SASH Deux & Tres; impressive planars from Ukraine
Oct 15, 2022 at 7:14 PM Post #646 of 1,209
Indeed. It kind of combines Edition XS bass to Sundara midrange. Going purely by graphs Sundara, early he6's and some Susvaras have best midrange tonality of Hifimans lineup. Tres tuning is very nice..not bright or dark but kind of referencish with a tad of extra body in the mids. Edition XS has slighly more treble but still Tres runs circles around it when it comes to resolution. It's only logical that Edition XS kind of sounds like intentionally gimped Ananda and I do think that on technicalities Tres is closer to Ananda than XS.
I think Tres is Ananda level or even slightly above. With Velour earpads, the clarity, mids really shine through while the low end is still kicking. The soundstage also widens....
 
Oct 17, 2022 at 4:35 AM Post #647 of 1,209
New eq preset. I've edited from the last one and to me, this sounds much nicer 😊, it runs circles around the XS and Ananda. Heaps of clarity with a nice warmth from that low end 😁👍.

This is for the 45 ohm Tres with open grills

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Oct 20, 2022 at 8:12 PM Post #648 of 1,209
I think Tres is Ananda level or even slightly above. With Velour earpads, the clarity, mids really shine through while the low end is still kicking. The soundstage also widens....
Could be. I have not listened to ananda
in a while. Did not care for it much anyway. It's of course very subjective but I would propably choose Tres over LCD-3 and Empyrean. Maybe even over Arya which I like more than LCD-3 and Empy. Those expensive headphones do some things better than Tres but also have some big problems. Tres is more complete headphone because it doesnt have any major drawbacks.

Hopefully I have time to test the hybrid pads soon. I'm hoping hybrids keep the tonality but add openness. Of course it's unfair comparison but next to AB-1266 what Tres lacks most is space, effortleness and air.
 
Oct 20, 2022 at 10:11 PM Post #649 of 1,209
Could be. I have not listened to ananda
in a while. Did not care for it much anyway. It's of course very subjective but I would propably choose Tres over LCD-3 and Empyrean. Maybe even over Arya which I like more than LCD-3 and Empy. Those expensive headphones do some things better than Tres but also have some big problems. Tres is more complete headphone because it doesnt have any major drawbacks.

Hopefully I have time to test the hybrid pads soon. I'm hoping hybrids keep the tonality but add openness. Of course it's unfair comparison but next to AB-1266 what Tres lacks most is space, effortleness and air.
I agree with you 99999%. The Ananda to me sounds limp. Theres not much life to it. It has amazing clarity but no emotion and grunt to the music when you need it. The Tres has it all. While yes, the Arya may have a bigger staging, again I feel it lacks grunt and overall impact. The Tres has amazing staging with all the grunt you could ever want. The Empyrean is very smooth, but to me, lacks some clarity the Tres has. The AB-1266 is a bloody insane headphone, and if I could choose just one. Maybe, truly, maybe I'd choose it over the Tres. But that eq I use on the Tres just makes it that little touch better I really don't think I'd miss anything if I were to not have the AB-1266. The price to performance on the 45 ohm Tres is so high, F@ck. I actually prefer it over the LCD-5 and Arya and a HD800s. It just does so so so much so right. It's a masterpiece of a headphone 😁
 
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Oct 20, 2022 at 11:25 PM Post #650 of 1,209
Is there other people out there that have the Tres and the 1266? That`s pretty cool. I use my Tres at the office and the 1266 at home. I haven`t done A/B comparison with them, but while I`m at work and use the Tres, I don`t feel I`m missing out.
 
Oct 21, 2022 at 5:41 AM Post #651 of 1,209
Tres is more complete headphone because it doesn't have any major drawbacks.
Agree absolutely with such statement, that's the major asset of the Tres.. When you listen to it you can even start thinking about it could be better here and there, this could a tad more that could be a tad less but at the end all the minus and plus turn to zero and you focus on the music... Why ask for more?
 
Oct 21, 2022 at 6:15 AM Post #652 of 1,209
Agree absolutely with such statement, that's the major asset of the Tres.. When you listen to it you can even start thinking about it could be better here and there, this could a tad more that could be a tad less but at the end all the minus and plus turn to zero and you focus on the music... Why ask for more?
Only thing I could ask more of is. Sasha, what brilliant masterpiece is next? 😁. The 45 ohm Tres for me already does so much so well, nothing is missing. But I always wonder, what could Sasha come out with next? Will it be better? Tuning and sound wise is already on point. Maybe build? Different woods, higher quality metals? Different designs? And yet, he already is in the works. New grills, new paint colours. He is willing to try new wood. All I can say is, Sasha does amazing work. Audeze, Hifiman and all other companies can learn a few things here. See what your customers really want and then deliver 😁
 
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Oct 22, 2022 at 8:21 PM Post #653 of 1,209
I have not done a thorough testing yet but this is a quick measurement with stock pads in open configuration. It is HEQ compensated so flat line would be quite close to harman target. It's quite perfect except for that 8khz peak which is likely a measurement glitch as I don't find it problematic at all.

Hifiman Edition XS vs. Tres

8khz peak is also there with Edition XS so I would not worry about that with either of the headphones. MiniDSP EARS tends to do wonky things around those frequencies.
Hey guys, new to the whole thread.
I wanted to add my point of view as i have both XS and 16 Ohm Tres on my hands at the moment.
Tres with removed grill dampening and perforated leather pads outperforms XS making it redundant in my eyes.

Both XS and Tres are good headphones that punch well above their price point but i feel Tres has more potential to be a giant slayer, and i haven't had the luck trying the 45 Ohm version which i can imagine can punch well above Arya V3 and others in the 1600$ price range.
Tres has a more natural presentation, while XS has the typical hifiman house sound dip in the mids that makes them sound a little muffled. The pads make a big change in Tres, which are easier to swap thanks to the ring mechanism (all headphones should have this, glued pads is a sin) making them very flexible to adjust to your music taste.
I mainly listen to some EDM, Metal, Folk and ambient music, most of which is not masterly recorded and mixed, with perforated leather and removed grill dampening material Tres makes all the recordings sound their best yet very detailed, for example, Animals As Leaders - Ka$cade at 3:11 there is a lot of sounds happening and when the guitar and drums kick in you can still hear the sounds the the background, both Tres and XS replicate it well but i lean towards Tres more as they are more comfortable, they hug your head better and they keep the liveliness of the sound more then XS, almost all hifiman sound dry and lifeless.
I like punchiness of dynamics and the layering and instrument separation of planars and Tres gives the best of both worlds, mind you i haven't had the chance to try Focals or LCD-X 2021.
I will most likely sell XS and invest in 45 Ohm Tres, because these headphones impressed me by a lot.

My chain is Topping DX3Pro+ as a DAC and Shiit Magnius as amp, both are driven balanced.
Both ware EQd to add a little of bass and more mids energy. (Low shelf at 80 of 5db, peak filter at 1850 of 5db with 0.8 Q value)

I would like to hear from you guys if Focal Clears and LCD-X 2021 can beat Tres in terms of clarity, separation and punchiness.
 
Oct 22, 2022 at 9:16 PM Post #654 of 1,209
Nice comparison with edition XS :thumbsup:
I would like to hear from you guys if Focal Clears and LCD-X 2021 can beat Tres in terms of clarity, separation and punchiness.
I shouldn't perhaps say anything as I've not heard 2021 LCD-X but IMO it would have to be an apparent upgrade over LCD-3 with 2021 pads to hang in there with Tres. Maybe it is. Judging by the graphs though 2021 version still looks like it would need eq to reach it's potential.

As for Clears...it's a tough one. Overall clarity as in lack of veil so to speak they're quite even. Clear is..eh, clearer by a hair but it might entirely be because of frequency response difference. Clear is more forward in upper mids and it's bit brighter, that will make it sound clearer. Tres is more robust and thicker in it's presentation. In the end it comes down to preference.

If by saperation you mean detail retrival etc I'd say Tres is better at higher frequencies. Clear can sound bit grainy and unfocused especially with gear it does not have great synergy. In midrange Clears seem more capable of extruding every nuance. Clears microdynamic capabilities are excellent.

Punchines/macrodynamics/slam...well, nothing really can beat focals there. It's their party trick.

Soundstage size, subbass and timbre are areas where Tres is easily the better one. I really like Clears but for someone into EDM I would not recommend them. Subbass is not all there and many people have had driver issues when they've eq'd focals.
 
Oct 22, 2022 at 9:47 PM Post #655 of 1,209
Nice comparison with edition XS :thumbsup:

I shouldn't perhaps say anything as I've not heard 2021 LCD-X but IMO it would have to be an apparent upgrade over LCD-3 with 2021 pads to hang in there with Tres. Maybe it is. Judging by the graphs though 2021 version still looks like it would need eq to reach it's potential.

As for Clears...it's a tough one. Overall clarity as in lack of veil so to speak they're quite even. Clear is..eh, clearer by a hair but it might entirely be because of frequency response difference. Clear is more forward in upper mids and it's bit brighter, that will make it sound clearer. Tres is more robust and thicker in it's presentation. In the end it comes down to preference.

If by saperation you mean detail retrival etc I'd say Tres is better at higher frequencies. Clear can sound bit grainy and unfocused especially with gear it does not have great synergy. In midrange Clears seem more capable of extruding every nuance. Clears microdynamic capabilities are excellent.

Punchines/macrodynamics/slam...well, nothing really can beat focals there. It's their party trick.

Soundstage size, subbass and timbre are areas where Tres is easily the better one. I really like Clears but for someone into EDM I would not recommend them. Subbass is not all there and many people have had driver issues when they've eq'd focals.
I agree with this. I don't have clears but I have elex which are close enough and the punch/slam cannot be compared to anything else i have personally heard its what i love about focal. The Tres does heavy bass including sub bass better for sure so i prefer them for EDM which is a big portion of my listening. My elex clip over 90bd with sub bass unfortunately so they could never come close to tres bass. I use EQ on all my headphones so my opinion is based on EQed sound.
 
Oct 23, 2022 at 12:56 AM Post #656 of 1,209
I've owned Clears and yes they are good headphones but absolutely agree. When it comes the treble, the 45 ohm Tres wins. The Clears can sound a bit graing, peaky and congested where as the Tres brings out detail while sounding very open and effortless. Mids, the Clears are more forward and have a slight edge in clarity and detail, but again. When things get busy, they can sound congested and very busy. The Tres never has this problem and sound effortless and beautifully separated letting me be able to hear better placement in instruments, vocals and overall sounds. Clears have slight more detail but the Tres does way better in layering and bringing out room size, placement and all that. Low end, the Clear has faster low end and impact but I find the quality and separation between sub and mid bass to be better on the Tres. With some eq, the Tres can slam hard and I don't miss the Clears. Overall for me, the 45 ohm Tres is the superior headphone being able to do more and give you more for the money. You could buy a 16ohm and 45 ohm Tres for the price of 1 Focal Clear..... The Clear does nothing better for me
 
Oct 23, 2022 at 1:46 AM Post #657 of 1,209
I've owned Clears and yes they are good headphones but absolutely agree. When it comes the treble, the 45 ohm Tres wins. The Clears can sound a bit graing, peaky and congested where as the Tres brings out detail while sounding very open and effortless. Mids, the Clears are more forward and have a slight edge in clarity and detail, but again. When things get busy, they can sound congested and very busy. The Tres never has this problem and sound effortless and beautifully separated letting me be able to hear better placement in instruments, vocals and overall sounds. Clears have slight more detail but the Tres does way better in layering and bringing out room size, placement and all that. Low end, the Clear has faster low end and impact but I find the quality and separation between sub and mid bass to be better on the Tres. With some eq, the Tres can slam hard and I don't miss the Clears. Overall for me, the 45 ohm Tres is the superior headphone being able to do more and give you more for the money. You could buy a 16ohm and 45 ohm Tres for the price of 1 Focal Clear..... The Clear does nothing better for me
I feel the same way. In comparison, some other dynamic headphones I have don't have this kind of sound separation and the music seems cramped.

I also like the tone in the mid range whereas other V shaped headphones elevate low and high frequencies at the cost of the mid range. The Tres does not elevate anything. It just wants to be as honest as possible.

I guess my biggest criticism so far is the microphonic properties of the cable. It reacts to my movements and picks up the noise when it rubs against my body. So I need to sit still to avoid that.
 
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Oct 23, 2022 at 2:14 PM Post #658 of 1,209
Lots of great alternatives to cable, tried both Forza Audioworks, ZMF ofc cable and original LCD cable. The quality of sound from the original Sash cable is good, but if you want something nicer looking or with better feel there's lots of alternatives.
 
Oct 29, 2022 at 3:59 AM Post #659 of 1,209


Black and blue for me. I'll post impressions in a few days.

I chose the 16 ohms version as it was said they were more bassy, and here are my first impressions.
Treble quality and detail is among the very best I've heard. Bass reminds me somehow of the E-Mu Teak but is of course more planar. Overall they have the best and most pleasant out-of-the-box sound of any planars I've had.

I took a hasty measurement with my MiniDSP EARS (with He6se for reference) :

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Looks like the 16 ohms version does have more bass than the 45 ohms also in the frequency response. There is some Hifiman-style dip in the 1 to 3 kHz region but less than with the He6se. I am not sure if the spike at 4,5 kHz is real as according to my miniDSP EARS all of my headphones have that.

During the ordering process I saw on Sash's FB page that in addition to the closed and semi-open cups there was also a smaller type of cups in some of the photos. I asked Sasha about those and he said some people had asked for a smaller cup mainly for looks and he felt the larger cups sound better. I ordered both the larger and smaller cups to experiment with them, feeling that some mods I was planning to do might work better with the smaller cup (which are in the photo above, EDIT: in the previous post, not the FR graph which is with the open grills).

The phones have an interesting magnet structure with thick but narrow magnets so that they block a quite small part of the driver which should make for higher acoustic transparency. The magnets are also specified as N52 as opposed to the N50 which is most commonly used in planars. The higher number indicates a stronger magnet by a few percent. The overall magnet structure is kind of close to that of some ribbon headphones.

For me the ordering process went smoothly. As stated before in the thread the phones' prices do not include transaction costs but for me it was just a few euros with the Wise service.

I believe most people would do either EQ or mods with planars and I prefer the latter. I'm happy to report that the Sash Tres are very modding friendly, with the cups/grills attached with standard size screws that can be easily dismounted. There is a ring/frame system for the earpads and there are different kinds of earpads with the rings available and it was also said that extra rings can be ordered separately. The rings attach to four screws on the headphone frame and it is also possible to remove (and reinstall) these screws if you want to.

I will post later about some mods I've done. Thanks to @Roderick for bringing these into attention and of course to @SashaLach !
 
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Nov 4, 2022 at 12:04 AM Post #660 of 1,209
The new grills have arrived. As you can see in the photo. It is much more opened than the stock grills. Light literally shines through the grills haha.

Quick sound impressions.

Overall sound is huge and grand. Heaps of air, noticeable improvement in width, depth, height. The low end also feels much more surrounding.
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