[AlessandroR]

I started the hobby being a speaker fan (love the Ohm Walsh, have two pairs and the LS 50 on my my office), that used to do woodworking with Samsung noise canceling earphones. As I started using them more and more, it got me curious into IEMs and then into headphones.

I now have an Sennheiser 800S on order.

My wife and kids laughed for 5 minutes first time they caught me wearing my HEDD headphones.

New life.

Still looking for the perfect closed back, as everyone complains about the point of open back headphones.

Might as well carry a boom box, I'm told.

Cheers

Alex.

 

[haasaaroni]

Welcome to the forum, and I wish I could help more! I've only tried a few of the Dan Clark closed backs (from the Aeon series anyway, and very briefly the Sealth) and thought they sounded nice but lacked the dynamics I wanted from headphones. I also tried the ZMF Verite Closed and found them very technical, but a little too unnatural for my acoustic/vocal genres. The ZMF Atticus was fantastic, just very warm. I loved the Focal Radiance too when I tried a pair. Very, very punchy, and warm tonality overall, but with good detail.

The only other ones I've been tempted to try are the ZMF Atrium Closed, ZMF Bokeh (their upcoming compact closed back around $1,000), Meze Lyric, E-MU teak, and Neuman NDH-20, and the Focal Stellia.

It might help to know what genres you listen to, to fine tune recommendations.

And with luck you might also find headphones that your family won't laugh at you for wearing

 

[jonathan c]

Welcome to the forum, and I wish I could help more! I've only tried a few of the Dan Clark closed backs (from the Aeon series anyway, and very briefly the Sealth) and thought they sounded nice but lacked the dynamics I wanted from headphones. I also tried the ZMF Verite Closed and found them very technical, but a little too unnatural for my acoustic/vocal genres. The ZMF Atticus was fantastic, just very warm. I loved the Focal Radiance too when I tried a pair. Very, very punchy, and warm tonality overall, but with good detail.

The only other ones I've been tempted to try are the ZMF Atrium Closed, ZMF Bokeh (their upcoming compact closed back around $1,000), Meze Lyric, E-MU teak, and Neuman NDH-20, and the Focal Stellia.

It might help to know what genres you listen to, to fine tune recommendations.

And with luck you might also find headphones that your family won't laugh at you for wearing

… and if you use a closed-backed headphone, at least you won’t hear them laughing …

 

[AlessandroR]

Welcome to the forum, and I wish I could help more! I've only tried a few of the Dan Clark closed backs (from the Aeon series anyway, and very briefly the Sealth) and thought they sounded nice but lacked the dynamics I wanted from headphones. I also tried the ZMF Verite Closed and found them very technical, but a little too unnatural for my acoustic/vocal genres. The ZMF Atticus was fantastic, just very warm. I loved the Focal Radiance too when I tried a pair. Very, very punchy, and warm tonality overall, but with good detail.

The only other ones I've been tempted to try are the ZMF Atrium Closed, ZMF Bokeh (their upcoming compact closed back around $1,000), Meze Lyric, E-MU teak, and Neuman NDH-20, and the Focal Stellia.

It might help to know what genres you listen to, to fine tune recommendations.

And with luck you might also find headphones that your family won't laugh at you for wearing

Thank you! I somehow missed the notification a reply was made to my post. Maybe I should change the settings again, I may have gotten something wrong.

I listen to a bit much of everything. What I DON'T listen much is vocals, neither female or male. Vocal centric tunes tire me, and I can't stand A Capella songs. I like when vocals are used more like instruments, buried in the mix. The exception given to Operas, but then we're talking about precision instruments again.

I'm lucky to have a daughter who plays the cello and the piano at home. That convinced me that there's no affordable endgame to reproduce real instruments with speakers or anything really, nothing compares to a real cello or a real piano in its timbre, dynamics and reverberations. Maybe 300K speakers, and I still suspect it would sound fake if I walked around the room, in a way that I can perfectly do just fine as my daughter plays...

So my priority n#1 is not fidelity. But enjoyment.

So usually I listen to jazz, blues and alternative music. Since my daughter only plays classical pieces (with an occasional videogame theme), I started to listen to more orchestral music too. But that's a recent thing.

Finally, the records I use to evaluate my equipment are records like Jazz at the Pawnshop. Put it at full volume and see how it performs. Also Philip Glass pieces like from Koyanisqatsi, with lots of dynamics and bass, complex electronic arrangements, very hard to reproduce with no power or no subs. This is what I used to use to evaluate speaker setups.

This system is not working as well for headphones, but I'm up for the challenge. Especially dynamics, it seems like I need to rip the IEM/Headphone at the loud passages, it does get LOUD when the record is well made, and you turn up the volume...OUCH

 

[AlessandroR]

… and if you use a closed-backed headphone, at least you won’t hear them laughing …

I love you guys' signatures. I will do something like that, but I hope it doesn't imply I can talk intelligently about my gear...

 

[haasaaroni]

I love you guys' signatures. I will do something like that, but I hope it doesn't imply I can talk intelligently about my gear...

Nice signature! I see you do already have a Focal Radiance, but it sounds like you’d lean more planar based on what you listen to. The Dan Clark Audio Stealth wasn’t my cup of tea, but it might be yours. Tons of forward depth for a closed back headphone, very good isolation, supremely comfortable, with lots of detail and separation. It really doesn’t sound like a closed back headphone at all.

On the other hand, a ZMF Verite closed will probably get you closer to that correct instrument timbre you’re used to (just not so much vocal timbre in my opinion). I’m a classical guitarist and found the Verite Open to have the most lifelike portrayal of classical guitar recordings I’ve ever heard. They also do sub bass extension very well for a dynamic headphone. The soundstage isn't the widest, but again, it's very good for a closed back headphone.

 

[AlessandroR]

I literally just got the Focal Radiance on ebay. And the 800S arrived a few days ago. Barely had time to listen to it at all, but I like them both, the 800S and the Radiance. With the Focal had more detail, but I love the punch - really addicting. I also wished the 800S packed more punch (most anemic dynamic driver out there), it sounds dead. However, so much detail, and the soundstage is indeed as amazing as people say. It seems to me that the HEDD does a bit of both, power and detail.

But it's big, heavy and leaks sound like a boombox! lol

Love the Dan Clark Audio steal because it seems small and comfortable. And the ZMF verite looks so good, yes, would love to approximate timbre heaven for sure. I'll probably looks for a used one and sell a couple of gear I am not using.

I'll post this question in another thread probably, but if I dont have time, here it goes:

Why am I feeling the staging on the headphones, all of them, on top of my head? Even when it's wide and away from me, it still feels to me like it's above me. As if I'm in the first row of a big concert venue looking up.

Maybe I need to get used to this. It's weird enough how the sound doesn't move as you move your head...lol

 

[haasaaroni]

I also wished the 800S packed more punch (most anemic dynamic driver out there), it sounds dead.

I think in general this is generally what'll happen with this headphone, but the HD 800 series headphones really scale with good tube amps.

I was just starting out and had a JDS labs atom amp when I first bought the 800S. It sounded sharp, distant, dampened, and generally lifeless. Now that I have essentially the same headphone on a ZMF Pendant amp with a quality multibit DAC, it's very, very different. It's still not punchy like a Focal, but the sound can be quite lifelike, especially with orchestral music.

I don't mind listening to acoustic or rock on them either. Very detailed and natural.

Why am I feeling the staging on the headphones, all of them, on top of my head? Even when it's wide and away from me, it still feels to me like it's above me. As if I'm in the first row of a big concert venue looking up.

Ha! I think I remember hearing that when I first got into headphones too. I've just completely forgotten about it since! I can hear it when I turn my attention to it though.

I might be remembering wrong, but when the Stealth came out, one of the aims of its "Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning System" was to direct the sound waves on a more even-keel to the listener, so that the sound comes from in front of the listener, rather than above.

In any case, I think you'll just get used to it.

Nothing beats a live performance, but speakers can imitate it pretty well, and headphones imitate it relatively poorly. It's best to think of the headphone experience as an experience in itself. You can easily fall into the trap of just looking for headphones that sound like speakers (like the HD 800, My Sphere 3, Raal Requisite SR-1b, etc), but it takes away from the unique experience of headphone listening.