[Pahani]

Balanced is only better if the actual amp is better. There are plenty of single ended amps that are superior to balanced amps. On the cable front, you can also order a 4pin XLR to TRS adapter to use your balanced cable with unbalanced amps.

Haha

On another note: I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think I want to upgrade my amp. While the Aune x1s sounds very nice, the amp part is not very good and I think they are holding my m1060's back. Right now I can't hear any difference between my phone (HTC 10) and my computer, which I find sad, as I spent 200 USD to get the Aune (upgraded from the Dragonfly v1.2, which also sounds very similar).

Is there a big difference going balanced or is it just snake oil? I think the Aune x7s would look very nice tucked under the x1s, and if balanced really is worth it, I might just take the leap. I'm also ordering a cable from Lindsay, so have to decide whether to go balanced or stay SE ...

I own a Jot, so can use either SE or Balanced. There is a LARGE volume change switching between SE and XLR on Jot, which can falsely register as greater quality.

I'm not convinced there's an increase in quality with XLR.....but since I CAN use either, I'll choose XLR when possible to satisfy my "just in case" OCD....

So yes, the M1060 cable I got from Lindsay is MMCX -> XLR

 

[peter123]

the x7s is supposedly very close to the Jotunheim at a much lower price..

Hmm, I don't really get the X7. It doesn't seem to have any balanced inputs so I'm wondering if it's truly balanced?

My experience mirrors @DavidA that if balanced are better or not depending on the amplifier. Also if your amplifier barely has enough power for your headphones going balanced may make a difference.

Edit: I belive it's @cskippy I agree with this time, sorry

I use balanced cables on all my headphone that's compatible with it these days and then add an adapter for listening from SE sources, like this and they can be bought with different termination:

 

[Nikki UMN]

Posts are old..

 

[dpm78]

RED=Stock, BEIGE= Vegan/Stock damping, BLUE= Vegan With a Perforated Pleather inner ear chamber and a sandwich ring of Creatology foam and felt surrounding the driver opening on the ear side. No rear damping at all.

STOCK WF:

VEGAN WF:

CURRENT MOD WF:

This FR looks very interesting, could be please show us more about the mod (some picture, as well as material references)?

 

[Tullebukk]

Hmm, I don't really get the X7. It doesn't seem to have any balanced inputs so I'm wondering if it's truly balanced?

they use some kind of splitter so that it operates very much like a fully balanced amp. I think they did this because of price, and because the x1s doesn't have a balanced DAC

anyhow, there is a local engineer that makes a Class A headphone amp, and is supposed to sound very good. Anyone that can read anything of this spec sheet? Some of the things that are stated seem very good

Out impedance: <0,1Ohm
Frequencyresponse: 20hz-20000hz - 0,1dB
In impedance: 60kOhm
Effect:
(8 Ohm):2x20W
(16 Ohm):2x12,5W
(32 Ohm):2x7,5W
(50 Ohm): 2x5,3W
(150 Ohm):2x1,9W
(300 Ohm):2x1W
(600 Ohm):2x500mW
Offset: <1mV * gain
Noisefloor: 6uV rms (-102dBu) * gain
Gain toggle: 1x-3x-10x-24x (0dB-9dB-20dB-28dB

It has only a few reviews, but all have been very positive, and it's cheap at around 240 USD

 

[OldDude04]

they use some kind of splitter so that it operates very much like a fully balanced amp. I think they did this because of price, and because the x1s doesn't have a balanced DAC

anyhow, there is a local engineer that makes a Class A headphone amp, and is supposed to sound very good. Anyone that can read anything of this spec sheet? Some of the things that are stated seem very good

Out impedance: <0,1Ohm
Frequencyresponse: 20hz-20000hz - 0,1dB
In impedance: 60kOhm
Effect:
(8 Ohm):2x20W
(16 Ohm):2x12,5W
(32 Ohm):2x7,5W
(50 Ohm): 2x5,3W
(150 Ohm):2x1,9W
(300 Ohm):2x1W
(600 Ohm):2x500mW
Offset: <1mV * gain
Noisefloor: 6uV rms (-102dBu) * gain
Gain toggle: 1x-3x-10x-24x (0dB-9dB-20dB-28dB

It has only a few reviews, but all have been very positive, and it's cheap at around 240 USD

Can I get a link to that amp?

 

[Tullebukk]

Can I get a link to that amp?

https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=57521113

it's in Norwegian, don't think you can take much from it

 

[OldDude04]

https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=57521113

it's in Norwegian, don't think you can take much from it

Thanks! I translated it using Google. That is one hell of an amp for $240 USD.

 

[Tullebukk]

Thanks! I translated it using Google. That is one hell of an amp for $240 USD.

I might just try it, will get here quicker and none of the amps in this pricerange seems to be even close spec wise...

 

[givemetacos]

Alright, I just got back from a local Hifiman dealer. I brought my cskippy modded M1060 for comparison. Basically, the only other headphones I have heard are the ones I own (Alessandro MS1, SHP9500, DT770 Pro Ohm, HD600, and HD650) so I am starting to scale up and sort of find my personal point of diminishing returns. I've been really curious to see how the M1060s do against other planars. I have to say after spending 2 hours directly A/B comparing them to HE-400s, HE-400i, HE-560, and Edition X v2, I am quite satisfied with the modded M1060. I was using the store's Moon Audio 430HA dac/amp for comparisons.

I would say of the group, the M1060 sounded most similar to HE-400i, but a little less bright. I really didn't care for the HE-400s at all as the bass was really lacking. The HE-560 comparison is interesting though. I think the HE-560 is much more neutral, detailed, and resolving compared to the M1060. Maybe even more analytical in that sense. However, I think I would still take the modded M1060 if they were both the same price. I really like the warmth and body of M1060, the sub-bass destroys the HE-560. Since I mostly use my HD650's with tubes to listen to vocals, acoustic, rock, jazz, folk, and pretty much anything with more natural instruments, I like to use the M1060's for bigger sounds and energetic music like hip hop, electronic, and pop. One of my favorite test albums is Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. The HE-560 didn't feel well suited for that. The HE-400i was probably better in that regard, but I still didn't think it was as wide and warm as the M1060. Now, the Edition X v2 was quite nice when powered well. It seemed to be very clean and resolving, with better tone and even impact than HE-560. It still isn't quite as warm as M1060, but it was still solid for hip hop and EDM. But even with all that it didn't really invoke a fun feeling when listening. The one thing that was clear was that the price tag on the Edition X v2 was beyond my diminishing returns point. I just don't think it could ever be worth $1,000 more than my M1060.

So that's where I am at. I am still curious about trying out an HE-500 since it is similarly priced used these days, but I'm most interested in hearing an LCD-2 since it seems to fit my preference for warmth and bass extension. Used prices are getting pretty decent so I might even buy one up to try out for a while and see if it is worth the price tag over M1060.

 

[slayyou]

Alright, I just got back from a local Hifiman dealer. I brought my cskippy modded M1060 for comparison. Basically, the only other headphones I have heard are the ones I own (Alessandro MS1, SHP9500, DT770 Pro Ohm, HD600, and HD650) so I am starting to scale up and sort of find my personal point of diminishing returns. I've been really curious to see how the M1060s do against other planars. I have to say after spending 2 hours directly A/B comparing them to HE-400s, HE-400i, HE-560, and Edition X v2, I am quite satisfied with the modded M1060. I was using the store's Moon Audio 430HA dac/amp for comparisons.

I would say of the group, the M1060 sounded most similar to HE-400i, but a little less bright. I really didn't care for the HE-400s at all as the bass was really lacking. The HE-560 comparison is interesting though. I think the HE-560 is much more neutral, detailed, and resolving compared to the M1060. Maybe even more analytical in that sense. However, I think I would still take the modded M1060 if they were both the same price. I really like the warmth and body of M1060, the sub-bass destroys the HE-560. Since I mostly use my HD650's with tubes to listen to vocals, acoustic, rock, jazz, folk, and pretty much anything with more natural instruments, I like to use the M1060's for bigger sounds and energetic music like hip hop, electronic, and pop. One of my favorite test albums is Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. The HE-560 didn't feel well suited for that. The HE-400i was probably better in that regard, but I still didn't think it was as wide and warm as the M1060. Now, the Edition X v2 was quite nice when powered well. It seemed to be very clean and resolving, with better tone and even impact than HE-560. It still isn't quite as warm as M1060, but it was still solid for hip hop and EDM. But even with all that it didn't really invoke a fun feeling when listening. The one thing that was clear was that the price tag on the Edition X v2 was beyond my diminishing returns point. I just don't think it could ever be worth $1,000 more than my M1060.

So that's where I am at. I am still curious about trying out an HE-500 since it is similarly priced used these days, but I'm most interested in hearing an LCD-2 since it seems to fit my preference for warmth and bass extension. Used prices are getting pretty decent so I might even buy one up to try out for a while and see if it is worth the price tag over M1060.

Thanks for your impressions i ended up going with the he400i myself, the mixture of Monoprices strange shipping fees to Canada and the import taxes where too much, especial considering the Hifiman can be had for around 200$ nowadays. Ill keep an eye out for the monoprice offerings though!

 

[givemetacos]

Thanks for your impressions i ended up going with the he400i myself, the mixture of Monoprices strange shipping fees to Canada and the import taxes where too much, especial considering the Hifiman can be had for around 200$ nowadays. Ill keep an eye out for the monoprice offerings though!

Honestly, I quite liked the HE-400i. For my purposes, that would have been the closest fit for me. I know they are often new for $220-250, and at that price they are a steal. I would probably say stock 400i vs stock M1060, I would take the 400i, especially for being cheaper. Even modded M1060 is like $375+ with shipping and pads (which might be impossible to get now) so it would even be hard for me to recommend them over the 400i. I think they are better, but exactly how money worth is a tough call.

 

[rjjasick]

Can someone explain to me or link me a video on how to remove the stock pads? I've got a set of the vegan pads, but my first set of headphones I'm trying to mod and I really don't want to screw them up.

 

[cskippy]

You can just pull the pads off. If you're trying to mod exactly the way I did, try to keep the black backing material covering the driver in place. It should stay as it's adhered down. If you got adhesive rings with the Vegan pads and use them, touch the Audeze pads to a cloth shirt a couple times to get rid of some of the stickiness or they might rip if you have to pull them off to replace them.

 

[Brahmsian]

another m1060 review up on youtube. Find it strange how he can discard them as good cans before even attempting to mod them. Swapping pads is literally some of the most easy things most people can manage...

Problem with this review (and so many others): too general. It's true that headphones have innate characteristics. But I also find that, to a great extent, headphones change depending on your system, what recording you throw at them, and what kind of music you listen to. I like to be specific: which tracks sound good on them, which don't.

He complains about the soundstage not having enough presence in the middle compared to the HD600. But that's exactly why I prefer the M1060 for classical music. The HD650 handles songs better (lead vocals). But in my opinion the M1060 is better at giving you the full sweep of an orchestra.

As for the middle sound stage, throw a good binaural recording at the 1060. Play Candido: The Master and the middle soundstage of the 1060 comes alive (listen to the female vocals there - wow!).




As for the 5 kHz ringing, I can't hear it. If I do subconsciously hear it, it doesn't bother me. The human ear is most sensitive to the 2 kHz - 5 kHz range, so 5 kHz is in the most audible range. Most people should be able to hear it. Does this ringing result in sibilance? I just don't hear any sibilance to speak of. By "ringing," do people mean a boost at 5 kHz? Can it be that some people actually like a boost at that frequency?

Finally, my pair doesn't make that annoying noise when I swivel the cup. Maybe it will, but not at the moment. The build quality on my second version isn't so bad. My HD650 crapped out after about 3 years. One of the drivers cut out, and I had to send it in for repair. After that, I sold my pair because I just didn't trust it. I suspect the M1060 will last longer. At least, it has a 5 year warranty.

Finally, I'd note that his name on Youtube is metal571, which might give an indication of what he mostly listens to.