[Prog Rock Man]

I have just taken delivery of mine, so only a few hours on them. The X-CANV8P drives them with ease and without NR on they sound better than the Denon AH D1001 and Bose over/on ear cans I tried. They are relatively neutral, towards bright, but a bit lacking in clarity on the top treble. The bass goes deep only when the original recording had it so. The midrange and vocals in particular stand out. It is also a really 'beefy' full sound.

That pretty much fits in with how the X-CAN sounds with my other cans with its emphasis on neutrality and midrange.

One thing though, how do you open it up to put a battery in? The instructions are useless.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I got the battery compartment open, so I tried the cans with NR on. The sound is brighter, but overall it is similar to NR off. I dont have a particular preference between the two, so to save on batteries it will be NR off.

Noise leak is poor. Isolation from voices and the phone nearby is very good. They are comfortable, but anyone with a big head and ears will find them tight.

There are two negatives. With regards to the sound I have had no goosebump moments. I listened to a playlist of favourites. With my other cans I will stop and listen and certain tracks give me goosebumps. But nothing with the Goldrings.

Seconly, the 1 meter long cable is way too short. There is not even a Goldring option to buy an extension. So I have one coming from Amazon. Lets hope it does not affect the sound.

 

[Duggeh]

The Goldring DR-50/DR-100 mini to mini cables do not fit into the NS1000 input on the earcup. Be careful about the width of the 3.5mm jack.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

There is another negative. I bought these cans are they are closed backed, but my wife has now pointed out that the noise leak is poor to say the least. My Senn PX200s leak virtually nothing. I would not like to use these on public transport at risk of annoying others.

Has anyone else found the same or is there something wrong?

 

[ear8dmg]

Noise leakage is about the same as my JVC HA RX700.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Thanks for that. I have bought an extensio cable for £3 off Amazon. It is a Sony 1m one, very thin, but it will do for now.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ear8dmg /img/forum/go_quote.gif ....I'm absolutely amazed at what the e5 has done for these cans..... .

Same here. The E5 is essential for use with an ipod and brings the Goldrings to life. Straight out of an ipod and they sound flat and need maximum volume. The E5 copes fine with NR on and off.

 

[ear8dmg]

So - X-CANV8P vs E5 for NS1000 usage? How do they compare?

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Sorry for the delay, I just came back to the thread to post some more impressions.

The FiiO does a fine job driving the Goldrings, but the V8P wins in all aspects, particularly sound stage. The sources are different as well, ipod vs laptop and Fubar DAC. Both amps are neutral, the bass bosst on the FiiO makes hardly any difference with insensitive headphones.

I now have at least 300 hours on the Goldrings. I have not noticed any 'burning in' with them. I now much prefer NR off. I find NR on too bright and bass detail fades. The overall sound is closer to the detailed AKG K702s than my Grado SR80s.

I find them very comfortable, particularly now I know to slip the edge of my ears behind the soft cup edge.

The cable issue is a pain. I find I get crackles from the Sony extension, so I have ordered a ThatCable Loops extension for twice the cost of the Sony (£6.85)

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I got a new extension cable from Loops sold through ThatCable on ebay. It is too big for portable use, but at up to 15m for £14 it is a bargain. It was also an instant improvement over the Sony extension cable that I got off Amazon.

 

[ear8dmg]

Right... I know one thing I love about these for music: Dolby Headphone. The synergy of these with Dolby Headphone is just incredible. I can hardly begin to describe how well it works. Just Dolby Headphone that is: no other DSPs or effects and no upmixing required - just DH1. I can best describe it as being like sitting in front of a very good pair of stereo speakers.

I'm using Foobar2000 with FLAC and the Dolby Headphone Wrapper DSP, along with version 1.20.0.276 of DolbyHph.dll (the version with PowerDVD 9 Ultra - earlier versions I tried were pretty dreadful), from an X-Fi Prelude - either straight to the headphones or via a Bravo Audio amp if I'm in the mood

Take away Dolby Headphone and they have an overly up-front and bright presentation that can be rather fatiguing. I can see why the likes of Duggeh didn't like them. With it though - they're my favourite

.

I've tried every other headphone in my sig with Dolby Headphone and these ones just seem to do the business better.

 

[ear8dmg]

I just gave a more full write up on ANR off amp behaviour in another thread. May be useful as a reference here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ear8dmg /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes they can be a little temperamental about sources. It's more the source's inbuilt amp really. I guess they have two sonic signatures - like having two sets of headphones. The specs suggest so too With ANR mode off they're warm and bassy. If adequately amped they're rich sounding - full and warm with plenty of bass and smooth sounding. With ANR on they give more prominence to the trebles and mids than with ANR off. The bass is still there - very tight, well controlled and punchy. It's so well controlled that if there's good soundstage information in a recording it will 'render' bass instruments and drums distantly from you - despite them having a small 'headstage' that's noticeable for close miked stuff. I've heard other headphones that do this convincingly - HD580s, HD600s ATH-A900s - but nothing in the Goldrings' price bracket (the Goldrings DR150s can approach it but aren't as well controlled at low frequncy as the NS1000s). The mids are really one of these headphones strong points. Vocals come across particularly well - presented with a realism that I would say is unrivalled in the price bracket. You'll notice a higher frequency extension shown in the specs. That comes across in harmonics and room acoustic cues that you don't normally hear so clearly in this price bracket. There are drawbacks. That treble in ANR mode is pretty 'hot'. It's not kind to low bitrate mp3s, where cymbals can sound strident. Before using the NS1000s I was generally happy with 192kb/s mp3s. That bitrate (at least the ones I ripped) can be practically unlistenable for songs with cymbal prominence. 320kb and lossless are much kinder. The treble extension will be something that many aren't used to. It can be a bit in your face - kind of like Grados get criticised for sometemes. I've found using a tube amp, rather than solid state, can smooth the treble a little and I use the Goldrings with my Bravo (my only tube amp at the moment - cheap but very nice now I've sorted the noise problems with grounding) most of the time. I've spoken to people that just prefer the NS1000s with ANR off. Everything's a little smoother and they're a little less revealing - a little less fatiguing for some. So - sources and amps I've tried recently with the NS1000s with ANR off FiiO e5 - surprisingly good - as in 'night and day' different. They make the previously flabby passive mode sound respectable - they don't acheive the kind of bass control that these phones are capable of though - and detail is reduced compared to more transparent amps. Bass boost gives more bass but loses treble detail. Juice 2214 (I think - ebay seller) CMOY. The detail is there but they can sound a little thin. The fullness of bass that they are capable of seems reduced. I think dynamic range is reduced. Bravo Audio v1 tube amp - A little like the FiiO but with more volume headroom but something's lacking. There's quite a bit of detail not there. Sansa Clip - similar to the FiiO - maybe with a touch more detail and a little less bass control. Victor SU-DH1 - another surprise. Very close to ANR mode with bass control better than any of the above (with Dolby Headphone off). With Dolby Headphone on the NS1000s really come to life. It's like listening to nearfield monitors rather than headphones. Dolby Headphone attenuates the treble slightly (have a look in computer audio for the many threads on using Dolby Headphone as an improved crossfeed - I prefer it with no upmixing plugin as I think it's closer to listening to stereo speakers and best preserves stereo recording soundstage information, as intended by the recording engineer. I tend to stick to DH1, as I find the 'reflections of DH2 and DH3 rather artificial sounding. Auzentech X-Fi prelude - Flabby bloated bass and recessed mids and trebles. Needs an amp. Asus Xonar D2 - Very similar to the prelude. Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music (retail and Dell OEM versions) - Similar to the other two soundcards. Amp required. My usual music listening setup at the moment is either Dolby Headpohone from Foobar2000 and X-Fi Prelude or SU-DH1 into Bravo with the Goldrings (ANR on) or HD600s - I'm yet to decide which I prefer and the HD600s are still burning in. I never use prologic II for music by the way - it frequently sounds awful. Taking the NS1000s portable I use my Sansa Clip - either using active ANR or sometimes passive with one of the above portable amps. For Dolby Headphone on the go I use Foobar2000 / LAME to encode at 320mb/s mp3 with DH1 (PowerDVD 9 Ultra version of Dolby Headphone dll).

 

[siborg69]

Hey

Ive had a pair of these for a few months now but managed to lose the cable that came with it. It is proving to be a pain to get a new one as it seems the ends of the cable are slimmer than others i have lying around....has anyone found another cable that will fit in the headphone socket? goldring were useless. sent them an email, they said they dont sell the cable separately and cant help me!!

 

[prosound]

^
I suppose you could find a cheap pair of headphones with decent cable and iPhone style (slim) plug. Cut and end with a plug of your choice, making it to a sort of extended mini-to-mini.
 
Does anyone know if there're compatible velour pads for these cans?

 

[ear8dmg]

 
OK - you have to be careful about amp choice for NS1000s! I'M SERIOUS!
 
Just been testing them with a borrowed Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 with upgraded PSU, caps, tubes etc.  This is a heck of an amp: a few hundred quid's worth of amp.  With DT770 Pro or HD600s it sounds brilliant.  
 
It does not drive the NS1000s in passive mode well at all though.  My FiiO e5 and CMOY are both more suited to the NS1000s.  This is, quite honestly, night and day improvement by using the small battery powered portables or turning on noise cancelling.  Who'd have thunk it?
 
You have been warned!  Audition or get direct recommendations before you buy an amp for the NS1000s.
 
Edit: Been testing HD600, DT770 Pro 250 ohm, NS1000s and DR150s out of different amps with Dolby Headphone both on and off. It's a effectively a 3 way race between the NS1000s the Senns and the Beyers. The DR150s are just not capable of keeping up with the other three. Also thrown in a Mackie 402-VLZ3 mixer, which is actually putting up a damn good fight with the X-Can for driving the HD600, DT770 Pro and NS1000s (ANR on) - mighty impressive given that it's not a dedicated headphone amp and only cost about £100. The Mackie is also rubbish with the NS1000s when ANR is off.