[Chris Kaoss]

So which headphone can one eq to get the best sound out it ?

You hit the right note.
You can eq every headphone to get the best sound of "it".

But with a greatly damped, well sounding headphone you don't have the need to do.
Especially if it suits your taste of listening.
I, for myself, will never pick a high priced headphone which i have to apply an eq.
Either it sounds great out of the box or i leave it.
But that's just my opinion.

Have a great day.

 

[jmills8]

How should I know?
I'm not a billionare.

Many here who are not rich , living from check to check have multiple thousand or thousand dollar headphones and also demoed and used their friends headphone. I never said every headphone but is there one that you tried. If you dont know how to then ok no reply expected.

 

[jmills8]

You hit the right note.
You can eq every headphone to get the best sound of "it".

But with a greatly damped, well sounding headphone you don't have the need to do.
Especially if it suits your taste of listening.
I, for myself, will never pick a high priced headphone which i have to apply an eq.
Either it sounds great out of the box or i leave it.
But that's just my opinion.

Have a great day.

So which headphone didnt need any eq and ofcourse the chain used.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

So which headphone didnt need any eq and ofcourse the chain used.

This is a very subjective task.
For me, it's my current setup, Audio-GD R 28 and Quad Era-1.
But your mileage may vary drastically.

I haven't heard a headphone above 2k, except the Empyrian.
For my listening circumstances, the Era-1 ticks all the boxes I got to date.
Maybe this will change in the future. Who knows this for sure?

Will heading to demo the Heddphone and looking for a HD58x to raise my knowledge of different headphone.
There're so many good sounding, cheap headphones out there to discover.
While the Era-1 is my favourite headphone (I'd buy a second one as a backup unit ), I'm going to listen to a wide range, whether it'll be cheaper or more expansive.

So many ways to go for a great listening experience.
That, and my addiction to good music, is the only reason I am here.
I'm not going to fight with all kinds of taste out there.
The only one I've to satisfy is just me.

 

[jmills8]

This is a very subjective task.
For me, it's my current setup, Audio-GD R 28 and Quad Era-1.
But your mileage may vary drastically.

I haven't heard a headphone above 2k, except the Empyrian.
For my listening circumstances, the Era-1 ticks all the boxes I got to date.
Maybe this will change in the future. Who knows this for sure?

Will heading to demo the Heddphone and looking for a HD58x to raise my knowledge of different headphone.
There're so many good sounding, cheap headphones out there to discover.
While the Era-1 is my favourite headphone (I'd buy a second one as a backup unit ), I'm going to listen to a wide range, whether it'll be cheaper or more expansive.

So many ways to go for a great listening experience.
That, and my addiction to good music, is the only reason I am here.
I'm not going to fight with all kinds of taste out there.
The only one I've to satisfy is just me.

What would be your top 10 albums you would use to test a headphone ? Thxs

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Such a ranking doesn't exist for me.
I prefer the music I'm listening the most.
As is said, I'm judging by my taste of musicality, not be frequencies as a matter.

But the be honest, the first album i'd hit play is Burmester Selection No.1 in every case.
There's a wide range of genres and a great variety of sounds on it.

Blues Company - Invitation to the blues is also a great piece of musicality.

Songs i'd pick for myself are

Keri Noble - Last Warning
Esperanza Spalding - Ponta de Areia
Allen Taylor - Chimes on midnight
Geoffrey Oryema - Makambo
Kari Bremnes - Spor (2015)
Sara K. - Don't i know you from somewhere?
Jan Gunnar Hoff - Living

Evanescence - Hi-Lo from Synthesis
Evanescence - Lost in Paradise from Synthesis
Alex Christensen ft. The Berlin Orchestra - Listen to your heart ft. Medina ( I like her voice and passion)
Alex Christensen ft. The Berlin Orchestra - Redemption
Lindsey Stirling - Love's just a feeling (Brave enough) - Like the whole album
Charlotte Cardin - Paradise Motion, Dirty Dirty, Like it doesn't hurt - for some reason
Alex Clare - You'll be fine
Ages Obel - The Curse
London Grammar - Hell to the Lairs, Who am I
Medina - Scars
Simply Three - Maverick, Heart's Harmony

Unleash the archers - Awakening, Apex, Going down fighting
Several Nightwish songs.

And many more.
A lot of different music genres, you see.
There'll be no regular fit for me, therefor I'll never be a good reviewer. ^^

 

[xtr4]

This is a very subjective task.
For me, it's my current setup, Audio-GD R 28 and Quad Era-1.
But your mileage may vary drastically.

I haven't heard a headphone above 2k, except the Empyrian.
For my listening circumstances, the Era-1 ticks all the boxes I got to date.
Maybe this will change in the future. Who knows this for sure?

Will heading to demo the Heddphone and looking for a HD58x to raise my knowledge of different headphone.
There're so many good sounding, cheap headphones out there to discover.
While the Era-1 is my favourite headphone (I'd buy a second one as a backup unit ), I'm going to listen to a wide range, whether it'll be cheaper or more expansive.

So many ways to go for a great listening experience.
That, and my addiction to good music, is the only reason I am here.
I'm not going to fight with all kinds of taste out there.
The only one I've to satisfy is just me.

This is why this hobby is both a trap and blessing hahahah

I've owned the Era-1 and didn't find it suitable for my musical taste and preference. Didn't quite like how they sounded and wasn't impressed at all. Back when I first got it, I had the 6XX, HE-560, Elex and HE-6SE in the stable. Driven by my RME ADI-2 DAC and La Figaro 339 (EF86 + Tung Sol 5998)

The HEDDPhone gave me similar impression initially as the demo shop had it hooked up to the AK Kann Cube first. Then when I swapped to the AK SP2K + Cayin HA-1A combo, the sound signature changed again. To me, it's the first time experiencing a headphone that changed that dramatically to the source device.

I now own the HEKSE driven by RME ADI-2 DAC and newly acquired SPL Phonitor X (curious to compare to Darthpool's impression) and it's such a great combo that allows me to enjoy all musical genres from Rock, Metal, Jazz, Hip Hop, Classical, Fusion etc.

When I tried the HEDDPhone, I was stunned at how a headphone could sound so transparent to gear as I'm quite used to listening to headphones with a particular house sound (in my case, I have a preference towards Hifiman's tuning). HEDDPhone had me curious to see how it'll perform across the board with other gear and what gear synergy did it have in particular.

Alas, I wasn't able to spend more time with it and hoping for more impressions from fellow head-fiers. I would say this though, given my brief time with it and its current price point, it does make the current TOTL offerings seem stupidly priced.

* My initial impressions can be found on post #750 at the bottom of page 50

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

This is why this hobby is both a trap and blessing hahahah

I've owned the Era-1 and didn't find it suitable for my musical taste and preference. Didn't quite like how they sounded and wasn't impressed at all. Back when I first got it, I had the 6XX, HE-560, Elex and HE-6SE in the stable. Driven by my RME ADI-2 DAC and La Figaro 339 (EF86 + Tung Sol 5998)

The HEDDPhone gave me similar impression initially as the demo shop had it hooked up to the AK Kann Cube first. Then when I swapped to the AK SP2K + Cayin HA-1A combo, the sound signature changed again. To me, it's the first time experiencing a headphone that changed that dramatically to the source device.

I now own the HEKSE driven by RME ADI-2 DAC and newly acquired SPL Phonitor X (curious to compare to Darthpool's impression) and it's such a great combo that allows me to enjoy all musical genres from Rock, Metal, Jazz, Hip Hop, Classical, Fusion etc.

When I tried the HEDDPhone, I was stunned at how a headphone could sound so transparent to gear as I'm quite used to listening to headphones with a particular house sound (in my case, I have a preference towards Hifiman's tuning). HEDDPhone had me curious to see how it'll perform across the board with other gear and what gear synergy did it have in particular.

Alas, I wasn't able to spend more time with it and hoping for more impressions from fellow head-fiers. I would say this though, given my brief time with it and its current price point, it does make the current TOTL offerings seem stupidly priced.

* My initial impressions can be found on post #750 at the bottom of page 50

I agree with everything you’ve said here. But I also used to own the HEKse. And I’ll just say this, it is a GREAT headphone. I really liked it a lot. In terms of pure sound, I wouldn’t call the HEDDphone dramatically better. It’s mainly due to the price difference that I wouldn’t take the HEKse over the HEDDphone.

And both of those sound way better than my Abyss Diana V2 that I sold a while ago. Those headphones were truly a disappointment at their price point.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

How do you take off the pads? I really hope it is magnets, or something as easy.

I can't stop looking at the pics. Love the look.

It’s not magnets like the Empyrean or Ultrasone, which would be awesome, because I love that type of system. But they’re very easy to change. Do you remember the Shure srh1540 and 1840? Well the HEDDphone uses the same type of earpad system, BUT it’s even better because the mounting lip has more slack so it’s quite easy to put back on. To take them off you just gently pull them. I took one off to post a picture of the driver, and it took me less than 20 seconds to put back on.

 

[jarnopp]

So which headphone didnt need any eq and ofcourse the chain used.

OT/ Try this for starters: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/Au...204076e9e064426a8762b992718/results/README.md

 

[Beagle]

Nice to see some positive vibes and reviews coming through. I'm considering ordering but will wait a few weeks to make sure the novelty does not wear off. It is Head-fi after all I will have to sell some stuff ..thin the herd a bit.

I just like the descriptions I am hearing thus far. Especially the bit of raise in the 1-2 kHz region. That's usually a natural detailed rather than a spiky one up in the treble somewhere.

 

[Pro-Jules]

 

[JaZZ]

No, I say that you simply can not EQ them to your tastes very well as a result of lack of dampening, thanks to the effect I described.

I disagree. After being familiar with filter and signal theory you will realize that equalizing a resonance peak will also equalize the phase behavior (= time domain) to some (large) degree, depending on the characteristic.

So which headphone can one eq to get the best sound out it ?

The HiFiMan HE1000se (with Lavricables Grand in this case).

You hit the right note.
You can eq every headphone to get the best sound of "it".
But with a greatly damped, well sounding headphone you don't have the need to do.
Especially if it suits your taste of listening.
I, for myself, will never pick a high priced headphone which i have to apply an eq.
Either it sounds great out of the box or i leave it.
But that's just my opinion.

To each his/her own! However, this approach misses the fact that there's no headphone with a perfectly flat amplitude response (far from it). So even the very best can be considerably improved with equalizing. But you can just as well renounce it if you don't want to maximize the benefit out of corresponding ideologic principles.

 

[buonassi]

I disagree. After being familiar with filter and signal theory you will realize that equalizing a resonance peak will also equalize the phase behavior (= time domain) to some (large) degree, depending on the characteristic.

^^ this

if you notch out the resonant peak, you minimize the resonance (ringing) - making the cascading waterfall plot look better in the FR and time domains alike. As a matter of fact, sometimes you can lessen the ringing in other areas by adjusting just one small offending frequency range. (similar to intermodulation distortion).

It is ideal? Maybe not, but those who know how to use EQ can make a good headphone sound great, and a great headphone sound even greater. Of course a quality PEQ is required or you'll end up making sonic sacrifices (quantization error). I suggest Fab Filter ProQ 2 or 3, and DMG Equilibrium - use minimum phase filtering for peaking filters centered below 2K (as well as shelf filters) and linear phase for the peaking filters above 2k. For mobile, on the go use, nothing can hold a candle to Neutron's PEQ in 64bit mode. All my opinion of course.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Alright people, I don’t want to dominate this thread so I’ll just say a few more things about these. I’ve never had a better listening session than I did this morning with the HEDDphone.

I just can’t recommend them enough. For me, they’ve lived up to the hype. They have a very balanced frequency response, they’re heavy but comfortable, they’re built well, and they just sound phenomenal unless your music is garbage or mastered poorly. They’re the most transparent headphone I’ve ever owned.

So here’s a few TOTL headphones that I’ve owned and I would not take over the HEDDphone:

1) HEK V1
2) HEK V2
3) HEKse
4) Ultrasone Edition 15
5) Sennheiser 800S
6) LCD 4Z
7) Final D8000
8) Abyss Diana V2
9) Ether 2
10) Meze Empyrean

These remind me of a planar-esque version of the 800S, but with a much better bass response, especially sub bass, and smoother treble but just as detailed. They have fantastic imaging and layering and a soundstage that can get almost as large. They are highly detailed and analytical but without the usual harshness that tends to come with that characteristic.

You have to listen to some well-recorded live albums with these. For example, The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over, Seether - One Cold Night, The Scorpions - MTV Unplugged, Ray Montford - Live Sessions

Live music, acoustic music, and vocal music absolutely give me chills with these. I simply love them. I hope others get a chance to check these out because I think they’re something special.

Sub bass - 9/10
Mid bass - 9/10
Lower mids - 9/10
Mids - 9/10
Upper mids - 8/10
All treble - 10/10

I am an audiophile and active member of Head-Fi, so clearly I have issues. But I’m serious when I say my upgradeitis is quenched for a while. The fact that it is so easy to even compare these to headphones, that cost over twice their price, is a testament to how good they are. I really loved my Edition X V2’s. So much so that I bought them twice. But I would never think to compare them to something like the Focal Utopia, because that would be ridiculous.

And by the way, these can easily be driven by the IFI Micro BL. I tried it with them this morning for a little bit and it did just fine.