[Shane D]

For me the HD58x is a brighter, V shaped HD compared to the HD6xx with a slight loss of detail in trade for the greater bass punch and a bit more energy up top. My suspicion is if you were unimpressed with the HD6xx, you probably won't find the HD58x anything amazing either. I did do a compare of the 4 budget Massdrop made headphones awhile back. AKG 7xx, He4xx, HD6xx and HD58x. Its on my blog (link in sig). (Search for shootout or massdrop).

I did read that. Very interesting. I had and moved the HD6XX's. I am currently not real impressed with the HE4XX's. They are currently on a "time out".

I will bring them back out in a week or two and give them a solid week to impress me. If not, off they go.

I may be expecting too much at this price point, but I'll try anything once.

Shane D

 

[nwavesailor]

Fun amp w/ Vivids is simply stunning.
Fun amp with Sparko's is ultra stunning!!!

 

[Slim1970]

Fun amp w/ Vivids is simply stunning.
Fun amp with Sparko's is ultra stunning!!!

They do make it sound like a different amp.

 

[ladavid]

remind me the sparkos you are using are the ss3601s? And you only need two right - one for each channel? Thanks.

 

[nwavesailor]

remind me the sparkos you are using are the ss3601s? And you only need two right - one for each channel? Thanks.

Yup, 2 x SS3601 will do it in the Fun!

 

[yavormoskov]

ordered a full set of Sparkos discrete op-amps for my Fun and Swing today to review vs the V6c and V6v and the muses I already had on hand.

Please do. Thank you in advance. I have only the Sparkos in the Fun and can not compare.

 

[yavormoskov]

Many of you are much longer in the audiophile hobby than me. I am going to appreciate if you know the answer of my question. I am interested in buying the new planars Verum one and they are rated at 8 Ohm only. And the Burson Fun is rated at 6 Ohm output. Does is matter or not? Does changing op amps affect the output impedance or not? I guess I have more than just one question, whatever . The owner of the audiophile store in my neighborhood claims that THX 789 or JDS labs Atom are much better in general than the Fun just by comparing their specs and reading some measurements of those amps on certain website (audio science or something like that). But even if I read the above mentioned measurements probably would not understand them. So, if you have any knowledge about it I would be really grateful if you share it.

 

[raoultrifan]

Burson's internal output impedance is around 0.5 Ohms @1KHz sine wave. Not sure why BURSON is stating 6 Ohms, perhaps they did this measurement at 100KHz or 150KHz (max. bandwidth of FUN).

Verum seems to be rated at 12 Ohms actually: https://kenrockwell.com/audio/verum/1.htm#spex and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/verumaudio/verum-audiophile-planar-magnetic-headphones and 96 dB/mW (or V, it's not specified).

I think you can give them a try with FUN, it should pair much better than opamp-based amplifiers like TPA6120A), because FUN's output stage is made out of powerful TO-220 case transistors.

 

[Nothatso]

I've been trying out the Fun (V6 Vivids) with a pair of Aeon Flow Closed which are rated at 16 ohms... no noticeable issues so far. Sounds really good actually. I thought I'd be disappointed with the Aeons from reading the many reviews/impressions stating they're really lacking in dynamics. They sound pretty fantastic coming out of my Fun so far, but I'm still in the "handshake" phase for these cans.

 

[nwavesailor]

I've been trying out the Fun (V6 Vivids) with a pair of Aeon Flow Closed which are rated at 16 ohms... no noticeable issues so far. Sounds really good actually. I thought I'd be disappointed with the Aeons from reading the many reviews/impressions stating they're really lacking in dynamics. They sound pretty fantastic coming out of my Fun so far, but I'm still in the "handshake" phase for these cans.

I may be snagging a pair of Ether 2 this week. It seems like the E2 could use some 'Fun' power as well. I will be following your posts on the Aeon with Fun & Vivid pairing!

 

[Nothatso]

I may be snagging a pair of Ether 2 this week. It seems like the E2 could use some 'Fun' power as well. I will be following your posts on the Aeon with Fun & Vivid pairing!

I don't really plan on keeping them for very long to be honest. I just always wanted to give them a shot and see if I fell in love with them, so I grabbed a used pair. I wouldn't say I'm quite at the level of "love". I doubt I'll wait until the MrSpeakers-recommended 150 hours of burn in before I sell them, if that happens. These are actually the first planars I've given any significant time to and I do enjoy them, but I really only use closed backs for movies/tv (to be clear, I'm listening to music with the Aeons as well, I just wouldn't do that much as time went on) so I might just stick with the Argons I have on order since the price and performance of those probably better matches my use case.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

I did read that. Very interesting. I had and moved the HD6XX's. I am currently not real impressed with the HE4XX's. They are currently on a "time out".

I will bring them back out in a week or two and give them a solid week to impress me. If not, off they go.

I may be expecting too much at this price point, but I'll try anything once.

Shane D

Looking at your signature I think the k7xx would be the best Massdrop made to try at the moment. At least its soundstage immediately stands out.

All Massdrop made headphones have a surprisingly accessible sound. Great pairing with the Fun (and for me, iDac2 as source)

Like @Wiljen said the HD6xx and the HD58x sounds similiar. On the Fun I find the HD6xx to be technically superior, but if you didn’t like it, you won’t like the HD58x (or the HD600, HD580, HD660). You will find the R70x really close to that family too.

 

[Wiljen]

Looking at your signature I think the k7xx would be the best Massdrop made to try at the moment. At least its soundstage immediately stands out.

All Massdrop made headphones have a surprisingly accessible sound. Great pairing with the Fun (and for me, iDac2 as source)

Like @Wiljen said the HD6xx and the HD58x sounds similiar. On the Fun I find the HD6xx to be technically superior, but if you didn’t like it, you won’t like the HD58x (or the HD600, HD580, HD660). You will find the R70x really close to that family too.

I'll absolutely agree that the Hd6xx is the technically more capable of the two and even mentioned the trade in detail for a bit more energy on both ends when moving to the HD58x. I think the 58x was designed specifically to address the comments surrounding the HD6xx rolling off too high and lacking any substantial bass thump. Unfortunately in addressing that, they lost some of the technical ability of the 6xx in both detail retrieval and accuracy. I do think they are similar enough that chances are if you really dislike one, you are not going to fall in love with the other.

The AKG 7xx is enough different you may well like it better especially if looking for better upper mids and lower treble. Lower mids need a bit of eq (of the mid-bass) to bring out.

Another couple of Sub-$200 models worth giving a shot are the Beyer Custom One Pro Plus and the Audio Technica AD900x. The Beyer is fairly different in that it is closed back, but sound is better than expected at $166 (amazon) and the bass tuning gives you the option of adjusting it to your taste. The AT on the other hand is open backed and to my ear has a better more natural stage than the suggested AKG. If there is a knock on the AT, it is that the bass is a on the lighter side and you may want to EQ it up a bit. (This knock goes for most of the AT line as they all seem to be tuned a bit bright). To me the details and stage on the 900x are enough better than the massdrop/AKG that I would suggest you audition it first.

 

[Shane D]

Looking at your signature I think the k7xx would be the best Massdrop made to try at the moment. At least its soundstage immediately stands out.

All Massdrop made headphones have a surprisingly accessible sound. Great pairing with the Fun (and for me, iDac2 as source)

Like @Wiljen said the HD6xx and the HD58x sounds similiar. On the Fun I find the HD6xx to be technically superior, but if you didn’t like it, you won’t like the HD58x (or the HD600, HD580, HD660). You will find the R70x really close to that family too.

Thanks for the input. I had looked at the K7XX way back, but I ruled it out because it couldn't do balanced. Also, I didn't like what I was reading about the sound.

I recently read a thread over on headphone.com and I think it was bang on: a guy that has some very nice headphones tried out the HD58X's because they were so cheap. He tried them and liked them. A month later they were collecting dust in a drawer. He said that while they are nice and do a good job, they are nothing compared to his TOTL 'phones.

I would feel the same way. I know they won't come close to my Beyers or my Grado's and probably can't match the fun and versatility of my Meze 99's. You can't go backwards.

I will hold off until I can get either the Cascades or the Elex.

Shane D

 

[escalibur]

My FUN (Vivid) just got a new friend:

(measurements)

Let the testing continue!