Hello.
I've read this thread from end to end and I'm ready to make a comment or two, but before that, allow me to inform you about my experience with headphones so you can get an idea where I come from and where I am heading.
1) I must admit that while I have been using both IAM's, on-ear and over-ear, my experience is somewhat limited but not without references. IAM's and on-ear are out of the questions, they are very uncomfortable and therefore I will not chaise down a potential winner. What is left is over-ear which to me is the overall way personal listening should be enjoyed. But this is very personal and to them who absolutely love the two types I excluded I have this to say: I am happy for you
2) When it comes to actual headphones, here is my list and a short comment on each one:
- I currently "rock" the
Audio Technica ATH-M40X. I bought these to replace my broken pair of Qpad QH90 / Takstar pro 80. I've had the M40X for more than 6 months and while they where an upgrade in terms of upper clarity and better mids, as time passed, I felt that they got worse and worse. (Burn in making them worse ?). The low end is rolled off and very lacking, unless you crush them onto your ears then you get some bass in return but all clarity is gone. What I can say about these is that you should avoid them at all cost. For starters they are boringly neutral, yes boring. There is nothing exiting about them. Even if some soundstage and instrumental separation exist, they are on the verge of presenting everything as a 2D image, very flat and unengaged. The original earpads are borderline on-ear. I am currently using a new set of Takstar earpads which comfort-wise make them much better.
- In between the Qpad / Takstar and M40X, I own a pair of
RBH HP-2. So far these have the best bass I've listened to, no one so far touches them and I love this about them. They are also presented really nice in the highs and has a good amount of brilliance and presence.
They are V shape sound embodied, but lack in soundstage and separation, but is better than the M40X. If the HP-2 had fixed the soundstage and separation issues, I would give them a much higher score. They are above average but come short. The build quality is subpar and feels really cheap. Clamping force is unbearable and I had to use a large amount of force to make them tolerable. The cups have a classic reflection issue which introduce a metallic boomy sound in the low end which I am sure could have been address with some mods. The 45mm Be driver used in these headphones have potential and I would love to redesign the cups and headphones from scratch. But that is for another time.
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Audeze lcd-2, (My first planar magnetic). Did not own these but spent perhaps 30 min listening to them. While they are overall better then the stuff I have listed so far, being lush and smooth, again, boringly neutral. They are not another set of bad headphones but they did not do it for me.
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Denon AH-D5000: (bio cellulose) Now these I did own for a few months. Top notch Build quality, nice earpads etc etc. But.... I am afraid its getting boring here because yet another set of cans which have a fairly neutral frequency response curve. LCD-2 is better than the D5K here.
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Focal Utopia: Enormous clarity and presence, very refined, nice lush mids ... and full stop. They did not have the soundstage I was hoping for > read as to close for comfort, but instrumental separation was top notch. Sadly they failed in the low end section and the verdict is that although they do certain things in a good way, there is no way I can justify $5000, they are simply not that good. Overprice, you bet ya and too heavy as well..
3). I definitely lean towards the V shape sound but don't want it to be overwhelming. I want the headphone to have a good soundstage and instrumental separation. Think of it as a holographic representation. I don't want the upper midrange and upper portion 5-10kHz to veiled, it must be transparent and clear without presenting sibilant, it also need a good amount of subbase with a nice kick to it. Is that too much to ask for
I did use the T60RP measurement and added it to an existing one which include the RBH HP-2 and Sennheiser HD598SE - It is scaled correctly.
It looks very interesting and I will say that it certainly follow the HP-2 curve fairly nicely between 70-1500 Hz which is promising and right now, I don't think I mind the dip in the 4kHz area. It follows the Fletcher-Munson curve (equal loudness) fairly nicely which is a good sign. I wonder if the extended sub-bass which many of you are working on is getting the Fr closer to that of the RBH-HP2 curve ?
I can't afford the T50RP Mk.III / T60RP just yet, but will hopefully pick up a pair this summer. In the meantime I will follow this thread and other Tx0RP modding threads to pick up some ideas.
4) This one is for
Kintsaki who have contributed a fare bit and I have a question for you regarding amplifier. I get the part of damping factor and having enough power reserve since the Fostex cans seem to be rather power hungry, so here is an amp I am considering and want to run it by you. What do you think.
NAD D3020 V2. (speaker terminal driven)
Class; D
DF: >300
Power: @ 50 ohm this equal roughly 9-10 W dynamic. Std watt is roughly 4,68 W.
And a happy new year to all.