[DnB4Guy]

Quote:

Excellent. Looking forward to your impressions

me too. Also. alpha10, have you heard either of the Paul Barton's PSB headphones to be able to compare? 

 

[alpha10]

NAD VISO HP50 - first impressions

Spent about 30 minutes with them a few days ago.

Nice build quality, the cups are plastic, but nice. Cable is detachable, and you can choice which side to use, that's cool, quality of the cable is ok, seems quite tangle free.

Comfort is good, but not great, the pads are large, but it was a little tight on my head, could loosen up after some time, hard to say.

Sound is really good, very spacious open sound, doesn't sound like a typical closed headphone, the sound is quite neutral, the bass is deep and there's plenty of it, but not too much for me. Voices sound great and very detailed, my old favorite reference recording Diana Krall - Live in Paris sound great on these, the highs are more extended than KEF M500 (which sound a little dark in comparison). I listened to all kinds of music, and I was quite satisfied with what the NAD delivers, no complains really. Maybe I would have liked a little darker sound, but that's more to compensate for bad recordings, the NAD seems to give you exactly what in the recording, nothing more nothing less.

For the price, I think it's a great value, I think I will buy them eventually

 

[Beagle]

Thank you alpha10. Perhaps they are along the lines of the PSB, sonically and physically.

 

[roma101]

Thanks for the great impressions alpha10!!!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

About the clamp, does it ever cross your imagination, not trying to be nagging or the like but out of scientific research point of view, that it may beneficial for the sound? At least I often experienced little clamping headphones to sound better when pressed them against the ears with the hands. Therefore I enjoy Q40's high clamping force because I don't have to press it to get what-to-me-sounds-ideal. For me SQ is so important I will sacrifice some comfort for maximum sound (or in my case especially bass impact is important as for which good seal is important), no pain, no gain. ^^

 

[Cristello]

removed

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I have shared the same experience with the (slightly too-large for me) ATH-m50. Pressing the very shallow ear-pads against my head gave me the expected results, albeit while squashing my ear down in the process.
 
Of course, in the case of the ViSO HP50, it depends on whether or not it is heavily seal-dependent in design. Some models of closed headphone, like the previous Denon D-series, didn't seem to be afflicted by a poor seal in this same way.
 
My question for Alpha10: How well does the ViSO seem to isolate?

 
Ahh true that, it's more seal dependant than anything of course, but yea mostly I had poor seal with poor clamp so. At least it LOOKS like the HP50 blocks a serious amount of outside noise / isolate well. Pads looks pretty high quality, good shape, size & depth.

 

[alpha10]

I was quite surprised that the isolation is not that great, I could easily hear background noise.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I was quite surprised that the isolation is not that great, I could easily hear background noise.

So did you check out whether there's some openings in the cups somewhere (if not visible underneath the pads etc probably). Would be interesting to know if soundstage is partly enhanced with some ports here and there. Does it appear to leak sound from somewhere on the backside?

 

[georgelai57]

I had a listen to the NAD at a recent headphone festival in Singapore. I already have the PSB M4U2 and a design oversight seems to be that there is no volume control on the cable with mic. Out of curiosity I removed the cable wire from the NAD, inserted it into the PSB and the volume controls work. Moral of the story? It doesn't pay to be an early adopter.

 

[DnB4Guy]

Quote:

I had a listen to the NAD at a recent headphone festival in Singapore. I already have the PSB M4U2 and a design oversight seems to be that there is no volume control on the cable with mic. Out of curiosity I removed the cable wire from the NAD, inserted it into the PSB and the volume controls work. Moral of the story? It doesn't pay to be an early adopter.

This wasn't an "oversight" by PSB. They made a statement at some point last year on their Facebook page noting that there were some "licensing" or other legal issues with Apple (& others?) regarding the allowance of "volume control" on their devices. Nice to know that us M4U 2 owners can get that control with a NAD cable though

 

[georgelai57]

This wasn't an "oversight" by PSB. They made a statement at some point last year on their Facebook page noting that there were some "licensing" or other legal issues with Apple (& others?) regarding the allowance of "volume control" on their devices. Nice to know that us M4U 2 owners can get that control with a NAD cable though

Thanks for the clarification. I can only surmise PSB's lawyers were too fussy as there are tons of Apple mic and volume capable on the market for years. Maybe it's to do with the NC properties or the built-in amplifier unique to the PSB.

 

[alpha10]

No, sorry, I didn't check that, my main concern is sound quality and comfort.

So did you check out whether there's some openings in the cups somewhere (if not visible underneath the pads etc probably). Would be interesting to know if soundstage is partly enhanced with some ports here and there. Does it appear to leak sound from somewhere on the backside?

 

[Cristello]

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[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

 
Indeed, Armegeis found hidden ports while attempting to mod his pair of DJ2000s. It is possible the ViSO has the same, and that may be why sound isolation is only moderate for such a deeper-cupped headphone.

Yea, it's often the case with headphones, those ports can be really nicely hidden, I've already discovered on two of my headphones ports only when I opened them (for example 5x pin nail sized holes on Denon HP700 or 3x of those on each cup on Q40 or the HTF600 just below the Panasonic brand-sign etc) but usually some sound leaking reveals it quite easily too as it tends to sound bassier at the openings.