Any more updated impressions guys?
Would like to hear comparisons with Hippo VB, Sony XB90EX and Sennheiser IE80
Here are some comparisons with the XB90EX:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/624637/denon-ah-c300-urban-raver-impressions/15#post_9888657
The guy who wrote the following review told me that the AH-C300 are much better than the XB90EX
Here are some comparisons with the IE8:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/624637/denon-ah-c300-urban-raver-impressions/30#post_9945021
I gave some impressions about the highs in this post:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/624637/denon-ah-c300-urban-raver-impressions/60#post_10082020
But, I have not yet posted my definitive impressions for the AH-C300. They are still settling on my hearing and fortunately in a good way. I have discovered that the reason for treble sounding hot (harsh and cheap) when there is one or more spikes between 2kHz and 5kHz in the FR graph, is the overall treble being dry. That is exactly how my AH-C300 sounded in the first few hundred hours of use. If the treble loosens up and gets better decay, those spikes do not sound nearly as bad. That is exactly what is happening now with my AH-C300. Those cheap sounding lower highs are not cheap anymore. Let's see how far the improvement goes.
Are we talking about driver or cable burn in here? I don't know. I just know that I listen to the R-50 as a reference of what a very good treble should sound like. Getting used to the R-50 sound and going back to the AH-C300 was quite a disappointment at first. It isn't anymore and also, I don't find myself lowering the volume of the 2.5-5kHz range in all recordings, like I did when they just had about 100 working hours. The change here is similar to what happened with this cable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005AWT9IM/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Right out of the box, the treble was harsh and dry. It was bad enough when compared to my printer cable to make me realize that different makes of USB cables can and do sound different. It was bad enough to make me think that cable burn in could be a reality. But, I had to wait and see what my hearing would say. Fortunately, after several hundred working hours the dryness and therefore the harshness went away. Still, my printer cable has the better treble decay and it seems like it will always be that way. This Pangea USB cable is better in other ways and I prefer one over the other depending on the earphones used and other components of the audio chain. I can't wait to have the chance to run a blind test with these cables and post the results.
I would be very happy if the AH-C300 treble changes as much as the Pangea USB cable treble did. Let's see what happens before posting my final impressions on the AH-C300.