I was about to place an order for the Gjallarhorn GH50 JM Edition, but then I realized I will be wearing glasses most of the time. There will most likely be a slight gap between the glasses frames and the earpads.
Since this headphone is so fit/seal dependent and you need to bend the headband to get the best audio quality, is it not a wise decision to purchase this? Anyone wearing glasses with GH50 JM Edition can test if you suffer heavy audio quality loss?
Good question.
The late Tyll Hertsens on Innerfidelity had already (empirically) answered the question.
But, impossible to find his initial message on the web; the new Innerfidelity site was massacred by its new owner who erased all the old Tyll archives .
Only this photo remains ...
From memory (of the article of Tyll on the question), there existed on the FR measurements of the headphones, sometimes spectacular falls of the response in the bass; of certain headphones, more than others, for the wearers of glasses, especially with thick branches, with unsealing of the pads by these branches of glasses.
It seems to me that some electrodynamic headphones were much more sensitive to this drop in bass response than other headphones (as isodynamic headphones with large drivers?).
I also wear glasses and I own the Thror, the Thekk and I owned the Magni V2.
Indeed the Magni V2, which shares the same driver and the same pads as the Gjallarhorn (standard and JM Edition), is very sensitive to the waterproofness of the pads, and even more to the pressure of the pads applied on the temples. The bass drop includes bass and sub bass.
Planar headphones (Thekk, Thror, Odin) are much less sensitive to bass drop in people who wear glasses; the unsealing of the pads results in a drop in level limited to sub-basses (under 50 Hz) (and not bass between 50 and 200 Hz).
However, the Magni pads (like the Gjallarhorn) are much thicker, softer (and flaccid) and more flexible than those of the ECL-01 pads (more firm and stiff) equipping the new Odin Thekk/Thror/Wodan, and can be "molded" onto a thin (not too thick) branch of a pair of glasses, as long as sufficient clamping pressure is applied: this should normally strongly limit the degradation of the bass response of these closed electrodynamic headphones, by accentuating the clamping, in wearers of glasses with thin branches.
Otherwise, the solution remains to remove glasses (if possible) or to wear contact lenses.
Finally, the unmodified version of the Gjallarhorn, should suffer less from wearing glasses because of its "natural" bass boost (+ 4 dB) compared to the JM Edition version (because of this light unsealing of the earpads by the branches of glasses, especially if thick).
Last word to say: "who can more can less": if for some reason the owners of the Gjallarhorn JM Edition complain about a lack of bass, it seems to me that the modification of the headphones proposed by John Massaria, and taken up by Kennerton with their official "JM Edition" version is perfectly reversible: it would be enough to remove the damper discs stuck on the wood horn to go back to the standard version; unless the modification is deeper and more complex than it sounds. To meditate.
. On a serious note I think he did not bend the metal band. In his review /comparison of the unmodified Gjallarhorn and the Magni he did not do it, and I think both headphones benefit as well of a correct clamp. That or he did get a defective pair, who knows... I'm here enjoying Cathedral's Carnival Bizarre
)
