[up late]

comparing headphones is so complex

 

[Allanmarcus]

My hypothesis is that, from the sounds of everyday life and the range of reproduced and live music we listen to, our ears/brains develop a sense of what 'normal' sound is, and to the extent that a headphone deviates from that norm, we tend to 'decode/learn' and adapt to the headphone so that the sound is perceived to be more normal over time. After that adaptation, we're in the best position to judge how much we'll like the headphone long term.

Unfortunately, we don't usually have the opportunity listen long term before deciding whether to a buy a headphone, but I suppose we can sell the ones we don't like and try something else. Has anyone who initially liked the Utopia reported to like it less after several months of use?

If only a team of scientists studied the psychology of acoustics for 25 years (or longer). Maybe they could call it something Accoustiology? Naw. Maybe Psychoacoustics? Maybe they would even write a text book explaining all their theories and scientific evidence, and what they learned. Maybe. One day.

 

[TSAVJason]

If only a team of scientists studied the psychology of acoustics for 25 years (or longer). Maybe they could call it something Accoustiology? Naw. Maybe Psychoacoustics? Maybe they would even write a text book explaining all their theories and scientific evidence, and what they learned. Maybe. One day.

Hahahahaha ok bud! Either put down the pipe or put down the book.

 

[baiyy1986]

Unfortunately, we don't usually have the opportunity listen long term before deciding whether to a buy a headphone, but I suppose we can sell the ones we don't like and try something else.

Yeah, this is actually pretty sad. I still remember when I was a kid my dad took me to those HiFi stores which they all set perfectly, now they all disappeared.
This really makes all HIFI journey hard.

 

[up late]

^ there are headphone stores now and some hi fi stores have recognised that personal audio is booming and incorporated head-fi

... but I suppose we can sell the ones we don't like and try something else.

it's been known to happen, which is why there are for sale/trade forums here

 

[TSAVJason]

I’m pretty sure there are still Hifi shops all over the country. It appears many consider HeadGear unimportant to their business model.

But for sure we do exist!! Cheers

Yeah, this is actually pretty sad. I still remember when I was a kid my dad took me to those HiFi stores which they all set perfectly, now they all disappeared.
This really makes all HIFI journey hard.

 

[baiyy1986]

I’m pretty sure there are still Hifi shops all over the country. It appears many consider HeadGear unimportant to their business model.

But for sure we do exist!! Cheers

don't get me wrong, when I was a kid, there used to be the whole floor full of HIFI gear, speakers CD players, and Headphones, cables in Shanghai. But now they all disappeared.
But look at this nice place!
This might be one of the reasons I need to move to CA.

 

[TSAVJason]

Yeah, this is actually pretty sad. I still remember when I was a kid my dad took me to those HiFi stores which they all set perfectly, now they all disappeared.
This really makes all HIFI journey hard.

don't get me wrong, when I was a kid, there used to be the whole floor full of HIFI gear, speakers CD players, and Headphones, cables in Shanghai. But now they all disappeared.
But look at this nice place!
This might be one of the reasons I need to move to CA.

My wife is from just outside Shanghai, Jiaxing actually. In our home there it wasn’t easy to get what I wanted in tech. Not because I couldn’t find it but because they argued with me why I didn’t want it. Everyone tried to sell me some of the most terrible stuff. My wife decided to school them on who I was ...they stopped arguing but I didn’t enjoy shopping for hifi in Shanghai. I ended up buying everything in HK.

 

[Allanmarcus]

don't get me wrong, when I was a kid, there used to be the whole floor full of HIFI gear, speakers CD players, and Headphones, cables in Shanghai. But now they all disappeared.
But look at this nice place!
This might be one of the reasons I need to move to CA.

If there were CD players when you were a kid, you're too damn young

 

[csglinux]

I need to ask for advice/help from those of you that have experience driver problems. I've noticed something odd with my Utopias recently...

They've always had a little bit of a rough edge to their sound when compared to my HD800S. I figured that was just the price to pay for that little bit of extra detail. But I never felt my pair ever sounded quite as good as TSAV's demo pair - even after taking my own pair back for an extensive A/B after several weeks of them playing non-stop white noise. A few days back I noticed something that sounded like driver break-up - very audible distortion when pushing the volume up. I may not have noticed that much before, because I almost always listen at very low volumes, but I was only about 60% on my QP1R in low gain mode. I tried de-oxiting all my connectors, tried using different DAPs, amps, cables, but no luck. The odd thing (if it's a connection issue) is that it's affecting both channels. The major problem I have is that it's intermittent; there are days where it's so obvious my grandma could hear it, and other days where it's fairly subtle, even at high SPLs. If I were to send these in for repair, there's a good chance the repair techs wouldn't hear a problem and I'd be written off as ADHD and sent the exact same pair back again

Has anybody else's driver failure followed this kind of pattern?

 

[TSAVJason]

I need to ask for advice/help from those of you that have experience driver problems. I've noticed something odd with my Utopias recently...

They've always had a little bit of a rough edge to their sound when compared to my HD800S. I figured that was just the price to pay for that little bit of extra detail. But I never felt my pair ever sounded quite as good as TSAV's demo pair - even after taking my own pair back for an extensive A/B after several weeks of them playing non-stop white noise. A few days back I noticed something that sounded like driver break-up - very audible distortion when pushing the volume up. I may not have noticed that much before, because I almost always listen at very low volumes, but I was only about 60% on my QP1R in low gain mode. I tried de-oxiting all my connectors, tried using different DAPs, amps, cables, but no luck. The odd thing (if it's a connection issue) is that it's affecting both channels. The major problem I have is that it's intermittent; there are days where it's so obvious my grandma could hear it, and other days where it's fairly subtle, even at high SPLs. If I were to send these in for repair, there's a good chance the repair techs wouldn't hear a problem and I'd be written off as ADHD and sent the exact same pair back again

Has anybody else's driver failure followed this kind of pattern?

Our demo pair has very close to 2500 hours on it so it’s acceptable to hear a slight variant. If you’d like to bring yours in even intermittent we likely can deternine the issue. Keep track of the music your using and levels you’re at to provide a point of reference.

 

[csglinux]

Our demo pair has very close to 2500 hours on it so it’s acceptable to hear a slight variant. If you’d like to bring yours in even intermittent we likely can deternine the issue. Keep track of the music your using and levels you’re at to provide a point of reference.

Thanks Jason - I figured your demo pair has had a lot more love than mine I'll be at TSAV at some point in the next month or so, and I'll bring my pair in and let you have a listen.

 

[TSAVJason]

Thanks Jason - I figured your demo pair has had a lot more love than mine I'll be at TSAV at some point in the next month or so, and I'll bring my pair in and let you have a listen.

Cool! We’ll help you get it sorted out

 

[Whitigir]

My wife is from just outside Shanghai, Jiaxing actually. In our home there it wasn’t easy to get what I wanted in tech. Not because I couldn’t find it but because they argued with me why I didn’t want it. Everyone tried to sell me some of the most terrible stuff. My wife decided to school them on who I was ...they stopped arguing but I didn’t enjoy shopping for hifi in Shanghai. I ended up buying everything in HK.

Did they advise you to buy Shangrila ? I am just curious

 

[TSAVJason]

Did they advise you to buy Shangrila ? I am just curious

Hahaha there was no HiFiMan in those days at least not one that was more than a pimple on a map. Now that you mention it, I don’t remember seeing HiFiMan in any of the stores I visited