[Charliemotta]

Newegg has them for $54.   

    ♫

 

[rronald25]

Guys,
I need recommendation of a good balanced over ear Chinese headphone, what I like is
Wired or hybrid
$30-50ish
Overear
Closed
Good bass but not too much (balanced)
With inline mic for mobile phone, not gaming
Would be great if the design is also good.
 
This is what I found so far
Takstar HD5800 (a bit over budget)
Yenona adapter free
Sound Intone cx-05 (I think its on ear & only $12, so i dont know what to expect)
Riwbox in5
 
Can you please comment on 1 of those headphones (except for yanona) & please recommend one if you know more
 
Thanxxx

 

[Holypal]

  Guys,
I need recommendation of a good balanced over ear Chinese headphone, what I like is
Wired or hybrid
$30-50ish
Overear
Closed
Good bass but not too much (balanced)
With inline mic for mobile phone, not gaming
Would be great if the design is also good.
 
This is what I found so far
Takstar HD5800 (a bit over budget)
Yenona adapter free
Sound Intone cx-05 (I think its on ear & only $12, so i dont know what to expect)
Riwbox in5
 
Can you please comment on 1 of those headphones (except for yanona) & please recommend one if you know more
 
Thanxxx

 
Is the Yenona headphone the same as this one, Yenona Studio Pro:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Yenona-Studio-Pro-DJ-Headphones-Professional-Monitoring-Headband-Headphone-with-Microphone-Hifi-Headphone-for-Mobile-Phone/2412040_32705349478.html
 
You may also consider Superlux HD681evo.  I have the semi-open version. The sound is OK, very neutral and clean.

 

[mysacisanorange]

Q

 

[mysacisanorange]

Q

 

[Holypal]

I'm pretty sure that the 681's are very very warm, south of neutral. They have a lot of bass that gets a bit boomy at times, and spiky treble. Still good value

 
I had the 681B version, and modified a little bit by removing the stickers inside. It's less boomy and more airy:

 

[rronald25]

   
Is the Yenona headphone the same as this one, Yenona Studio Pro:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Yenona-Studio-Pro-DJ-Headphones-Professional-Monitoring-Headband-Headphone-with-Microphone-Hifi-Headphone-for-Mobile-Phone/2412040_32705349478.html
 
You may also consider Superlux HD681evo.  I have the semi-open version. The sound is OK, very neutral and clean.

 
 

I'm pretty sure that the 681's are very very warm, south of neutral. They have a lot of bass that gets a bit boomy at times, and spiky treble. Still good value

 
Yup, the same yenona
I heard many good reviews about superlux but unfortunately I dont like the design.

 

[Shawn71]

I heard many good reviews about superlux but unfortunately I dont like the design.

There cld be little trade-off here & there imo......might be negligible even, if it sounds to our taste,just sayin.

 

[Shawn71]

Guys,
I need recommendation of a good balanced over ear Chinese headphone, what I like is
Wired or hybrid
$30-50ish
Overear
Closed
Good bass but not too much (balanced)
With inline mic for mobile phone, not gaming
Would be great if the design is also good.

This is what I found so far
Takstar HD5800 (a bit over budget)
Yenona adapter free
Sound Intone cx-05 (I think its on ear & only $12, so i dont know what to expect)
Riwbox in5

Can you please comment on 1 of those headphones (except for yanona) & please recommend one if you know more

Thanxxx

You can try your luck here tooo........

http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/shootout-114-portable-headphones-reviewed-xiaomi-mi-headphones-added-04-21-2015

 

[HavocStellar]

does anyone of u own both yenona and marantz mph2, can you compare them?
Im looking for a headphone mainly for listen to music, and little bit of monitoring.
The offer on them are yenona with $23.22 and the mph2 $44.99
 can u tell me which is better? 

 

[Pharmaboy]

  does anyone of u own both yenona and marantz mph2, can you compare them?
Im looking for a headphone mainly for listen to music, and little bit of monitoring.
The offer on them are yenona with $23.22 and the mph2 $44.99
 can u tell me which is better? 

 
I own them both. In fact, I own 2 near-identical versions of the basic ISK MPH9000 design, the Marantz MPH-2 and the LyxPro HAS-30 (sound identical, look nearly identical).
 
I've posted numerous comments here about all 3 headphones. To summarize:
 
I love the Yenona's, but IMO the Marantz MPH-2 is technically better, meaning it sounds more even, balanced, unexaggerated, etc. It does "the technicalities" a little better than the Yenona. So if you had to buy just 1, I'd say go for the Marantz MPH-2's. And BTW, I prefer the look/color scheme of the Marantz MPH-2's to both the Yenona and the LyxPro HAS-30s, so there's that...
 
Marantz MPH-2
The sound is relatively flat and unhyped. Some on this string think the bass is elevated. I would agree, but I think it's a relatively shallow & flat elevation: it's not a bass-dominates-everything-else design. The bass sounds really excellent to my ears, impact and depth (some sub-bass) w/o that classic midbass "hump" that can make the bass dominate. The bass doesn't intrude on the midrange, which to my ears is more than adequate in detail, impact, and good sound quality. The highs (to me) are really perfect: not peaky/bright at all, but very detailed. You hear everything up & down the frequency range. The soundstaging is average to a little above average for an inexpensive closed design. You can change the sound by switching pad if you want, but I can't be bothered (comments re pads below).
 
Net/net: I find the sound of the Marantz' to flat-out enjoyable/fun AND surprisingly accurate, to the point where I could see them being used for studio monitoring. Whenever I use them, I quickly forget about the headphones and think only of the music--which tells you how good they really are.
 
Comfort is IMO above average. The earpads are extremely comfortable to me. I have big ears and they fit comfortably in the opening. The pads are plenty deep; your ears should never touch the drivers. The handband is a little less comfortable, but still above average (bear in mind that I have a large head & this comment won't apply to those who don't). The clamping pressure is a little bit much but not annoying or distracting (and the headphone can be "stretched out" by placing it around the arm of sofa or  desktop PC case to keep the earpads far from each other (I've left it like that overnight several times to stretch). The inside of the headband is pretty well padded. The earcup sliders adjust quite far in the "more" direction and are very positive/clicky, so you won't be sliding these headphones open to the max (or slamming them shut) every time you touch them.
 
Earpads: I changed earpads on the LyxPro HAS-30's to the HM5 "extra thick," non-angled pleathers (my favorite aftermarket pad). The results were rather interesting: the bass became more impactful (it was already good, so that was a surprise); soundstage definitely increased/widened (another surprise). But the highs definitely got brighter. I addressed that with a cotton fabric insert at the bottom of each pad, and the result was just about right. w/HM5 pads, these headphones hit like hammer. But...the comfort on stock pads is subtly different and better. The HM5's feel good on/around the ears, as they always do--but there was an odd feeling of a slight vaccuum between each ear and the earcups, as if the seal was a little too good. So I prefer stock pads.
 
If you get the Marantz MPH-2's, by all means experiment with pad to see what I mean. But I suspect you'll end up returning to stock.
 
Net/net: no matter what size your head, these should be above average in comfort, and the pad are really fine.
 
Cable: the supplied cable is (I believe) 3M long, but has a captive velco tie that I used to take up the slack by ~1M. The 3.5mm end that attached to the headphone is a proprietary "twist-and-lock" design, meaning you can't use aftermarket cables w/this headphone. But it sounds just fine and I stopped thinking cable-thoughts pretty quickly.
 
 
YENONA Adapter- Free DJ Headhones
The sound (at first) was really delightful to me: clearly a somewhat "U-shaped" design with somewhat elevated bass and sparkly treble, but it was so fun & listenable I wasn't complaining. I thought the basic sound coming out of these 'phones was way way better than I could have predicted (they became my favorite headphones for awhile). The midrange was average/above-average, but a little lower in volume/impact than the lows & highs. Soundstage was actually pretty good, again, far more than i expected. I was enjoying the Yenona's like crazy for 3 weeks or so (after burning them in for ~150 hrs)--when the sound started change: the lows got somewhat "boomy" and the highs became brighter than they had been. I had noticed that they Yenona's could sound boomy in bass in a HP amp that is warm/rich in that area (ie, my M Stage Matrix HPA-1), but they had not sounded that way on more "honest" amps (ie, my Burson Soloist and/or Lake People G109-A).
 
To get this changing sound under control, I switched to MrSpeakers Alpha pads, which are really sweet pads. The bass cleared up nicely but the highs were still a little bright. A fabric insert in the bottom of each pad fixed that. I listened to them like that for awhile, but found the relatively low clamping pressure of these headphones (see "Comfort" below) was actually not helping--the Alpha pads are so thick, so angled, that I had to lightly press each earcup against my ears to experience how they really sound on the Yenona's. That wasn't convenient, so I tried the HM5's. Once again these terrific pads got me 90% home: the bass became just about perfect and the already good soundstage got better.  The highs were still peaky, so I've been experimenting w/fabric & paper inserts (currently have 1 X cotton + 2 X tissue paper inserts in bottom of each earpad, and these headphones again sound pretty damn good to me.
 
NOTE: my experience w/the sound of the Yenona's changing has apparently not happened with others on this string who own the Yenona's. So maybe it's just me.
 
Comfort is very good with Yenona's: they're quite light, the stock pads are the deepest & most comfortable I've ever experienced, and the clamping pressure is rather low. You can put these on and simply forget they're there.
 
Cable/connections: The Yenona's have unusual connection flexibiilty: the bottom of 1 earcup receives a 3.5mm jack, and the bottom of the other receives a 6.5mm jack. I used my 3.5mm-to-6.5mm aftermarket cables (connecting 3.5mm end to earcups and 6.5mm end to amp)--but found the 3.5mm receptacle is too loose. So now I use a 6.5mm-to-6.5mm cable connected to the very secure/not loose 6.5mm jack.
 
 
Again, my vote is the Marantz MPH-2's, but they're both really fun, enjoyable headphones IMO.

 

[peter123]

I posted this in the MSUR thread but I thought that I should share it here as well:

After doing some easy mods and a lot of listening to my Bosshifi B6 I thought I'd share some of my impression.

The stock B6 was a disappointment to me, very bassy with recessed midrange and quite hollow sounding.

I had read about the awful stock pads before ordering my pair but since I've got a good assortment of earpads around that didn't bother me much so the first thing I did when I got them was to change the pads to Alpha Pads. Still the sound was not as good as I had hoped for so I opened up the cups just to find them completely empty. From my experience from other modding projects I know some filling can make a big difference so I added a piece of Dynamat in the cups and put some glass fiber filling in there and put it all together again. With the Alpha Pads the sound was better but still not really great so I did a lot of testing with different amounts of filling in the cups, pads and foam disks in front of the pads and finally I settled on the HM5 pleather pads without any foam disks and have used them this way for a couple of weeks now.

Here's some pictures of the small amount of modifications I've done to get a big amount of better sound back in return:







The changes in sound from the stock to the modded version are slightly reduced bass presence and increased quality, more forward midrange and a much less hollow sounding presentation.

Now I'd describe the sound as fairly well balanced with a good amount of high quality sub bass while the mid bass is much more subdued. The quite low amount of mid bass gives a nice amount of air to the presentation and does also make the whole sound very clean. Midrange is well in line with the other frequencies now and although the mids are not super lush they still feel natural and well presented. The treble is very nice with good extension and no harshness whatsoever.

I'm very impressed with the transparency and resolution in them and soundstage width is very good for a pair of closed headphones while depth is average. There's also a significant amount of air in the presentation. Unfortunately there's also a slight amount of hollowness still presents but this does only show on some rare occasions now and I wouldn't say that it's any worse that on the Brainwavz HM5's.

To my great pleasure I can use my Hifiman cables on the B6 as well and they works perfectly fine with the balanced cable for my HE400i.

Although they're very easy to drive I'd say that they're quite picky with the source due to the hollowness. I like them a lot with my Opus #1 DAP so most of my listening have been done with it.

I'm not really a big fan of closed headphones as I prefer open ones or earphones/IEM's if I don't want to disturb others. That's not to say that I'm not interested in closed cans but rather that it's not where I'm going to spend any larger amounts of money. My favorite closed headphones so far has been the Takstar Pro80 for years now so I thought I'd make a small comparison between them and the B6. My Pro80 does also have HM5 pleather pads on them and I've used the Opus #1 as source when comparing the two.

Build quality in general feels quite sturdy on both and I know for a fact that the Pro80 holds up very well over time since I had them for many years now. Still the wood cups on the B6 makes them both feel and look more premium.

Both are also very comfortable to wear for a long period of time and isolation is equally great on both. The metal arch on top of the headband on the B6 carries a lot of sound into the ear cups though so they're actually only ideal for indoor usage. The same is true for the Pro80 due to their long non-detachable cable (in opposite to the detachable one on the B6).



When it comes to sound I must say that the B6 is an upgrade from my beloved Pro80 on pretty much everything.

Although these two sounds far from identical they still have a fairly similar overall sound signature. Compared to the Pro80 the B6 has deeper and better quality subbass as well as less midbass presence. The midrange is more forward and also feels more liquid and lush while treble is pretty similar with a slightly smoother presentation on the B6. Overall resolution and clarity are better on the B6 and the Pro80 does actually sounds muddy in comparison. The B6 does also have a wider stage while depth and height are fairly similar. The only thing the Pro80 really does better is that they manage to never sound hollow on any source or with any music.

So to sum it up the B6 are my new favorite pair of closed headphones and will probably be so for a long time since I've got my priorities towards other things in my ever growing collection. They do need some easy mods to reach their true potential and I'd have liked a bit more warmth in the mid and upper bass area but for $70 they're still crazy good value imo.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I posted this in the MSUR thread but I thought that I should share it here as well:

After doing some easy mods and a lot of listening to my Bosshifi B6 I thought I'd share some of my impression.

The stock B6 was a disappointment to me, very bassy with recessed midrange and quite hollow sounding.

I had read about the awful stock pads before ordering my pair but since I've got a good assortment of earpads around that didn't bother me much so the first thing I did when I got them was to change the pads to Alpha Pads. Still the sound was not as good as I had hoped for so I opened up the cups just to find them completely empty. From my experience from other modding projects I know some filling can make a big difference so I added a piece of Dynamat in the cups and put some glass fiber filling in there and put it all together again. With the Alpha Pads the sound was better but still not really great so I did a lot of testing with different amounts of filling in the cups, pads and foam disks in front of the pads and finally I settled on the HM5 pleather pads without any foam disks and have used them this way for a couple of weeks now.

Here's some pictures of the small amount of modifications I've done to get a big amount of better sound back in return:







The changes in sound from the stock to the modded version are slightly reduced bass presence and increased quality, more forward midrange and a much less hollow sounding presentation.

Now I'd describe the sound as fairly well balanced with a good amount of high quality sub bass while the mid bass is much more subdued. The quite low amount of mid bass gives a nice amount of air to the presentation and does also make the whole sound very clean. Midrange is well in line with the other frequencies now and although the mids are not super lush they still feel natural and well presented. The treble is very nice with good extension and no harshness whatsoever.

I'm very impressed with the transparency and resolution in them and soundstage width is very good for a pair of closed headphones while depth is average. There's also a significant amount of air in the presentation. Unfortunately there's also a slight amount of hollowness still presents but this does only show on some rare occasions now and I wouldn't say that it's any worse that on the Brainwavz HM5's.

To my great pleasure I can use my Hifiman cables on the B6 as well and they works perfectly fine with the balanced cable for my HE400i.

Although they're very easy to drive I'd say that they're quite picky with the source due to the hollowness. I like them a lot with my Opus #1 DAP so most of my listening have been done with it.

I'm not really a big fan of closed headphones as I prefer open ones or earphones/IEM's if I don't want to disturb others. That's not to say that I'm not interested in closed cans but rather that it's not where I'm going to spend any larger amounts of money. My favorite closed headphones so far has been the Takstar Pro80 for years now so I thought I'd make a small comparison between them and the B6. My Pro80 does also have HM5 pleather pads on them and I've used the Opus #1 as source when comparing the two.

Build quality in general feels quite sturdy on both and I know for a fact that the Pro80 holds up very well over time since I had them for many years now. Still the wood cups on the B6 makes them both feel and look more premium.

Both are also very comfortable to wear for a long period of time and isolation is equally great on both. The metal arch on top of the headband on the B6 carries a lot of sound into the ear cups though so they're actually only ideal for indoor usage. The same is true for the Pro80 due to their long non-detachable cable (in opposite to the detachable one on the B6).



When it comes to sound I must say that the B6 is an upgrade from my beloved Pro80 on pretty much everything.

Although these two sounds far from identical they still have a fairly similar overall sound signature. Compared to the Pro80 the B6 has deeper and better quality subbass as well as less midbass presence. The midrange is more forward and also feels more liquid and lush while treble is pretty similar with a slightly smoother presentation on the B6. Overall resolution and clarity are better on the B6 and the Pro80 does actually sounds muddy in comparison. The B6 does also have a wider stage while depth and height are fairly similar. The only thing the Pro80 really does better is that they manage to never sound hollow on any source or with any music.

So to sum it up the B6 are my new favorite pair of closed headphones and will probably be so for a long time since I've got my priorities towards other things in my ever growing collection. They do need some easy mods to reach their true potential and I'd have liked a bit more warmth in the mid and upper bass area but for $70 they're still crazy good value imo.

 
Nice comments! I'm not even that interested in the B6, but your comments make more more interested.
 
Re "foam discs," what are those? Where do you get them?
 
I've been unable to find thin-enough foam to use in the based of earpads. Instead, I resorted to fabric inserts (cut out of a clean/old t-shirt, oval shape), and in one case, adding 1 or 2 ovals cut out of tissue paper, the kind you find shirts or other gifts wrapped in/surrounded by in boxes. 
 
But I'd love the try foam.
 
Really good comments.

 

[peter123]

Nice comments! I'm not even that interested in the B6, but your comments make more more interested.

Re "foam discs," what are those? Where do you get them?

I've been unable to find thin-enough foam to use in the based of earpads. Instead, I resorted to fabric inserts (cut out of a clean/old t-shirt, oval shape), and in one case, adding 1 or 2 ovals cut out of tissue paper, the kind you find shirts or other gifts wrapped in/surrounded by in boxes. 

But I'd love the try foam.

Really good comments.

Thanks and likewise for your post above mine!

Foam disks are the thin dust protection on the ear side. They come in different thickness and can be used to tune the sound (mainly treble) to some extent. Just Google AKG foam disk and check the pictures and you'll see what I mean.

I've actually used some stiff coaxial cables to put under some part of the pads to make them angled before. Worked better than tissue for me so might be worth a shot.

 

[HavocStellar]

I own them both. In fact, I own 2 near-identical versions of the basic ISK MPH9000 design, the Marantz MPH-2 and the LyxPro HAS-30 (sound identical, look nearly identical).

I've posted numerous comments here about all 3 headphones. To summarize:

I love the Yenona's, but IMO the Marantz MPH-2 is technically better, meaning it sounds more even, balanced, unexaggerated, etc. It does "the technicalities" a little better than the Yenona. So if you had to buy just 1, I'd say go for the Marantz MPH-2's. And BTW, I prefer the look/color scheme of the Marantz MPH-2's to both the Yenona and the LyxPro HAS-30s, so there's that...

Marantz MPH-2
The sound is relatively flat and unhyped. Some on this string think the bass is elevated. I would agree, but I think it's a relatively shallow & flat elevation: it's not a bass-dominates-everything-else design. The bass sounds really excellent to my ears, impact and depth (some sub-bass) w/o that classic midbass "hump" that can make the bass dominate. The bass doesn't intrude on the midrange, which to my ears is more than adequate in detail, impact, and good sound quality. The highs (to me) are really perfect: not peaky/bright at all, but very detailed. You hear everything up & down the frequency range. The soundstaging is average to a little above average for an inexpensive closed design. You can change the sound by switching pad if you want, but I can't be bothered (comments re pads below).

Net/net: I find the sound of the Marantz' to flat-out enjoyable/fun AND surprisingly accurate, to the point where I could see them being used for studio monitoring. Whenever I use them, I quickly forget about the headphones and think only of the music--which tells you how good they really are.

Comfort is IMO above average. The earpads are extremely comfortable to me. I have big ears and they fit comfortably in the opening. The pads are plenty deep; your ears should never touch the drivers. The handband is a little less comfortable, but still above average (bear in mind that I have a large head & this comment won't apply to those who don't). The clamping pressure is a little bit much but not annoying or distracting (and the headphone can be "stretched out" by placing it around the arm of sofa or  desktop PC case to keep the earpads far from each other (I've left it like that overnight several times to stretch). The inside of the headband is pretty well padded. The earcup sliders adjust quite far in the "more" direction and are very positive/clicky, so you won't be sliding these headphones open to the max (or slamming them shut) every time you touch them.

Earpads: I changed earpads on the LyxPro HAS-30's to the HM5 "extra thick," non-angled pleathers (my favorite aftermarket pad). The results were rather interesting: the bass became more impactful (it was already good, so that was a surprise); soundstage definitely increased/widened (another surprise). But the highs definitely got brighter. I addressed that with a cotton fabric insert at the bottom of each pad, and the result was just about right. w/HM5 pads, these headphones hit like hammer. But...the comfort on stock pads is subtly different and better. The HM5's feel good on/around the ears, as they always do--but there was an odd feeling of a slight vaccuum between each ear and the earcups, as if the seal was a little too good. So I prefer stock pads.

If you get the Marantz MPH-2's, by all means experiment with pad to see what I mean. But I suspect you'll end up returning to stock.

Net/net: no matter what size your head, these should be above average in comfort, and the pad are really fine.

Cable: the supplied cable is (I believe) 3M long, but has a captive velco tie that I used to take up the slack by ~1M. The 3.5mm end that attached to the headphone is a proprietary "twist-and-lock" design, meaning you can't use aftermarket cables w/this headphone. But it sounds just fine and I stopped thinking cable-thoughts pretty quickly.


YENONA Adapter- Free DJ Headhones
The sound (at first) was really delightful to me: clearly a somewhat "U-shaped" design with somewhat elevated bass and sparkly treble, but it was so fun & listenable I wasn't complaining. I thought the basic sound coming out of these 'phones was way way better than I could have predicted (they became my favorite headphones for awhile). The midrange was average/above-average, but a little lower in volume/impact than the lows & highs. Soundstage was actually pretty good, again, far more than i expected. I was enjoying the Yenona's like crazy for 3 weeks or so (after burning them in for ~150 hrs)--when the sound started change: the lows got somewhat "boomy" and the highs became brighter than they had been. I had noticed that they Yenona's could sound boomy in bass in a HP amp that is warm/rich in that area (ie, my M Stage Matrix HPA-1), but they had not sounded that way on more "honest" amps (ie, my Burson Soloist and/or Lake People G109-A).

To get this changing sound under control, I switched to MrSpeakers Alpha pads, which are really sweet pads. The bass cleared up nicely but the highs were still a little bright. A fabric insert in the bottom of each pad fixed that. I listened to them like that for awhile, but found the relatively low clamping pressure of these headphones (see "Comfort" below) was actually not helping--the Alpha pads are so thick, so angled, that I had to lightly press each earcup against my ears to experience how they really sound on the Yenona's. That wasn't convenient, so I tried the HM5's. Once again these terrific pads got me 90% home: the bass became just about perfect and the already good soundstage got better.  The highs were still peaky, so I've been experimenting w/fabric & paper inserts (currently have 1 X cotton + 2 X tissue paper inserts in bottom of each earpad, and these headphones again sound pretty damn good to me.

NOTE: my experience w/the sound of the Yenona's changing has apparently not happened with others on this string who own the Yenona's. So maybe it's just me.

Comfort is very good with Yenona's: they're quite light, the stock pads are the deepest & most comfortable I've ever experienced, and the clamping pressure is rather low. You can put these on and simply forget they're there.

Cable/connections: The Yenona's have unusual connection flexibiilty: the bottom of 1 earcup receives a 3.5mm jack, and the bottom of the other receives a 6.5mm jack. I used my 3.5mm-to-6.5mm aftermarket cables (connecting 3.5mm end to earcups and 6.5mm end to amp)--but found the 3.5mm receptacle is too loose. So now I use a 6.5mm-to-6.5mm cable connected to the very secure/not loose 6.5mm jack.


Again, my vote is the Marantz MPH-2's, but they're both really fun, enjoyable headphones IMO.

Thankyou for the recommendation, such a long review and compare that i need to take some time to read.
Seems the yenona is better in music and mph2 is better in monitoring.