I got my Primes today, I'm the headphones' third owner (closed cans seem not to be a fit for everyone) which is great in my book for 1) saves me $ and 2) I don't get to burn them
Here are my first impressions (and yes, I'm impressed). After few hours of listen I think I'll be the last owner - there is no cutting corners here, these headphones kick ***** big time and this is the bottom line. I'm mighty impressed by what Dan did here, hats off!
Never listened to any of the Dogs, so I can't compare how much better Primes are. Headphones that I owned at one time or another and are worth mentioning: pretty much all 500 and all 600 series Senns, Grado SR325 and RS1e, AKG K712, presently K7XX and TH-XX0 - the Primes are clearly a step above all of them, imho. This is my opinion, keep that in mind; it is how my ears hear it, not a statement of accuracy.
The Primes are revealing, a point that has been made many times here. Yes, they are. But it is because of the extreme detail they provide, and I do mean extreme, not because they have highs out of control. You will hear with clarity everything that sucks on a patchy, not-so-good or plain badly produced recording. That is all there is, you'll simply hear what's in the signal. The highs are not harsh, they just reflect what's been passed thru. If you feed them quality signal, and even better, a quality recording, you get rewarded big, big time. And I mean BIG!
A point that has also been raised about the Primes is their lows - seems some people expected harder hitting bass. To me they are balanced and that's it, they just reflect the recording - if there's bass to be reproduced, their lows protrude as good as any I've heard. No, I take that back - they reproduce lows better. I loved the sound of my Grado RS1e, they along with K7XX and the Fostex have lows that at first may seem a notch better than the Prime's. But, when pushed to the limit they all struggle to reproduce accurately and without distortion really, really low frequencies. For ex. few tracks from Holy Cole's 'Temptation' album push some unreal low acoustic bass that can put in trouble many audio systems. The Primes have no trouble whatsoever reproducing those, and they do it with ease and detail to the bass - the bass rumbles, I hear the strings' natural vibrations crystal clear, layering and morphing the way only a good acoustic instrument can do, no smear no booming, just clean natural sound.
So in regards to bass, I think there's no denying that if the recording doesn't have 'good' lows in it, the Primes won't exaggerate the bass and the end result may appear underwhelming to bass-heads. To me the remedy is EQ compensation if indeed so desired (like good cuisine, I think recordings more often than not are best to listen to as they were meant to be - as recorded, produced and mixed). The Primes can not only punch low, very very low, but doing it cleanly and with great details, and they also react fabulously to EQ-ing so try that if bass seems on the low side for a particular recording.
Overall impression - very, very detailed. Total opposite to the wall-of-sound type of headphones, Primes give you just about every musical detail with a distinct separation. Fast driver, now I know what fast driver means (I'm sure there are faster, the V-planar is nonetheless faaast). I can hear the sound of every instrument, cleanly separated, which can be an eye-opening for some genres, like metal genres - for ex it makes early Metallica sound more like prog metal than thrash, hmmm....like being in the studio. That's it, like you're there in the studio during the recording. I can see how some hard rock/metal fans may find them not 'rocking hard/heavy enough', and if so I'd say: go ahead and pump up the volume.
Speaking of the detailed presentation, this level of clarity is a big, BIG + in my book. The impact on music where every instrument was meant to be heard distinctly separate, well that is pure enjoyment. And the soundstage, it is big. Not for closed cans only, it is simply big, period, no ifs and no buts. This must be the biggest surprise for first-time listeners, there's in no 'closed can' sound to be found here. 'Closed can' feel yes, they are closed alright, but they don't sound 'closed'. And yes, they are comfortable, very much so, I think I can spend half a day with them without a blink, already did actually. Not fatiguing too, though this can also be a whole system symptom.
Thinking of some negatives, nothing really. Ok, the stand could have been taller, looks, hmmm, not exactly calling out to be seen (but hey, I prefer high quality wrapped in understated anyway). So let's wrap it - definitely a keeper! One of the best purchases (read steps) in my personal journey to sound nirvana (it is the journey, not the destination
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All my impressions so far were accumulated while listening thru the unbalanced output. I have not heard them thru the balanced for I don't have the cable - will make me one in a week or so and report back. Actually I have the cable, I need to receive the connectors. Speaking of which, I like them though they are sooo not standard. But Dan sells them at excellent price for us diy-ers, much appreciated.
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Oh, one more thing - someone asked if Grace m9XX can drive them - yes, at about 80 volume the headphones are loud and at 99 (max) is like being at a rock concert. And this is with preamp gain of 0, so there's more juice to be pumped thru there if so needed.
