[shuto77]

I can't stop playing the new Vektor album. Those guys are sooooooo far ahead nearly everything else in thrash right now.....

I've never been into thrash, but I'm playing that album now.

 

[shuto77]

I might be trading my Meze 99 Classics for a used pair of Alpha Dogs. Only problem is that the ADs have some scuffs and a chip. Can that be buffed out?

 

[vapman]

I might be trading my Meze 99 Classics for a used pair of Alpha Dogs. Only problem is that the ADs have some scuffs and a chip. Can that be buffed out?

Assume not. I would just test them before completing the trade

 

[shuto77]

Assume not. I would just test them before completing the trade

I wouldn't mind, but we're 3,000 miles away, so beers aren't feasible, lol.

 

[Redcarmoose]

My wife wants some cheap IEMs for working out, so I picked up these based on your review. Now, she listens to exactly zero metal, so I may have to "borrow" them-haha!

They are perfect woman IEMs in that they place right and are light and non-technical. I bet she likes them better than the standard phone free-Bs. They scale up too, still and end to what they can do, but what do you expect for $15.

Cheers!

Anytime you get a woman a gift they like it. My Wife likes $3000 diamond bracelets slightly more than roses? Go figure?

 

[Redcarmoose]

Ordered them and VE Monk. Batlle of flagships is ahead! ))

Let me know what you think. I have just spent the morning going back and forth between a number of low cost IEMs. Really it's a fun hobby here when you can see threads like the KZ thread, where 20 or so people are on it and everyone is loving them!!

Fun is what this hobby is about. Still it's a tough call to be the first one with a strange IEM. Much more easy with 20 or more varifying what you guess, you may actually hear.


First off there is no perfect IEM or headphone, but different colors and different resolutions of detail along with different placements and overall signatures. My goal though is just to find products I can listen to and find entertaining long term.

 

[markm1]

They are perfect woman IEMs in that they place right and are light and non-technical. I bet she likes them better than the standard phone free-Bs. They scale up too, still and end to what they can do, but what do you expect for $15.

Cheers!

Anytime you get a woman a gift they like it. My Wife likes $3000 diamond bracelets slightly more than roses? Go figure?

My wife is not an audiophile at all. She would be pissed if I spent more than $30 on an IEM for her as she thinks high end audio is a useless waste of money. In her mind, she just doesn't care and only wants to hear the music. Nothing fancy. So, I told her I got her some nice buds for $14. Now this is a woman who tells me she doesn't hear much difference when I upgrade my gear and rolls her eyes at me-haha....we've been married a long time!
 
I ask her what she thinks. All smiles.

OMG-everything sounds so clear-it's like listening to a stereo!

Good recommendation Redcar

 

[Redcarmoose]

My wife is not an audiophile at all. She would be pissed if I spent more than $30 on an IEM for her as she thinks high end audio is a useless waste of money. In her mind, she just doesn't care and only wants to hear the music. Nothing fancy. So, I told her I got her some nice buds for $14. Now this is a woman who tells me she doesn't hear much difference when I upgrade my gear and rolls her eyes at me-haha....we've been married a long time!

I ask her what she thinks. All smiles.
Good recommendation Redcar

Glad she likes them. Make sure she understands the placement of right and left. Here is a photo used for a Chinese ad where the gal had the RM610Ds hanging down being in the wrong ears! Typical female behavior.

My wife does not like metal, which results in me having to endure 100s of hours of Bon Jovi and Nickelback! 100s and 100s. The last super expensive gear I purchased I had to tell her "The reason I'm buying this is I don't know how long I'm going to live."

 

[mysticstryk]

Hey, Bon Jovi is alright. Nickelback however is objectively terrible.

 

[simulatedrain]

Hey guys ive been lurking for a while trying to find a good set of cans for metal.  I listen to most genres of metal but i tend to focus mostly on atmospheric/ depressive / viking black metal.  Up to this point i have been using the ath m50x and its finally time for me to move on.  I have i fairly large budget ( ideally around $2500 for cans, amp, dac but can go higher if needed), and im not sure if i should go with mid fi to find a sound signature i want or if i should jump straight to the top.
 
Ive read thru way more of this thread then i care to admit as well as many other metal related posts and from the experiences/descriptions ive come up with some tops picks for HP choice:  fostex th-x00 or the 900 ( the ebony coming up looks super sexy and seems like it could be an awesome choice), lcd - xc or the lcd 2 , he-6 and lastly the ether / ether c.  Maybe both lcd-2 and fostex ebony?.
 
Id prefer to have closed back because im near my  computer and near an AC when its hot.  I dont have any experience with open cans so im not sure how much sound can bleed in, but im open to the idea of trying them if its worth it.  Im looking for something thats enjoyable to listen too and not necessarily analytical.  Most music is of poor recording quality so a headphone that works well with this would be great.  
 
I was planning to go with mobo audio > bifrost > lyr 2 or mjolnir 2 .  The dark voice seemed interesting, but i wanted the option of switching between tube and solid state.  Anyone have any suggestions on this?
 
 
 
Example bands :   Velvet Cacoon, Wolves in the throne room, nocternity, Loth, Nachtmystium, et cetera, nachtfalke, branikald, forest, xasthur, windir, wyrd.
 
TL;DR  audio noob looking for advice on going mid fi or hi fi.  2500+ budget for headphone , amp and dac that works well with black metal as well as low quality audio.  
 
Thanks guys!

 

[shuto77]

Hey guys ive been lurking for a while trying to find a good set of cans for metal.  I listen to most genres of metal but i tend to focus mostly on atmospheric/ depressive / viking black metal.  Up to this point i have been using the ath m50x and its finally time for me to move on.  I have i fairly large budget ( ideally around $2500 for cans, amp, dac but can go higher if needed), and im not sure if i should go with mid fi to find a sound signature i want or if i should jump straight to the top.

Ive read thru way more of this thread then i care to admit as well as many other metal related posts and from the experiences/descriptions ive come up with some tops picks for HP choice:  fostex th-x00 or the 900 ( the ebony coming up looks super sexy and seems like it could be an awesome choice), lcd - xc or the lcd 2 , he-6 and lastly the ether / ether c.  Maybe both lcd-2 and fostex ebony?.

Id prefer to have closed back because im near my  computer and near an AC when its hot.  I dont have any experience with open cans so im not sure how much sound can bleed in, but im open to the idea of trying them if its worth it.  Im looking for something thats enjoyable to listen too and not necessarily analytical.  Most music is of poor recording quality so a headphone that works well with this would be great.  

I was planning to go with mobo audio > bifrost > lyr 2 or mjolnir 2 .  The dark voice seemed interesting, but i wanted the option of switching between tube and solid state.  Anyone have any suggestions on this?



Example bands :   Velvet Cacoon, Wolves in the throne room, nocternity, Loth, Nachtmystium, et cetera, nachtfalke, branikald, forest, xasthur, windir, wyrd.

TL;DR  audio noob looking for advice on going mid fi or hi fi.  2500+ budget for headphone , amp and dac that works well with black metal as well as low quality audio.  

Thanks guys!

I say go for a Chord Mojo and
a Beyerdynamic DT1770. Msrp is 1200, but you can save some money if you buy used.

Good luck!

 

[fuego]

Each model of headphones has its own built-in equalization; some brands tune their products to create specific sound signatures. This is why styles of music sometimes sound great on one set of phones, but horrible on another. Metal isn’t as popular as rap and hip hop so you’re not going to find any special marketing campaigns about it. Personally when I listen to some bands like Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Metallica and the likes, I use Shure SRH840. The overall sound of these set is very detailed and analytical. Recessed highs combined with moderate dynamic bass mesh well with metal music.

 

[Hansotek]

Hey guys ive been lurking for a while trying to find a good set of cans for metal.  I listen to most genres of metal but i tend to focus mostly on atmospheric/ depressive / viking black metal.  Up to this point i have been using the ath m50x and its finally time for me to move on.  I have i fairly large budget ( ideally around $2500 for cans, amp, dac but can go higher if needed), and im not sure if i should go with mid fi to find a sound signature i want or if i should jump straight to the top.

Ive read thru way more of this thread then i care to admit as well as many other metal related posts and from the experiences/descriptions ive come up with some tops picks for HP choice:  fostex th-x00 or the 900 ( the ebony coming up looks super sexy and seems like it could be an awesome choice), lcd - xc or the lcd 2 , he-6 and lastly the ether / ether c.  Maybe both lcd-2 and fostex ebony?.

Id prefer to have closed back because im near my  computer and near an AC when its hot.  I dont have any experience with open cans so im not sure how much sound can bleed in, but im open to the idea of trying them if its worth it.  Im looking for something thats enjoyable to listen too and not necessarily analytical.  Most music is of poor recording quality so a headphone that works well with this would be great.  

I was planning to go with mobo audio > bifrost > lyr 2 or mjolnir 2 .  The dark voice seemed interesting, but i wanted the option of switching between tube and solid state.  Anyone have any suggestions on this?



Example bands :   Velvet Cacoon, Wolves in the throne room, nocternity, Loth, Nachtmystium, et cetera, nachtfalke, branikald, forest, xasthur, windir, wyrd.

TL;DR  audio noob looking for advice on going mid fi or hi fi.  2500+ budget for headphone , amp and dac that works well with black metal as well as low quality audio.  

Thanks guys!

Hey man, welcome to the thread! All those bands you mentioned favor a somewhat bright, under-produced style of recording. That, in addition to "low quality audio", as you said, leads me to the conclusion that you'd be best served by a setup with a smooth, dark, weighty sound. I'd look into the Audeze LCD-2 and LCD-3, the Focal Elear, the ZMF Omni or maybe the HD650 with a high-end OTL tube amp. I'd probably avoid Schiit in your setup, as their house sound is somewhat forward and dry and will probably make your music a bit fatiguing. I'd probably look to gear with a darker, weightier, more spacious and atmospheric sound like Vioelectric, Cavalli and Linear Tube Audio.

A ZMF Omni and Questyle 600i would probably be a nice combo, giving you an extremely nice amp/DAC integrated combo and a dark, atmospheric headphone for about $2,300-$2,500, depending on your Omni options. It also has the advantage of being semi-open so it will attenuate a little outside noise (though it wouldn't block it out completely). A Cavalli Liquid Carbon, Chord Mojo and a balanced LCD-2 or Elear combo would also likely serve you very well, provided you can get your hands on a Carbon. Or you could go front-end heavy and get something like a Metrum Musette and a Linear Tube Audio Micro ZOTL2 to be a conduit for the HD650.

If I had my choice of the above, I'd probably go with the 600i and the Omni or Elear.

 

[Psalmanazar]

The Schiit Asgard 2 is really good for the price and doesn't have the slight Schiit harshness (it's not O2 or GS-X mk2 harshness though) as heard in the Valhalla 2 and Rag. MicroZOTL is bright to the point that it made the older, black driver HD 650s slightly too bright and forward. No way in hell should anyone ever use that for metal. Soundstage is tiny too. The amp is audibly worse than the Schiits.

The Omnis I heard had lower mid suckout. Beyers and the Fostex TH900 I wouldn't recommend at all for metal due to the Beyers being incredibly bright to the point where you can call it major distortion and the TH900 being super v-shaped which will kill the guitars in the mix. All the Fostex and Hifiman cans have treble problems but nothing like Beyers. The cymbals and snare cut through the mix as the peaks so if a transducer is super bright, it will make those even louder and prevent you from cranking your recordings to a reasonable volume.
 
DAC of your choice -> Asgard 2 -> HD 600/650 wouldn't be a bad rig at all, maybe better than the Elear given the Elear's greater upper mid recessio that could turn into a DT 770 or K7XX suckout.
 
You should attend a meet and try gear yourself before you drop a thousand dollars or more.

 

[Halazzi]

With the frequency response graphs for the TH-X00 Ebony and Purpleheart (http://www.head-fi.org/t/788776/fostex-x-massdrop-th-x00-review/7275#post_12718398) any thoughts on which would be better for metal in general, but primarily death/doom genres?