[LeonidK]

Anyone? ^^^^ Thanks!

I haven't heard OG but I know Clear MG and I find it superior in every aspect. X65 has great imaging and airy soundstage (I can't remember if it's very wide), nice clarity in the midrange and slightly warm sound, but it has zero bass impact, which makes it quite lean sounding. Good for Haydn/Mozart symphonies, chamber music and some jazz but I wouldn't use it for anything else. I think Clear has similar strengths but with powerful bass slam on top of that. If you're looking for wide soundstage try some Hifimans, Edition XS, Ananda, Arya. Also HD800 if you can afford them.

 

[imsjry]

I haven't heard OG but I know Clear MG and I find it superior in every aspect. X65 has great imaging and airy soundstage (I can't remember if it's very wide), nice clarity in the midrange and slightly warm sound, but it has zero bass impact, which makes it quite lean sounding. Good for Haydn/Mozart symphonies, chamber music and some jazz but I wouldn't use it for anything else. I think Clear has similar strengths but with powerful bass slam on top of that. If you're looking for wide soundstage try some Hifimans, Edition XS, Ananda, Arya. Also HD800 if you can afford them.

Thank you! I did try the Edition XS and Sundara as options and while both had great soundstage, they both lacked the weight and presence I was looking for. I was hoping this might be the can that had all of those things I liked about the Focal (tonality/weight/presence) and Sundara/Edition XS (openness/soundstage).

 

[LeonidK]

Thank you! I did try the Edition XS and Sundara as options and while both had great soundstage, they both lacked the weight and presence I was looking for. I was hoping this might be that can that maybe had all of those things.

If you're looking for weight then X65 is a wrong direction. You could try Monolith M1570 (stock velour pads) if it's available in your region. I bought it right after my X65 broke and it was fantastic, the best headphone I've ever had apart from HD650+OTL (TOTL timbre). M1570 has quick and accurate but powerful low end from 20Hz all the way up and can be EQ'd a lot without distortion, similar to Audeze. It has warm and clear midrange with treble being a bit too dark for my taste - I used EQ to bring back treble but velour pads already help a lot. On leather pads the tuning is just wrong for me. It's also very resolving with good separation and wide enough soundstage. I was devastated because I had to send it back due to its weight, it was absolutely unbearable for me, but sound wise I rate it higher than LCD-X. It was the only headphone I know that could play symphonies, chamber music, metal, rock, electronic music just as well. Usually when something is jack of all trades it's master of none, but I didn't really notice any shortcomings about its sound. Of course Susvara can do it too, but M1570 is a bargain for the price.

 

[imsjry]

If you're looking for weight then X65 is a wrong direction. You could try Monolith M1570 (stock velour pads) if it's available in your region. I bought it right after my X65 broke and it was fantastic, the best headphone I've ever had apart from HD650+OTL (TOTL timbre). M1570 has quick and accurate but powerful low end from 20Hz all the way and can be EQ'd a lot without distortion, similar to Audeze. It has warm and clear midrange with treble being a bit too dark for my taste - I used EQ to bring back treble but velour pads already help a lot. On leather pads the tuning is just wrong for me. It's also very resolving with good separation and wide enough soundstage. I was devastated because I had to send it back due to weight, it was absolutely unbearable for me, but sound wise I rate it higher than LCD-X. I was devastated that I had to send it back because the weight was unbearable for me, it was the only headphone I know that could play symphonies, chamber music, metal, rock, electronic music just as well. Usually when something is jack of all trades it's master of none, but I didn't really notice any shortcomings about its sound. Of course Susvara can do it too, but M1570 is a bargain for the price.

Wow, that Monolith is 700grams! I think my Focals are heavy at 450. I really wanted to like the Sundara or Edition XS but even with EQ, they just sounded thin and too airy. I did love the soundstage though. I love everything about the Focals except for the soundstage. I'd read some praise of the x65 where they were compared to the Focals and I think one person even preferred them.

 

[LeonidK]

Wow, that Monolith is 700grams! I think my Focals are heavy at 450. I really wanted to like the Sundara or Edition XS but even with EQ, they just sounded thin and too airy. I did love the soundstage though. I love everything about the Focals except for the soundstage. I'd read some praise of the x65 where they were compared to the Focals and I think one person even preferred them.

People need to understand you can't have everything, perfect headphones don't exist. IMO the only way to have wide soundstage and full, meaty sound is to buy speakers. From my experience headphones that are soundstage-focused usually lack body. Such correlation happens between Susvara and Utopia, Arya/Ananda and Clear etc. If you listen to symphonies a lot then it would make sense to buy HD800 and an OTL amp, but that's a lot of money for headphones that are essentially one trick pony. They have TOTL soundstage, imaging and detail retrieval but timbre, bass, slam are subpar. From what I heard planars usually have less body than dynamic headphones, the only expections being aforementioned M1570 and Audeze cans, but these are not very wide IIRC. You have one of the best headphones available so I would stick to them. What is your setup? Sometimes amp/dacs can make the soundstage congested. I'm not saying it's worth to spend so much money on a headphone rig but Gustard R26 is one example of a DAC that significantly expands spatial qualities compared to cheaper delta-sigma dacs.

 

[Angel III]

My Hi-X65s with equalizer give me nice enhanced bass and excellent clarity.

 

[imsjry]

People need to understand you can't have everything, perfect headphones don't exist. IMO the only way to have wide soundstage and full, meaty sound is to buy speakers. From my experience headphones that are soundstage-focused usually lack body. Such correlation happens between Susvara and Utopia, Arya/Ananda and Clear etc. If you listen to symphonies a lot then it would make sense to buy HD800 and an OTL amp, but that's a lot of money for headphones that are essentially one trick pony. They have TOTL soundstage, imaging and detail retrieval but timbre, bass, slam are subpar. From what I heard planars usually have less body than dynamic headphones, the only expections being aforementioned M1570 and Audeze cans, but these are not very wide IIRC. You have one of the best headphones available so I would stick to them. What is your setup? Sometimes amp/dacs can make the soundstage congested. I'm not saying it's worth to spend so much money on a headphone rig but Gustard R26 is one example of a DAC that significantly expands spatial qualities compared to cheaper delta-sigma dacs

I use the Focals with an Asgard 3 and my 6xx’s with the same or a Little Dot MKII fed from a Pontus II DAC. I think those cans are known for having a smaller soundstage in general. I guess this is an example of why folks have multiple pairs!

 

[miscreant]

Hey, long time no see.

I just spent an hour to pick out a new pair of phones for the next few years. Wasn't a big store but they had about 7 models to choose from under 300.-
x65 won. Hifiman Sundara was the main runner but lost because x65's guitar sounded like guitar but Sundara's guitar sounded like a photograph of a guitar.
<--- this means nothing, it is all a matter of taste, of course. It's just what happened, that's all.

Listening them at home now, after 3 hours, no disappointment. Gets better and better.

All I'm saying is that never trust any opinions in the Internet. Listen them in a bunch, don't ever just order them online based on the opnions.
Long live the stores!

 

[miscreant]

This phone nails the realism very often. But tiny.
Been using speakers for a long time for listening music, so it kinda bites. Turn the volume up and proper music - yeah. I can almost forget that these are headphones. But then it damages the ears.

Dunno what they are after but "next best thing" with the next model for these engineers is not the way. Not the only way.
Divide it into to paths, two models.
1.Make it sound big while trying to keep the realism. And try to make it sound big on low volumes.
2.Forget big, make the realism even better. It's already done with these x65's. Just more of that.

 

[Raketen]

Was looking at something completely unrelated and happened to see a news item about Austrian Audio increasing the warranty period to 5 years for x5_/x6_, and the Composer models- at least for cans that have been registered w/ proof of purchase. Always a little surprising to see headphone news in the wild!
https://www.soundonsound.com/news/austrian-audio-extend-pro-headphone-warranties

 

[miscreant]

Alright. It finally happened. It seems it took 1.5 months to get accustomed to a headphone again. The puny space that the headphones provide got accepted at last.
I knew x65 was good because it beat about 10 other headphones of the same price range in the store when testing.
All I'm saying, This is a good product. Thanks for all the future good times. Over and out.