[kagif]

Hi all,

I've long been interested in hi-fi from afar, trying only to allow myself to get in up to my ankles...

My story goes that I got Sennheiser Momentum in-ears a few years back and more recently HyperX for gaming with my son. For the workplace I went with a pair of AT M40x to drown out the local, always-on radio with $10 desktop PC speakers; these are currently my best-sounding cans, but my what a clamp force. Tried out some IEMs (KZ ZS10 Pro), which wowed me at first, but with all of this I became more and more convinced the source was limiting the sound quality. After a lot of reading, I decided on an Earmen Sparrow, which I've now had about a week.

It's pretty clear that the source has been the main fidelity bottleneck.

I could gush about the detail and oomph I've been missing without a nice DAC+amp, but as amazing as that is it was expected. What really surprised me is what it revealed about the headphones themselves, which I could only guess at before. The HyperX and M40x were clearly different, but now they're REALLY different. The M40x are so very clearer and more neutral and also more energetic. And the ZS10 Pro sounded really promising before, but the Sparrow revealed that they don't really scale, certainly nothing like the M40x. Now listening without the Sparrow is already kind of dreary. Anyway, for mobility I'm still thinking of the Moondrop Aria, as they seem the best value IEMs under €100.

I do most of my listening from laptop or desktop and the phone---times being what they are, and that's what the DAC is for. I see the Sparrow as enabling decent sound, so that I can step in a bit deeper without having to plunge in over my head and sacrifice mobility. At work I will have to stay with closed-ear (listening is not the goal at work anyway), and the HyperX are still fine for gaming, but what about this long-held craving for really being able to listen to and enjoy music? What about lavish intimacy, detail, warmth, etc.---kind of like you're sitting in the studio? For that experience, after about a month of reading and watching various listener and reviewer opinions I am leaning heavily toward the Sennheiser HD6XX.

The comparison between HD600/HD650/HD6XX and other quality open-back headphones is interesting, so comments are welcome, but I don't feel I need to start something that has been done many times. The choice for me has been reinforced by looking through the "Battle of the Flagships" thread. The wearing comfort of this series and the laid-back, low-fatigue listening also seem important to me. I love to discover; much listening is just trying new things and listening carefully, but I do enjoy all kinds of acoustic and vocals. Rock, classical, and pop all have their places, and I often appreciate jazz, electronic, hip-hop, blues, metal and others even if they are less important to me. I enjoy listening carefully, getting into the sound and enjoying the artistic creativity. So I like the idea of neutrality and reference, the universality of the HD600, but despite this from what I've read I still think I will appreciate the extra warmth of the 6XX over the 600.

The HD6xx series is a safe and easy recommendation, although I'm all ears if you would like to hint at considering other cans. I just wanted to give this background by way of introduction. The thing I am struggling with a bit is balanced vs. unbalanced cabling. And really, it's the cheapskate in me. I appreciate that, potential interference aside, there is no difference in the sound due to the wiring, but there is still a point. I recall reviewers of the Earmen Sparrow consistently pointing out that it is tuned to have much better sound from the balanced output. For instance, "if using the Sparrow single-ended is an improvement, using it balanced is a revelation (source)." Since the HD6XX has 300 Ohms, it seems a no-brainer that I will want to use the balanced output anyway, even though I will eventually also invest in an amp.

Here is my thing. Thanks to proprietary connectors, it is not exactly trivial to find a decent unbalanced cable that doesn't cost what I think of as a ridiculous amount compared to the cost of the headphones themselves. Unless I'm missing it, it seems I can't even just order a cable from Sennheiser. Living in Europe, ordering anything from outside the EU comes with annoyance and the cost of customs fees and VAT. (New rules, there is no threshold value anymore where I live.) So ordering from inside the EU is a kind of constraint. I will likely be buying the HD6XX second hand. The choices in the EU seem to be semi-suspicious-looking cables for less (still €40) or something custom made for €70 or so. What would you do to enjoy the higher output capabilities of the Earmen Sparrow balanced output once you had a decent pair of headphones? Any cable recommendations? Could it instead be a better idea to invest into a modest amp rather than spend money on balanced cables? After all, the open-backed headphones are for home use, not mobility. That aspect of the Sparrow reviews wasn't clear for me, I suppose that the different output from the balanced circuit comes from its integrated amp, not the DAC, and that as such the difference in output could be less relevant with an external amp.

 

[Gjeven]

Is it because the Sparrow needs more power that a balance connection can deliver versus single ended?

 

[earmonger]

I don't know what kind of a price you are getting on the HD6xx, since Drop is so much more expensive in Europe.

If it is around the 300 Euro range you might also consider the Audio-Technica ATH-R70X.
https://www.thomann.de/cz/audio_technica_ath_r70_x.htm

They are exquisitely light, comfortable and by some accounts more open-sounding than the Sennheisers. They have been around for years so there are a lot of reviews if you Google around.

At 470 ohms they will definitely benefit from your amp. They, too, have a proprietary cable, though there are aftermarket replacement cables if you are really eager to go balanced. To me they sound wonderful single-ended.

 

[kagif]

Gjeven, the power needed by the Sparrow depends on the output power required. Here is a relevant paragraph from a review that might interest you:

The debate about which connection is ‘better’ is one of the most vociferous in all of audio, at every level, so I’m not going to regurgitate it here. It’s enough to say that, in my opinion, the ‘best’ output is the one the engineer designed to sound better. If an amp is designed to perform optimally single-ended, it will likely sound every bit as good as a balanced amp. In amps that offer both options (as is the case with the Sparrow), the main advantage of using a balanced cable and IEM or headphone – if indeed your IEM or headphone can accept a balanced cable – is generally an increase in power, up to four times as much power. A quick glance at the specs (2.0 vRMS single-ended and 4.0 vRMS balanced) shows the Sparrow is no different in this regard.

https://theheadonist.com/2020/11/19/review-earmen-sparrow-a-marvel-of-miniaturisation/3/

earmonger, thanks very much for the recommendation. I am reading reviews, but am bidding on a used HD6XX today, so let's see because I think they will be almost €80 less expensive. The comfort on the ATH-R70X seems excellent, but I wonder whether the earpads are big enough to my taste. And yes, the cable situation is no improvement and the impedance seems to dictate an amp. Or maybe the Sparrow can drive it when connected to a laptop or desktop, though probably not a phone. Quite intriguing in any case, as per a quote from The Verge below says; and they make a point that Audio Technica was aiming at their own version of the HD600.

. . . the R70x somehow defy old preconceptions. They’re neutral and detailed enough to be used for serious studio work, and yet pleasant and fun enough to also charm amateur ears.

 

[megabigeye]

Personally, I stay as far from balanced as possible and consider it a gimmick. The only inherent difference between single-ended and balanced is that balanced is 2x the voltage / 4x power, which equates to +6dB. Otherwise, there is no reason that they should sound different. If they do (actually) sound different, it's not because one is better, but rather that one (usually single-ended) has been hampered.
It's also extremely difficult (read: pretty much impossible) for anybody comparing only with their ears to make a fair assessment, since louder almost invariably sounds "better," and balanced is louder than single-ended.

Balanced is also often double the output impedance of single-ended, which can be a problem if you have (extremely) low impedance IEMs.

The HD 6XX/650 are great cans and I think you'll enjoy them with your musical tastes. Despite what a lot of people say, they don't need a lot of voltage or power. To give you an idea, I've used the HD 650 with my iPhone Lightning dongle (which only kicks out up to 1V) and they sound fabulous, if not very loud. My MacBook's headphone out does 2V and gets louder than I generally like to listen. The Earmen Sparrow also makes 2V out of it's 3.5mm single-ended output, and 4V out of balanced. If I were you, I'd try the Sparrow's single-ended output before considering a balanced cable.
If you need a more volume or if you want to apply EQ, then balanced might be a good choice. If that were me, though, I'd probably just want a more powerful amp.

 

[kagif]

That's a very thoughtful reply, megabigeye. I understand what you say and I can agree. After reading many reviews, there is no question in my mind that there is a huge perceived difference. The question, as you rightly point out, is this: is the difference in the balanced vs. single-ended output of the Sparrow primarily one of power, or is there something in the design of the two outputs (the SE being hampered or not quite as well implemented) that gets lost if one adds an amp to the SE output vs. using the balanced output?

Btw, after being sorely tempted by the ATH-R70X, I won a bid today on a fairly new pair of used HD6XX for what I think is a good price. So I really appreciate your comments on that. Hopefully, I will be able to locate a balanced cable somewhere and simply try before I buy.

In case anybody else out there finds this and is puzzling over the balanced output question, here is a little digest of the kinds of statements in reviews that led me to this question.

head-fi.org
According to this review thread, the main difference between the single and the balanced is indeed all about power (the Eagle and Sparrow models both have high-quality Sabre DAC chips):

Now, if one difference between Sparrow and Eagle is the audio formats played by each one (see the previous paragraph), certainly the biggest difference between the two is that Sparrow, on top of the 3.5 mm output that both devices have, offers also a 2.5 mm balanced output. The benefit of the latter is much higher power, almost double of that supplied by the 3.5 mm output (see the specs below). The obvious and rather natural question is whether this 2.5 mm balanced output is actually needed and of course whether provides some improvement in sound quality; the fast answer is that this extra feature is needed in some cases and in those cases it provides (some) improvement in sound quality (see the section on sound).
. . . .
Sparrow
Unbalanced 3.5 mm
Power THD+N
32 Ω: 60 mW, <0.004%
150 Ω: 26 mW, <0.004%

Balanced 2.5 mm
Power THD+N
32 Ω: 110 mW, <0.002%
150 Ω: 100 mW, <0.006%
. . . .
Soundwise Sparrow and Eagle share a lot of common behavior, and they also have certain differences.

First of all, through the unbalanced 3.5 mm output the two devices sound completely identical
. . . .
Now, the main difference between Sparrow and Eagle is the balanced 2.5 mm output that the Sparrow has, and the Eagle does not. Of course the interesting question is how one does compare two devices, essentially, on different grounds. Typically this is not possible, unless you do a little trick: Play Sparrow through the balanced 2.5 mm output and Eagle through the unbalanced 3.5 mm one, and adjust the output level to be (as close as you can) the same in both devices. Doing this little test, the difference, soundwise, between Sparrow and Eagle was truly minimal, to the point that in some cases I was really wondering if there was any. Of course, if your headphone set is truly power hungry, because of its high impedance and/or its low sensitivity, then this will bring Eagle to its limits; in such a case, using Sparrow’s balanced 2.5 mm output will supply the extra power needed, opening up the sound and revealing details that were missed through Eagle. Having said this, I want to emphasize that by no means I do not mean, and it is actually wrong to say, that Sparrow is more accurate than Eagle; the right statement is that both are equally accurate, given the power limitations of each one.

And talking about power, the obvious question is how powerful Sparrow and Eagle are? In the unbalanced 3.5 mm output the power is almost the same in both of them, and it is actually plenty for headphones with an impedance of up to 250 Ω. Now, if your set has an impedance higher than that or it has a low sensitivity, and depending of course how loud you want to listen to your music, then Sparrow would make your life easier.

theheadonist.com
This review, already cited above, makes a completely different argument when comparing the balanced to the single-end output:

[regarding single-ended:]I had to double check I was listening to music from a MacBook when the drums of Lorde’s ‘Royals’ kicked the fillings out of my back teeth, such was the Sparrow’s power and control of the lower registers on this, my go-to bass test track. For a few seconds I was sure I was still connected to the $800 HiBy DAC I was using to compare and contrast the Sparrow’s sound, but no, it was definitely the Sparrow.
. . . .
Where the quality gap was easily more obvious in the single-ended sessions, switching to balanced really blurred the lines between what I’d become accustomed to from my higher-end gear, and what I was hearing from the Sparrow. This was especially true with more complex music, like the busier passages in Daft Punk’s ‘Giorgio By Moroder’ and the collision effects in ‘Contact’ from the same, sublime Random Access Memories album, where the sound was more even, more controlled, less congested and better defined using the balanced output.

Often I’ve said I hear a wider stage and better separation of instruments with balanced headphones, no matter the source, which is not always obvious and always seems to be up for debate on the popular audio gear forums. Listening to the Sparrow, this point at least is not up for debate.

The Sparrow, by design or otherwise, is at its very best when used balanced.

headfonics.com
This review elaborates a bit on the output power:

The Sparrow’s 3.5mm port allows for “up to” 2Vrms worth of power, which equates to roughly 80mW. Up to 4Vrms in 2.5mm balanced mode, which clocks in at about 360mW (I am rounding up for the sake of decimal places).

Despite that draw seeming a bit on the low end for need over ears, I get plenty of volume out of even the absurdly hard to drive Dan Clark Aeon2 RT closed-back headphones.

This Sparrow maxes out in 2.5mm balanced at 0.316mW. Or roughly 1/3 of one Watt.

As mentioned, this is fine for IEM’s and earbuds. It really has some driving problems with most of my gear of the larger variety though. Volume push is not the same as proper driving voltage, so you get plenty of volume out of somewhat needy headphones still. But they ended up sounding rather weak.

This is the same result with nearly every single portable DAC like this, so this is not uncommon. These little DAC’s are meant for portability and not to drive your Audeze Planar headphones.

audiofool.reviews
This review provides some practical hints at power requirements before later comparing sound from the balanced vs. single ended and making an interesting comment in their conclusions:

As such, there is always a target range of earphones and headphones products are designed to power, and it usually is those below 150Ω with fairly high sensitivities. The sparrow lists output as up to 4V into 600Ω balanced or 2V into the same via the single ended connector. I tested the sparrow using my 600Ω Beyer 990 and it was able to drive them to usable levels but not with a lot of headroom above that so I would say while possible, the sparrow is more at home with easier to drive models. When I kept my expectations to 300Ω and models with sensitivities in the high 90s or low 100s, all worked well.
. . . .
So you'd be excused for thinking I don't like the single ended output . . . its just that the balanced output is so much better that it just blows you away when you try it and I can't imagine wanting to go back to single ended knowing that option is out there.
. . . .
I have to think that some of the magic in the balanced output of the Sparrow is home grown and due to Earmen's careful matching of other components inside the tiny device.

headfonia.com
This reviewer clearly hears significant differences (the review offers more details):

In Balanced mode you get a more natural, spacious, out of your head presentation with better extension from top to bottom. The depth and layering vastly improve everywhere, as well as the timbre, note extension, decay and micro detailing. The bass goes very deep with great rumble down low, yet loses a bit of the tightness. The balanced texture/timbre is to die for. Mids are detailed, dynamic and extremely musical, the vocals are smooth and addictive. The treble section is extended, detailed and very energetic. With the balanced output there’s less linearity, but a higher level of musicality and technicality.

While the Sparrow in single ended mode is good to very good, the balanced mode is exceptionally good. The whole package in balanced mode just works magically well: you get the best possible technicalities with a seriously high musicality. It’s really impressive.
. . . .
In Single Ended mode you get a more balanced and neutral sound, but it’s technically less strong and less musical. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very good, but the balanced output is just so incredibly good that it’s hard shutting up about.

audioreviews.org
One more reviewer who seems to find that there is a difference other than power:

And while the sound through the single-ended output is good, it is fantastic through the balanced output. The difference in sound quality is mindboggling (I A/B-ed a balanced cable between both sockets – with a 2.5 mm female to 3.5 mm male adapter for single ended). Apart from the power gain in the balanced circuit, headroom and clarity opens up substantially…the midrange comes out nicely…this worked even for the ~$3000 Vision Ears Elysium. After several months of using the EarMen Sparrow on my Mac, I conclude that the balanced output is as good as a desktop amp for iems – on a computer.

 

[megabigeye]

Congrats on the winning bid on the HD 6XX! I hope you enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed mine!

There's a lot to unpack from the reviews you quoted. I'll try to be brief.
Be forewarned, though: I'm really not a fan of most reviews, and I'll try to explain here where my skepticism comes from. I'm not trying to be negative, but I want to point out that these reviews just don't hold up when you think about them critically and with a baseline of knowledge.

That first review you quoted from Head-Fi is the only one I'd trust, even a little bit. At least that reviewer attempted some sort of rigor by trying to volume-match the Eagle and the Sparrow. Though he (I assume it's a he) seems to think that more power leads to better sound for higher impedance loads. That's not the case. More power means higher volume, that's it.
And to niggle a bit, he also says the balanced out provides "much higher power, almost double" than the single-ended. And while it is double, I don't know that I'd call it "much higher." Doubling power only gains +3dB in volume.

The next review from theheadonist. Call me a skeptic, but I'm always wary of hyperbole and anything that follows I'm equally leery of. He affirms my skepticism by saying that balanced is always better, which is simply untrue.

That headfonics review. Sheesh. I don't want to be unkind, but I want to be clear: this person appears to have little-to-no idea what they're talking about, at least based on this excerpt. I wouldn't trust this person's reviews as far as I could throw them. Without a given load (i.e., headphone impedance), saying "2Vrms worth of power, which equates to roughly 80mW" is utterly meaningless.
He also doesn't seem to understand how volume and power are related.
"Volume push is not the same as proper driving voltage" is also pretty much nonsense, as far as I understand it. Power is power and voltage is voltage. Sure, one amp may distort less or be less noisy than another (or balanced vs single-ended), but that's a different matter than voltage and power. Power only corresponds to how loud a headphone gets.

The audiofool review seems to be almost on the right track until he says "balanced output is so much better that it just blows you away when you try it." Did this reviewer bother trying to do any volume-matching? If not (and I'd wager that he didn't), then what he's really saying is "balanced output is 3dB louder than single-ended and therefore appears better."

Ahh, headfonia. I'll be honest, I don't like their reviews. That review is absolutely packed with jargon, and when you get down to it all of it is so vaguely defined that the entire thing is pretty much meaningless. Musical, texture, timbre, micro-detail, dynamics, smooth, addictive, energetic. Those all sound great, and I'm sure he's got some idea of what he means by those words, and you probably have some idea about what those words mean to you, but do his definitions and your definitions line up?
Headfonia reviews (to me) smack of writers that enjoy espousing their opinions and hearing their own voices more than they enjoy saying meaningful things.

Of the audioreviews review I'll just say that the hyperbole obfuscates what's really going on. The differences between any half-way decent solid state amplifiers should be extremely subtle, so to say that "The difference in sound quality [between the two outputs on the same device] is mindboggling" is just silly.

Like I said, I'm not trying to be negative. I just hope to help clarify some of the confusion that these sorts of reviews almost invariably create. I hope what I've written is helpful, at least a little.

 

[megabigeye]

I just realized that was totally an old man rant. I'm now an old curmudgeon.

Git offa my lawn! #shakingfistatacloud

 

[kagif]

I just realized that was totally an old man rant. I'm now an old curmudgeon.

Git offa my lawn! #shakingfistatacloud

Shake away, this is what I'm here for! This isn't a hobby for me; I haven't given it years of attention, so I can't easily parse the truth of a review, certainly don't know the biases of the sites, and just want to assume that if a fair number of reviewers think the same way about a particular topic, then there must be something to it. I do realize, however, that the articles are largely the reviewers writing about what they heard. Thank you for taking the time to read the reviews. It's correct that there were no convincing explanations regarding the design of the circuitry, just suppositions or unsupported statements. (To be fair, detailed explanations would probably fall a bit outside the scope of these reviews, and would lose most readers anyway. It makes sense to me that they should frustrate someone like yourself, as they seem to be aimed more at people with my level of experience.) That's why I didn't present the articles as arguments, but as resources that led me to the question.

It's not my area, but I think I understand electronics well enough to say that voltage stability under power draw (supply) is quite important, and so are the supporting components, which I believe for the DAC+amp amounts to the output stage. I don't know how the circuits of the SE and balanced outputs are laid out, what they have in common, etc. Given the limited space, it seems plausible to me that the design for the balanced output could be actually favored and superior. The question is whether there is any truth to it. I wrote Earmen, but got a response from a salesman, who just said the Sparrow wasn't really designed to drive high-impedance devices and recommended I buy their TR-Amp.

I'm not convinced that the raving over the balanced output isn't from hearing better sound due to higher power output. We're talking about subtle details, so a little power could make that difference. You mention volume matching, I suppose a good approach would be to use a power indicator, though I'm not familiar with any techniques. Let's look at how the audiofool reviewer approaches it. They state testing was done with a 600Ω Beyer 990, and that the Sparrow "was able to drive them to usable levels but not with a lot of headroom above that." If as you say they then compare SE and balanced using loudness by ear with such an impedance, then they can easily attribute a difference in the quality to the output circuits and not realize a difference in power. This should be all the more so if the SE output is at the upper end of its capability.

Since I've never had good audio gear before, I expect to be wowed by the HD6XX whether or not they are underpowered. I wanted to get ahead of my own critical listening, in the sense of getting a feel for whether balanced cables would be worth it. In the end, I will need to do some trials. I've discovered some balanced cables that are more reasonably priced, so I might do that. I also would like to find a local store where I can take the HD6XX and test on an amp. So I will be learning about amps and probably be looking for something in the €100-€200 range.

Meanwhile, the Moondrop Arias have suddenly lost out, because I found a used pair of Etymotic ER4XR and decided to risk that I can learn to handle the deep insertion. So suddenly I will have two new sets to try out in the coming week, one of which the Sparrow can definitely drive.

I'd appreciate tips on how to determine power/volume without external measuring equipment. Something on the PC perhaps? Or tricks to do it somewhat systematically by ear?

I'd also appreciate any tips on beginner amps to consider, or helpful resources. The TR-Amp is surely good, but it has a battery (planned obsolescence), and for mobility I will have the Sparrow and in-ears. The Schiit Modi 3 seems reasonable. . .

 

[earmonger]

The Modi is a DAC, not an amp. The Magni is the amp that Schiit stacks with it.

I'm happy with my Magni 3 and my power-hungry ATH-R70X. In the same price range as the Magni, around $100, you can look at the JDS Labs Atom, which supposedly has better measurements. I might have gotten the Atom if I had read this.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ents-of-new-jds-labs-atom-headphone-amp.5262/

But really, don't get too hung up on measurements. A reputable amp and Sennheiser 'phones should make your music sound good, which is the point.

 

[kagif]

The Modi is a DAC, not an amp. The Magni is the amp that Schiit stacks with it.

I'm happy with my Magni 3 and my power-hungry ATH-R70X. In the same price range as the Magni, around $100, you can look at the JDS Labs Atom, which supposedly has better measurements. I might have gotten the Atom if I had read this.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ents-of-new-jds-labs-atom-headphone-amp.5262/

But really, don't get too hung up on measurements. A reputable amp and Sennheiser 'phones should make your music sound good, which is the point.

Oh... right, I meant... (looks about helplessly, then fixes eyes on own feet) ... Whoops.


I've obviously put a lot of time into this! Resisting Schiit puns.

Thanks for the recommendation. I am going to try out the headphones just with the Sparrow at first and take a bit of time on the amp (and DAC). So far I am intrigued a bit by the idea of something with tubes (6XX should respond well) or something more expensive like the Chord Mojo, but I think I may instead just start "normally" with something introductory like the Atom (or even Element), FiiO, or Zen. Then if needed I may want a DAC as well (from JDS or other). The choice may depend on availability in Europe. I think this would last me for several years without wanting an upgrade.

 

[kagif]

Officers from Prague Město Police’s Major Crime Unit launched an investigation yesterday (April 26) after a man was found by family members inside the master bedroom of their home. The police were called to the property at around 9:00pm on Monday (April 25) to a concern for welfare of a man at the address. On arrival the officers found the body of the man, having collected into a puddle. It was subsequently reported by the family that the man had received new audio equipment that evening and had isolated himself in the room to listen to music. The listening session had lasted just over an hour when the man was discovered by family members.

Senior investigating officer detective inspector Skvělá Sluchátka of the Major Crime Unit, said: “We are in the very early stages of this investigation, but it appears that the victim has liquefied internally at some time during his isolation. “Although we cannot be certain whether he is still alive, we are currently keeping an open mind as to the circumstances that have led to the man’s liquefaction, and we would urge the local community not to speculate on the incident. However, at this early stage, we do believe the victim may have experienced a strong psychological response after being subjected to a sustained acoustic assault by the pair of headphones, which was connected to a laptop via a small black device, all of which were found on and beside the pooled man. We are aware that he was listening to a playlist, and the alarm was raised to us after he did not answer the door to family members who wanted to wish him a good night. I am appealing to anybody who was involved in consulting the man on the procurement of these devices that apparently were involved in the incident to please get in touch with Prague Město Police.”

At least five audio and anatomic research centers have reached out to the police to express their interest in lending expert opinions on the bizarre phenomenon. “You hear people talk about literally melting when they hear beautiful music or sounds,” said Dr. Senn Heiser, an expert from the Prague Audio Research Center, “but that is of course normally just an expression. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but this could actually turn out to be the first verifiable case of sonically induced human liquification. It will be interesting to see whether the victim will be able to fully recover. Let’s just hope that this doesn’t lead to legislation against the private ownership of hi-fi equipment.”

Despite the police findings and the high level of interest expressed by the scientific community, the victim’s family does not believe anything suspicious is going on. “He just takes listening to music a bit too seriously,” said Ailow Phy, the man’s wife of over twenty years. “I mean, he let me listen to those things, and I couldn’t hear any difference to the normal headphones he already had.” “It’s so totally embarrassing, like, what a stupid happy look he had on his face,” added the teenage daughter of the couple. “He’ll never hear the end of it when he gets home.”

While they wait for answers, concerned friends and family are now trying to raise money for the next inevitable purchase of audio equipment.