[Light - Man]

Speaking of which...

Why was the AKG K812 disappointing? I see it's at the top of your gear list in your profile.

Thanks

It is simply at the top of my list as it is amongst my most recent purchases and is the most expensive I have bought other than the Beyer T1.2 I previously had.

I feel that I just do not engage with it and I find the headband uncomfortable and the PVC ear pads (AKA Pleather) a little stiff. The plug and cable seem cheap and the plug looks exactly the same as my AKG K612 which I only paid £88 for and which I prefer over the K812. Overall a most underwhelming experience!

 

[User00]

For me, the biggest disappointments in headphones have been the Oppo PM-3, Sony MDR-Z7, B&W P9/P7, and the McIntosh MHP1000. I bought into the PM-3 hype and was disappointed by the lack of treble extension and clarity, as well as the small and shallow ear cups. The Z7 sounded veiled to me and the bass was loose and intruded on the mids too much. The B&W P7 was unengaging to me but was more comfortable and had more of a fun signature than my PM-3s. The P9s had glorious detail, soundstage, and treble sparkle but the bass was far too overbearing and overall, the headphone didn't sound like $900. When I tried out the $2000 MHP1000, I expected to be blown away but the headphone had no wow factor. It was better than my EL-8 but it didn't feel very sturdy and the sound lacked anything special to warrant it's high price tag.

 

[GU1DO]

It is simply at the top of my list as it is among my most recent purchases and is the most expensive I have bought other than the Beyer T1.2 I previously had.

I feel that I just do not engage with it and I find the headband uncomfortable and the PVC ear pads (AKA Pleather) a little stiff. The plug and cable seem cheap and the plug looks exactly the same as my AKG K612 which I only paid £88 for and which I prefer over the K812. Overall a most underwhelming experience!

K812 has serious tonal issue although it is very good in other aspects of sound ( bass , mids , sound stage .... )
i listen to celine dion all the time ,, on the 812 its a defferant person ,, not celine that i know in any other speaker/headphone, that goes to every other music .
thankfully amazon have a great return policy , no question asked ,, just send it back ..

 

[Light - Man]

K812 has serious tonal issue although it is very good in other aspects of sound ( bass , mids , sound stage .... )
i listen to celine dion all the time ,, on the 812 its a defferant person ,, not celine that i know in any other speaker/headphone, that goes to every other music .
thankfully amazon have a great return policy , no question asked ,, just send it back ..

I must give her a listen to see what I think, I only have the K812 a week and am looking forward to seeing the back of it and will return it to Amazon.

Unexpectedly I am enjoying the Fidelio X2 which was more of an impulse purchase on Amazon Prime UK day.

 

[daltonlanny]

Focal Utopia.
Just didn't do it for me.
Expected more after reading all the positive reviews.
Too expensive for what it offers, imho.
Smallish, sort of
"closed in" soundstage, a tad too forward, somewhat edgy in the treble, a slight metallic coloration, and a small audible peak around 1.5 khz to my ears.
I personally prefer my modded HD800, and HE-6 for alot less cash.
I wanted to like them, and sell off alot of my other gear, but wound up selling the Utopia after owning them over two weeks and trying them with alot of different gear.
Maybe I got ahold of a bad sample?
YMMV.

 

[TWerk]

Dx1000 might be just want you want. Relaxed it is... ample bass and huge soundstage compared to closed and open headphones. Nice you mentioned hd600 as a no go allrounders... Many years ago I upgraded from hd600 to dx1000. I still appreciate hd600 but dx1000 has more bass, more soundstage, and less veil... I would not say dx1000 is more detailed than hd600 but it definately sounds more high end and clearer. Compared to an open back headphone it is something At the same time it is even smoother than hd600... Dx1000 is a very hard headphone to describe. It is either love it or hate it stuff. Some hear reverbs, some hear lifelike speakers in an actual room etc. I hope you get your hands on a pair it is definately a headphone to hear like it or not.

I agree, DX1000 is one of those you just have to hear with lots of music to understand. Kind of hard to describe its strengths on paper.

 

[Svatopluk]

Focal Utopia.
Just didn't do it for me.
Expected more after reading all the positive reviews.
Too expensive for what it offers, imho.
Smallish, sort of
"closed in" soundstage, a tad too forward, somewhat edgy in the treble, a slight metallic coloration, and a small audible peak around 1.5 khz to my ears.
I personally prefer my modded HD800, and HE-6 for alot less cash.
I wanted to like them, and sell off alot of my other gear, but wound up selling the Utopia after owning them over two weeks and trying them with alot of different gear.
Maybe I got ahold of a bad sample?
YMMV.

I notice the Utopia receives it's fair share of complaints in regards to sound-stage. It's just my opinion (for what it's worth) but I actually enjoy the Utopias up front presentation, it seems to accurately portray the feel of a properly set-up speaker system more so than the HD800 or it could just be the fact that I spent a lot money on the Utopia and I'm letting it cloud my judgment.

Not trying to trash the sound-stage of the HD800, it's wonderful in it's own way.

 

[bigbeard]

Surprised to see people not liking the HD800. I have a few hi-end headphones, and those are the ones that get ALL time on my head.

 

[Me x3]

K812 has serious tonal issue although it is very good in other aspects of sound ( bass , mids , sound stage .... )
i listen to celine dion all the time ,, on the 812 its a defferant person ,, not celine that i know in any other speaker/headphone, that goes to every other music .
thankfully amazon have a great return policy , no question asked ,, just send it back ..

I'm yet to find a high quality recording from Celine Dion. Each and every one I've heard would sound much better on less analytical headphones than the K812.
Not saying K812 is perfect, no headphone is, but playing top class recordings from Alexis Cole or Amber Rubarth would have been a far better match for the extremely analytical K812.
Pop/compressed/mainstream recordings don't not make them justice.

Surprised to see people not liking the HD800. I have a few hi-end headphones, and those are the ones that get ALL time on my head.

I guess it has to do with the fact that HD800 is far from being a great all rounder. And on top of that, many people got the HD800, which is kind of a technically improved DT880+K702 crossbreed, coming from the HD6x0 which is a very different headphone.

 

[lugnut]

My biggest disappointment was a Custom Grado Clone. This was when I first joined head-fi years ago. I let my eyes over take my good judgment. I am sure you have seen items like this, beautiful amboyna burl wood cups, custom machine polished rodblocks and gimbals. State of the art improved custom drivers.Wow, I had to have them, I will keep them forever. Keep in mind I did not assemble these, the person who was selling all the parts did. By the time it was done, they were expensive. I did not love them, I did not keep them forever. When sold, I lost about 50%.
I will say that yes I have been disappointed with some headphones, but I have never had any that were just horrible. If needed I could live with any of them. So I really don't buy into people ranting & raving how bad they are. I feel that most mid-fi and up phones are at least decent. You may not like them but most are really not terrible.

 

[Discman634]

Ok I'll chime in. There are 2 I specially don't like personally. Sony MDR-Z7 & Fostex TH900 .....these are headphones I would never consider good for much of anything other than drowning out noise in the room or place I might be in.

The Z7s are working quite nice as my house is getting re-roofed today!

 

[TSAVJason]

The Z7s are working quite nice as my house is getting re-roofed today!

Hahaha perfect!

 

[Bern2]

The Z7s are working quite nice as my house is getting re-roofed today!

The MDR-1abt's sort of serve that purpose for me if I'm moving around....really comfortable...and long battery life...they just sound really congested to me and I wasn't able to eq it to my satisfaction with my dap. (NWZ-a17).

 

[Naim.F.C]

Whilst I still enjoy both headphones, I can't say I wasn't disappointed with both the HD800 and LCD-2. After all the buzz and acclaim for both, and so many saying the HD800 was balanced and neutral, and the LCD-2 not rolled off in treble, my actual experience with both after purchasing them, was the opposite.

The HD800 was definitely emphasised towards articulation and treble, and is certainly not what I'd describe as ideally balanced. To me it lacked bass impact and presence, and is a little too sharp up top. The sound stage whilst incredible for classical and orchestral type music, overly splays out or thins a lot of music, and takes away some of the atmosphere, realism and emotion. I still kept my pair for the imaging and airiness, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed with them given all the extreme review and forum optimism.

Likewise with the LCD-2's, which I ended up selling. The treble was just too rolled off for my liking, and the sound stage and imaging too congested and stuffy. Here the bass overwhelmed and took away the sense of precision and separation. This was yet another extremely hyped and popular headphone that I felt hugely under delivered. To make things worse, it was heavy, uncomfortable and just ergonomically, almost laughably bad.

My experiences with these two headphones have made me somewhat weary about headphone hype going forward.

 

[TWerk]

Same opinion as you on the LCD-2. Treble too rolled off, stuffy, congested. Uncomfortable. Exactly. Was yours fazored? I liked the fazored one more but still was not the headphone for me.

Also, owned the X for a short while and was not at all impressed with it either.