[maegnificant]

So it seems this isn't a very popular headphone? From the description and pricing I thought a Sennheiser made "reference" studio monitor sound for much less money than an HD800s would be flying off the shelves??

It's not a popular brand for headphones. I really like them.

 

[The-One]

It's not a popular brand for headphones. I really like them.

I have to say, I didn't really know about this brand much either before I looked into it. This particular model piqued my interest as my speaker set up I use to listen to music in the house is a pair of Adam A7x with the tweeter turned down 1db. I'm not a pro, but those speakers are professional grade studio monitors.

 

[maegnificant]

I have to say, I didn't really know about this brand much either before I looked into it. This particular model piqued my interest as my speaker set up I use to listen to music in the house is a pair of Adam A7x with the tweeter turned down 1db. I'm not a pro, but those speakers are professional grade studio monitors.

I have heard about that as well. Could not realistically estimate that, but they are good good mixing.

 

[rudbeard]

Honestly, I haven't bought a pair yet because I'm just going to wait until I can get some used at a lower price. I'm very curious, like what they've done, and I'm slower to buy given the economy and all the NDH20's I own.

 

[kopczas]

I use to listen to music in the house is a pair of Adam A7x

I`m using A77x at home with no correction, everything is set to 0db. So if for your taste you had to lower Adam`s HF, you won`t enjoy NDH30.
I uses to own Goldplanar GL2000 and as these aren`t perfect I found planar headphones closer to ultrasmoothness of Adam`s amazing X-Art tweeter.
I`ve returned Neumann`s unfortunately.
IMO NDH are specialized for sound mixing or mastering because of curve characteristics. For simple enjoyment, maybe but definitely these are not multipurpose-home-use-friendly HP`s.
If one owns many HPs` and will listen with Neumanns to classical or jazz or not busy instrumental and electronical music, these are great/amazing. Other things, not so much.
For example if Peter Gabriel`s voice on Washing of The Water, which is kind of mellow mix, especially on 2002 remaster, sounds harsh and sharp, it`s opposite of pleasureful listening.

 

[The-One]

I`m using A77x at home with no correction, everything is set to 0db. So if for your taste you had to lower Adam`s HF, you won`t enjoy NDH30.
I uses to own Goldplanar GL2000 and as these aren`t perfect I found planar headphones closer to ultrasmoothness of Adam`s amazing X-Art tweeter.
I`ve returned Neumann`s unfortunately.
IMO NDH are specialized for sound mixing or mastering because of curve characteristics. For simple enjoyment, maybe but definitely these are not multipurpose-home-use-friendly HP`s.
If one owns many HPs` and will listen with Neumanns to classical or jazz or not busy instrumental and electronical music, these are great/amazing. Other things, not so much.
For example if Peter Gabriel`s voice on Washing of The Water, which is kind of mellow mix, especially on 2002 remaster, sounds harsh and sharp, it`s opposite of pleasureful listening.

Interesting, thanks for your input. I'm not sure if -1db on the tweeter is considered a big change or not, but it takes a slight edge or "sizzle" off female voices. At least it's noticeable to me. The -1db tweeter was a recommendation off another forum long ago when I bought them. The Adam monitors when I demoed them in shop had an excellent centre stereo image and voices hung in the air so I bought them.

This is sort of the frequency response (red line) I get in room when paired with a subwoofer all the way down to 16hz. Room is not physically treated. Not sure where the rise in 7-8khz is from but it doesn't bother me that much.

What headphone do you think I would like given that I can afford the price of the ndh30? Thanks

 

[maegnificant]

I`m using A77x at home with no correction, everything is set to 0db. So if for your taste you had to lower Adam`s HF, you won`t enjoy NDH30.
I uses to own Goldplanar GL2000 and as these aren`t perfect I found planar headphones closer to ultrasmoothness of Adam`s amazing X-Art tweeter.
I`ve returned Neumann`s unfortunately.
IMO NDH are specialized for sound mixing or mastering because of curve characteristics. For simple enjoyment, maybe but definitely these are not multipurpose-home-use-friendly HP`s.
If one owns many HPs` and will listen with Neumanns to classical or jazz or not busy instrumental and electronical music, these are great/amazing. Other things, not so much.
For example if Peter Gabriel`s voice on Washing of The Water, which is kind of mellow mix, especially on 2002 remaster, sounds harsh and sharp, it`s opposite of pleasureful listening.

They are pretty good for gaming, too I can see that they might not be Allrounders for music listening though.

 

[indigogo]

After NDH 30 and Adam Pro SP-5, the choice of monitors for the mixing studio and stereo microphones settings is over for me
And in general, the choice of headphones has ceased to be relevant for the next few years, I hope
I'm glad that finally there were two companies that made headphones that give a truly correct and accurate sound.
And most importantly, the NDH 30 is super comfortable on the head, just incredibly comfortable. Just put your ears in the center and no problem changing the sound. It happens naturally.
As for the SP-5 just need to order velour ear pads But this is necessary if there is a need to listen to music in them, everything is ok for work

 

[kopczas]

Not sure where the rise in 7-8khz is from but it doesn't bother me that much.

There`s no much of sound it this region, but elevation might be heard as brighter sound overall.

One time I`ve measured A77X in my room, which acoustic is horrible as you see, but except massive resonance is bass, it`s quite flat.

Unfortunately, I`m not able to recommend HPs that would match yours ( or mine but without bass bump) Adam`s curve. I guess we must wait until Adam Audio start making headphones.

So you are not Harman type of listener. Me neither.

 

[indigogo]

In my opinion, the graphs do not say anything
The only way to accurately and correctly check the headphones for sound reproduction quality is to make a stereo recording of complex sounds with saturation over the entire frequency range and sharp drops and clipping.
Sound recording must be 32 bit 196 kHz for high quality microphones and recorder
And then you can listen to all this in different headphones. Those of them that most accurately and critically convey the entire range of sound and will be the winners. In my case they were NDH 30 and Adam Pro SP-5))
Only constantly recording and listening and working with this material can you determine the true level of headphones.

 

[kopczas]

What headphone do you think I would like given that I can afford the price of the ndh30? Thanks

Correction to my statement from previous post. Check this out:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/adam-audio-studio-pro-sp-5-impressions-thread.890146/post-16473618

 

[The-One]

There`s no much of sound it this region, but elevation might be heard as brighter sound overall.

One time I`ve measured A77X in my room, which acoustic is horrible as you see, but except massive resonance is bass, it`s quite flat.

Unfortunately, I`m not able to recommend HPs that would match yours ( or mine but without bass bump) Adam`s curve. I guess we must wait until Adam Audio start making headphones.

So you are not Harman type of listener. Me neither.

Hi, what do you mean by "I'm not a Harman type" listener? I think the Harman curve is only applicable to headphones and earphones but not speakers as the curve approximates the frequency responses needed for something on your head to match flat speakers away from you in an average room.

Do you mean the because my room speaker response isn't perfectly flat therefore I wouldn't be a Harman curve type of listener?

 

[kopczas]

Hi, what do you mean by "I'm not a Harman type" listener?

harman in HP realm.

 

[deafLovesMusic]

I tested the Neumann NDH 30 today and I compared it to the Austrian Audio Hi-X65 which are my main headphones several hours per day.
DAC: Mojo 2.

• Bass: Very deep, detailed, clear but never overwhelming
• No harshness
• Soundstage: Alternating, sometimes wider than the Hi-X65 but mostly a bit narrower. I suppose the NDH 30 is just giving us here what the source delivers
• Instrument separation: The Hi-X65 is slightly better
• What I missed I: part of the frequency region between 700 to around 3000 Hz especially when listening to a piano
• What I missed II: some clearness with drums and percussions, especially with hi-hats and claps, they sound a bit dull, muffled and not present, the live feeling and sound of the Hi-X65 is much better here
• Extremely comfortable, huge ear caps

I am not an audio engineer, and the listening session was short (45 min.). So, these are just my first impressions, and my hearing is used and biased to the Hi-X65.
Overall, the Neumann NDH 30 is a good headphone with a clear purpose for neutrality and for mixing and mastering. I will test it again soon.

I finally bought the NDH 30 yesterday and started to listen to music (DAC: Chord Mojo 2) with it right after being back at home. Then I used it to watch TV (news, football) later in the evening. Overall, I had been using it for around five hours. Today, I used it during two online meetings with Microsoft Teams where the sound quality is often bad, and I listened to music (of course!). I used the NDH 30 right out of the box without any warm-up or burn-in.

My impressions after two days (including corrections to my first test several weeks ago, see quoted text above):

• Neutral, detailed, clean (no distortion, no blurring), and smooth sound, no harshness
• Well balanced between instrument separation and perceiving musing as a whole
• Wide soundstage, much wider than I perceived it during my first test, the music is spatial
• Very comfortable, I can wear it for hours
• Voices seem to have their own channel, they are easy to recognize, present, warm, smooth, and well to understand. The NDH 30 improves the sound quality on Microsoft Teams considerably
• Drums and percussions are less dull than during my first test. The NDH 30 is less sparkling on the high frequencies than the Austrian Audio Hi-X65 but not so much than I feared
• The NDH 30 needs a good DAC/Amp. It sounds ok with the Shanling UA3 or the Chronos Violectric but I am getting a good if not fantastic sound with the Mojo 2 only (I am getting addicted here and can't stop)
• The worst: No hard case available for transportation, the included bag is thin and ridiculously cheap

 

[The-One]

I finally bought the NDH 30 yesterday and started to listen to music (DAC: Chord Mojo 2) with it right after being back at home. Then I used it to watch TV (news, football) later in the evening. Overall, I had been using it for around five hours. Today, I used it during two online meetings with Microsoft Teams where the sound quality is often bad, and I listened to music (of course!). I used the NDH 30 right out of the box without any warm-up or burn-in.

My impressions after two days (including corrections to my first test several weeks ago, see quoted text above):

• Neutral, detailed, clean (no distortion, no blurring), and smooth sound, no harshness
• Well balanced between instrument separation and perceiving musing as a whole
• Wide soundstage, much wider than I perceived it during my first test, the music is spatial
• Very comfortable, I can wear it for hours
• Voices seem to have their own channel, they are easy to recognize, present, warm, smooth, and well to understand. The NDH 30 improves the sound quality on Microsoft Teams considerably
• Drums and percussions are less dull than during my first test. The NDH 30 is less sparkling on the high frequencies than the Austrian Audio Hi-X65 but not so much than I feared
• The NDH 30 needs a good DAC/Amp. It sounds ok with the Shanling UA3 or the Chronos Violectric but I am getting a good if not fantastic sound with the Mojo 2 only (I am getting addicted here and can't stop)
• The worst: No hard case available for transportation, the included bag is thin and ridiculously cheap

A little off topic, but is the mojo2 as good as the reviews say it is? I've never invested in any significant amount of money into sources before. Always bought the most expensive drivers and cheapest amps.