[jlbrach]

Ordered the Soli P. Hoping it will offer a different flavour to my Susvara and TC. I will find out in a week’s time.
Is there any consensus on stock earpads vs Ultra wide ones?

Mixed feelings so far. I think it deserves some burn in and getting used to, and tinkering with cables and amps before saying more (a SparkoS Aries made its way here just now as well). For now I'll stick to what I don't expect to change with burn in or increased familiarity.

I can say that everything sounds kind of new and different, which is fun. There's sound around you, and you have something on your head, but those two things don't necessarily seem to be related, the sound seems to come from slightly beyond where the headphone is. Until there's sufficient sub bass, then you can feel the housing vibrate a bit, similar to what the HD660S does. The Ether C Flow are harder to impress in that regard, possibly due to the higher clamping force dissipating the energy more quickly or more mass, not sure.
There's an unfamiliar delicacy to the sound, which feels more like a qualitative improvement than just a quantitative one, in other words it's sufficiently more resolving to reach a new level for me.

Now those are very early impressions, based on maybe an hour of listening, using Spotify Premium, Bifrost 2, Wireworld Eclipse 8 XLR interconnects into a Gustard H20 with SparkoS opamps and using a 4-pin XLR Lavricables 20 core silver headphone cable, just for context.

Comfort seems great, though (again, no prolonged sessions yet). You just... put it on your head. It took me a while to figure out how to put the Ether Flow on just right for comfort, but not with these.

As suspected, it looks and feels more premium in person, no complaints about cheapness of any kind here. I like the recessed cable jacks, and I hope Hirose connector clones don't cause issues, it's a tight fit. That bass port looks sophisticated, too, heh.

It came very well packaged. I think it's a missed opportunity to use such a large, fancy box, though. Obviously you want to keep the box if you need to ship it back for repairs or if you want to sell it. Since it folds down so nicely, the box could have been much smaller and waste less space in my apartment.


Interesting. It smelled familiar. I hope it stops off-gasing, I had to get rid of products that use 3M VHB before because that stingy chemical odor just wouldn't stop even after weeks, irritating my throat.

It's not super strong here, I just caught a wiff of it when I took them off. It's not the headband, that just smells like leather.

spotify ?...4K HP's with MP3?....

 

[iamoneagain]

spotify ?...4K HP's with MP3?....

Yeah Spotify hasn’t released lossless tier. Without lossless you’re missing out a finer details and quality soundstaging.

Also want to say in that prior post with the 3 headphones, the Stealth does look better that other pics I’ve seen.

I’m in San Diego, does Dan have a place to stop by and try these?

 

[Alcophone]

spotify ?...4K HP's with MP3?....

Heh, I almost didn't want to mention it.

First, it's Ogg Vorbis, not MP3 (at least when I listen through the foobar2000 plugin for it). I know, lossy compression is lossy, so same difference, I hear you.

Second I find the sound quality much better than you might think. I can get excellent imaging on speakers with Spotify Premium. I can still identify timbre differences in interconnects with Spotify Premium.

Third, I'd love to use Qobuz, but when I last tried that, the catalog was way too tiny, the app too buggy and the cross device integration was mostly absent. Tidal uses MQA even with 16/44.1 content, I don't want any of that. I have an Amazon Music HD subscription, and use that occasionally, but the app still doesn't set the sample rate as needed based on the track, and it's a pain to use through BluOS if I want to go the streamer route. And through Chromecast, it doesn't do HD. And I can't control it across devices.

I'll use Amazon Music HD when I want more than just a quick impression, and up to 24/192 FLAC files are ready to go as well. And I really hope Spotify releases its Hifi plan sooner than later so I don't have to choose between convenience and optimal sound. Well, CD quality at least.

 

[TMRaven]

spotify ?...4K HP's with MP3?....

Nothing wrong with 320kbps files.

 

[jlbrach]

Heh, I almost didn't want to mention it.

First, it's Ogg Vorbis, not MP3 (at least when I listen through the foobar2000 plugin for it). I know, lossy compression is lossy, so same difference, I hear you.

Second I find the sound quality much better than you might think. I can get excellent imaging on speakers with Spotify Premium. I can still identify timbre differences in interconnects with Spotify Premium.

Third, I'd love to use Qobuz, but when I last tried that, the catalog was way too tiny, the app too buggy and the cross device integration was mostly absent. Tidal uses MQA even with 16/44.1 content, I don't want any of that. I have an Amazon Music HD subscription, and use that occasionally, but the app still doesn't set the sample rate as needed based on the track, and it's a pain to use through BluOS if I want to go the streamer route. And through Chromecast, it doesn't do HD. And I can't control it across devices.

I'll use Amazon Music HD when I want more than just a quick impression, and up to 24/192 FLAC files are ready to go as well. And I really hope Spotify releases its Hifi plan sooner than later so I don't have to choose between convenience and optimal sound. Well, CD quality at least.

you certainly can do whatever you want but it seems to me that when you plunk down 4k on a pair of HP's it is because you expect to discern all the detail you can....there are so many ways to avoid having to listen to MP3 or any lossy source...I dont get it

 

[FYFL]

Ever seen a guy behind a wheel of a Ferrari on pothole infested Manhattan streets? He likes what he likes and what he likes he gets.

 

[Alcophone]

you certainly can do whatever you want but it seems to me that when you plunk down 4k on a pair of HP's it is because you expect to discern all the detail you can....there are so many ways to avoid having to listen to MP3 or any lossy source...I dont get it

At the end of the day it's about enjoying music. I'd rather discover lots of great songs with 320 kbit/s compression than listen to the few FLACs I bought on HD Tracks or ripped from my CDs over and over again. It's not like good headphones make no difference with 320 kbit/s, far from it.

Spotify Hifi is coming. The second I can use it, I will, even if it doubles my subscription fee. It nags me every day that it's lossy compression when I can stream 4K HDR movies in real time. Most of what I listen to is likely not available in better than CD quality anyway. Though I have already been surprised, but a noisy recording is noisy in lossless 24/96, too. Looking at you, Ruth B.

I can get lost in the music with Spotify. With everything else, the hassle of it is a distraction.

 

[jlbrach]

why not use tidal if you dont like the qobuz selection

 

[xirxes]

Yeah Spotify hasn’t released lossless tier. Without lossless you’re missing out a finer details and quality soundstaging.

Also want to say in that prior post with the 3 headphones, the Stealth does look better that other pics I’ve seen.

I’m in San Diego, does Dan have a place to stop by and try these?

Only spot to try these local is The Source A/V in Torrence cA.

you can audition LCD4/XC and the whole abyss line at Stereo Unlimited in Point Loma though.

 

[slainte]

I enjoy Deezer HiFi aside from lossless tracks ripped from my library. Maybe another option you can trial 'till Spotify sorts out things on their end?

 

[Icenine2]

FedEx!!!!!! Had my whole night planned out listening but Nooooooooooooooo..............................

 

[duranxv]

Oh, we have an old timer. My Stealth is arriving tomorrow. Just noticed that my Rögnir is on the shelf charging its laser gun.

I definitely want to hear your impressions of the Stealth vs Rognir for gaming. You are doing a great service to mankind, sir

 

[Nostoi]

I definitely want to hear your impressions of the Stealth vs Rognir for gaming. You are doing a great service to mankind, sir

I will also get the chance to A/B the Rögnir vs Stealth this afternoon thanks to hospitality of the local dealer. Look forward to reading @DarginMahkum thoughts, too.

 

[duranxv]

I will also get the chance to A/B the Rögnir vs Stealth this afternoon thanks to hospitality of the local dealer. Look forward to reading @DarginMahkum thoughts, too.

Do an A/B/C with the Rognir, VC and Stealth

 

[Nostoi]

Do an A/B/C with the Rognir, VC and Stealth

Sure, why not indeed!