[BenF]

So apparently they never left China on 4/18, they were sitting at the airport/"handed over to the airline", and the current status (translated from Chinese) says "Arrival at the Overseas Economic and Trade Bureau". Still hasn't left China yet, and it's going on 2 months now. Kind of annoying, but I don't want to be the self-centered asshole who is complaining while the pandemic is going on.

Did you use Aliexpress Standard Shipping or something else?

 

[Entropism]

Did you use Aliexpress Standard Shipping or something else?

I used the free option, which was the standard shipping. The only other choice was DHL for $30(ish).

 

[Entropism]

So tracking showed the headphones in china last night around 2am EST. Today they're on my doorstep. Go figure!

It was packaged well, and they're super comfortable, but I need to buy a longer cable for my desk setup. Not a major issue.

Anyone have any 2.5 to 3.5 cable recommendations? Amazon is ideal, US preferred, Aliexpress if I have to.

 

[TylerC]

I assume you are talking about male vocals? FC-300 may show more presence in male vocals due to a frequency response rise below 1kHz: https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/delightful-onkyo-es-fc300-and-es-hf300-measurements
Female vocals should sound better on GM200, FC-300 is falling off the cliff there.

Maybe just a few hours, I haven't noticed a burn-in effect in Pro 82 or GM200.

Noup. Both male and female sound same presenceless compared with the other two. Sometimes it's like mixing some sounds of cheaps headphones with other sounds of some hifi ones.

And the noise is more noticeable in some songs that is disturbing. Try "Take Me Home - Delta Heavy - Only Dreams" on TIDAL HiFi, it's so weird. I don't know, maybe my DAC isn't properly crosstalking about the needed amp. My O2 is in another city (although I couldn't really make proper use of it, it is so transparent that I dont really felt like it was amplifying aside of having more volume)

I miss my Xonar U3, the forced fixed 64 ohms amp really was noticeable on most of my headphones.

Edit update: I made a quick come back to the FC300's... wow! there is so much details that are lost in these ones compared with the GM's. I feel like hearing an even crappier version of the song, although I still like the voice to have it's full presence, but I still like the noise reduction (even if that means losing details).

It's a shame that I don't have my DT880's 600ohms anymore, that guy made anything sound just beautiful (although boring),

 

[BenF]

So tracking showed the headphones in china last night around 2am EST. Today they're on my doorstep. Go figure!

It was packaged well, and they're super comfortable, but I need to buy a longer cable for my desk setup. Not a major issue.

Anyone have any 2.5 to 3.5 cable recommendations? Amazon is ideal, US preferred, Aliexpress if I have to.

It's best to use a 3.5mm extension cable - Pro 82 is using a non-standard 2.5mm wiring.

What's your initial impressions?

 

[Entropism]

Initial impressions are mixed. Comfort is off the charts. I recently purchased a Drop/Senn 6XX, and I was using an Isk 9000 rebrand (akai 50x) as my sealed pair. The Pro82 felt a bit more subdued and dare I say harder to drive with my Magnus/Modi 3 stack, but after a bit of listening they seemed to open up a bit more. I'll give it more of a listen over the next few days though.

 

[grogg]

Initial impressions are mixed. Comfort is off the charts. I recently purchased a Drop/Senn 6XX, and I was using an Isk 9000 rebrand (akai 50x) as my sealed pair. The Pro82 felt a bit more subdued and dare I say harder to drive with my Magnus/Modi 3 stack, but after a bit of listening they seemed to open up a bit more. I'll give it more of a listen over the next few days though.

I have an ISK 9000 rebrand and find it to be my favourite closed backs (with the base slightly eq'd down). If you had to choose between your Akai and the Pro 82 which would you go with?

 

[Entropism]

I want to give it more time before I decide. Right now I'd say the Akai, but I'm withholding judgement for now.

 

[jasswolf]

Depending on how much noise it introduces, and how confidently you can keep the gain down while keeping both channels balanced, see if using your Magni 3 in high-gain mode helps at all with the Pro 82's sound signature.

I use it via my JDS Atom in high gain mode and it sounds fantastic.

That being said, you're moving from a very bassy headphone to one that is mostly flat, with a tasteful brightness (though I would not describe the Pro 82's timbre as natural, it is definitely not super artificial either).

 

[Entropism]

I've been running in high gain mode by default, the HD6XX needs it. I gave it another spin tonight, and it definitely opened up more and sounded better.

I need to find a good quality 2.5mm (m) to 3.5mm (f) adapter, so I can use this with my boom-pro while gaming. I bought one from Amazon, and it's horrible. Barely makes a good connection, and mostly plays out of one ear unless it's perfectly positioned.

 

[OscarPaz]

That being said, you're moving from a very bassy headphone to one that is mostly flat, with a tasteful brightness (though I would not describe the Pro 82's timbre as natural, it is definitely not super artificial either).

Fully agree with this. Very succinct but truly accurate description of Pro 82's sound, IMO.

 

[BenF]

...My O2 is in another city (although I couldn't really make proper use of it, it is so transparent that I dont really felt like it was amplifying aside of having more volume)

I miss my Xonar U3, the forced fixed 64 ohms amp really was noticeable on most of my headphones.

That's what a perfect amp should be - a "wire with gain": http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html

Edit update: I made a quick come back to the FC300's... wow! there is so much details that are lost in these ones compared with the GM's. I feel like hearing an even crappier version of the song, although I still like the voice to have it's full presence, but I still like the noise reduction (even if that means losing details).

When I first listened to Pro 82, I thought it was U-shaped. It took a few weeks for me to understand that Pro 82 is neutral, and only sounds U-shaped in comparison to the headphones I listened to before them (BossHiFi B8).
Now I can still enjoy mid-forward headphones such as B8, but if I listen to them for too long, my brain overheats.
I can listen to Pro 82 forever.

If you want a "fuller" sound out of Pro 82, just buy the synergy combo of Little Bear P10 and ELE EL-D01 https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...scussion-thread.849965/page-141#post-14373423

 

[BenF]

Initial impressions are mixed. Comfort is off the charts. I recently purchased a Drop/Senn 6XX, and I was using an Isk 9000 rebrand (akai 50x) as my sealed pair. The Pro82 felt a bit more subdued and dare I say harder to drive with my Magnus/Modi 3 stack, but after a bit of listening they seemed to open up a bit more. I'll give it more of a listen over the next few days though.

I've been running in high gain mode by default, the HD6XX needs it. I gave it another spin tonight, and it definitely opened up more and sounded better.

I think it's your brain adjusting to the transparency and naturalness of Pro 82, after listening to headphones that have a distinct sound signature.
It takes time for brain to adapt to new audio cues and decode them properly.
If you'll listen to Pro 82s for a few weeks, you won't be able to go back.

 

[TylerC]

That's what a perfect amp should be - a "wire with gain": http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html

When I "truly" entered the hifi world, I had some philips citiscape downtown. They are somewhat hard to drive. I had by the time the Xonar U3 which has a fixed amp value (16,32,64 ohms). The HPs were still kinda mooshy in 32ohms and the sounds were too enclosed, hearing my friends over teamspeak while in a match was a pain because their voice could get lost so easily with the figthing sounds... but putting 64ohms was like being enlighted. The soundstage become wider, everything become crisper (but not harsh brighted), the voices of teamspeak weren't mixing and they were clearly separated from other sounds. Then I got the Prodigy Cube Black which is a fine DAC with mic in and I gifted the U3 to my father. Since then, I havent got really the chance to buy another U3, either it is way too expensive (3 times the price I got it) or sometimes they even aren't available.

I have the O2 and had for some time a Magni 3 but I couldn't get the same results on those philips like with the U3, even with the high gain buttons.

The thing is, I feel somehow in the same situation as the one I just told. I feel like I need to give the GM200s an extra punch to become crisper... I just need a kick in the mid-highs.

Maybe I'm just rushing my ideas, but I truly feel some harmonic distortion with some songs.
I will try to save to buy the synergy combo and the Pro 82's, I still have high hopes to make them run properly. (and I just love their comforntness)

Edit update:
I just found my 3.5-6.3mm adapter. Audiotrak once told me that the 6.3mm plug is uncapped (maybe they limit the amp of the 3.5mm to 32ohms? I never knew the answer to that).
I inmediatly felt the difference, even the volume is different (I'm now like at 20% when before I was at 60%). So the problem was that they weren't really properly amplified (they still are not). The vocal has more pressence and there is less distortion. I still feel they need more amp, but now I don't feel the doubt of returning them by the probabilty of gotten a bad unit.

I will try to make a recording when I have time, maybe it can be noticeable there.

 

[BenF]

Depending on how much noise it introduces, and how confidently you can keep the gain down while keeping both channels balanced, see if using your Magni 3 in high-gain mode helps at all with the Pro 82's sound signature.

I use it via my JDS Atom in high gain mode and it sounds fantastic.

That being said, you're moving from a very bassy headphone to one that is mostly flat, with a tasteful brightness (though I would not describe the Pro 82's timbre as natural, it is definitely not super artificial either).

Pro 82 doesn't color the sound and is extremely transparent - the timbre is controlled by your sound chain. For natural timbre, you should try one of the synergy combos, ideally O2+Idea.