My understanding is Modhouse is just a guy named Ryan working out of his house. He has a full-time job and does these extensive mods during the evening. The problem is his ridiculously low price, I believe he should be charging Around $600 for these.
But i guess i can add a couple of weeks extra in delivery time,since i live in norway.
It has been interesting journey with my Argon’s. Starting with the the weak Amp on the dragonfly red they were slow, bloated, congested and had rolled off highs. I was going to sell them. Then I got the 789 amp but my Argon’s were single ended and so, at 50 ohms, the 789 can only feed them 0.9 watts but that really cleaned them up. everything tightened up and the highs are not only more extended but noticeably smoother. I then took my them apart and installed 3.5 mm sockets in each cup so I can now run them balanced out of my 789. At 50 ohms that is about 4.5 watts. Wow what a difference! The bass got even tighter, the mids came forward and the top end extended even further... Uh oh!! These were now quickly dethroning most of my best headphones. The last thing I did was finally take Ryan’s advice and switched from the lambkin pads to the protein pads and that was nothing short of amazing! Remarkably cleaner from top to bottom. I have now been using them for about a month and am finding it impossible to use my other phones. My hd600 sounds like a child’s toy - thin, shouty, grainy and narrow.. My Elex sounds fake, sterile and harsh. The LCD2c gets demolished in almost every category. IMO, other than maybe better definition in the mids and possibly better layering, there is nothing that the LCD2c does better than this Argon. I agree with the DMS review, every time I put these on I think to myself What is happening?? I usually have little interest in EDM but If you have these with a super clean and powerful amp try Infected Mushroom - Head of NASA or the Blade runner 2049 soundtrack... What is happening inside my head
The fun dimension aside, for rock, folk, vocal, acoustic and EDM they are extraordinary! I still prefer my Elex for classical and my Nighthawks and Nightowls will always have a very special place in my heart. Also, If you use headphones for movies and TV this is best Headphone on the planet. For those that don’t already own this, the one drawback is, you can’t just order it on amazon and plug it in to any amp. You can usually find them for around 350 used or you need to order a t50rp, ship it to Modhouse and wait 2-3 months. You must also have an SS amp that is very clean, NOT warm and puts out at least 3 watts of power. As my journey shows, the more power the better the sound.
Daaamn, I hope the element 2 works fine, because I don't plan on buying other expensive dacs/amps in near future, nor I can sell it easily in my country. Hopefully it's a good combo, but we'll see. It's sad that I can't compare to others to verify your concern, I have only the element 2 and the FiiO BTR5
You have every reason to be excited!! My current system is running $7000 Martin Logan speakers that put out monster bass and clarity that is mind boggling but when it comes down to that system at night or my Argons it is truly a 50-50 proposition. As a matter fact, in some areas including 3-D imaging, they are better than my big system. Plus to get the volume out of my big system that I run my Argons I would be rattling the windows at the end of the block"Also, If you use headphones for movies and TV this is best Headphone on the planet"
This is exactly what im going to use these for.Mostly netflix and 4k movies on bluray.I have an sony 4k player,rme adi 2 fs dac,and atrox v2 amp ready for them
In my experience you will be just fine. I got the JDS Atom earlier this week, which is obviously very similar to your Element 2. I usually don’t go above 1:00-2:00 on the volume pot on high gain with my Argon MK2’s (T-X0).
That’s interesting, I have tried to EQ the bass down slightly at 60 Hz and while sounding cleaner the decay that I love so much is Substantially diminished. Even at 2 DB down at 60 Hz seems to take away some of the magic. I can flip my EQ on and off by remote and every time I try it I always end up with no EQ. Although I hear they don’t sound any different, I have never heard the MKII so we may be comparing apples to slightly different apples
I can open the website but the news section says they are swamped and not currently taking orders.
Most reviewer’s recommend 3+ watts. On the website he recommends a minimum of 1 watt. I found a substantial increase in sound quality moving from 1 watt to 4 watts. If memory serves correct the Hugo 2 puts out about 0.5 watts into 50 ohms so it will run it but you may find the bass loose and the highs rolled off. I can get it loud with something as weak as a Dragonfly but the sound quality is pretty bad...
When did you order? I placed mine at the end of April and haven't heard back on when they'll be in.Finally got an answer from modhouse.They said that my headphones should be finish within an week
