[LeonidK]

Sorry to hear that. Yes, that is not how it should be.
Anyway, if you decided to send them in, they should not destroy the pads since they can be removed rather easily. You could even do that yourself upfront.

I sold it to someone who managed to secure the cracks on his own, it's not very pretty, but now he owns the best headphone in the world $150 can buy. It that was any other part I would have decided to pay $100 for repair because these cans are spectacular and push way above their price sound wise, but if I got it replaced, they would inevitably break again. It's a design fault, the plastic on the connectors is very thin and there's a lot of pressure on it, this headband is just trash, so it's SUPPOSED to break at some point. Sadly everything about X65 is proprietary and irreplaceable. I believe in the end you always get what you pay for, there are no bargains. In the end these proved to be no different than Hifiman, that's why I always take reviews' build quality sections with a big grain of salt, only time will tell.

 

[plakat]

@LeonidK your friend definitely got an excellent headphone at a very good price.

What worries me is that Austrian Audio was quite proud of the resilience of their headband, showing off its strength when their first model (Hi-X55) came out by bending it quite a bit. I might see one of the guys at our next meet in Vienna and will bring this up for sure.

 

[Hark01]

Have them for more than a year, no issues yet, but yes, this plastic metal junction looks like a bad design idea. Pity, they feel so sturdy, it reminded me of Beyers.

Regarding irreplaceable parts, I think that e.g. Ollo Audio sells all the parts for their headphones, so if anything breaks after warranty period (which is up to 5 years, excluding cable and earpads), you can buy and replace. Very interesting for long time maintainability.

On the other hand, I have more than 40 year old Sextetts that are still rockin' and only cable has been repaired.

 

[plakat]

Have them for more than a year, no issues yet, but yes, this plastic metal junction looks like a bad design idea. Pity, they feel so sturdy, it reminded me of Beyers.

Regarding irreplaceable parts, I think that e.g. Ollo Audio sells all the parts for their headphones, so if anything breaks after warranty period (which is up to 5 years, excluding cable and earpads), you can buy and replace. Very interesting for long time maintainability.

On the other hand, I have more than 40 year old Sextetts that are still rockin' and only cable has been repaired.

I’ve fortunately not had any problems with neither the X55 nor the X60.

Overall I think companies should make spare parts readily available for self repair or third party repair centers. Beyerdynamic does this, AIAIAI goes even further with their modular headphone concept plus repair guides.

I understand that the logistics for small parts are hard for a small company, yet they should strive for easy maintainability and sustainability through repair. Of course there are many headphones that should never even have been manufactured in the first place because they are just crap destined for landfills. But high quality products should come with the possibility to be kept alive for many years. Without expensive round trips back to the manufacturer.

 

[WYWH1975]

@LeonidK sour fried definitely got an excellent headphone at a very good price.

What worries me is that Austrian Audio was quite proud of the resilience of their headband, showing off its strength when their first model (Hi-X55) came out by bending it quite a bit. I might see one of the guys at our next meet in Vienna and will bring this up for sure.

You are right. The Headband is resilience, but it's also very flexible. And now this flexible headband on their end points is covered with thin non flexible plastic parts, every time you bend the headphone there is some pressure on these parts and within some time they will break.

And the bigger your head, the more you have to bend the headphone and sooner the plastic breaks....

 

[plakat]

(…) this flexible headband on their end points is covered with thin non flexible plastic parts

Good point

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

Hello, it's nice to be back at this thread. I see some people have build issues. I luckily have had no issues, all still is like new, even the pads are still good

 

[WYWH1975]

Got mine back from repair few days ago. All perfect again.
I am not shure if they changed something in construction of the headbands, but now if you bend the headphone to put on it's stiff on the sides where the plastic parts are.

The headband now only bends on the top middle so there's no pressure on the plastic parts anymore like it was before.
So I hope the plastics will not break again.

...and still sounds great

 

[Progressive J]

Hello, it's nice to be back at this thread. I see some people have build issues. I luckily have had no issues, all still is like new, even the pads are still good

Heh, thanks plenty for your input on this headphone over the thread. I've been on the search for an open-back headphone under 500€ for the last year, including the K712, HD560S, HD660S, Sundara, DT 1990 Pro and Focal Elear. Out of these and even factoring EQ, I liked the DT 1990 Pro the most, but I still felt that something was missing and other than the soundstage/imaging, I found my Moondrop Variations more detailed and engaging, so I thought that maybe I just got too used to IEMs and headphones would no longer satisfy my expectations... until I heard the Hi-X65 with EQ.... wow. This headphone equalized is an entirely different beast and probably one of the best open-back headphones under 1000€; I simply fell in love with them and now I'm revisiting my music library with newfound enjoyment. Finally an ideal partner to the Variations.

Do you plan to further refine your EQ preset? I liked what I heard from it, but I personally find the parametric preset over AutoEQ to sound spot on.

 

[badkid]

I've had all week to listen to these cans and they are superior to anything in their price bracket that I've heard. Clarity, separation, imaging.... They don't have the immediate transient of a planar but still wring out more detail from vocals. I prefer the Hi-X65 over the Sundara, Hifiman Edition XS, and the Monoprice M1570 all which are planars. They give my Hifiman Arya a run for the money. And no amplifier needed to boot even though I'm driving these most of the day on a Qudelix 5K off my iPad.

It's sad about the headband issue. Hopefully Austrian Audio comes out with a longer term fix and even sell the headband separately after they address the weakness. If the entire headband needs replacement, then it doesn't look difficult. as it looks like the coiled wires on the headband plug right in to the earcups. It seems that the people at AA are proud of their products so I'm trusting that eventually upgraded replacement parts will eventually be offered. I think that a thicker and tougher plastic would suffice. Polycarbonate anyone?

I'm not a OTL person and don't care about whether my cans work well with tubeless or "scale with other equipment" so there is no need for me to keep a pair of Sennheiser HD600's around after listening to these. These are lifetime headphones given the excellent audio quality.

And I've purchased the Hi-X60 based on the positive impression from the Hi-X65

 

[Nostoi]

Edit - wrong thread!

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

Heh, thanks plenty for your input on this headphone over the thread. I've been on the search for an open-back headphone under 500€ for the last year, including the K712, HD560S, HD660S, Sundara, DT 1990 Pro and Focal Elear. Out of these and even factoring EQ, I liked the DT 1990 Pro the most, but I still felt that something was missing and other than the soundstage/imaging, I found my Moondrop Variations more detailed and engaging, so I thought that maybe I just got too used to IEMs and headphones would no longer satisfy my expectations... until I heard the Hi-X65 with EQ.... wow. This headphone equalized is an entirely different beast and probably one of the best open-back headphones under 1000€; I simply fell in love with them and now I'm revisiting my music library with newfound enjoyment. Finally an ideal partner to the Variations.

Do you plan to further refine your EQ preset? I liked what I heard from it, but I personally find the parametric preset over AutoEQ to sound spot on.

Yes I have just been listening to my headphones more lately. But I'm getting back to the HI-X65 and I'll see if any changes come up for the eq

 

[Sebyelcapo]

For gaming i found the soundstage on these not too wide or closed, but the imaging is almost 3-blob like the hd600, sounds coming from the front-left and front-right sound like it's coming from center left or right, same thing happens to sounds coming from behind you, which is not good for games like cs2.

For music i didn't find this to be a problem

 

[imsjry]

So if I already have the Focal Clear OG, would these be more of a side-grade move? The only issue I have with the Clears are the narrow field but I don’t want to sacrifice that for lack of impact. How would these measure up? Also curious if they’re good for home listening since they are advertised as mixing/production headphones. I’m not quite sure I understand what the difference would be.

 

[imsjry]

So if I already have the Focal Clear OG, would these be more of a side-grade move? The only issue I have with the Clears are the narrow field but I don’t want to sacrifice that for lack of impact. How would these measure up? Also curious if they’re good for home listening since they are advertised as mixing/production headphones. I’m not quite sure I understand what the difference would be.

Anyone? ^^^^ Thanks!