Hello everyone,
I would like to share my impressions with you today.
Actually I bought the HE1000V2 headphones. Unfortunately, the treble was so sharp that I couldn't hear any song with a female voice.
I then added a Cayin HA-3A headphone tube amplifier to my amplifier (AVM CS2.3)
Unfortunately, this didn't bring any improvement either, so I looked for an alternative.
And I ordered an upgrade to the R10P.
Now an R10D arrived instead of the R10P, yes, I don't understand how this can happen at Hifiman.
And so I now come to my conclusion about the R10D and the comparison with the Audeze LCD2 Closed Back.
I'm not a professional review writer, just a buyer and music lover.
Setup:
AVM CS2.3 lineout into Cayin Ha-3A via RCA.
Audeze - standard 6.3 jack unbalanced; mid impedance setting
Hifiman - balanced xlr; low impedance setting
Lana Del Rey : Born to Die
The warmth of the R10D suits the song very well, the somewhat shrill highs of the song are attenuated and there is a lot of power in the bass so that the short concise inserts of the kick pressure are well presented.
The LCD plays brighter here, less emotional.
Imagine Dragons : Believer
Similar to the first song, the track plays more in the upper mids, not too dense in the upper bass. Pauses, higher vocal range. It's precisely these songs that are a lot of fun with the R10D: songs that already have a lot of energy in the treble range and play more selectively in the bass.
Miles Davis: So What
Here the R10D lacks both the low bass and the energy in the treble range to reproduce double bass or trumpet.
It simply lacks clarity, contour and brilliance. It sounds dull.
The Audeze outshines the R10D 10 times from my point of view - in this song.
Nirvana : Smells like Teen Spirit
With the guitar intro you immediately hear the darker timbre.
Then the rest of the band kicks in and the bass guitar dominates the action instead of the guitars.
This makes the song sound dull, lacking brilliance and above all space in the mix. Too bad.
The bass solo is different. Here the guitar is missing, the overemphasized high bass can take up the whole room and is only complemented by the voice. It sounds really phenomenal.
Now the whole thing with the Audeze:
The guitar intro sounds much more aggressive, rockier, you can feel that a thunderstorm is about to break out and that's how it is. The snare hits your ears wonderfully. Kurt's voice unloads in a rage: this is how grunge works!
In contrast to the R10D, the bass solo is a pause, restrained, the voice enjoys full attention.
The song is much more fun with the Audeze, more emotional, more authentic, more in your face.
Van Halen: You really got me
By today's standards, this is a thin bung that plays out mainly in the mids and highs. Sounds exactly the same with the Audeze: thin and a bit squeaky.
The R10D gives the guitars much more assertiveness, the whole song sounds much darker. But the voice loses presence, which doesn't help the song. The bottom line is that the sound is much closer to a live performance.
In both cases, the mix is not convincing.
Norah Jones : Don't know why
With the R10D you can really turn up the volume here. The headphones take any sharpness out of the voice, even at high volumes. The dark timbre makes the whole song more personal, more intimate, more personal. It creates the image of a small smoky bar, Norah Jones on stage, it could be a local jazz club. I like that very much.
With Audeze it's completely different, everything shimmers, a big stage, a great tuned piano, you're sitting in a concert hall, on the big stage: the world star Norah Jones!
Every nuance of her voice is precisely illuminated.
World class, but no longer intimate.
Conclusion:
The R10D clearly wins again on my tube amplifier. The bass becomes even stronger, but with more contour it also takes up more space.
With the right songs, the headphones are a lot of fun.
Especially if the piece has a present female voice and there is room for the over-emphasized bass in the lower mids.
There is a lack of neutrality, resolution, brilliance and a lot of songs sounded not good at all. Deep male voices and rhythm guitar fade in the background by the massive bass presentation. That's especially true for metal genre with low tuned guitars and fast steady bass guitar.
There is also a lack of depth in the bass compared to the Audeze. E.g. Bad guy from Billie Ellish, that song is 10x more enjoyable with the Audeze. Depth, sharp and crisp bass. Sounds perfect.
As a complement to the Audeze LCD2 Closed Back and with the option of the Bluetooth module, I find the R10D exciting, especially if you buy it for under $500. For many music titles, it helps if you lower the range 150-500 khz using EQ and raise it 1-2.5 khz.
The bottom line is that I would really only view the headphones as a supplement for very specific applications.
Exotic and exciting.
Now I'm excited about the R10P!
I would like to share my impressions with you today.
Actually I bought the HE1000V2 headphones. Unfortunately, the treble was so sharp that I couldn't hear any song with a female voice.
I then added a Cayin HA-3A headphone tube amplifier to my amplifier (AVM CS2.3)
Unfortunately, this didn't bring any improvement either, so I looked for an alternative.
And I ordered an upgrade to the R10P.
Now an R10D arrived instead of the R10P, yes, I don't understand how this can happen at Hifiman.
And so I now come to my conclusion about the R10D and the comparison with the Audeze LCD2 Closed Back.
I'm not a professional review writer, just a buyer and music lover.
Setup:
AVM CS2.3 lineout into Cayin Ha-3A via RCA.
Audeze - standard 6.3 jack unbalanced; mid impedance setting
Hifiman - balanced xlr; low impedance setting
Lana Del Rey : Born to Die
The warmth of the R10D suits the song very well, the somewhat shrill highs of the song are attenuated and there is a lot of power in the bass so that the short concise inserts of the kick pressure are well presented.
The LCD plays brighter here, less emotional.
Imagine Dragons : Believer
Similar to the first song, the track plays more in the upper mids, not too dense in the upper bass. Pauses, higher vocal range. It's precisely these songs that are a lot of fun with the R10D: songs that already have a lot of energy in the treble range and play more selectively in the bass.
Miles Davis: So What
Here the R10D lacks both the low bass and the energy in the treble range to reproduce double bass or trumpet.
It simply lacks clarity, contour and brilliance. It sounds dull.
The Audeze outshines the R10D 10 times from my point of view - in this song.
Nirvana : Smells like Teen Spirit
With the guitar intro you immediately hear the darker timbre.
Then the rest of the band kicks in and the bass guitar dominates the action instead of the guitars.
This makes the song sound dull, lacking brilliance and above all space in the mix. Too bad.
The bass solo is different. Here the guitar is missing, the overemphasized high bass can take up the whole room and is only complemented by the voice. It sounds really phenomenal.
Now the whole thing with the Audeze:
The guitar intro sounds much more aggressive, rockier, you can feel that a thunderstorm is about to break out and that's how it is. The snare hits your ears wonderfully. Kurt's voice unloads in a rage: this is how grunge works!
In contrast to the R10D, the bass solo is a pause, restrained, the voice enjoys full attention.
The song is much more fun with the Audeze, more emotional, more authentic, more in your face.
Van Halen: You really got me
By today's standards, this is a thin bung that plays out mainly in the mids and highs. Sounds exactly the same with the Audeze: thin and a bit squeaky.
The R10D gives the guitars much more assertiveness, the whole song sounds much darker. But the voice loses presence, which doesn't help the song. The bottom line is that the sound is much closer to a live performance.
In both cases, the mix is not convincing.
Norah Jones : Don't know why
With the R10D you can really turn up the volume here. The headphones take any sharpness out of the voice, even at high volumes. The dark timbre makes the whole song more personal, more intimate, more personal. It creates the image of a small smoky bar, Norah Jones on stage, it could be a local jazz club. I like that very much.
With Audeze it's completely different, everything shimmers, a big stage, a great tuned piano, you're sitting in a concert hall, on the big stage: the world star Norah Jones!
Every nuance of her voice is precisely illuminated.
World class, but no longer intimate.
Conclusion:
The R10D clearly wins again on my tube amplifier. The bass becomes even stronger, but with more contour it also takes up more space.
With the right songs, the headphones are a lot of fun.
Especially if the piece has a present female voice and there is room for the over-emphasized bass in the lower mids.
There is a lack of neutrality, resolution, brilliance and a lot of songs sounded not good at all. Deep male voices and rhythm guitar fade in the background by the massive bass presentation. That's especially true for metal genre with low tuned guitars and fast steady bass guitar.
There is also a lack of depth in the bass compared to the Audeze. E.g. Bad guy from Billie Ellish, that song is 10x more enjoyable with the Audeze. Depth, sharp and crisp bass. Sounds perfect.
As a complement to the Audeze LCD2 Closed Back and with the option of the Bluetooth module, I find the R10D exciting, especially if you buy it for under $500. For many music titles, it helps if you lower the range 150-500 khz using EQ and raise it 1-2.5 khz.
The bottom line is that I would really only view the headphones as a supplement for very specific applications.
Exotic and exciting.
Now I'm excited about the R10P!
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