[mandrake50]

  My HP50 have the least fatiguing highs of all my headphones.  The treble is definitely tilted downwards.  They are engineered specifically like that.  Great, natural, warm sounding headphones with detail, separation and one of the best closed back soundstages on the market.

Yes.. the room sound.. and it works!

 

[Jeff Y]

I have a big problem with my HP50 right now. I have seen cases online where big headed users of the HP50 (they have to stretch the band to the max) (despite staying within the marked length on the headband) eventually have their cables disconnected over time over lots of use inside the headband. Now, I'm having the same problem. It got worse and worse. The sound started to break up and go silent more and more since 2 weeks ago and now only the side that the cable is plugged in is playing sound. So, when I plug the cable into the right, music only plays in the right and when plugged into the left, it only plays in the left side. I assume the cable in completely disconnected in the headband now. This is a big design issue since I did stay within the boundaries of the headband stretching marked by the manufacturer, NAD. I don't know what to do now. Should I try to open the headband up (which I don't know how) and try to replace the cable myself? or send it to some place like Moon Audio?
Thanks for the comments.

 

[Stig-san]

  I would definitely say that it's because of the burn in. Once the NADs burn in the highs settle down and sub-bass get a bit better.

Cool.  I'm out of town this week with them, so I'll give them some burn in time when I get back home.
 
Also, these things have a bit a an odd fit and sound a little different with glasses on.  I didn't notice it until I took them off and the bass came in harder with the better seal.  I'm torn now since I will probably be listening to these with my glasses on and I definitely like the glasses off sound better.

 

[mandrake50]

  I would definitely say that it's because of the burn in. Once the NADs burn in the highs settle down and sub-bass get a bit better.

Curious. I have around 250 hours on my set. I really can't say that they sound any different today than when I took them out of the box. Could be lack of long term audio memory... which most humans share. Maybe crappy hearing. Maybe not having any experience with burn in making any difference.. therefor not expecting any change. I tend to think they did not change significantly, if at all.

 

[diamondears]

Burn in effects on the NAD is very unusual. I have 2 NAD HP50s and neither of them had any burn in change on their sound. And it's never bright at all either. Very neutral actually if you're using iPhone 6/6+, slightly warmish using an O2.

 

[Jeff Y]

 
Curious. I have around 250 hours on my set. I really can't say that they sound any different today than when I took them out of the box. Could be lack of long term audio memory... which most humans share. Maybe crappy hearing. Maybe not having any experience with burn in making any difference.. therefor not expecting any change. I tend to think they did not change significantly, if at all.

The sound changing during burn in is quite hard to notice compared to some other headphones out there. In fact, I would say these are the least changing during burn-in. However, I would say the sound becomes a little more coherent overall and the soundstage settles down more. The highs settle down by just a little and lows become a bit less boomy after the first 10 hours or so.
I would not even say the sound signature really changed during burn in but instead that it just settled down.
YMMV
 
BTW, can anyone help me with the disconnected cable in my headband? No idea what to do. Maybe I should try to mod the cables but I've never modded the cables before so I'm a little scared. Does anyone know anywhere to send this thing to get it repaired?

 

[Jeff Y]

  Cool.  I'm out of town this week with them, so I'll give them some burn in time when I get back home.
 
Also, these things have a bit a an odd fit and sound a little different with glasses on.  I didn't notice it until I took them off and the bass came in harder with the better seal.  I'm torn now since I will probably be listening to these with my glasses on and I definitely like the glasses off sound better.

My glasses are quite thin and small but I noticed a difference as well .

 

[Sladeophile]

  Cool.  I'm out of town this week with them, so I'll give them some burn in time when I get back home.
 
Also, these things have a bit a an odd fit and sound a little different with glasses on.  I didn't notice it until I took them off and the bass came in harder with the better seal.  I'm torn now since I will probably be listening to these with my glasses on and I definitely like the glasses off sound better.

One quick fix is to just put the arms of your glasses up on top of the pad. It may not work long term for you or for your style of glasses, but it works for me. I use this method on various over ears.

 

[bgentry]

I've had my HP50s for several days now and have clocked probably 12 to 15 hours of listening time so far. My last set of headphones before this was the SoundMagic HP150s, which were pretty impressive, especially after adding the Schiit Modi 2 and Magni 2. I recall being "wowed" after plugging in the Modi/Magni and listening on the SoundMagics. Like my jaw fell open and I laughed it was so good.

When i listening to the NAD HP50 for the first time, I didn't have any kind of a "wow" moment. Good for sure. But no special "air" or anything that really "grabbed me". I had a bit of initial disappointment, but I kept listening. What I've figured out is this: That "wow" sound of the SoundMagic HP50s is almost exclusively because of the exaggerated highs. You get all of this "breath" and small reverb tails and other details you don't hear on many systems. It's very impressive. But it's also fatiguing on some recordings.

With the SM HP150, I found that a lot of older music sounded VERY thin and piercing. Not at all enjoyable. For example, Bruce Springsteen's Born to run. The horns and overall presentation on this album are very, very forward on the SM HP150. So much so that familiar songs like Tenth Avenue Freezeout aren't enjoyable. It's blaring and thin, and makes me want to change the song.

Listening to songs from Born To Run on the NAD HP50s is a different story! Yes, the horns are very strong in the mix. But they sound good. The unnatural thinness is gone. It doesn't transform this recording into something it's not. The bass is still shy. The horns are still forward. But *listening* to it is enjoyable. You just enjoy the music with these headphones.

I had similar listening experiences with Van Halen's 5150 and 1984. Both recordings are bass shy and have kind of that "80s sound". On the SoundMagics, I literally didn't listen to these because they were such "bad recordings". But the NADs make them sound like I remember them; well, scratch that. They sound better than I ever remember hearing them before. Not that I've played these albums on any high end systems. But they sound better than ever on my headphone rig, which I'm now thinking of as my own personal high end audio setup.

Female vocals are wonderful on these. In fact, vocals in general are very real sounding and have a special pleasing kind of profile to them. Some artists like Natalie Merchant from Tigerlily just make me smile from the first word sung.

I feel like I'm reiterating a LOT of what's already been said here, but I have to talk about high frequency response and details. I've made a big deal about how these don't exaggerate the highs. I was concerned that this would mean the highs wouldn't come through and I'd lose the "sparkle" of some recordings. The top end of cymbals. The breath as a singer inhales before beginning. Those kinds of details and things that you expect from a high performance system. The HP50 has *great* extension! It's really almost contradictory how I can hear the top end of light cymbals playing (like I hear now from The Rippingtons), but that the sound is not fatiguing.

Ah, I should comment on the bass: Bass is very good on these. Upper bass is amazing. Bass guitar notes are very clear, fast, and defined. Lower bass is good and has extension into the sub bass range. But the sub bass isn't like the SoundMagics. The SM HP150s really shine on sub bass. They probably exaggerate it in some way, but the way it's presented is VERY pleasing to someone who has experience with subwoofer speaker systems. Overall I'll take the sound of the NADs any day; but I think the SMs have the edge in sub bass.

I'm very happy with the sound of these headphones. Their profile is almost exactly what I was looking for and hoping to get.

Next post to talk about some other things.

Brian.

 

[bgentry]

From about the first 10 minutes I had the HP50s on my head I started noticing the mechanical sounds from the body of these headphones. Creak. Thunk. Click. Pop. It's awful and makes me cringe anticipating them.

I tried holding the cups still with my fingers and that helped, so I wedged some cardboard strips between the band and the cups as s temporary fix. This helped, but it didn't fix it. I did some research in this thread and found a lot of people talking about the sounds. But locating specific directions for fixing them were difficult. So I'm going to link to several posts here.

Here are some quick disassembly instructions:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/646735/nad-viso-hp50-another-superb-headphone-from-paul-barton/1350#post_10799419

Here's a post with a picture of where to apply blue tack to help remove the creaking:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/646735/nad-viso-hp50-another-superb-headphone-from-paul-barton/990#post_10518095

I've taken mine apart twice now. The first time I didn't have any blue tack and I just tightened the screws on the hinge pieces. As reported by another forum member, they were LOOSE! Like not even finger tight. I think they took 5 or more turns each until they were snug. This seemed to help a lot at first, but with more listening time, the creaking was definitely still there.

I cracked them open again after going to Office Depot and buying a package of Scotch Removable Mounting Putty. As near as I can tell, this is very similar to Blue Tack (which I've never used or seen in person). It's a non-tacky putty that sticks to clean surfaces, but also pulls off fairly easily. I made balls of this a little bigger than a green pea and applied them to the lower part of the hinge as shown in the picture in the post above. This fills out inside of the shell and required more pressing to get the cups to go back together. It doesn't require much force. Just a bit as the putty compresses and conforms to shape.

Screwing the cups back together, they *definitely* feel more solid. The creaking is dramatically reduced. It's *almost* completely gone. I still have a pop or thunk every 5 to 10 minutes on the Left side cup only. I thought I had narrowed it down to the rotating metal area (the part that lets the cups twist for flat storage). I applied some oil here and wiped it off, but it doesn't seem to have completely cured the creaking. It's REALLY annoying.

The clamping force of these phones is pretty high. They are moderately uncomfortable. I would *swear* they got better after the putty application. But they still hurt my ears after an hour or two. Not bad. But not super comfortable like the SoundMagic HP150s were.

If I can *only* figure out the creaking problem, I think I'll be 98% satisfied. These phones sound So SWEET. But anticipating the thunk and pop sounds are starting to ruin my enjoyment some.

Brian.

 

[bgentry]

Update on creaking, popping, thunking sounds: Right ear cup is totally silent. The left cup makes one or two clicks/thunks most of the time within a couple of minutes of me putting on the HP50s. Then it seems to settle into place and no more mechanical sounds. If I rotate the left cup a few times, sometimes this keeps it from making any mechanical noises at all.

I can live with this for sure. I'm starting to get past the paranoia of nasty sounds and really enjoy these headphones now.

Brian.

 

[YamaVega]

Yup, the creaking would minimize after some use.  Probably due to the spring loaded rotating earcups settling in.  Still, the rotating cups are an ergonomic flaw since they dont rotate a bit forward, and it would minimize the creaks as well.

 

[chailee80]

  The sound changing during burn in is quite hard to notice compared to some other headphones out there. In fact, I would say these are the least changing during burn-in. However, I would say the sound becomes a little more coherent overall and the soundstage settles down more. The highs settle down by just a little and lows become a bit less boomy after the first 10 hours or so.
I would not even say the sound signature really changed during burn in but instead that it just settled down.
YMMV
 
BTW, can anyone help me with the disconnected cable in my headband? No idea what to do. Maybe I should try to mod the cables but I've never modded the cables before so I'm a little scared. Does anyone know anywhere to send this thing to get it repaired?

If its out of warranty, the easiest fix is to get a double entry cable and plug into each earcup. You can probably find some cheap ones around but if you want something with a bit of quality i'd suggest having a look at something like sol republics cables http://solrepublic.com/tracks-headphones-remix-headbands-cables-speakers/tracks-headphones-remix-cleartalk-cables.html

 

[Jeff Y]

 
If its out of warranty, the easiest fix is to get a double entry cable and plug into each earcup. You can probably find some cheap ones around but if you want something with a bit of quality i'd suggest having a look at something like sol republics cables http://solrepublic.com/tracks-headphones-remix-headbands-cables-speakers/tracks-headphones-remix-cleartalk-cables.html

Thanks for the suggestion. I may get those sol republic cables but I think I should talk to Moon-Audio if they make anything like it.

 

[Jeff Y]

 
If its out of warranty, the easiest fix is to get a double entry cable and plug into each earcup. You can probably find some cheap ones around but if you want something with a bit of quality i'd suggest having a look at something like sol republics cables http://solrepublic.com/tracks-headphones-remix-headbands-cables-speakers/tracks-headphones-remix-cleartalk-cables.html

Wait a sec here... I was about to order these but I think (from what I've seen on Amazon.com) the plugs that plug into the headphone are 2.5mm not 3.5mm. The cable plug that plugs into the HP50 is 3.5mm not 2.5mm right?