[thefitz]

Yes. I agree. While not perfect. The Clears have a nice balance of clarity with minimal siblance.

Granted I'm only a few hours in, but the Clear has the least amount of "minuses" mixed with the most amount of "pluses" I've yet heard in a headphone. The HD600 also has very few "minuses", but not a whole lot in the "plus" category (the Ether too perhaps). The HD800 (which I'd love to give another chance), LCD series, and HE-1000 had a whole lot of "pluses", mixed in with a whole lot of "minuses".

I only demoed Clears but I definitely experienced painful sibilance from a CMA600i (balanced output) playing both the Hell Freezes Over live version of Hotel California (the chorus especially).

My ears bleed whenever I listen to the Eagles, too... different reason though

With regards to amping, on the Mjolnir I'm barely ever past 9:00 on the volume knob. Maybe some very soft DSD recordings require 11:00, but I'm really overdoing it with the power...

 

[herrsmith]

My ears bleed whenever I listen to the Eagles, too... different reason though

Next time I hit up an audio show, I plan to be prepared with all the necessary connections from my phone (including a Schiit Fulla, which will vastly exceed the fairly poor quality of my phone's DAC) so I do not have to listen to the Eagles any more. At least I was somewhat familiar with that song. Another room only had Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason" to play. As in, their source didn't even have other songs. Just the one. Not a bad song, but I don't know it and maybe I'd like to cover more of a range.

 

[franz12]

These two comments on sibilance come as a surprise to me. I need to find a chance to listen to the Clear on those setup to find out more about the Clear being sibilant sounding.

It is also very surprising to me. While I owned Clear, I never found it sibilant, and thought treble is slightly rolled-off. I drove it directly from my Hugo. FYI, I am a person who found HD800S and IE800 very sibilant. I can't stand sibilance on those cans, and sold them all eventually.

 

[nanaholic]

I took my Hugo 2 to the local audio store and demoed the Clear just last week, I specifically go through my usual testing songs with female vocals with lots of hard "shhh" sounds which I know would make harsher phones show sibilance (it's actually the first thing I ever do when auditioning headphones as I primarily listen to female vocals, so if it show sibilance with female vocals the can is immediately removed from my consideration). The Clear passed my test, even to my surprise, with the Hugo 2 set on the most revealing white filter, and I ended up listening to them for a good 30 or so minutes straight where I'm just going through different tracks, and never once tried to change up the filter.

I really need to try them again as I really quite enjoyed the Clear, much more so than the Utopia, and is seriously thinking about picking up a pair.

 

[doraymon]

Thanks a lot. That would be great, especially curious about your impressions of the Aurium, since I have been thinking of getting either that or the WA7. I have the very neutral Oppo HA-1 as my main amplifier (using it only as amp, using the Hugo 2 as DAC), and I have been looking for something a bit warmer, not full fledged tube sound, but just a bit more warmth. I thought a slightly warmer amp might complement the Clears well, but haven't really heard other amps yet. With the Clears, I do not find a lot of difference between using the HA-1 / Hugo 2 combination or straight out of the Hugo. A bit more space and slightly larger stage out of the HA-1, but the sibilance remains.

Some songs which I find slightly sibilant with the Clears (all FLACs in different sample and bit rates):

Jamie Cullum - London Skies
DJ Krush - Univearth feat. Tetsuro Naito
Rodrigo & Gabriela - Tamacun (Area 52 album)
US3 - Be Bop Thing
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?
Portishead - Sour Times
Portugal. The Man - Evil Friends
Rolling Stones - Just Your Fool
Chris Cornell - Scream

Often it's vocals that seem a bit shouty (maybe I should listen to instrumental only, haha), but not only limited to those. Obviously mastering plays a big role. As a rule of thumb, anything that is mastered brighter does not really suit the Clear IMO. Michael Jackson's Number Ones album is recorded very well, but bright. I do not like it on the Clear, whereas it was brilliant on the Z1R.

First of all congrats, nice music!
Before the results of the small test let me clarify that as I associate sibilance only to the ssss and shhh in vocals, I decided to take note not only of this but also of the harshness (high mids) or pierce (highs) coming from instruments. All of those characteristics can be very fatiguing if too accentuated.

The scale is as follows:
0 - NOT AT ALL
1- VERY SLIGHTLY (not a deal breaker)
2 - WORRYING
3 - VERY (deal breaker)

RESULTS:

FINAL COMMENTS:
The pattern is clear, the Spring/DAC combo seems to be less prone to fatiguing sounds in the upper register.
In case you are wondering, I can assure you that the level of detail retrieval of this system is at list on par with the Hugo 2, if not better.
Can you give us more details on your setup? Especially the source and connections to the DAC.

Cheers,
Dom

 

[hifiman33]

I have same problem with sub bass than other people . Can somebody try to hear this song and tell me if they have broken/distorted sound in the sub bass with this song ?



Time 00:27

Thank you

 

[doraymon]

I have same problem with sub bass than other people . Can somebody try to hear this song and tell me if they have broken/distorted sound in the sub bass with this song ?



Time 00:27

Thank you

No distortion in the bass. It's punchy and tight.
I used Tidal HiFi.

 

[Ken G]

My ears bleed whenever I listen to the Eagles, too... different reason though

Yeah, well - the Dude abides.

 

[gb21011971]

First of all congrats, nice music!
Before the results of the small test let me clarify that as I associate sibilance only to the ssss and shhh in vocals, I decided to take note not only of this but also of the harshness (high mids) or pierce (highs) coming from instruments. All of those characteristics can be very fatiguing if too accentuated.

The scale is as follows:
0 - NOT AT ALL
1- VERY SLIGHTLY (not a deal breaker)
2 - WORRYING
3 - VERY (deal breaker)

RESULTS:


FINAL COMMENTS:
The pattern is clear, the Spring/DAC combo seems to be less prone to fatiguing sounds in the upper register.
In case you are wondering, I can assure you that the level of detail retrieval of this system is at list on par with the Hugo 2, if not better.
Can you give us more details on your setup? Especially the source and connections to the DAC.

Cheers,
Dom

Thanks Dom,

I use a Dell XPS Laptop, JRiver or on the go, my Galaxy S8+ with UAPP. I mostly do not use the stock headphone cable, but a Silver Dragon. I haven't really found a good USB cable for the Hugo, since that has a USB micro connection. I use the Audioquest Cinnamon right now.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Thanks a lot. That would be great, especially curious about your impressions of the Aurium, since I have been thinking of getting either that or the WA7. I have the very neutral Oppo HA-1 as my main amplifier (using it only as amp, using the Hugo 2 as DAC), and I have been looking for something a bit warmer, not full fledged tube sound, but just a bit more warmth. I thought a slightly warmer amp might complement the Clears well, but haven't really heard other amps yet. With the Clears, I do not find a lot of difference between using the HA-1 / Hugo 2 combination or straight out of the Hugo. A bit more space and slightly larger stage out of the HA-1, but the sibilance remains.

Some songs which I find slightly sibilant with the Clears (all FLACs in different sample and bit rates):

Jamie Cullum - London Skies
DJ Krush - Univearth feat. Tetsuro Naito
Rodrigo & Gabriela - Tamacun (Area 52 album)
US3 - Be Bop Thing
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?
Portishead - Sour Times
Portugal. The Man - Evil Friends
Rolling Stones - Just Your Fool
Chris Cornell - Scream

Often it's vocals that seem a bit shouty (maybe I should listen to instrumental only, haha), but not only limited to those. Obviously mastering plays a big role. As a rule of thumb, anything that is mastered brighter does not really suit the Clear IMO. Michael Jackson's Number Ones album is recorded very well, but bright. I do not like it on the Clear, whereas it was brilliant on the Z1R.

Why are you using the HA-1? The Hugo 2 has more than enough power to drive the Clear, and is a superior combination, try the Mojo Filter directly from your Hugo.

 

[gb21011971]

Why are you using the HA-1? The Hugo 2 has more than enough power to drive the Clear, and is a superior combination, try the Mojo Filter directly from your Hugo.

You mean the warm filter, number 3?

 

[Wildcatsare1]

You mean the warm filter, number 3?

Yes, that’s the one, while I didn’t have the HA-1 and Clear at the same time, I found it on the brighter side with the Cans I had at the time.

 

[swmtnbiker]

I'm using the HA-1 balanced out with the Clear and don't find the combo to be bright, but I'm using a Mimby instead of the Oppo's internal DAC.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

I realize most of you aren’t big Classical fans, but if young to hear what a Stradivarius Violin sounds like, this recording, the Clear, a good R2R or Chord DAC, you will hear it on this Album.

https://www.discogs.com/release/5632441-Heifetz-Concertos/images

 

[ra990]

I have same problem with sub bass than other people . Can somebody try to hear this song and tell me if they have broken/distorted sound in the sub bass with this song ?

So I ended up returning my Clears mainly because of this issue - could not listen to low bass at anything over a modest medium volume without it breaking up and distorting. I also think I might have gotten a bad pair because I wasn't hearing what others were hearing out of them. They were really warm to me, too warm - even more than HD650s. I tried them on a few different amps and they sounded the same. Might have just ended up with a bad pair. I'd be willing to try them again to find out if that was the case or not.