[Claus-DK]

The Shanlin and Audinst was a great match,I had a wonderfull time, listening to some of my favorite songs.
It just plays it all, I was crying, laughing, dancing, I was chocked, terrified, in love all kind of things just flows through ones head, when immersed in music.

I am normally an inearguy and q-JAYS is my workhorse, it has been so for about 7 years or so, it is good hearing protection at my work and they are small, duarble and very very fast.
This was the only thing I can find that I miss a bit.

Listening to ABC (Jackson Five) was not as fun and fast as I am used to, it is the dynamic drivers, they are to big and heavy and are not as fast and precise as an BA.
So the downside is a downside I get from all dynamic drivers.
They do bring more warmth and soul into the song than my q-JAYS, which counts high on my scale.

It is a bit difficult, because normally we find the flaws and weak spots and target them, that is what most people want to know, the bad sides of a product, what could make theese wrong for me, as we all want to avoid buying stuff we do not love.
We also have a different scale for our opinion, comfort is at least as important as the sound to me, some can listen to Grados, I can not, they are simply to painfull on my ears and I have owned both RS1 and RS2, I liked RS2 best, but the pain....
I do not give much for design that are for looks, I like designs that are made for comfort and easy use.

In short I am a very pratical and down to earth guy, I have to listen to have an opinion on how things sound, in my younger years I did read all the technical stuff and went digging in graphs and whatever I could find.
Not anymore. Experience has taugth me that, I simply has to listen and just listen. Maybe that is a part of becomming an old fart ??

What I am trying to tell, is that they just do not thread wrong anywhere, they eat the music and spits it out, just like they are supposed to do.

If I had to find something to complain about, it would be the cable, it is a bit stiff and noisy, but it is not an issue, if it was I would just put an other cable on, I got lots of them and they are fairly cheap..
They are not made for running or active use, so the cable does not really bothers me.

What really bothers me is that I just got this weekend with her, she should be in my museum, at some point it stops being a collection and becomes a museum..
But Monday I will ship her to the next person on our product-tour and it will be a tough goodbye.
I also got a busy scedule, Verum 1 next week and then a set of Hyland-Headphones the week after that and I just know that if the Ollo is in the house, I will not give the others the headtime and attention they deserve.

Saturday evening will be with my MYST from my laptop, maybe a short visit from Aune X1s.

More later..

 

[SilverEars]

Whatever the case with graphs I have no trouble recommending these to people who find darker headphones most natural sounding. I for one am deeply annoyed by allmost every headphone having exta "shhzz". To my ears it is far from life like.

There is not much impressions around yet but what is there is all positive. They have a free trial and if one's wallet can take a hit of shipping back the headphones in case unhappy then give them a spin and see for yourself

I would certainly give the headphone a fair shot if this is the case, but isn't it from Slovenia? I don't put much weight on impressions unless I read them to be reliable. I'd rather look at a graph (not the one that was originally provided here). I could care less what others think of hearing vs graphs. I'm certainly not the random type to just blindly go for a headphone in a space of many many headphones (I prefer to make educated guesses). I know what's important to me, particularly if I'm trying to figure out what's worthy of looking into.

So, more defensive people get with these, less trustworthy things become. I want to read balanced reviews. I can always give these time to see how they fare over time. I'm not in a rush.

 

[GREQ]

I have a problem with their claim of producing a flat FR in this headphone.
I don't mean anything negative by the following, I only want there to be more transparency between the company and consumer.

Taken from their website: "...we achieve a flat frequency response."
https://www.olloaudio.com/about/faq

Now, if we 'fix' the frequency response image from their website, and adjust the axis to fit a scale we're more accustomed to, this is what we get:

Clearly, the most smoothing and psychoacoustic smoothing has been applied.
My point is, the response is not "flat" as stated by the company, leaving me with the feeling they've got something to hide ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Going by Ollo logic, the earth is also flat.

 

[Roderick]

I would certainly give the headphone a fair shot if this is the case, but isn't it from Slovenia?

yes, from Slovenia. They ship free globally orders over 160€ but return shipping is on the customer. I understood it is try and then pay or return. Info is on their site and of course one can email them or ask about it on facebook.

My point is, the response is not "flat" as stated by the company, leaving me with the feeling they've got something to hide ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

it is bizarre move to make such claims. I doubt they won over a single customer with that marketing in the first place anyway. They got my attention just because they're handbuild in eu and don't cost +$1000 and offer free trial. Actually when I first saw them I thought to myself "great, another $1500 headphone from an unknown manufacturer. " Then I realized the price is for headphone+tactile subwoofer+amplifier

I only want there to be more transparency between the company and consumer.

This is why all this is so surprising and disappointing for me. Ollo has been nothing but open about everything. They have loads of info and pictures about building the headphones on their Instagram and facebook. Process of how S4 came to be is quite well documented for those who are interested.

Customer service has also been great. Email/facebook replies have been fast. There was even this one time when I was curious about some of the design choices they had made, CEO of ollo called me (hour long foreign call on his expense) and answered my questions.

I hope more people try these headphones. I'd like to hear more impressions be they positive or negative so people can make "educated guesses" like @SilverEars put it

 

[Claus-DK]

Greq@

Ahh I did not read all that, I just saw a different phone and wanted one.

I can not tell if they are flat/neutral in their response, mainly because flat sounds different to other people, we arrange meetings in our group and one thing I noticed is that if I listen to what people thinks is flat, it is not, it also works the other way around, what I persieve as flat would be spiked in another mans ears.

I can see how you can skip all those faulty hearings and get a true picture with a graph, but a graph is not the truth either.
Why ?? because it consist of a lot of dots and a GUESS line between the dots.
If we make a graph on wars in Europe and have 6 years intervals, we could end up missing both worldwars and Europe would look peacefull and quiet from 1913 to the conflict in Bosnia in the 90s. which is a bit wrong..
A graph is just a picture of how that device we messure on sees the world, it is not how you and I hear the world.

I do not say that you can not read graphs and learn from them, but I do not use them for that reason, I do not want to know how it sounds before I listen to it or put it in other words, I do not want to focus on the problems I think might be there because of a graph.
If I did read the graph first, it would not be honest, my opinion would be tainted by my own ideas on how they fare wrong.
If you think somebody is an idiot, they often proofs you right, mostly a question of point of view, if we are honest to ourselves..

I was a graph junkie BIG time, but it made all phones sound dull for many years, I could only focus on what I knew they would do wrong and they always did exately as expected, which became a problem in the long run, it took out all the fun of my hobby.

Read all the graphs you want, but if you stop doing it phones will sound better in the near future.

 

[Roderick]

I can not tell if they are flat/neutral in their response, mainly because flat sounds different to other people,

So true. On friday I had molds made for custom earplugs (for blocking noise, not for music). I heard I have rare kind of ear canals. It varies a lot from person to person but it is more common that ear canals face down a bit but mine go up. Most often when we think about structural differences we think flat/pointy ears but it goes deeper(literally). Add preferences and psychological things no wonder we hear so differently.

 

[Claus-DK]

The real funny stuff comes when you go to the doctor and we all find out that our own ears hear different.

We have a response curve on each ear, just like a headphone driver has and they are not the same for right and left.
we do not hear at the same amplitude on our ears, most right ears have taken more damage than left ears, as most makes high noises with their right hand, which will strike and harm the right ear the most.
Which in return should make all phones sound higher to the left, but they do not.

Most actually hear best with the right ear, when they in reality have a better left ear, but the brain do not care it just turns up the volume and fools us into thinking what we already know, our ears are perfect

 

[GREQ]

Read all the graphs you want, but if you stop doing it phones will sound better in the near future.

I disagree, but mostly because I don't just read graphs. I make them.
The process of modding headphones, taking measurements and achieving a more pleasurable sound is a big part of the fun for me in this hobby, especially when I take a headphone with a big flaw and I am able to correct it.

I'm not out looking for a neutral headphone, nor do I have the opinion that a neutral headphone is better than a coloured headphone.
I try to enjoy all headphones equally, and find the best in them (after correcting the worst in them ). That said, my favourite headphone is my unmodified HA-DX1000. It just sounds like pure emotion. So make of that what you will.

 

[Claus-DK]

I know, we have been in contact several years ago think it could be regarding superlux, but I do not have that good a memory.
Good to see you again.

All great guys own DX1000 it is the phone I will wear in my coffin. that and a huge battery.

 

[Roderick]

Seeing how rare dx1000 it is funny how three of us happen to consider dx1000 as their favorite headphones. Yet against the odds here we are

 

[SilverEars]

Interesting that there is an agreement on the DX1000. This is Fostex based headphone, no? Have you guys heard it against the Fostex TH-00 or TH-900? If so, would be interested to hear what makes DX1000 particularly good for you guys.

It looks much closer to Denons I wonder if it's mainly rebranding?

 

[Roderick]

Dx1000 is not related to fostex. It is original JVC/Victor all the way. I have not heard th900 or th00 but I had d2000 and d5000. Compared to those dx1000 has a bigger soundstage. That is even though denons have a nice soundstage allready and by design are more open than JVC's. Bass presentation is quite different. Denons might hit harder and go deeper but JVC's have very unique bass. It is very speaker like in a way is more present. It fills the "room" so to speak. And I don't mean that in bass bleed all over other frequencies kind of way. It is a ridiculously fun headphone but in a tastefull way so it does not completely alter what was originally recorded.

 

[Claus-DK]

For me it is the emotions it gives me, the way it involves me.
Much the same as in the Ollo, they just make me happy and takes me good places.

 

[Roderick]

Well put... I't does it for me too. I just like to analyze things. I think it is the combination of soundstage, bass and midrange thats coloration I can't quite explain that do it. Whole way how it creates a virtual venue for the music. Euphonic is a word often word used to describe dx1000. I think it fits.

Ollo achieves the same end result through different means. I wanted to describe ollo's sound beautifull but it is beautifull when the music is. I't is not it's inherent nature imo. Nor is it's nature to overanalyze the recording like hd800 does. It is what it is...does nothing less or nothing more than it should but if recording is captivating enough it gets you to the same place dx1000 does. It just took you there through a different path

 

[Claus-DK]

Some pictures of the packing, I love the style, no plastic and recycle materials, whats not to like ?