[bencha]

Got too much excited from all rating reviews so ordered an XTC-O. I like musicality , tonality accuracy and well balanced , holographic soundstage over details retreival and accuracy/impact sharpness and speed . Would you guys recommend biowool or beryllium driver? I read biowool would be more note thick and beryllium better speed, but for the other parameters input from users would be appreciated as it will help me guide my discussion with John.
Thanks!

 

[rlawry]

I have a pair of XTC-Closed with beryllium driver and nearly scapel tuning. I have never heard the biowool driver nor the open cup phones but from my understanding, the beryllium driver is faster and leads to a fast, detailed, transparent, dynamic, leaner, more lightweight sound. The biowool driver is slower and in my experience will give a warmer, fuller, darker, bass-prominent sound with a more robust midrange and more midrange body. That being said, I would concur with your contacting John Massaria for his recommendation of driver choice and tuning to target your preferred sound.

 

[eugene2]

Got too much excited from all rating reviews so ordered an XTC-O. I like musicality , tonality accuracy and well balanced , holographic soundstage over details retreival and accuracy/impact sharpness and speed . Would you guys recommend biowool or beryllium driver? I read biowool would be more note thick and beryllium better speed, but for the other parameters input from users would be appreciated as it will help me guide my discussion with John.
Thanks!

Headphones cannot do it alone. Associated equipment will assist in the decision making process. I chose beryllium because of its rigidity and light weight, which allows better control over diaphragm movement. It is accurate and controlled by nature and generally has an excellent detailed and extended treble response. As I detailed in my review Beryllium is known for their fast transient response, they can accurately reproduce sudden changes in sound, which is critical in reproducing the attack and decay of musical instruments and going from ppp to fff. The drivers stiffness also allows that clean low distortion sound Beryllium is known for.
I do not know much about Bio wool drivers its a newer material which some claim allow a thicker somewhat more relaxed musical presentation. Where soundstage in the XTC is supposedly affected more by John's use of his fractal porous graphene carbon material which is used in all his headphones. The decision you need to make depends more on your associated equipment, John should help you resolve that issue. Tubes versus transistor, impedance etc...

 

[Strayngs]

I have a pair of XTC-Closed with beryllium driver and nearly scapel tuning. I have never heard the biowool driver nor the open cup phones but from my understanding, the beryllium driver is faster and leads to a fast, detailed, transparent, dynamic, leaner, more lightweight sound. The biowool driver is slower and in my experience will give a warmer, fuller, darker, bass-prominent sound with a more robust midrange and more midrange body. That being said, I would concur with your contacting John Massaria for his recommendation of driver choice and tuning to target your preferred sound.

I agree with this. Talk to John. He didnt even offer me the biowool because he understood my taste.

 

[bencha]

I have a pair of XTC-Closed with beryllium driver and nearly scapel tuning. I have never heard the biowool driver nor the open cup phones but from my understanding, the beryllium driver is faster and leads to a fast, detailed, transparent, dynamic, leaner, more lightweight sound. The biowool driver is slower and in my experience will give a warmer, fuller, darker, bass-prominent sound with a more robust midrange and more midrange body. That being said, I would concur with your contacting John Massaria for his recommendation of driver choice and tuning to target your preferred sound.

Thanks for your reply! I will certainly trust John's expertise on this!

 

[bencha]

Headphones cannot do it alone. Associated equipment will assist in the decision making process. I chose beryllium because of its rigidity and light weight, which allows better control over diaphragm movement. It is accurate and controlled by nature and generally has an excellent detailed and extended treble response. As I detailed in my review Beryllium is known for their fast transient response, they can accurately reproduce sudden changes in sound, which is critical in reproducing the attack and decay of musical instruments and going from ppp to fff. The drivers stiffness also allows that clean low distortion sound Beryllium is known for.
I do not know much about Bio wool drivers its a newer material which some claim allow a thicker somewhat more relaxed musical presentation. Where soundstage in the XTC is supposedly affected more by John's use of his fractal porous graphene carbon material which is used in all his headphones. The decision you need to make depends more on your associated equipment, John should help you resolve that issue. Tubes versus transistor, impedance etc...

Thanks, of course Beryllium is a well regarded material. I want to know more on the bio-wool (I.e fabric) and its advantage and drawback before choosing. All the best,

 

[vikinguy]

 

[Mhog55]

Beautiful

 

[phoneslave86]

I remember wanting to understand Biowool vs Beryl and the tuning and had the same questions. I'll try my best to give some insight not that it's complete information

Biowool Warm and Detailed w/Fuzzy cutout- A valuable combo in the real world. Awesome warm full sound and significantly more bass. Non fatiguing and works well for general listening with poor recordings significantly better than the Beryl very detailed. It's not easy to make a pair of headphones work all around so well while it still maintains resolution/timbre that surpasses stuff like Clears/z1r. I often will just relax when I swap to this after the Beryl. I do listen to 6-8+ hours a day every day so these are important qualities. If you want something that will safely work in general no matter what I'd go for these or maybe neutral to detailed Beryl.

Beryl Warm Very Detailed w/Fuzzy cutout- Even blacker air, more holographic, more zing and zest. Noticeably less bass (still amazing at bass) significantly more forward vocals/mids/upper. Bass/mid bass is great with the Beryl not lacking at all but Biowool is whoa alot of bass which I love as well. Downside to the very detailed Beryl is that these expose flaws in bad recordings moreso. I listen to a fair bit of poorly recorded stuff and most people do too. Going beyond neutral/detailed tuning can do that where it becomes a problem. Positively they shine with good recordings/equipment and at doing amazing things. Also, they can be fatiguing for all day long listening depending on your setup. Not from sibilance or from treble spikes but just from raw clarity and being so musical. A real and intense sound like your there. It will suck you in which is awesome. I still listen to them all day anyways I like them so much but it's still not necessarily ideal for 6-8 straight hours like I do every day. Tubes have helped here and I'm close to getting it perfect for listening like this all day.

It's important to know you will never know until you listen. There is no way to know otherwise. There are so many combinations of tuning that change all kinds of things ect. and you can always send 'em back to retune too which is incredible I might add. It is ideal to have different headphones for different things.

I want to try a closed back Beryl with warm and neutral or slightly detailed tuning next. Likely would make another really good all arounder for me personally

 

[bencha]

Thanks to everyone who replied. This hobby has a helpfull community!
I was able to complete the tuning with John using some of the reviews and references. John was very quick to assemble my order, and I should receive my " XTC-O bio-wool warm even bass yet detailed" soon (hoping it does not get stuck in canadian customs.)
Will let you know when it arrives.

 

[Ateefi]

Update on my earpad choice for the XTC open, had the fuzzy on, nice but felt something missing, so i took them off, ordered some Dekoni Beyerdynamic hybrid perforated pads since i could get them in th U.K. I have to say in my opinion you get a bigger soundstage, the clarity and resolution goes up a wee notch with better detail. Don't think i lose much on the bass front, i actually like better.

Read a review by Eugene2 and have to agree with him on the pads, although he used JM Audio premium pads

 

[Zhon]

Update on my earpad choice for the XTC open, had the fuzzy on, nice but felt something missing, so i took them off, ordered some Dekoni Beyerdynamic hybrid perforated pads since i could get them in th U.K. I have to say in my opinion you get a bigger soundstage, the clarity and resolution goes up a wee notch with better detail. Don't think i lose much on the bass front, i actually like better.

Read a review by Eugene2 and have to agree with him on the pads, although he used JM Audio premium pads

Have you tried the perforated pads yet? I'm curious about the differences between the Dekoni ones and the JM ones.

 

[Ateefi]

Not tried JM Audio perforated, I quite like the Dekoni ones though, fit perfectly and to my ears they elevate the sound to my preferences

 

[kehadnb94]

Perforated? You mean those at the bottom??

 

[Zap67]

With my XTC open I love my perforated luxury pads, I have open with warm but detailed sound