[arielext]

Before people throw away their DT770: Jason's new mod pack is quite legit

I modded my pair and god.damn. this headphone/driver has so much to offer!

It's a cheap upgrade but for those outside the UK I do recommend to order more stuff I ended up paying more for shipping and fees than for the mods....
Still worth it though. Slightly recessed mids. Tamed highs (compared to stock) and bass to die for. Yeah this is a < $1k steal.

 

[JeffJ]

What did you think of the 2000ti?

It has a lot of treble quantity, but sounds rather dull. Too bright. Can't remember bass and mid. It leads all attention to treble. Headband doesn't have much clamping force, plus I'm wearing glasses, can't get good seal, so bass suffers a lot. Overall very strange sound signature to my ears.

 

[RONJA MESCO]

Kennertons are great indeed, I have listened to Rorgnir Dynamic and they were trully amazing. I would definitely added Denon D9200 or D7200 to the list they are very musical and on the other side of boring. Once I have tried those I sold my Sennheisers I had except HD25. Sennheisers to me always sounded quite thin and boring to my taste. Depends on your preferences.

add the 5200 too...its is often slept on but its actually really really really good

 

[treys1]

Check out the Kennerton Gjallarhorn, my faves. Smooth and somewhat darkish upper mids and lower treble, fantastic low end, and quite the out of head experience for a closed back. Extremely musical, solid instrument seperation, not too thin or thick, plenty of meat on the bone, highly engaging... Did I mention how musical it is?

I wonder if these wear differently than the M12s. I really wanted to like those but they were painful.

 

[Mhog55]

I wonder if these wear differently than the M12s. I really wanted to like those but they were painful.

Not likely. I believe all Kennerton headphones have the same design, except the GH40. You could also try different pads from Kennerton, or contact John Massaria at JM audio editions. He has 3 different style and material pads that fit Kennerton. I'm not positive, but the M12s may have smaller ear cups than the Gjallarhorn and Magni.

 

[zach915m]

The Gjallarhorn doesn't require as much juice and power as the ZMF offerings to reach their full potential. Not sure what your source is.

Our headphones don't need too much power, they just don't like super low impedance drive, so any amp that is 1 ohm or below/very low impedance may sound muffled, slow, unengaging etc etc. 80 mW or above at 300 ohms from an Amp that has an impedance 3 or above will be ideal, and as with anything high impedance will vary greatly from sources due to the high impedance of the drivers.

We are working on a closed back that will be around the 1k price point that's 80 ohms which hopefully will be out in limited qty later this year. That will work with DAPs and semi portable stuff much better.

 

[Mhog55]

Our headphones don't need too much power, they just don't like super low impedance drive, so any amp that is 1 ohm or below/very low impedance may sound muffled, slow, unengaging etc etc. 80 mW or above at 300 ohms from an Amp that has an impedance 3 or above will be ideal, and as with anything high impedance will vary greatly from sources due to the high impedance of the drivers.

We are working on a closed back that will be around the 1k price point that's 80 ohms which hopefully will be out in limited qty later this year. That will work with DAPs and semi portable stuff much better.

I'll be down to try that for sure. I've moved to daps only, and while they have improved in the amp section still not ideal for some headphones. Have you decided what this new headphone shall be named?

 

[treys1]

Our headphones don't need too much power, they just don't like super low impedance drive, so any amp that is 1 ohm or below/very low impedance may sound muffled, slow, unengaging etc etc. 80 mW or above at 300 ohms from an Amp that has an impedance 3 or above will be ideal, and as with anything high impedance will vary greatly from sources due to the high impedance of the drivers.

We are working on a closed back that will be around the 1k price point that's 80 ohms which hopefully will be out in limited qty later this year. That will work with DAPs and semi portable stuff much better.

I'll be down to try that for sure. I've moved to daps only, and while they have improved in the amp section still not ideal for some headphones. Have you decided what this new headphone shall be named?

Interested here as well as I'm full on closed backs due to home use, but travel quite a bit AND my home setups both end in a Loki2++ which is low impedance. I just ordered an xCan as it seems to get good reviews for the amplifier side, and most of my source on the go is downloaded LiveX (used to be Slacker) and some CD rips, so nothing too fancy.

 

[zach915m]

Interested here as well as I'm full on closed backs due to home use, but travel quite a bit AND my home setups both end in a Loki2++ which is low impedance. I just ordered an xCan as it seems to get good reviews for the amplifier side, and most of my source on the go is downloaded LiveX (used to be Slacker) and some CD rips, so nothing too fancy.

No name yet, but we will have a few demos at Chicago Canjam. The hope is to do a limited run later this year.

 

[treys1]

No name yet, but we will have a few demos at Chicago Canjam. The hope is to do a limited run later this year.

Would be sweet if you did some of them in those 1 off fancy stabilized woods at some point in the future too. All that wrapped into one would be an impulse buy I would certainly allow myself!

 

[treys1]

So…I’m chiming in here with my initial expressions after about 2-3 days of listening with my Elegia.

I’ll initially surprise you and others here by saying that I currently do not fall in any of those three groups of listeners, at least not yet. I did not fall in love with them at first listen, not like how I did with the Etymotic ER4XR.

I did admittedly think “what is this piece of crap???” at first listen. BUT! Here is where things get interesting: the headphones did not start doing its work until after I increased the volume a bit. I’m so used to listening at relatively low volumes with my equipment that when I first started listening at my usual low volume, nothing sounded great. Everything sounded muddy. Once I increased the volume a few ticks, things finally started to sound more like a $300 or $800 pair of headphones than a <$100 pair. At that point, the hate disappeared.

And I lightly fiddled with the EQ on my Qudelix 5K by importing Oratory’s preset for the Elegia…and felt that blanket EQ does not really add to or take away from the overall experience. When I applied the EQ, it sounded like I enabled a typical “Rock” EQ preset that you find in a lot of hardware and software players. I thought some songs sounded more enjoyable but others sounded less. So it kinda evens out. If anything, I would rather use iTunes’s ability to assign EQ presets to individual tracks and albums for a more fine-tuned experience, but that would then affect how those songs would sound on my other headphones and IEMs.

And because I didn’t outright hate the sound signature after adjusting the volume, I’m not inclined to start pad rolling yet. Another reason for that is because of the initial build; I do like how snugly the headphones fit on my head, and how the stock pads feel on my cheeks and around my ears. These definitely feel nicer and more plush on me than the stock pads from the HD598 and the Hyland Jupiter.

Another point I’ve noticed is that I’m picking Up sounds I’ve never heard before in my library, so that’s definitely fun.

However, my takeaway at this point is that high-end headphones are mostly wasted on me. I can definitely appreciate good craftsmanship (headband concerns not withstanding), but I’m happy that I was able to come to this conclusion with $300 out of my pocket rather than $800.

So the Elegia is my most recent test as well, and I liked the sound immediately, but the comfort was lacking for me (#1 I hate fuzzy earpads). I have no problems EQ'ing to add some bass in to my preference (they have the extension but not the volume), and they respond to EQ with aplomb.

As for the comfort, I have either gotten used to them, or the pulling and twisting I did to the headband actually did something and I have no problem with them now. I have a set of Dekoni Sheepskins on the way to replace these awful fuzzy pads, but I understand that is a preference thing, so I am not holding it against them at all.

 

[jokervn91]

No name yet, but we will have a few demos at Chicago Canjam. The hope is to do a limited run later this year.

Would it be the same category as the Eikon or a lower model? Im thinking about grabbing an Eikon but maybe I should wait then.

 

[Rackhour]

So the Elegia is my most recent test as well, and I liked the sound immediately, but the comfort was lacking for me (#1 I hate fuzzy earpads). I have no problems EQ'ing to add some bass in to my preference (they have the extension but not the volume), and they respond to EQ with aplomb.

As for the comfort, I have either gotten used to them, or the pulling and twisting I did to the headband actually did something and I have no problem with them now. I have a set of Dekoni Sheepskins on the way to replace these awful fuzzy pads, but I understand that is a preference thing, so I am not holding it against them at all.

It's funny because I thought the ear pads were really really comfortable. But they're getting less wear right now simply because it's summer and AC doesn't evenly distribute coolness in my apartment.

 

[treys1]

It's funny because I thought the ear pads were really really comfortable. But they're getting less wear right now simply because it's summer and AC doesn't evenly distribute coolness in my apartment.

It's all so very subjective!

 

[Rackhour]

It's all so very subjective!

Extremely subjective indeed.

With IEMs, I'm all about deep insertion and triple flanges, but I've heard enough 'ear dildo' comments.

But back on topic, I do lament a bit that the stock pads will be hard to come by. Only Audio46 seems to have stock, and other stores have pads for other Focal headphones.

On a related note, how would you objectively describe sheepskin? I don't think I've ever had sheepskin anything.