as I have the two Analog inputs populated from my Gaming and Movie needs of 7.1 surround. I have Sennheiser GSX 1200 Pro plugged in and the THX-AAA-788 being ADAC does nothing much to the signal and delivers the 7.1 surround audio. I was planning to test the new headphones and check how they handle the surround. What I initially did was to plug the GSX 1200 Pro directly to HPA4 and was fine with it. But then the person who owns this stack asked me to plug the GSX into DAC3 RCA Input. When I did I was left speechless. I was surprised why no one discusses its ADAC capability. DAC3 literally cleaned it and boosted the clarity. I even plugged it directly to PC Headphone output to test the noise but result was same as plugging directly into AMP had that noise when volume dialed up but when passed through the DAC it went down by a lot. I thought DACs usually don't have effect on Analog input. Is it specific to this DAC or even other DACs on lower budget range which support analog input do the same. That was most shocking thing in the entire day.

Now coming to headphone comparison. Sadly I was not able to source in D8000. @Deolum which Clear were you referring to? I hope not the Focal Clear as I sourced it in and it was no where near being neutral it was U shape with mids recessed. Nor was extremely high on detail. Had to do lot on EQ to get near others on the list. And still the detail retrieval was not great either.

Stax SR-009 + Stax SRM-D50 is the combo I was able to source in. I am not sure how much the amp is effecting the Headphone and what to expect from either of those but the combo was also U shape with mids recessed and treble being bit to forward. Had to bring up the mids and bring down treble a notch. Detail was good, clear, had good . But accuracy was bit off. Was great for the game test even without EQ but had to bring down the treble and boost mids for movie. Overall experience left me unsatisfied.

Audio Technica ATH-ADX5000 is a bit odd. Little forward on Mid range but is fine and be adjusted with little EQ completely acceptable without EQ. Detail was good, clear, accurate. Trying to be bright but with lack of protrusion of elements in the audio it falls apart. Like for example Susvara and Utopia and even SR-009 had good presence and all the elements in the audio were noticeably put forward where we don't have to try hard to search for what we need in song and can just enjoy all the detail outright. ADX5000 does deliver Detail and Clarity for separation but sadly lacks in protrusion of elements. We have to concentrate while listening to audio through them as we have to specifically search for the details we need to find and point out as they are not put forward like its competitors. It got almost everything right besides the fact that you need to Concentrate a lot while listening to them or would miss out detail even though it is present there. Decently good for gaming. Not so good for Movies.

HiFi Man Susvara wow. It was treble forward so had to dial it down a bit and had to raise high-mid a bit and get bass a notch down. Detail was very good, clear, accurate. Level of detail on this and Utopia was a level above the others I tested above. Some may argue that ATH-ADX5000 has similar Level of Detail which can be true but sadly its lack of presence makes it feel to be anemic. One shortcoming was the treble roll off which was steep. Bass was brighter on this than on Utopia. Good for Gaming. Need to bring down the treble a bit and then it is good for Movies.

Focal Utopia simply superb. Had to adjust the bass a little bit by bringing it up a notch and it was perfect. Detail was very good, clear, accurate. Level on detail on this and Susvara is level up. Hard to decide between the two based on detail but both are very close possibly Susvara edges out in some cases by a hair but cant go wrong either way. Treble response of Utopia the detail and balance is better than Susvara. And treble has smooth roll off. Good for Gaming. Good for Movies.

Hard to decide between Utopia and Susvara. Susvara edges out Utopia in Detail by a little. But Utopia has better balanced frequency range and handles the Treble better than Susvara.

I was referring to the original Focal Clear, not the new Focal Clear MG. Maybe you did source this one?

When it comes to details it can't compete with Susvara and Utopia that's right.

 

[KING DRANZER]

I was referring to the original Focal Clear, not the new Focal Clear MG. Maybe you did source this one?

When it comes to details it can't compete with Susvara and Utopia that's right.

Yes the old one. No one has new version in my circle yet. Probably will check it out in coming year. But what I tested was the old version.

 

[KING DRANZER]

This is the answer.

-
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I'll second that. Look no further.

Yes it is good and is Neutral. In fact the only two neutral or close to neutral headphones in my list was Utopia and ADX5000. ADX5000 is Good on Detail and probably nearly as good as Utopia. But as I said Probably because that is also its drawback in a way. Being detailed is good but not having it put forward like Utopia or Susvara is what backfired. With Utopia and Susvara all the detail is presented to you on the plate nothing is left out but with ADX5000 it is on us to capture it and pick it up because it needs high levels if concentration to get all and listen to all the Detail the headphone has to offer. This headphone is not forward with what it has to offer and that is what holding it down from being the best.

 

[FYFL]

Amp matching with ADX5000 is crucial. Poor matching will never show its potential. And than there is price difference between other mentioned Flagships. Hard to compare and compete with HP costing two/three times it’s MSRP.

 

[paradoxper]

Poor argument.

Amp matching is crucial for most headphones to show their potential.

 

[KING DRANZER]

We used HPA4 to test all. I mean it was obvious that my THX-788 DAC/AMP will be insufficient to power Susvara anyways even if I managed to get ADX5000 running fine. But anyways that was not the case. HPA4 has enough power to run Susvara and handled ADX5000 fine. HPA4 with its Neutral and Clean output and at 0ohm was great to test the headphones.

 

[FYFL]

Poor argument.

Amp matching is crucial for most headphones to show their potential.

Interesting. So if he didn’t get full potential out of ADX5000 by poor amp matching, how’s that equate to proper evaluation?
I know a thing or two about those particular headphones and out of all my headphones and other that I have tried, ADX5K are the most finicky of all.

 

[FYFL]

We used HPA4 to test all. I mean it was obvious that my THX-788 DAC/AMP will be insufficient to power Susvara anyways even if I managed to get ADX5000 running fine. But anyways that was not the case. HPA4 has enough power to run Susvara and handled ADX5000 fine. HPA4 with its Neutral and Clean output and at 0ohm was great to test the headphones.

There’s only one SS amp that I know of that plays nice with ADX5K (there might be others). They simply sound best with quality tube amp.

 

[paradoxper]

Interesting. So if he didn’t get full potential out of ADX5000 by poor amp matching, how’s that equate to proper evaluation?
I know a thing or two about those particular headphones and out of all my headphones and other that I have tried, ADX5K are the most finicky of all.

You keep pulling this "full potential" out of your ass. The HPA4 is perfectly competent all-around.

What you're making is some subjective qualification that rings as some absolute.

How about referencing what tube amp instead of just generalizing.

In any case, the Susvara far outshines the ADX5k which is a third-tier headphone. Yes, IMO.

 

[FYFL]

You keep pulling this "full potential" out of your ass. The HPA4 is perfectly competent all-around.

What you're making is some subjective qualification that rings as some absolute.

How about referencing what tube amp instead of just generalizing.

In any case, the Susvara far outshines the ADX5k which is a third-tier headphone. Yes, IMO.

Obviously you know what you’re talking about without pulling crap out of your ass. Clearly you’re caught up with your own inner ego and arrogance. I have no time and reason to argue with this type of assholeship.

 

[paradoxper]

Sound argument.

 

[KING DRANZER]

There’s only one SS amp that I know of that plays nice with ADX5K (there might be others). They simply sound best with quality tube amp.

No. I hope you understand that I was testing to see how neutral, detailed, clear and accurate each headphone is. And for that I used HPA4 which is known to be transparent and have 0ohm impedance for headphone output. It dose nothing to change or effect the sound signature of headphone in any ways. So what I get out of it is what a headphone is truly capable of. Here I was strictly testing the headphones to see which is the most detailed, clear, accurate and neutral. Why would I select and test it one specific AMP that helps ADX5000 as if it does that then it means that the AMP itself is not neutral and I wouldn't be able to test other headphones on fair terms. That is not fair right.