[Stillhart]

I already have my flight tickets and hotel reservation for RMAF !

 
 

I'm going to give this some serious thought now. Hmmm....

 
It's on the weekend of my 5th wedding anniversary and I STILL might go!  My wife has absolutely no interest in going and she's fine with me going, but I have to decide if it's worth the inevitable long term cost.  
 
Off topic:  @musicman59, I've got a loaner PM-3 right now and I'm just REALLY impressed with it.  I'm totally getting a pair!  Thanks for letting me demo yours at Canjam!  

 

[kid vic]

  K340? Really? It needs to be compared to something like HD800s not to vintage mediocre sfuff. I don't care about the design, the result is what really matters IMO.

Lool sure you are right that it should be compared to new flagships but I have the K340's in front of me and I want to know if the Dharma fixes the things I don't like about the K340's while keeping (or improving) it's strong points. I like them almost as much as my HE-500's which seem to be considered comparable to the HD800's so it'll be nice to hear the 3 together imo.

 

[musicman59]

   
 
 
It's on the weekend of my 5th wedding anniversary and I STILL might go!  My wife has absolutely no interest in going and she's fine with me going, but I have to decide if it's worth the inevitable long term cost.  
 
Off topic:  @musicman59, I've got a loaner PM-3 right now and I'm just REALLY impressed with it.  I'm totally getting a pair!  Thanks for letting me demo yours at Canjam!  

Great! I think at the price and even a little higher they are unbeatable! I love mine too! 

 

[coletrain104]

Just so you guys know, the Dharma is making an appearance at the Annandale Head-Fi meet this weekend, so you may see some impressions coming up. Since I believe it is a smaller meet and won't include speakers, there actually may be some impressions of the dharma in a quiet-ish setting
EDIT: forgot to mention that these are the same pre-production models that appeared at Socal, so nothing is final, necessarily

 

[coletrain104]

Near the end of the meet, once things had quieted down, I headed over to the table with the Dharma, paired with the athena amp. Soundstage was excellent, Bass was full with plenty of impact, yet still reached low, despite a slight midbass accentuation. Mids were nice and warm, definitely not cold. treble was really well executed. Not spiky, more linear than HD800 to my ears. Soundstage was quite wide (HD 800 ish or greater width), though it didn't seem especially deep. I wouldn't put a ton of stock in such quick listening and impressions, but basically, its good, and the treble isn't too hot. Good technicalities. Of course, things like detail retrieval and imaging are just too hard to tell in meet conditions. Also, it is a pre-production model. I got some time talking to the store rep that brought them in, and basically, aesthetic changes will occur, and this thing will look classy.

 

[mangler]

Thanks for the impressions coletrain104 the more I read about these the more certain I am that I'll end up buying them. Out of curiosity though, what tracks did you listen to, and what was the source? Hopefully it was better than an iPad this time

 

[coletrain104]

Source was some Celsus Sound device. I was not familiar with it, but it is a portable DAC/amp, and can stream music via wifi. It was acting as the DAC, and it was hooked up to the Athena amp they offer. I listened "Strange Birds" by Birdy, "Better" by Hurt, pieces of some Ed Sheeran songs I am familiar with, and "Sail" by AWOLNATION.

 

[BlakeT]

Thanks to everyone in this thread posting impressions from CanJam, to help those who could not attend.  The Dharma sounds like my kind of can, so I really look forward to doing a demo of the production version and if all goes well, adding them to my stable.

 

[Timestretch]

I heard these at the Annandale head-fi meet yesterday. I listened to M83, Above & Beyond, and The Naked & Famous. Not a huge selection - but then I didn't spend a ton of time, There were just so many other things to try as well.  
  
From what I did experience:  
  
Really smooth sound. "polite?" Nothing was abrasive or grating or fatiguing even in the slightest. Very clear, did kinda remind me of the nearby STAX SR-007 a little bit. It was also very comfortable and very lightweight. Compared to my HE-6, I think if I were to switch to a Dharma as my primary headphone my neck muscles would start to atrophy -- it really feels like it's no weight at all.   
  
I think it was entirely competitive with the other high-end setups available. I'd need more time trying it to determine if I prefer it over my HE-6, but it definitely is something to watch out for. 

 

[grizzlybeast]

I want to see a release date. Overall I wish my lcd-x had a wider and more airy sound stage with a smoother tonality. Plus Im a basshead. I might sell it and get this if its worth it. THe lcd-x is my second fav headphone but its way over priced and thats only because the he-4 didnt have enough bass for me. 
 
Im excited for these!

 

[coletrain104]

The retailer from whom I listened to these said that the retail edition would be available in May, I believe. 

 

[preproman]

  I heard these at the Annandale head-fi meet yesterday. I listened to M83, Above & Beyond, and The Naked & Famous. Not a huge selection - but then I didn't spend a ton of time, There were just so many other things to try as well.  
  
From what I did experience:  
  
Really smooth sound. "polite?" Nothing was abrasive or grating or fatiguing even in the slightest. Very clear, did kinda remind me of the nearby STAX SR-007 a little bit. It was also very comfortable and very lightweight. Compared to my HE-6, I think if I were to switch to a Dharma as my primary headphone my neck muscles would start to atrophy -- it really feels like it's no weight at all.   
  
I think it was entirely competitive with the other high-end setups available. I'd need more time trying it to determine if I prefer it over my HE-6, but it definitely is something to watch out for. 

 
It's good to hear a comparison with this headphone and an HE-6 owner.  How is the mids compared to the HE-6 - ie.. Female vocals?  Do the Dharma have the full bodied sound the HE-6 has?  

 

[Timestretch]

   
It's good to hear a comparison with this headphone and an HE-6 owner.  How is the mids compared to the HE-6 - ie.. Female vocals?  Do the Dharma have the full bodied sound the HE-6 has?  

  
I don't think I had enough time to judge it fairly so I don't want to say much for certain. I was very impressed by the vocals on the Dharma, but I didn't have the right environment to do a proper comparison to my HE-6. I am also very partial to the HE-6, so at this point I'd be surprised if I prefer anything over it.  
 
I do remember being especially impressed with the vocals and the higher-pitched parts of songs -- not that they were necessarily more clear or better than the HE-6, but it was like a different take on that range than what I knew, and it was still good. There was definitely that electrostatic feeling of effortless music being produced out of the air, and that made the vocals sound very beautiful. It was easy to just comfortably zone out and fade away into the music wearing these. Where as the HE-6 has clarity, power, and punch, the Dharma was also clear, but had less force to its sound. Just had a softer, easier characteristic. Maybe it was merely a question of volume difference between setups. 
 
I'm sorry, but I don't have quite the right vocabulary to describe these usefully - I'll defer to anyone who had more time to review them. I am considering buying a pair when they release, but I would not anticipate *replacing* my HE-6 with them.   

 

[cute]

 

   
It's good to hear a comparison with this headphone and an HE-6 owner.  How is the mids compared to the HE-6 - ie.. Female vocals?  Do the Dharma have the full bodied sound the HE-6 has?  

  
I don't think I had enough time to judge it fairly so I don't want to say much for certain. I was very impressed by the vocals on the Dharma, but I didn't have the right environment to do a proper comparison to my HE-6. I am also very partial to the HE-6, so at this point I'd be surprised if I prefer anything over it.  
 
I do remember being especially impressed with the vocals and the higher-pitched parts of songs -- not that they were necessarily more clear or better than the HE-6, but it was like a different take on that range than what I knew, and it was still good. There was definitely that electrostatic feeling of effortless music being produced out of the air, and that made the vocals sound very beautiful. It was easy to just comfortably zone out and fade away into the music wearing these. Where as the HE-6 has clarity, power, and punch, the Dharma was also clear, but had less force to its sound. Just had a softer, easier characteristic. Maybe it was merely a question of volume difference between setups. 
 
I'm sorry, but I don't have quite the right vocabulary to describe these usefully - I'll defer to anyone who had more time to review them. I am considering buying a pair when they release, but I would not anticipate *replacing* my HE-6 with them.   

 
What mods have you done to your HE-6. or was it stock?  Knowing that would be helpful!

 

[Timestretch]

Mine is still stock, but Musicinmymind brought a modded HE-6 to the same meet which I spent some time with. His had a custom cable, new grilles, removed the fabric/stuffing under the grilles, and new earpads. The differences to me were subtle but I did feel his sounded more spacious than mine.