[Harghan]

 
I am running mine from g73sw; what do you think?

 
 
Get a Little Amp/DAC
i got a g75vw and i feel a Huge diff.
(i got a fiio e7, good value i think for you)

 

[c64]

Over here the sonys are £200 the k612 £140 + and the x1 were £150-£165 now £180 ish.
 
So cant really compare price to performance when prices are widly different around the world.
 
The k12 is a bit of a forgotten can though didn't even know there was a k612 want a pair of those now

 

[krelianx]

Get a Little Amp/DAC
i got a g75vw and i feel a Huge diff.
(i got a fiio e7, good value i think for you)

Im strongly considering. Care to elaborate on how it affects the sound?

 

[conquerator2]

I am selling my X1s for 190 USD shipped... Just putting it out here if anyone is interested... There's a classified for it.

 

[Harghan]

Im strongly considering. Care to elaborate on how it affects the sound?

 
 
Take the E07K then, no diff price & better.
 
 
 
Well, English is not my native language so it's difficult to explain
But it rly worth the diff

 

[krelianx]

So, to elaborate a bit on what I said before:

I finally got my X1, and my feelings are a bit mixed. In spite of the low impendence, they cannot reach substantial volume from an ipod, and they even struggle with some laptops. As far as the sound signature, they have very impressive bass, but the mids sound a bit recessed and thin in comparison; while the highs are very smooth, with a hint of sparkle. The biggest virtue of these cans are its amazing soundstage and the incredible smoothness of the sound. Imaging is quite good as well.
 
However, I tried a pair of HD600's today for the first time and boy, I was blown away, the mids were so much fuller and the bass, though FAR less accentuated, was tight and compact. The lush, detailed mids give the cans not only a very neutral sound, but a very musical character. The Fidelios on the other hand feel like a very colored pair of cans; their accentuation in the lower frequencies and the slight brightness at the top with the ss makes it sound large, airy and enveloping... but the detail and overall musical content is less robust. It seems ornamental in contrast to the Hd600's, which I now am really fantasizing over. I am hoping the L2's ameliorate this with some mitigated bass and more prominent mids. I think the bass in the X1s is impressive, but I would trade off a bit of sheer boominess and quantity for a slightly more resolved and forward midrange.am hoping the L2's.
 
Granted, I am driving these from an ASUS g73sw, and a Macbook Pro primarily.

I wonder if the upcoming L2's make up for this with a slightly more recessed lower end and a more forward mid center.

 

[Neo-ST]

Try connecting them to a dedicated amp/dac next time, it's a different story...

 

[krelianx]

Try connecting them to a dedicated amp/dac next time, it's a different story...

Well, these were recommended to me for being allegedly very easy to drive and oftentimes said not to scale really well either. Any advice for real budget amping that would bring out this 'different story'?

 

[krelianx]

delete

 

[Neo-ST]

It's in my own opinion, based upon my own experience with integrated sound card vs. Schiit Modi+Magni ($200 altogether), so i advise you try connecting them somewhere else first, buy last.

 

[c64]

Depends how budget you want ? a cheap fiio E6 even improves the sound.
 
I agree these don't come alive until amped.

 

[krelianx]

  Depends how budget you want ? a cheap fiio E6 even improves the sound.
 
I agree these don't come alive until amped.

 
I wouldn't want to spend more than 60-70 bucks; but I would probably hunt for a used system in the fs forum anyway...

 

[CoiL]

Hey all X1 owners! 

Will be also part of this family soon as I`ve bought conquerator2 X1`s. Will be pairing those cans with Aune T1 DAC/Amp. Any other members here using this combo?
I have done quite lot of mods to my Aune T1 and I have over 70 tubes to match this combo, so, I think my future impressions will be hopefully useful for somebody

 

[Don Lehrer]

  Hey all X1 owners! 

Will be also part of this family soon as I`ve bought conquerator2 X1`s. Will be pairing those cans with Aune T1 DAC/Amp. Any other members here using this combo?
I have done quite lot of mods to my Aune T1 and I have over 70 tubes to match this combo, so, I think my future impressions will be hopefully useful for somebody

 
Welcome to the group!!! Wow 70 Tubes really?? That sounds interesting, can´t wait to hear more from you

 

[xDezor]

Hello all! I just joined the forums after purchasing my new Fidelio X1's. I thought I'd introduce myself and give my impressions thus far.
 
I bought these headphones to replace my trusty Sennheiser HD 280 Pro's. I've faithfully run those almost daily for 9 years. This past year the headband (metal subframe) finally snapped in half.. Not a bad run I suppose. I never really liked using speakers or other audio sources, so to say I had become accustomed to those is an understatement. I considered buying another pair of those since they're still being manufactured and I didn't want to risk being sucked into the audiophile world (ignorance is bliss, amirite?) - but I guess you can see how well that worked out for me since I just registered. 

 
 
It's been pretty entertaining learning how you guys describe certain audio characteristics. Just for fun I read some of the reviews posted here aloud to my significant other. I have never seen someone so confused. Needless to say I haven't been "classically trained" in your verbiage so bear with me as I make my descriptions - I'm still learning about this new hobby. I don't really consider myself an audiophile but I do have a pretty keen sense of hearing.
 
So... that's where I came from... 
 
 
I've had the X1's for about a week, probably put ~40 hours onto them. Here are my first impressions:
 
Disclaimer: I tend to write pessimistically, so please don't jump on me about hating on them. I actually like them.
 
When I first got them I was pretty upset. Had people gone deaf in the 9 years since I purchased my first set of cans? I considered returning them to Amazon. Maybe it was my source? After all, I'm using them with a $400 laptop from Walmart. I decided to plug them into my HTC One - they sounded even worse. Great - consumers had gone deaf. I went back to the reviews. I don't really consider myself a "basshead", but I've been told they were okay at bass... I found the headphones to be missing many frequencies in the lower spectrum yet they moved a substantial amount of air. It's as if they could only hit one specific note, sort of like a drumset with only one drum. I wondered whether this was attributed to their open design, or if other people couldn't tell the difference. Their future looked bleak.

 I wondered if maybe I had gone deaf in the year I had gone without decent headphones. My future looked bleak! 

 
 
I kept searching for an answer. What happened to my purchase... I read that they're supposedly very good for gaming. Great! I play Counter-Strike: Source competitively on 3-dimensional maps which require you to hunt by sound. I fired up some binaural test patterns (don't have my gaming PC at the moment). All of the sound seemingly originated from ~4 inches above and behind my skull. It was actually very disorienting and gave me a headache (has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?!). Maybe this was part of the sound signature and I just wasn't accustomed. I wanted to move onto testing other things but at this point my cheeks and jawline started to ache from how uncomfortable they were. I ended up stretching out the headphone band slightly as seen in some YouTube reviews. Again, this was frustrating since it was something which they were supposed to excel at.
 
I decided to order a V-MODA audio cable to replace the stock Philips cable (mainly because I thought it was going to break my laptop because of how large it was...

) At that point I was all in. This is how it starts; first you purchase a $12 audio cable and the next thing you're ordering is a $200 DAC/AMP! haha... I caught the bug -.-
 
Anyway, the cable arrived yesterday. I love it! It looks great and got rid of the nasty noise I could hear when I accidentally bumped my cable. Seriously, that Philips cable is like nails on the chalkboard if you happen to accidentally scratch it near your pocket. In happenstance I'd probably go with the silver/black color combo to better match the cans, but I'm alright with red. If I ever needed a microphone I wouldn't hesitate to purchase their MIC cable.
 
More exciting than the cable arriving was that the headphones were finally starting to break in! SUCCESS! 

 Apparently I misread the importance of breaking in the headphones. I'm astonished at how different they sound and feel now. There are definitely more frequencies present. I started to like music again - pleasantly picking up things I've never heard in old and new audio tracks. Obviously, they don't sound exactly like my old 280 Pro's. Not necessarily better - just different - the sound signature is different. Perhaps I was also breaking in my ears during the last 40 hours getting them used to the sound. Those Sennheisers did have a clear edge when it came to the clarity of the lower frequencies, but that is also attributed to their closed design. I wish they weren't broken so I could do a proper A/B comparison .I might have to buy another set of cans in the future to complement these (DT770, HD650? Who knows where I'll end up!)
 
The other thing I'm baffled by is how different they feel on my head. Before, the clamp was unbearable. Mind you, I'm coming from 280 Pro's.. I <3 clamp. The clamp is a lot less than before, and the pads have softened a great degree (and don't itch, yay!). Seriously it's only been a week and a half...  Looking back on it I probably shouldn't have loosened them manually and instead just let them open up naturally over time. Oh well, missed opportunity on my part. 
 
I'm sure I'll be purchasing some sort of DAC/AMP in the future, but at this point it's not a necessity. I'll probably go with a Magni/Modi combo after I move this summer. In the mean time I've been satisfied with streaming music on Google Play Music (I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the subscription radio service it offers. Pandora sounds terrible in comparison).
 
Anyway, sorry for the non-audiophile rant.. First time reviewing something. 
 
TL;DR: Before you return them wait a week or so to let them break in. These headphones are pretty great once broken in and I really like them now!