@stasta Nice, that is good to hear. I definitely have to put the ERGO AMT on my bucket list to listen to. I also got to try the Onkyo A800 with the original pads one day. I noticed one thing with the Onkyo A800 is that it has really good stock materials like pads and cable. The stock cable is absolutely amazing and is probably one of the best stock cables I ever used. You and Protoss enjoy the original pads, so I know I have to listen to that as well one day.
Regarding the Mysphere headphone, easily the best midrange headphone I ever heard in the market and maybe of all time. I was fortunate to listen to a lot of headphones in the summit fi range, but at the end of the day, they still feel like headphones to me and nothing game-changing. That is why I was pretty burnt out in the hobby last month and just wanted to focus on my next speaker pick-up. I thought I would pick up 1 last headphone from this hobby and just focus on something else, which was both the Raal SR1a and Mysphere 3.2. The SR1a is probably one of the most high-level clarity and detail headphones I ever listen to. I think the only thing that could probably surpass it is probably Susvara on a good audio chain and some electrostats headphones like the X9000, Shang Sr., and HE-1. Even though I am using a entry-level speaker amp for it like the Vidar 2, it is powered by my Supratek 45 tube preamp and my really good R2R DAC. On a better speaker amp, I will probably get a better bass response and the soundstage will probably expand more. The resolution in the bass is also amazing. Probably the best-sounding bass compared to even the D8000 Pro LE and Caldera. The quality of the bass is really nice, probably have to compare it to the ATH-L3000 one day when I feel like it. The only thing I am disappointed in terms of its bass is that because the headphone is so quick, the bass decays too quickly and doesn't have that nice "oomph" to it. The Mysphere has a better bass punch while the Raal has a better bass texture, kinda like how I compare my Onkyo A800 vs. ATH-L3000 where the Onkyo A800 has a more satisfying bass while the ATH-L3000 has a more "audiophile bass". The reason I am bringing the Raal Sr1a up is that even though it has a high amount of clarity, something about that headphone still reminds me that I am listening to something digital and not real. (This little impression is to build up the Mysphere 3.2).
Now, Mysphere 3.2, that is a different story. Here is a mini-impression I did in another forum below. TLDR is that the Mysphere 3.2 is the most realistic-sounding headphone I ever heard in the midrange. The Mysphere midrange is unmatched, except for maybe the Susvara from people's opinions I trust, but the Mysphere does have the most realistic presentation for many of the acoustic instruments (particularly string, percussion instruments, and vocals). Synthesized music, nothing to write home about. The Mysphere truly shines with acoustic music. The Mysphere 3.2 is the pickiest headphone on the source (music files, CDs, Vinyl), amp synergy (I never have an issue with it so far with 3 different amps, but I heard from other people that the bass gets uncontrolled and you lose its magical midrange on the wrong amp synergy), and probably the most annoying headphone to wear because positioning on the frames is everything on that headphone. But once you deal with that hassle and everything is in a "perfect world setting", it is the most rewarding headphone I ever listen to.
Mini-Impression below:
"Now let's talk about sound. 1st impression, these headphones were magical in the mids and the vocals sounded amazing.
The bass sounded weird to me and there is some clipping, but only in certain tracks and volumes. It's honestly more picky with modern pop music vs. pop music from the 80s. I could still listen to modern pop music, just have to set the volume median - low, again very specific on which tracks I have to do this to, mainly tracks with extreme synthesized bass. I feel like I can listen to Daryl Hall & John Oates and Michael Jackson tracks in high volume without the bass sounding weird or distorted. Coming from a person that really enjoys the Sennheiser HD600 and HD580 Jubilee, the bass sounds good and the mid-bass is punchy. I think I got a jumpscare on my first listen with the Mysphere 3.2. I forgot which song I was listening to, but I did a test song with classical and switched to pop. Then on the same level with no expectation of bass, because a lot of people said this headphone had no bass, the mid-bass punches me almost out of my seat. It's not the hardest punch I felt, but the Mysphere hits pretty hard. I knew the Mysphere had bass, but I thought it was with only the Viva Tube amp. The Allnic HPA-5000XL was able to give the Mysphere a good bass response as well. I am used to headphones that make bass really stand out like the Onkyo A800. When listening to “Dove - Cymande”, compared to my usual Onkyo A800, the bass guitar was on the weaker side meaning that it doesn' t particularly stand out in the music. It was more in the background as the bassline should be. In the track “Isn't It Romantic - Bill Evans Trio Live” you can really hear the bass being plucked and really hearing the vibration in the air echo.
My favorite sound from the Mysphere 3.2 has to be many of the acoustic instruments and female vocals in modern recording. I agree with many people when they say the Mysphere really shines with organic music and live music. One thing I really like about the Mysphere 3.2 vs a lot of headphones I tried in the past (including my ownership of the Caldera and D8000 Pro LE which is in the similar Retail Price Range of $4-5K as the Mysphere 3.2) is that the Mysphere on my particular setup, have this magical way to remove equipments from the music. What I mean by this is that you can kind of tell the quality of a person’s mic with a good headphone. With the Mysphere, there is no equipment, it is just you and the artist. In a good recording, it really sounds to me like there is no barrier between me and the artist. Before, I had the mindset that there would always be a barrier and nothing would be close to real life. I used to think you would always hear the artist through a filter of their equipment. That is why I particularly don't like listening to classical orchestra or acoustic music unless it's live or through speakers (because I like the soundstage). With the Mysphere, it shatters my expectations of what I used to think about headphones and gives me the ultimate immersive experience that I thought wasn't possible. With the electric guitar and bass, that is a different story but that is also why I specifically said my favorite sound from the Mysphere is acoustic instruments and female vocals. There were some recordings where I thought, dang the piano sounds flat. But switched to another recording and the piano sounded great. That is why I also specified modern recordings because I feel like most modern recordings of acoustic performances are really good. There are some good old recordings, but you will have an easier time looking through the newer recordings to get this no-barrier experience. am also hesitant to say every acoustic instrument sounds realistic as it is heavily dependent on how well it's recorded. An example in one of the classical recordings, the church bells sounded light and didn't have enough weight in its sound to sound real to me Same with some piano recordings where I wish there was more weight in some of the notes, but there is some piano recordings where it sounds very satisfying.
Soundstage, with the Allnic HPA-5000XL, I agree with a lot of
https://www.sonusapparatus.com/2022/01/mysphere-3-1-3-2-impressions/said in his Mysphere article where there is a little exaggeration of the distance between each performer and that the soundstage is holographic. I want to add there is a lot of depth in the soundstage as well. I am not sure if that is thanks to the Evo B4B 21 or the Supratek Preamp adding depth to this soundstage, but I will give credit to both honestly lol. I think both of these pieces of equipment vastly increased the depth of my soundstage and I could hear the sound echos with a great amount of height. To me, it feels like I am more immersive with the performers where I am in the center of the music and everything is being played around me. That was probably one of the most fun I had listening to music and the stage feels so vast and big to me. This is truly an alternative option to escape reality, don't know if this is the healthier choice lol.
Did a little A/B comparison with the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee and the Mysphere 3.2. The Sennheiser HD580 is more forward in the vocals while the Mysphere is not recessed like the Sennheiser HD250 Linear 1, but vocals seem right in the middle where it is not exaggerated to the front but is where it should be. Mysphere 3.2 obviously blew everything else in the waters, it wasn't a competition lol. Resolution, bass, a more immersive experience where the Mysphere dispels barriers between me and the artist. still say the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee is the GOAT cause Sennheiser has brought so many smiles in my memories I have to give them credit somehow. Didn't really A/B with the Raal SR1A because its not fair since I am using the Mysphere with the Allnic HPA-5000XL and the Raal with the Vidar 2. One thing I do like about Raal is that the music I like to listen to on the Raal is the opposite of what I would listen to on the Mysphere. I have a guilty music genre I really like to listen to and that is Vocoloid. The vocaloid genre kinda evolved to more than just the Vocaloid and more about the producers. Songs like “Odo - Ado”, “Hibikaze - Reol”, “DIAMANTE - IA (Sho Fujiwara)”, "Demon Lord - Kanaria" , and etc.
I think that is it for the 1-week impression. My chain is ROON Rock - Intel NUC 7i7 > EMM Labs NS1 > [AES] Mojo Audio Mystique EVO B4B 21 > Custom 45/6SN7 Tube Only Supratek Cabernet DHT > [RCA] Allnic HPA-5000XL > Mysphere 3.2 with Onkyo A800 ribbon cables.
TLDR:
Pro:
- Very emotional headphones
- Extremely good with the acoustic guitar
- Sounds like the equipment disappeared and listening to the instrument/vocals raw
- Immersive soundstage
- Truly shines with acoustic music and huge orchestras.
- Psychological rock music like “Voodoo Child (slight return) - Jimi Hendrix” and “2000 Light Years from Home - The Rolling Stone” is a trip with the Mysphere 3.2 and Allnic HPA-5000XL with my preamp/dac combo because of the good instrumental separation and soundstage maaaaan! Some rock songs are really good too like “Abraxas album - Santana”, especially with how they open the album up with “Singing Winds, Crying Beasts” which is really magical.
Con:
- Synthesize bass sound distorted to me in a loud volume. Got to lower the volume on my setup.
- Get some clipping/rattle when playing the big bass drums at a really loud volume ie classical music, but that is a lot of headphones tbh. It's just I'm used to that with my current bass-heavy headphones.
- Very picky on how well the music is recorded/produced in order to sound amazing. Way more picky on the recording vs. any other headphones I have experience with."
The only headphone from people's opinions I trust that can match or potentially be better in the midrange is the Susvara. Different presentation though where the Mysphere is supposed to be closer in terms of real life while the Susvara is more analogue-like, meaning its more warm and richer in tone. At least is how I seen people describe the 2 headphones and I agree that the Mysphere is closer to real life. I will probably pick up a Susvara either in December or next year since I am planning on purchasing a classic gear in October already. I heard the Susvara can be driven by my Allnic HPA-5000XL amp pretty well, it's just they say it's a curve ball in that retail price range because of it's unique sound presentation and if it actually synergizes well with the headphone, it really makes that headphone take off all the way to the moon.
Now, back on topic to the Onkyo A800 since this is an Onkyo A800 thread. I think the Mysphere 3.2 headphone is a nice complement to the Onkyo A800. They both have the same headphone connector, so you can use the same headphone cable. One thing is that the Onkyo A800 is unmatched in terms of satisfaction in the bass region for me. I tried headphones like the Atrium Closed (Olive version) and the Abyss 1266 TC at CanJam recently. I will give the benefit of the doubt since Atrium Closed in different wood will give a slower decay which I will probably like more and the Abyss 1266 TC setup (3 different setups, DCA stack, Headamp new CFA3, and RSA new amp) is either not compatible with the Abyss since that headphone is hard to drive or the hotel power issue was giving problems to those setups and I couldn't hear the full potential of the Abyss "legendary" slam. At this point, I am pretty tired of buying more headphones and will just live with the Onkyo A800 and just wait till I get 2 subwoofers for my speakers for more slam. So Onkyo A800 for the satisfying bass-heavy music and the Mysphere 3.2 for the midrange on a more "realistic" presentation. If you own an Onkyo A800, I would recommend giving the Mysphere 3.2 as a good companion, second thought, let me take that back. I will only recommend it if you are willing to level your audio chain to a higher degree for both the Onkyo A800 and Mysphere 3.2. The reason, like I said earlier, the Mysphere truly shines in higher level gear and is really picky on what gear gets along with. But it is truly satisfying and worth it if you are able to achieve it. And if you can achieve that true midrange magic with the Mysphere, that same audio chain will most likely tame the Onkyo A800 bass and you get a nice balance of satisfying bass and good midrange. So bass focus music, Onkyo A800, more realistic midrange presentation, Mysphere 3.2.
*Edit: I have to re-edit some of my stuff lol. Is there a character limit in this forum? If it still looks funny, it is what it is.
type of headphones they like to make.
... I was not expecting to hear this. As Protoss stated, 50% or pretty much 80% in my exaggerated language, the Subbass has been subdued and tamed! I wouldn't exactly say bass as a whole, mostly just the subbass category which is the rumbling and physical part of the music have been tamed. When the subbass has been tamed and is now on good behavior making physical contact delicately instead of punching your guts with its visceral kicks, midrange is veeeeeeeeeeeery sweet. I mean, this is the sweet spot of midrange. It hits all the good spots and man it feels good! The song I was first testing it out with was "Windy Spring" by WoongSan and I wanted to test vocals. Of course, the vocals melt in my ears, but man the piano sounded extra good. I think the reason why midrange was in the sweet spot is probably because subbass wasn't there overpowering the midrange. The music was able to focus more on the piano and my brain was able to 100% focus on the piano to appreciate its sweet melody. I still could hear the bass guitar, accoustic guitar, and of course WoongSan lovely voice. As Protoss said, only the subbass was tone down, but the Onkyo A800 still have the rest of the range and it is freaking magical. The only downside is that it loses excitement which is one of my favorite features on the Onkyo A800. The Onkyo A800 is easily one of the most exciting headphones no matter what the price range if you use leather pads. And excitement is what I am looking for on some genres like Pop and Rock.
