NAD Viso HP30, anyone?

[Pass]

  I saw these on-ear hedphones from NAD in an ad from Sound&Vision mag, but I can't find any details. Even NAD's website doesn't list them...

 
At least now, NAD have them in their own website.
 
And, apparently, HP30 are available in the UK since May : http://www.whathifi.com/news/nad-announces-viso-hp30-ear-headphones

 

[chailee80]

I am a little concerned about the clamping force, the manual says its 3.9-4.9N which is almost twice the pressure of the beyerdynamic t51p which had very good comfort for an on-ear. i guess they're going to be a bit tight out of the box and clamping pressure will have to be worked on.

 

[sheldaze]

I am a little concerned about the clamping force, the manual says its 3.9-4.9N which is almost twice the pressure of the beyerdynamic t51p which had very good comfort for an on-ear. i guess they're going to be a bit tight out of the box and clamping pressure will have to be worked on.

Have you worn something comparable to the Grado SR60i? I see your picture, but don't know which headphones those are. So what I will be doing primarily is replacing my unmodified SR60i, at work, with these. So that's my baseline. I'll tell you if they clamp more or less.
 
The point being I tried the NAD VISO HP50 at work, and could not stand both the small ear cup and pressure on the top of my head. This was surprising to me because I've used the HP50 for "longish" periods of time as a portable around my house. I've never had any issues. But at work, I just found them to be too uncomfortable for anything longer than the first 2 hours of the day.
 
EDIT: I guess I was a little off topic. I was talking about the NAD VISO HP30 as a replacement for my Grado SR60i.

 

[chailee80]

  Have you worn something comparable to the Grado SR60i? I see your picture, but don't know which headphones those are. So what I will be doing primarily is replacing my unmodified SR60i, at work, with these. So that's my baseline. I'll tell you if they clamp more or less.
 
The point being I tried the NAD VISO HP50 at work, and could not stand both the small ear cup and pressure on the top of my head. This was surprising to me because I've used the HP50 for "longish" periods of time as a portable around my house. I've never had any issues. But at work, I just found them to be too uncomfortable for anything longer than the first 2 hours of the day.
 
EDIT: I guess I was a little off topic. I was talking about the NAD VISO HP30 as a replacement for my Grado SR60i.

Yeh i've worn pretty much all of Grados headphones and none of them have what i would call a strong clamp. Based on the specs the hp30 looks to have a similar clamping force to the beyerdynamic dt1350 which does have a fairly strong clamp. It seems the hp30's headband will need a bit of work to get it to be comfortable.

 

[peterdc]

Just ordered from Amazon UK (I'm in UK). Probably won't arrive till the end of next week but I'll let you know my thoughts.
 
I'm one of the few people who didn't like the sound of the HP50 that much (something weird in the lower mids - probably the "roomFeel" thing).

 

[sheldaze]

When it arrived, I just thought - no way there's a headphone in there. I must have ordered something else from Amazon.
It's so cute:

 

 

It comes in similar packaging as the HP50, only smaller:

 

 

I'll give it a listen and a feel shortly. It definitely has much more padding in the top, which may not be obvious from the pictures. It was obvious to me as I was handling it and touching the inside of the headband. It's cloth and considerably softer than the HP50 band. I'm just a little (hehehe) concerned that it will not address the issues of the big-head people. On the HP50, I only require two clicks per side.
 
Note the new HP30 simply slides to adjust, with no clicks. And the headphone cable plugs into both ear cups on the HP30. One end looks like a 3.5mm TRRS. The ends going into the cups look like 2.5mm TRS.

 

[sheldaze]

First a personal comment - I so wish that the Oppo PM-3 and NAD VISO HP50 were built larger, like the Audeze EL-8 and newer HiFiMan headphones.
 
On first listen to the HP30, it certainly shares some of the room-feel characteristics with the HP50, but it does not seem to be tuned as well. Perhaps it is the way the on-ear is seated on my ears. I did try moving them around to adjust and found no differences in frequency response. As-is, they work well for listing to low-quality Internet video clips. But I just cannot dig the way they are sounding with music. It's just missing a huge block of sound, according to my ears.
 
Putting the HP50 back on my ears, the sound becomes immediately more spacious (yes, in a closed headphone) and full on a broader spectrum of sounds.

 

[Pass]

Thanks, that's a nice preview. Can't wait for a complete review! And I hope their sound will change somewhat.
 
The cable plugs into both ear cups... really? I'm surprised with that. I thought this was for high end headphones, those you keep at home, but certainly not a small and portable set as this one.

 

[chailee80]

  First a personal comment - I so wish that the Oppo PM-3 and NAD VISO HP50 were built larger, like the Audeze EL-8 and newer HiFiMan headphones.
 
On first listen to the HP30, it certainly shares some of the room-feel characteristics with the HP50, but it does not seem to be tuned as well. Perhaps it is the way the on-ear is seated on my ears. I did try moving them around to adjust and found no differences in frequency response. As-is, they work well for listing to low-quality Internet video clips. But I just cannot dig the way they are sounding with music. It's just missing a huge block of sound, according to my ears.
 
Putting the HP50 back on my ears, the sound becomes immediately more spacious (yes, in a closed headphone) and full on a broader spectrum of sounds.

Any chance you can take a picture with the hp30 on top of the hp50 with both headphones earcups fully extended? It should help me to see if theyre going to fit my big head or not, cheers!

 

[diamondears]

When it arrived, I just thought - no way there's a headphone in there. I must have ordered something else from Amazon.
It's so cute:








It comes in similar packaging as the HP50, only smaller:








I'll give it a listen and a feel shortly. It definitely has much more padding in the top, which may not be obvious from the pictures. It was obvious to me as I was handling it and touching the inside of the headband. It's cloth and considerably softer than the HP50 band. I'm just a little (hehehe) concerned that it will not address the issues of the big-head people. On the HP50, I only require two clicks per side.

Note the new HP30 simply slides to adjust, with no clicks. And the headphone cable plugs into both ear cups on the HP30. One end looks like a 3.5mm TRRS. The ends going into the cups look like 2.5mm TRS.

Looks like its even smaller than the NAD, chailee80.

 

[sheldaze]

I laid one on top the other, and really could not see. So this is the best picture I could take, with both headphones fully opened:

They at least seem to open up the same. But if you can picture it, in your head, the cups on the HP30 are directly over your ear canals. The cups on the HP50 have to extend so much further, and give me discomfort on my left because they never quite reach fully above or below, or give me enough depth on my left ear. I've read about some of the depth solutions, but there's nothing for the height or the discomfort when resting on the top of my head.
 
I'll really only be able to report more when I get back to work on Tuesday. National holiday weekend here - not enjoying it as much as my other headphones for music. So I'm not going to try to enjoy it here at home. I'll just use it at work, and see how long I can wear it, how much background noise it blocks out, and how it sounds with my daily dose of music.

 

[chailee80]

Looks like its even smaller than the NAD, chailee80.

Yeh i was kinda hoping that maybe the internal arms are a bit longer.

 

[sheldaze]

 
Yeh i was kinda hoping that maybe the internal arms are a bit longer.

Internal arms look to be identical length - perhaps not apparent from the picture.
 
EDIT: Perhaps 2cm more, but not a lot.

 

[chailee80]

  I laid one on top the other, and really could not see. So this is the best picture I could take, with both headphones fully opened:

They at least seem to open up the same. But if you can picture it, in your head, the cups on the HP30 are directly over your ear canals. The cups on the HP50 have to extend so much further, and give me discomfort on my left because they never quite reach fully above or below, or give me enough depth on my left ear. I've read about some of the depth solutions, but there's nothing for the height or the discomfort when resting on the top of my head.
 
I'll really only be able to report more when I get back to work on Tuesday. National holiday weekend here - not enjoying it as much as my other headphones for music. So I'm not going to try to enjoy it here at home. I'll just use it at work, and see how long I can wear it, how much background noise it blocks out, and how it sounds with my daily dose of music.

Do you find the hp30 earcups reach down far enough to seal properly?

 

[sheldaze]

 
Do you find the hp30 earcups reach down far enough to seal properly?

It's definitely not as much isolation as the HP50. Once my ears are in those cups, I can hear my heartbeat, breathing, etc. I'll certainly know more at work because there's a lot of background computer fan noise, hallway foot traffic and conversations, etc. I liked the isolation of the HP50, so there I'll be able to better tell what frequencies are being isolated by the HP30. But nope - not the same kind of isolation.
 
I don't know if you ever tried the two variations of Bose, on ear and over ear, with noise canceling. I tried both when I was in the store and got much better isolation from the over ear. This is kinda the same thing (without the noise canceling feature).