I have been burning mine for two weeks now.
FiiO&JadeAudio Over-Ear Headphones Discussion & Impressions Thread
Yeah, I hoped the synergy was good between these.
R&D story (6) The metaphysics of headphone cables - the stock cable of the FT3, out-of-print Furukawa PCOCC-A monocrystalline copper cable
The metaphysics of headphone cables - the stock cable of the FT3, out-of-print Furukawa PCOCC-A monocrystalline copper cable.
This chapter involves 2 parts, one of which is about the metaphysics and science of headphone cables, and the other is about the stock cable of the FT3.
Previously, someone had collated the ten metaphysics of HiFi, one of which is headphone cables. It says that HiFi cable is a deception, proved with a lot of blind listening cases reshared online, as well as the measurement results by instruments saying there were little differences between costly and cheap cables, so that it will not be able to cause audible differences.
Here, we would like to share our personal opinions. Let’s make a discussion.
1. Headphone cable as a carrier of audio transmission, comes with absolute great importance. Through tests by precise Wheatstone bridge, cables of different diameters have measurable differences in impedance, capacitive resistance, and inductive resistance.
Therefore, objectively, audio signals traveling through the wires will be different due to the material, braiding method, length, insulation and other parameters. The signal is subject to change, we should not assume that the cable is a rational conductor not causing any signal changes (It is estimated that the most expensive cable would be made from high temperature superconductor).
2. Whether the subjective opinion of listening is scientific?
Many blind listening and subjective listening experiences are generally not scientific enough, which were statistical inferences based on a group.
Personally, we think that the human sense of hearing is quite unreliable. Each person's ear structure is very different. So, using a subjective sense of hearing to make scientific judgments will be far from the truth. Just like the ancient people considered that the Earth was the center of the universe by seeing the sun/moon rise from the east and set in the northwest.
3. Whether humans can distinguish the objective physical differences between cables?
This should be the most important. Many articles said that many people cannot tell the difference between MP3 and lossless, and cannot hear the differences between 1% and 0.1% distortion. And some articles even said that humans cannot distinguish the distortion below 1%.
However, for one thing, Apple, SONY and other companies with scientists and a large number of engineers, are still working hard on more specifications of the music formats. Now, 192K/24B format is starting to be popularized on streaming music. If the sound quality of MP3 is enough, are these large companies working hard just to fool the public?
For the other, every year the headphone exhibitions will hold blind listening contests. In a double-blind situation, there were still some users that could make it all right every time.
So, here are our opinions.
1. For the average person, the physiological hearing resolution is not enough to detect the difference between the cables under normal circumstances. However, the minority with sensitive hearing are able to hear the difference in sound quality between different cables.
2. In terms of speaker cable, headphone cable, analog signal cable, digital signal cable, power cable, the impact on the sound quality is getting smaller.
3. For ordinary users, the most critical thing is to experience themselves. If you can hear the differences, you can get the better one. Otherwise, it is unnecessary to waste money.
The stock cable of the FT3 is actually made of the Furukawa monocrystalline copper wire that we purchased years ago. It is very influential in the industry. PCOCC-A wires are the patented annealed monocrystalline copper material from Japan Furukawa. In 2013, the HiIFi market was depressed, so Furukawa cut down their business. Before the discontinuation, they inquired about the last production orders from cable customers.
OYAIDE, FiiO’s Japan distributor at that time, happened to be a well-known brand specializing in various HiFi cable accessories, and they had been sending wires from Japan for us to process into finished cables and then return them to Japan.
They also told us the news. After internal consultation, we thought that it would be a pity if we could not get such good wires in the future. So we ordered a lot of them at once.
Later, we developed a lot of products with this wire one after another. When we started to go on the over-ear headphones, we realized that we were running out of quantity. That's why we issued a statement a few days ago, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstanding when changing the stock cable of the FT3 later.
By the way, many consumers in China, Japan and other countries knew that OYAIDE distributed FiiO products and FiiO helped OYAIDE process various cables. We have no idea about the Furukawa monocrystalline copper cable from other brands, but we can assure our cables are authentic. Taking off the sheath layer outside the cable of the FT3, we can see the OYAIDE logo. Japan is an important market for FiiO, so we dare not use the OYAIDE trademark to sell products there indiscriminately.
The metaphysics of headphone cables - the stock cable of the FT3, out-of-print Furukawa PCOCC-A monocrystalline copper cable.
This chapter involves 2 parts, one of which is about the metaphysics and science of headphone cables, and the other is about the stock cable of the FT3.
Previously, someone had collated the ten metaphysics of HiFi, one of which is headphone cables. It says that HiFi cable is a deception, proved with a lot of blind listening cases reshared online, as well as the measurement results by instruments saying there were little differences between costly and cheap cables, so that it will not be able to cause audible differences.
Here, we would like to share our personal opinions. Let’s make a discussion.
1. Headphone cable as a carrier of audio transmission, comes with absolute great importance. Through tests by precise Wheatstone bridge, cables of different diameters have measurable differences in impedance, capacitive resistance, and inductive resistance.
Therefore, objectively, audio signals traveling through the wires will be different due to the material, braiding method, length, insulation and other parameters. The signal is subject to change, we should not assume that the cable is a rational conductor not causing any signal changes (It is estimated that the most expensive cable would be made from high temperature superconductor).
2. Whether the subjective opinion of listening is scientific?
Many blind listening and subjective listening experiences are generally not scientific enough, which were statistical inferences based on a group.
Personally, we think that the human sense of hearing is quite unreliable. Each person's ear structure is very different. So, using a subjective sense of hearing to make scientific judgments will be far from the truth. Just like the ancient people considered that the Earth was the center of the universe by seeing the sun/moon rise from the east and set in the northwest.
3. Whether humans can distinguish the objective physical differences between cables?
This should be the most important. Many articles said that many people cannot tell the difference between MP3 and lossless, and cannot hear the differences between 1% and 0.1% distortion. And some articles even said that humans cannot distinguish the distortion below 1%.
However, for one thing, Apple, SONY and other companies with scientists and a large number of engineers, are still working hard on more specifications of the music formats. Now, 192K/24B format is starting to be popularized on streaming music. If the sound quality of MP3 is enough, are these large companies working hard just to fool the public?
For the other, every year the headphone exhibitions will hold blind listening contests. In a double-blind situation, there were still some users that could make it all right every time.
So, here are our opinions.
1. For the average person, the physiological hearing resolution is not enough to detect the difference between the cables under normal circumstances. However, the minority with sensitive hearing are able to hear the difference in sound quality between different cables.
2. In terms of speaker cable, headphone cable, analog signal cable, digital signal cable, power cable, the impact on the sound quality is getting smaller.
3. For ordinary users, the most critical thing is to experience themselves. If you can hear the differences, you can get the better one. Otherwise, it is unnecessary to waste money.
The stock cable of the FT3 is actually made of the Furukawa monocrystalline copper wire that we purchased years ago. It is very influential in the industry. PCOCC-A wires are the patented annealed monocrystalline copper material from Japan Furukawa. In 2013, the HiIFi market was depressed, so Furukawa cut down their business. Before the discontinuation, they inquired about the last production orders from cable customers.
OYAIDE, FiiO’s Japan distributor at that time, happened to be a well-known brand specializing in various HiFi cable accessories, and they had been sending wires from Japan for us to process into finished cables and then return them to Japan.
They also told us the news. After internal consultation, we thought that it would be a pity if we could not get such good wires in the future. So we ordered a lot of them at once.
Later, we developed a lot of products with this wire one after another. When we started to go on the over-ear headphones, we realized that we were running out of quantity. That's why we issued a statement a few days ago, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstanding when changing the stock cable of the FT3 later.
By the way, many consumers in China, Japan and other countries knew that OYAIDE distributed FiiO products and FiiO helped OYAIDE process various cables. We have no idea about the Furukawa monocrystalline copper cable from other brands, but we can assure our cables are authentic. Taking off the sheath layer outside the cable of the FT3, we can see the OYAIDE logo. Japan is an important market for FiiO, so we dare not use the OYAIDE trademark to sell products there indiscriminately.
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I don't think so
Dsnuts
Headphoneus Supremus
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I would do at least a K7.
R7 or K9pro for best sonic results if you are sticking with Fiio DAC/amps.
Dsnuts
Headphoneus Supremus
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My take on the FT3 https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fiio-ft3.26471/review/30761/
R&D story (7) Why would FiiO still develop wired HiFi over-ear headphones in 2023?
It is known that after TWS came out, the wired headphone market can basically be ignored, not to mention wired HiFi over-ear headphones.
In terms of HiFi in-ear earbuds, their outer shell can be 3D printed with resin, or processed by CNC at a friendly R&D cost. And the cost of materials is also friendly due to the small size.
That's why we can see there were a bunch of new earbuds coming out at almost every headphone exhibition. The threshold is too low, so a worse sales volume will not lose much money.
However, over-ear headphones are different, which involve a lot of parts and components. These parts need to be molded, with a high cost at 3D printing or CNC processing.
Therefore, rare domestic brands were making HiFi over-ear headphones. Most of the headbands are common, so as to reduce development costs.
So, why would FiiO still develop wired HiFi over-ear headphones in 2023? The answer is still in users. Since we released the popular K5 Pro, we found in the process of communication that our users have encountered many problems in purchase, use, and placement. Here are some examples.
1. There are no integrated solutions at present. In modern times, our time is becoming more and more valuable, and we are not willing to spend so much time exploring appropriate matches among many brands of streaming media players, DAC/Amps, speakers, and headphones.
So, it will be the best solution for manufacturers to recommend a proper set.
2. Many devices are too big to be put on the desktop
Most people currently spend the most time on the desktop working or entertaining. However, the desktop space is very tight after placing a computer, keyboard, mouse and many other things.
Therefore, they require a player, DAC/Amp/speakers/headphones which will not take up too much space.
3. Convenience of operation and use
We will discuss this topic later, because it has a close relation with the R7.
4. The appearance should be attractive and coordinated
Because it is used mostly on the desktop, we think it should be stylish and modern, and coordinated with most other devices.
So, this time, we are not selling a single R7, SP3, or FT3. Instead, our idea is to provide a full set of devices, including the R7 + SP3 + FT3, which can basically meet the needs of sitting next to the desktop listening to music and watching movies or videos.
A pair of high-quality HiFi over-ear headphones is essential. In this way, the 3 products can help each other forward, thus solving a lot of problems for consumers.
This is what Fiio will do in the future. We are not just providing a single solution, but a combo solution including more products based on different usage scenarios.
tombrisbane
500+ Head-Fier
What a great package for the price, the cable and case alone sold me. Mine just touched down in Australia, hopefully here soonish!
Any news about bigger pads? Original are bit claustrofobic, small in Dia. and not deep enough
Dear friend,Any news about bigger pads? Original are bit claustrofobic, small in Dia. and not deep enough
The engineer told us that they are still checking about the sound effect of the bigger pads so we could not tell the exact time currently.
Best regards
KaiFi
500+ Head-Fier
Very interested to try these.
I'm not really looking for new open-backs right now, but I love my Sennheiser HD660S and have been a bit on the fence about upgrading to the S2 (now that they've come down in price) or trying Fiio's first over-ear headphone.
The reviews all sound good, small earcups is a bit of a concern, but probably not as much of a concern as it is for me in closed-backs (because it affects the seal). The pictures don't make the earcups look much smaller than a Focal (which I found to be adequate), but maybe that's deceiving.
In either case, these might be my next purchase...
I'm not really looking for new open-backs right now, but I love my Sennheiser HD660S and have been a bit on the fence about upgrading to the S2 (now that they've come down in price) or trying Fiio's first over-ear headphone.
The reviews all sound good, small earcups is a bit of a concern, but probably not as much of a concern as it is for me in closed-backs (because it affects the seal). The pictures don't make the earcups look much smaller than a Focal (which I found to be adequate), but maybe that's deceiving.
In either case, these might be my next purchase...
Dsnuts
Headphoneus Supremus
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If you have average head and ear size you will be fine. If you have larger ears is where these might pose an issue. I have slightly larger ears than average at my age and I didn't have any problems with comfort or seal or any of that. I like thier 3 axis structure which keeps the headphones in place firmly without the use of a lot of clamp.
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