[junix]

Yes I have heard that proper pairing is important to drive it properly. From your experience, would you say the hand is less pleasing after adding the gold ring, or more? I have been considering the upgrade, but am concerned about diminished returns.

Go for the upgrade.. but pairing is essential! For bass heavy wifes, sorry iems, bass heavy iems I would suggest to go with a platinum ring, no diamonds if you don’t want too much sparkle..

 

[491326]

g cable anyone?

 

[Wyville]

Go for the upgrade.. but pairing is essential! For bass heavy wifes, sorry iems, bass heavy iems I would suggest to go with a platinum ring, no diamonds if you don’t want too much sparkle..

While of course "YMMV", I went for a happy medium and got white gold, although I did do it in two stages and the first ring did have a small diamond just to add a touch of sparkle without pushing it too far. I did not want to create a pairing with too much sparkle, not really my thing, and did not want to risk attracting too much attention when walking around with that pairing either.

 

[Mimouille]

Yes I have heard that the right pairing is important to drive it properly. From your experience, would you say the hand is less pleasing after adding the gold ring, or more? I have been considering the upgrade, but am concerned about diminished returns.

The hand is not jealous, so the added options from the ring are welcome. On the ring upgrade, I recommend something that does not wow too much at first hearing but sticks with you in the long term.

 

[Mimouille]

I am super pissed because I had eliminated the new Hifiman R2R2000 DAP from my list but a friend here told me it is desktop level, produces a sound that is highly music yet detailed and precise, the most important thing being that it feels artifact free so he could push the volume on any earphone without any distortion. He concluded that he would be hard pressed to go back to sigma delta type DACs after that. Tempting.

 

[fuhransahis]

The upcoming Cayin N8 has my interest piqued but I'm terrified of its potential price, dunno much about the Hifiman DAP. Something about their brand just puts me off. On top of their usually crazy pricing it all looks kinda cheaply made and visually unappealing, in photos at least.

 

[mrears]

Hey everyone, thanks for the super helpful replies! I am starting to think the ESR or the Spartan might better suit my needs. The Phantom sounds like it could be amazing but I think that to my ears neutrality is king. I honestly don't care a huge amount about price as to me these are all ludicrously expensive, I am just trying to find what I will like the best.

So now I am debating between the Phantom, the ESR and the Spartan. I think I am going to cross spiral ears off my list and focus on empire ears. The only thing really compelling about spiral ears is I think I might prefer the silicon, but it seems quite risky to deal with a company in Poland when there is another company making products on a similar level relatively nearby.

If anyone has any comparison between the Spartan and the ESR that would be really really cool to hear, as there are almost no impressions available on the internet of the ESR. Otherwise thanks again, without you guys it would be much much harder to figure out what I need.

 

[natemact]

@mrears Apparently ESR is tuned slightly warmer than Spartan but also though of as an upgrade. Someone better qualified will chime in.

On paper the ESR was the one for me because if you asked me I would've told you I prefer to paint with a neutral pallet. I couldn't audition the ESR or Spartan but once I heard the Phantom I lost interest in doing so. I wouldn't want to compromise the Phantoms demeanor in any way and it's hard to believe ESR/Spartan could better it in any area. Maybe a little more lower treble?? Less bass for sure. Technicalities like resolution, clarity, and soundstaging characteristics have to go to Phantom - I would at least hope so at nearly double the price.

As was mentioned, best thing to do is get a demo or two considering your located in the States. I'd just hate for someone to write off Phantoms because they think they will be overly warm like I almost did.

 

[mrears]

@mrears Apparently ESR is tuned slightly warmer than Spartan but also though of as an upgrade. Someone better qualified will chime in.

On paper the ESR was the one for me because if you asked me I would've told you I prefer to paint with a neutral pallet. I couldn't audition the ESR or Spartan but once I heard the Phantom I lost interest in doing so. I wouldn't want to compromise the Phantoms demeanor in any way and it's hard to believe ESR/Spartan could better it in any area. Maybe a little more lower treble?? Less bass for sure. Technicalities like resolution, clarity, and soundstaging characteristics have to go to Phantom - I would at least hope so at nearly double the price..

Thanks for your impressions, it helps a lot. As mentioned I own an SEM9, which has a milder U shape, probably similar to the Phantom. Nick just mentioned the bass on the SEM9 is about the same level as the Phantom. For certain types of music and tracks I don't mind the bass, but when i'm listening to for example an orchestra, or a jazz quartet where the mids seem a bit recessed, I think wish I was listening to a more neutral headphone. Its a bit hard to tell if its the bass I wish wasn't there, or something else that the Phantom might correct for.

Of course I won't really know how I feel though until I actually hear them, talking about it is very difficult even if people like Nick make it easier.

As was mentioned, best thing to do is get a demo or two considering your located in the States. I'd just hate for someone to write off Phantoms because they think they will be overly warm like I almost did.

Cool yeah I've reached out to them to see if I can arrange a demo... that would be the best case scenario for me. I'm definitely not going to write the Phantoms off! As I said before I was in the process of pulling the trigger on the Spiral 5 way and these seem very similar. The Spartan definitely does intrigue me though as it seems it may match my preferences and genres a bit more. And I could buy 2 and a half for the price of a Phantom.

Technicalities like resolution, clarity, and soundstaging characteristics have to go to Phantom - I would at least hope so at nearly double the price.

To digress a bit, my view of the audio industry is that consumers, including reviewers, are doing sighted listening tests where they know the price before listening. So a lot of people saying "this 3k or 2k headphones beats this 1k headphone" are very biased before they even put the headphones on. But at this price we are really paying for the tuning, and if the Phantom is tuned as well as people on this forum say it is then it may be worth the extra 700.

Personally I prefer my Aeon Closed back (purchased for 720) over all the 2k+ headphones I've heard, aside from some electrostatics which are "different" but not necessarily better. Tyll Herstens from Innerfidelity feels the same way it seems.

My view is that amps and dacs (and cables!) are even more insane than headphones as far as perceived value for price vs actual performance.

 

[natemact]

Its a bit hard to tell if its the bass I wish wasn't there, or something else that the Phantom might correct for.

Ya many factors at play. Sometimes it can be an awkward hand-off between bass and mids or recessed mids themselves making for a perceived elevated bass amplitude. Know their house sound but never heard SEM9 so no comment on zee bass issue.

But at this price we are really paying for the tuning

I tend to think that as the price increases you're paying for the R&D of both the more complex crossover network as well as the more precise tuning needed as driver count increases. Manufacturing/parts/material cost clearly plays a role here too. There are exceptions out there to the driver wars starting with the Prelude. But, Fourté/Trió, SE5U and Phantom are also examples of a stanch attitude towards the driver gluttony trend. I think most of us would take quality over quantity, right?

Personally I prefer my Aeon Closed back (purchased for 720) over all the 2k+ headphones I've heard

If isolation wasn't needed I'd take a pair of Clears over them but they're also twice the cost. I can't think of another headphone I'd prefer under the Clears though, including the open Aeons. Good luck in your search for your next iem!

 

[NaiveSound]

Does anyone here like the u18t over the fourte?

 

[Ike1985]

Does anyone here like the u18t over the fourte?

I do. =)

Does anyone know the best way to configure media center to play DSD to Hugo2? I'm playing Roger Waters Amused to Death and the bitrate is 11000+kbps 5644800Hz file. It seems to be playing fine. I am using the "load to ram" instead of harddrive option with Media Center, I'm also getting the white light on Hugo2. I'm sure it's doing some kind of conversion not sure which though. What settings should I chose for DSD?

 

[aaf evo]

Does anyone here like the u18t over the fourte?

When I owned it. Yes.

 

[Ike1985]

I also like Trio much better than Fourte.

 

[swesko]

Does anyone here like the u18t over the fourte?

I love the u18t