MYSPHERE 3.1-UNIQUE in SOUND&DESIGN&BUILD QUALITY

[m17xr2b]

I've done quite a lot listening to MySphere at Canjam today. Overall I'm unimpressed, bass was light, nothing all that special and not as I remembered them. Gracefully Heintz gave me his pair of 3.1 to re-trial overnight.
On my setup, Lynx AES16e, Metrum Pavane, DNA Stellaris with some very special tubes it's a different story.

Low end is comparable with SR1a in weight and impact, not sure about speed. Extremely neutral and here is where for personal preferences I prefer the mids of 3.2 but arguably they're coloured by comparisons. You'll never get the same soundstage and imagining if driven from small transistor dac/amps. This is a serious can and deserves a TOTL SET amplifier to get the best out of it. I find it has a threshold of quality where it really starts to shine as opposed to scaling linearly.

Out of the best cans I've listen to today, Abyss is out, the fit is still too fiddly for my liking and the top end is not as natural to me as the best best dynamics even if dynamics and impact are hugely impressive.
Susvara is very very likeable tho I don't get along with the pads because find them quite shallow. Extremely hard to drive and this would mean I'll burn out the tubes a lot faster.
Once you experience the earspeaker design it's hard to go back.
It comes down to Raal vs MySphere, 3.1 is the most natural can I've heard with incredible detail, I'll need more time with Raal to make a decision, I'm already got the best setup for 3.1, with Raal investing in a power amp and preamp is not ideal at the moment.

 

[m17xr2b]

Forgot to pick up the slim filters and in the end removed one layer by hand. Airiness increased substantially without any hint of brightness, a most welcomed change, feels like the cans can breathe easier.

@Zhanming057, you were right.

 

[John Buchanan]

Hi,
MYSPHERE will show the product in room Plaza Suite 11 partnering with Woo-Audio.
You can compare on following amps:
WA8; WA7; WA33; 3ES; WA11 following headphones:
STAX SR-009S; MYSPHERE 3; ABYSS 1266 Phi; Diana Phi; Meze Empyrean; Sony IER-Z1r
Guess which one will win!?

BR heinz

Hi Heinz,
how is the compatibility with SPL's original Phonitor? And the newer Phonitors with lower output impedance?

 

[Zhanming057]

Forgot to pick up the slim filters and in the end removed one layer by hand. Airiness increased substantially without any hint of brightness, a most welcomed change, feels like the cans can breathe easier.

@Zhanming057, you were right.

The one layer is not exactly the same as the slim filter but pretty close. I definitely enjoy the increase in perceived spatial resolution from the slim filters.

Hi Heinz,
how is the compatibility with SPL's original Phonitor? And the newer Phonitors with lower output impedance?

Pretty good with the 3.2, can't speak to the 3.1 combo.

 

[John Buchanan]

The one layer is not exactly the same as the slim filter but pretty close. I definitely enjoy the increase in perceived spatial resolution from the slim filters.



Pretty good with the 3.2, can't speak to the 3.1 combo.

Thanks!

 

[DelsFan]

Perfect idea! Thank you - here are the amps which is suggest to be paired with MYSPHERE 3 according to my own experiences. Of course, there will be many other, but I did not have the chance to hear it personally.

BR heinz

Heinz, thanks very much. While not all-encompassing, your chart gives us a good general idea about what kind of amps "should" sound better/best with each of the MySphere headphones.

I also own the Ether 2 headphones which have an Impedance of 16 ohms (or 22, depending where you read). Is it not too rash a generalization to say that headphone amplifiers that work well with the MySphere 3.1 headphones would/might also pair well with the low-impedance Ether 2s? Or is it not exactly the same dynamic between your 3.1 headphone and an amplifier, and a planer magnetic headphone and an amplifier, even though both are low Impedance?

 

[hrklg01]

Heinz, thanks very much. While not all-encompassing, your chart gives us a good general idea about what kind of amps "should" sound better/best with each of the MySphere headphones.

I also own the Ether 2 headphones which have an Impedance of 16 ohms (or 22, depending where you read). Is it not too rash a generalization to say that headphone amplifiers that work well with the MySphere 3.1 headphones would/might also pair well with the low-impedance Ether 2s? Or is it not exactly the same dynamic between your 3.1 headphone and an amplifier, and a planer magnetic headphone and an amplifier, even though both are low Impedance?

Hello,
No! this is not correct to say the impedance of headphones alone can be an proper indicator of amp/headphone match.
Especially the planar magnetic products does have a quite linear impedance curve - this means the resistance is almost the same at all frequencies.
Dynamic drivers are much different to that and additionally there is the matter of the electromotive force EMF.
Another example apart from the MYSPHERE are the FOCAL types with the strong 40mm drivers (UTOPIA, STELLIA and others). This drivers does also have a similar impedance curve and become influenced by the amps quite strong.
BR heinz

 

[DelsFan]

Two questions:
1) The MicroZotl MZ3 is kind of like an OTL amplifier (suited to the MySphere 3.2s), but not quite. It has an output impedance of 2 ohms (maybe more suited to the MySphere 3.1s). Is there any way to know which headphone would pair best with the MZ3?

2) Given a clean sheet of paper, and a flexible budget for a (any, very good) tube-based headphone amp (let's say $3K - $5K, including used), and the goal of putting together the "best" system possible, would one favor the MySphere 3.1 over the 3.2, or vice versa? At this fairly high price point (of amplifier), does one of the models offer more options to sound "better" than the other? Or are there so many good/great amplifiers that would pair well with either one model or the other, that there just isn't a way to make this determination. Buy a "real good" headphone amp, then get the model of MySphere that seemingly (or from the current experience of other Head-Fi-ers) will pair best with it? Buy, listen, enjoy, quit worrying?

 

[hrklg01]

Two questions:
1) The MicroZotl MZ3 is kind of like an OTL amplifier (suited to the MySphere 3.2s), but not quite. It has an output impedance of 2 ohms (maybe more suited to the MySphere 3.1s). Is there any way to know which headphone would pair best with the MZ3?

2) Given a clean sheet of paper, and a flexible budget for a (any, very good) tube-based headphone amp (let's say $3K - $5K, including used), and the goal of putting together the "best" system possible, would one favor the MySphere 3.1 over the 3.2, or vice versa? At this fairly high price point (of amplifier), does one of the models offer more options to sound "better" than the other? Or are there so many good/great amplifiers that would pair well with either one model or the other, that there just isn't a way to make this determination. Buy a "real good" headphone amp, then get the model of MySphere that seemingly (or from the current experience of other Head-Fi-ers) will pair best with it? Buy, listen, enjoy, quit worrying?

Hello,

I personally tried just the MicroZotl MZ2 and it is best to pair with MYSPHERE 3.2.
As the MZ3 offer the same output impedance to the headphone it's very likely that the 3.2 is the best also with this amplifier variant.

As mentioned earlier the MS3.1 is best to pair with amps offering an output impedance above 10 ohms. And MS3.2 best to pair with lower output impedance's.
However, it's not much different to other headphones, most sound slightly different with different amplifiers. But if customers has already an amplifier, MYSPHERE offer the option of two variants. I see this as an advantage and shall not be too complicate - I hope at least so.

BR heinz

 

[Khronos]

I've done quite a lot listening to MySphere at Canjam today. Overall I'm unimpressed, bass was light, nothing all that special and not as I remembered them. Gracefully Heintz gave me his pair of 3.1 to re-trial overnight.
On my setup, Lynx AES16e, Metrum Pavane, DNA Stellaris with some very special tubes it's a different story.

Low end is comparable with SR1a in weight and impact, not sure about speed. Extremely neutral and here is where for personal preferences I prefer the mids of 3.2 but arguably they're coloured by comparisons. You'll never get the same soundstage and imagining if driven from small transistor dac/amps. This is a serious can and deserves a TOTL SET amplifier to get the best out of it. I find it has a threshold of quality where it really starts to shine as opposed to scaling linearly.

Out of the best cans I've listen to today, Abyss is out, the fit is still too fiddly for my liking and the top end is not as natural to me as the best best dynamics even if dynamics and impact are hugely impressive.
Susvara is very very likeable tho I don't get along with the pads because find them quite shallow. Extremely hard to drive and this would mean I'll burn out the tubes a lot faster.
Once you experience the earspeaker design it's hard to go back.
It comes down to Raal vs MySphere, 3.1 is the most natural can I've heard with incredible detail, I'll need more time with Raal to make a decision, I'm already got the best setup for 3.1, with Raal investing in a power amp and preamp is not ideal at the moment.

Huh... so... which turn out to be the best headphones in the world?

 

[hrklg01]

Yes, these headphones need very strong amps! Not only because of power, but to enable the perfect sound.
You can interprete this positively also, as the Performance just scale
Br heinz

 

[Khronos]

Yes, these headphones need very strong amps! Not only because of power, but to enable the perfect sound.
You can interprete this positively also, as the Performance just scale
Br heinz

So, their perfect amp should be something closer to a Ray Samuels Dark Star?

 

[hrklg01]

I cannot comment for the Raal, but for MYSPHERE it is not about the pure Power, but about how the Amp can handle the EMF power of this headphone....

 

[Khronos]

I cannot comment for the Raal, but for MYSPHERE it is not about the pure Power, but about how the Amp can handle the EMF power of this headphone....

You mean how many Volts the baby can pull in?
The RSADS maximizes at around 80V, while in addition to being slightly dark. Hence, piling upon the slight brightness that can fall upon the 3.xs whilst improving upon the bass.

 

[hrklg01]

No, it is not so much about the voltage, the real difficulty is the strong EMF value the Mysphere send back to the amplifier...
It depend much on the design of the Amp itself..
Best regards heinz