[Not so fat head]

stay away from astell kern,noble,final audio if need best price/audio ratio.

AK just released new $4,200 IEM's... Amazing miniature tech, but... Yikes!!!
See it on Head Fi front page.

 

[jant71]

AK just released new $4,200 IEM's... Amazing miniature tech, but... Yikes!!!
See it on Head Fi front page.

Quite a few earphones and cables that cost more than that these days. Put a Centurion cable on your Noble Ragnar and you are at almost 10K.

 

[subguy812]

stay away from astell kern,noble,final audio if need best price/audio ratio.

Yes...but I love A&K DAPS, I currently use the SP3000. I am not a fan of Noble and I had the Final D8000 Pro headphones and loved them. But the ZE8000 was just meh to me, that is purely subjective, others love them.

I am looking purely for sound quality and with my lifestyle average ANC is fine.

 

[Ieonasj]

Yes...but I love A&K DAPS, I currently use the SP3000. I am not a fan of Noble and I had the Final D8000 Pro headphones and loved them. But the ZE8000 was just meh to me, that is purely subjective, others love them.

I am looking purely for sound quality and with my lifestyle average ANC is fine.

im use ak sr25ii and this all i need. correct price/sound ratio.

 

[SynaestheticA]

If anyone is cleaning house and wants to sell and ship their Noble Mystique to Australia I'm in the market.

@clerkpalmer I saw your Mystique on the classifieds but not sure if you're shipping to aus.

 

[smith]

Same here. Not worth biting on the price drops of the older tech imo. ZE8000 have been occupying me for weeks now. Cleaning house (eBay) with the dust collecting units these days.

How are you finding the volume with the ZE8000 ? A review I have seen says they are quite low volume wise .

 

[erockg]

Dude, I just returned my ZE8000. They were good to me, but not WOW. I figured out the fit and all was good with that, but meh! The Buds 2 Pro with the SCC on the S23 Ultra sounds really good and the ANC is above average. I would not get them if I couldn't utilize the SSC codec. Of course the EX but want to see what is coming.

I'm not really sure what is wow anymore. We've hit a plateau. I'm enjoying them. Use them for movies and music often. I keep wanting to revisit the GB2P but they always got my ears wet. Hey now. Odd issue, but I've heard of it happening to other folks. Daily drivers here are my APP2 and the Finals, with the B&W PI7 S2s. I'm surprised B&O hasn't pushed out a new pair for 2023 yet.

 

[erockg]

How are you finding the volume with the ZE8000 ? A review I have seen says they are quite low volume wise .

You can adjust that in the app with EQ and the Volume Step Optimizer. No issues here with volume. My only grip is the fit, that said, once you figure out the trick, all good!

 

[erockg]

Yes...but I love A&K DAPS, I currently use the SP3000. I am not a fan of Noble and I had the Final D8000 Pro headphones and loved them. But the ZE8000 was just meh to me, that is purely subjective, others love them.

I am looking purely for sound quality and with my lifestyle average ANC is fine.

Whew, I truly loved the A&K tws buds and sad they stopped making them. Stupid me sold them off for a different wild hair.

 

[SynaestheticA]

You can adjust that in the app with EQ and the Volume Step Optimizer. No issues here with volume. My only grip is the fit, that said, once you figure out the trick, all good!

Volume step only changes the db increase/decrease at each step no? Not the max volume? Pretty sure they even have a disclaimer in the settings saying so.

I maxed mine out and it was still under my preferred volume.

That being said when I put the volume step to the minimum they were much quieter. So maybe a bit of both going on.

 

[erockg]

Volume step only changes the db increase/decrease at each step no? Not the max volume? Pretty sure they even have a disclaimer in the settings saying so.

I maxed mine out and it was still under my preferred volume.

That being said when I put the volume step to the minimum they were much quieter. So maybe a bit of both going on.

Strange, mine are plenty loud and I listen to metal. I enjoy melting my brain.

 

[erockg]

Supposedly coming out next week. I'll bite to see if they are better than the last iterations: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ansparent-design-spotted-at-best-buy.2389477/

 

[SynaestheticA]

Strange, mine are plenty loud and I listen to metal. I enjoy melting my brain.

Yea weird, I noticed that from your other posts, wouldn't have thought it'd be loud enough for you. I like scrambling my mind with Goa trance and they couldn't do it for me.

 

[erockg]

Yea weird, I noticed that from your other posts, wouldn't have thought it'd be loud enough for you. I like scrambling my mind with Goa trance and they couldn't do it for me.

I mean, unless you like to blow out your ear drums, I'm using them right now and they are plenty loud. Granted, I'm at say... 85% volume on a iPhone. Still, sounds effin awesome.

One of my go to albums and it's just phenomenal. Soundstage, separation...

 

[SynaestheticA]

I mean, unless you like to blow out your ear drums, I'm using them right now and they are plenty loud. Granted, I'm at say... 85% volume on a iPhone. Still, sounds effin awesome.

One of my go to albums and it's just phenomenal. Soundstage, separation...

I'm on an Oppo, could be the difference between brands?