After more than a week listening to the D8000 Pro, I'm sold. Love them.
But.
I encountered the 'bass problem' that some have described in this thread. With bass heavy mixes, there's contact between the membrane and the perforated metal plates in front of the magnets.
The whole purpose of the AFDS seems to be defeated when reaching a certain volume. Unfortunately, in my case scenario, a Lotoo PAW Gold on high gain at 60 (75 is the max) is enough to generate the issue. Not a weakling, the LPG. But not a powerplant either.
An example of tracks triggering the issue is the first one of Blade Runner 2049 OST. I captured the sonic result for those of you owning the Pros and not keen on pushing them.
I used a Yamaha PR7 with a 45/60 REC level @ 24bit/96kHz. Saturation is not due to the recording. Here's the waveform to demonstrate.
What puzzles me is that after reading the whole thread, whether D8000 or D8000 Pros, some have the problem and some don't. But some of those who don't clearly specify that they listen to bass heavy music such as dub at loud volumes and even EQ adding 4dB to the lower end, which is huge.
Another incoherency is that the Pros are advertised by the makers likeso :
There's no way a redbook mastering of a movie soundtrack played straight (no EQ, ATE...) with an LPG should make a set of pro headphones go bonkers.
The problem occurs at a volume that is by no means ear-splitting. It is loud, but below my usual max level. The D8000 Pro I tested is a first hand set, low usage, carefully handled by a good friend who listens at low volume and was thus unaware of the problem.
The headphones are going back to Japan for inspection. It would be very useful to have as much feedback from you guys as possible for
@Final Audio to be aware of a potential malfunction of these otherwise fantastic cans.
Please contact me if you need samples to test yours. Thank you all.
LINKS to previous posts addressing this issue (still updating)
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-d8000-planar-magnetic-headphone.845567/post-14857363 (and following)
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-d8000-planar-magnetic-headphone.845567/post-14858863 (and following)
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-d8000-planar-magnetic-headphone.845567/post-15959691 (and following)
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/final-audio-d8000-planar-magnetic-headphone.845567/post-15970596