Thank you for your suggestion.
But I've found my ideal closed.. "phone".
A 21 euro 7Hz Zero:2 in-ear
Tried 5 closed headphones.
The Sennheiser HD620S yesterday. Didn't like it at all from the first second. Quite coloured and lacking quality in the bass, mids and treble. The treble was the weirdest of them all since it wasn't "dry" but seemed to "reverberate" a little in the earcups or something like that. Didn't like it at all with the tracks I tried it with. Only good thing about it was that it was extended and had "air/sparkle" at times.
Sony MDR-M1. Plasticky very small earcups cheap feeling. And the driver sounds like it's lacking, high distortion / compression. Couldn't do proper bass or treble with EQ, default tuning has a woolly bass boost all the way up in the lower mids.
Sony WH1000-XM5. Same bad bass boost as the MDR-M1. Bit bigger earcups though. Couldn't get good sound from it with EQ. Perhaps bluetooth hinders quality too?
Austrian Audio Hi-X60. Technically good driver, clean and extended. Weird sounding though due to serious driver resonances in the treble. Sounds phasey / plasticy / pinched because of it and can't get it to sound relaxed / neutral no matter what I tried with EQ to remedy it. Also had a very slight crossfeed due to 3-wire configuration.
Could see it having use in the studio for monitoring but not for mixing and also not for listening to music in an enjoyable way.
Apple Airpods Max. The only one that actually sounds nice in it's own way. Not "hi-fi", but good bass (bit exaggerated especially in the sub), seriously dark in the low to mid treble (which makes the whole headphone bassy and warm sounding) which you can't fix with EQ since it'll start sounding grainy and cheap so this need to remain hidden, overly processed sound with DSP (if you play an impulse you hear the treble first and then the bass part of the impulse like they're two seperate things in time), and bluetooth treble quality degradation / darkening. But overall it's still immersive sounding and a good "consumer sound" I think mostly because of its warmth and bass quality.
Now compared to the 21 euro (including shipping) 7Hz vs Crinacle Zero:2 in-ear monitor.
It walks all over the above headphones in every single way. It's not even remotely close.
The bass is deep and very tight/controlled etc (slightly boosted in the sub). Whole spectrum is perfect really, the detail and control and balanced sound is amazing. Never heard anything this good. Very top treble is there but perhaps this is a bit.. hmm don't the words.. doesn't get the same spotlight as the rest of the frequency spectrum. Still better than any of the above mentioned headphones and it doesn't sound like it's lacking but I still feel like something more can likely be had with even better quality in-ears. For the rest I could get a very slight improvement in the mids with a 1dB boost but this is like tuning a studio speaker without the room interfering. It's tuning nitpicking. This thing is just stunning and sounds like a million dollars.
Source was Topping DX3 Pro+ for all the above wired headphones. Played from PC with Foobar2000 64bit, Topping driver Asio USB output.
I'm done with closed headphones. IEM only for me from now on.
Will still keep one open headphone though. My Sennheiser HD650. It can't do what the Zero:2 does, but it's nice in its own way, makes everything listenable in a relaxed way. And yes it lacks in the bass (and starts sounding woolly if you boost it) and in the top treble and it smears over details etc but with a good source and amp it's a homogenous good sound in it's own way. (owned many open headphones in the past. HD560S, HD600, HD700, HD800, DT1990pro, K701, K1000 and others.)
Other than that I'm going to start my search for an IEM that can beat the Zero:2. Can't wait to hear what that will sound like
then I would suggest cca hydro for $80 on aliexpress . It is amazing how these sound for so little money . After getting them Im thinking about selling my big headphones that cost 10 times more ....
