[AxelCloris]

 
Yeah, although I wish that Mr. Speakers would use a 2.5mm TRS so that it could be used with other HPs. 

2.5mm? No thank you. I don't like those connectors at all. The Hirose connector that MrSpeakers uses is awesome, albeit limited in cross compatibility with other headphones.

 

[fiascogarcia]

 
2.5mm? No thank you. I don't like those connectors at all. The Hirose connector that MrSpeakers uses is awesome, albeit limited in cross compatibility with other headphones.

I too like the MrSpeakers connectors.  Secure, and easy to connect.  Those and the Audeze mini xlr are the best in my opinion, though I still prefer the Hirose due to the connector size.

 

[gndixon]

I have had my ECF for about 3 months now, previously own EC. Couldn't be happier abt the upgrade. Mostly noticeable are the resolution, bass presence, soundstage and more smooth highs. It has a very musical and high end sound to my ears.

[Pulse infinity->Liquid Carbon->wyires red cable]

 
I concur with this -- just received mine and very happy with the result. Already without any break in, I have the bass presence in ECF I found lacking in the EC (in comparison to LCD-X etc) with great soundstage and clarity. Definitely worth the cost of the upgrade (driving from Hugo TT or Mojo, FWIW).

 

[danieldpagan]

    I just got an Ether C Flow a few days ago. It was a used set that had just been serviced by MrSpeakers prior to my purchase of it (it had a defective bass port, apparently). I must say that I am quite disappointed. They sound distant, muffled and noticably lack dynamics and imaging. Plus there is an abrasive haze that comes in at higher volumes.
 
All of my past headphones (most of which were also closed) had superior sound to some degree, and I was expecting a plausible sound upgrade from my alpha primes (that I love). These seem like a downgrade.
 
Is it possible that I have a broken/defective pair??
 
I am heartbroken to say the least, especially after the money spent.

 
 
 
I felt the exact same way when I received mine. After a week I returned them and was with the opinion that they weren't even worth $1000. Actually I thought they were terrible. Went to canjam nyc and tried the Ether C Flow again on the Brooklyn amp and schiit valhalla 2 and thought it sounded pretty damn nice. I was pretty confused since I had mine for about a week and didnt like them but at canjam I was enjoying them for the short time I listened to them. I ended up buying the Ether Flow at the show and I am currently having a hard time NOT liking them. I'm trying to find flaws with them but i just cant. They are fantastic. I absolutely love them!
 
Not sure why the Ether C flow sounds so different with certain amps but it does for some reason. Well at least in my experience it does. I understand what you mean by the sound though. Its exactly what I heard when I got mine so I doubt its a broken pair. It was an extremely dull/neutral sound. It had no life to it.
 
Not sure whats going on and why ive had this experience with the C Flow but I can say that the Ether Flows are rocking my world. What I find hilarious is how fantastic they sound on my onkyo DP-X1. No joke, this pairing is just unreal (i really wish i had a mojo to compare with). Though when I hooked up my Ether C Flow to the DP-X1 it was very disappointing. Like "I rather listen to knockoff beats" disappointing.

 

[Nick-s-f]

   
 
 
I felt the exact same way when I received mine. After a week I returned them and was with the opinion that they weren't even worth $1000. Actually I thought they were terrible. Went to canjam nyc and tried the Ether C Flow again on the Brooklyn amp and schiit valhalla 2 and thought it sounded pretty damn nice. I was pretty confused since I had mine for about a week and didnt like them but at canjam I was enjoying them for the short time I listened to them. I ended up buying the Ether Flow at the show and I am currently having a hard time NOT liking them. I'm trying to find flaws with them but i just cant. They are fantastic. I absolutely love them!
 
Not sure why the Ether C flow sounds so different with certain amps but it does for some reason. Well at least in my experience it does. I understand what you mean by the sound though. Its exactly what I heard when I got mine so I doubt its a broken pair. It was an extremely dull/neutral sound. It had no life to it.
 
Not sure whats going on and why ive had this experience with the C Flow but I can say that the Ether Flows are rocking my world. What I find hilarious is how fantastic they sound on my onkyo DP-X1. No joke, this pairing is just unreal (i really wish i had a mojo to compare with). Though when I hooked up my Ether C Flow to the DP-X1 it was very disappointing. Like "I rather listen to knockoff beats" disappointing.

Sounds pretty efficient, that you can run the open flows on just a dap.
 
The C Flows reminded me most of my Shure 840, but with a wider soundstage and better bass extension. Everything else was equal or lesser quality to my ears, obviously so. I just could not get on board with the signature. Mine were sent into MrSpeakers yesterday, may just have to ''upgrade'' to the open version if possible.
 
How's the bass on the Open Flows compared to the closed ones you had? I found the Closed Flows, even though they extended well, to have very lean bass. 

 

[chrisjepson]

I have always been skeptical about cables. I have noticed minor improvements with different kinds of cables that have tested out but I'm not sure if they're worth the money to be honest.

Everything makes a difference, just some things more than other. I tell people to get the cable after HP, Amp, and DAC.

Certain cables are good at eliminating brightness or enriching the mids. If you're listening through an iPhone than you won't notice much. In a full rig, definitely. I would agree that Mr. Speakers headphone cables are better than most. Sennheiser HD600/650 stock cable is absolutely terrible.

 

[chrisjepson]

2.5mm? No thank you. I don't like those connectors at all. The Hirose connector that MrSpeakers uses is awesome, albeit limited in cross compatibility with other headphones.

I have enough invested in amps and HPs that I don't really want to buy dedicated cables for each can. 2.5mm is not my favorite either but the cable is $500 so I'm going to pick up some Elears and get an adapter.

 

[chrisjepson]

The Ether C's are actually fairly inefficient so they are definitely improved by a powerful amp. I run mine out of the speaker taps with a monoblock powering each channel. I think the performance and SQ scales to the amp pairing.


I felt the exact same way when I received mine. After a week I returned them and was with the opinion that they weren't even worth $1000. Actually I thought they were terrible. Went to canjam nyc and tried the Ether C Flow again on the Brooklyn amp and schiit valhalla 2 and thought it sounded pretty damn nice. I was pretty confused since I had mine for about a week and didnt like them but at canjam I was enjoying them for the short time I listened to them. I ended up buying the Ether Flow at the show and I am currently having a hard time NOT liking them. I'm trying to find flaws with them but i just cant. They are fantastic. I absolutely love them!

Not sure why the Ether C flow sounds so different with certain amps but it does for some reason. Well at least in my experience it does. I understand what you mean by the sound though. Its exactly what I heard when I got mine so I doubt its a broken pair. It was an extremely dull/neutral sound. It had no life to it.

Not sure whats going on and why ive had this experience with the C Flow but I can say that the Ether Flows are rocking my world. What I find hilarious is how fantastic they sound on my onkyo DP-X1. No joke, this pairing is just unreal (i really wish i had a mojo to compare with). Though when I hooked up my Ether C Flow to the DP-X1 it was very disappointing. Like "I rather listen to knockoff beats" disappointing.

 

[iAudio365]

This is one reason I am hesitating from getting ether c.

I wouldn't hesitate at all. I had ether C 1.1's they sound incredible. Infact I just sent them back to be upgraded to the flows I loved them so much.

I had an internal tug of war with myself over going the upgrade route or just trying something different all together. I literally spent two months reading reviews and trying different headphones and at the end just decided i would upgrade them I liked them so much.

Infact i just pre ordered the AEON's as well.

Good luck in your search!

 

[uhhmike]

Everything makes a difference, just some things more than other. I tell people to get the cable after HP, Amp, and DAC.

Certain cables are good at eliminating brightness or enriching the mids. If you're listening through an iPhone than you won't notice much. In a full rig, definitely. I would agree that Mr. Speakers headphone cables are better than most. Sennheiser HD600/650 stock cable is absolutely terrible.

I sort of agree. I heard differences between wywires red and stock hifiman cable on edition x before. The real question is value. How much the difference is worth etc. I guess that's a personal thing though.

 

[chrisjepson]

I sort of agree. I heard differences between wywires red and stock hifiman cable on edition x before. The real question is value. How much the difference is worth etc. I guess that's a personal thing though.

 
Completely agree. Many people who are in the industry do not feel that a Cardas Cross cable versus a really expensive Nordost or Stefan Audio Art are materially different. This definitely changes when talking about speakers but I think there are bad headphone stock HP cables, completely adequate stock headphone cables, and then for someone with a trained ear, higher-end headphone cables. I don't think there is a ton of difference between them past $200. 

 

[JerseyD]

   
Completely agree. Many people who are in the industry do not feel that a Cardas Cross cable versus a really expensive Nordost or Stefan Audio Art are materially different. This definitely changes when talking about speakers but I think there are bad headphone stock HP cables, completely adequate stock headphone cables, and then for someone with a trained ear, higher-end headphone cables. I don't think there is a ton of difference between them past $200. 

While a cable upgrade can make a subtle difference, it is definitely the LAST thing one should spend major bucks on (if at all). The headphones themselves I would argue are the most critical, then the amp, then the dac, then the transport...then the cable.  Once the other elements are perfect for you, go ahead and tweak the performance with a better cable. 

 

[Arnav Agharwal]

 
While a cable upgrade can make a subtle difference, it is definitely the LAST thing one should spend major bucks on (if at all). The headphones themselves I would argue are the most critical, then the amp, then the dac, then the transport...then the cable.  Once the other elements are perfect for you, go ahead and tweak the performance with a better cable. 

If I were to have something like a Chord Dave with Ether C Flow (I'm only interested in closed-back headphones), would you recommend upgrading from DUM cables? Perhaps, @mrspeakers can chime in too.

 

[Skyyyeman]

  If I were to have something like a Chord Dave with Ether C Flow (I'm only interested in closed-back headphones), would you recommend upgrading from DUM cables? Perhaps, @mrspeakers can chime in too.

​IMO,it is certainly worth upgrading the cable from the DUM, especially with the top flight equipment you mention. As I've said previously, the DUM cable is a very very good cable for a stock cable. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. When I went from DUM to WyWires Red the sonic improvement was obvious in a few seconds. More of everything, tighter bass, clearer and more detailed mids and treble. So I put my DUM in the box and never took it out again. And when I went from the Red to the WyWires Platinum, there was, again, another obvious big improvement, I would say an even bigger improvement than when going from DUM to Red. 
 
To me the improvement with the upgraded cable was quite significant, almost akin to changing a another component. 
 
Dan uses high quality cables in his shows, including CanJam, for a reason: they make a difference.
 
But I must say that if I never upgraded the cable and used only the DUM, I would still have been overjoyed with the quality of the Ether Flow (and would not have known about or felt a need to upgrade the cable.)

 

[Arnav Agharwal]

 
​IMO,it is certainly worth upgrading the cable from the DUM, especially with the top flight equipment you mention. As I've said previously, the DUM cable is a very very good cable for a stock cable. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. When I went from DUM to WyWires Red the sonic improvement was obvious in a few seconds. More of everything, tighter bass, clearer and more detailed mids and treble. So I put my DUM in the box and never took it out again. And when I went from the Red to the WyWires Platinum, there was, again, another obvious big improvement, I would say an even bigger improvement than when going from DUM to Red. 
 
To me the improvement with the upgraded cable was quite significant, almost akin to changing a another component. 
 
Dan uses high quality cables in his shows, including CanJam, for a reason: they make a difference.
 
But I must say that if I never upgraded the cable and used only the DUM, I would still have been overjoyed with the quality of the Ether Flow (and would not have known about or felt a need to upgrade the cable.)

Thank you very much for the impressions. I wasn't aware that Dan uses different cables for his demo; any idea which ones he prefers?