The discovery thread!
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IEMusic
Headphoneus Supremus
Exactly. By no means am I saying it’s a bad IEM, as the SSR is an excellent IEM for many people, but it seems like the SSP will continue to be a bit polarizing, with many being unable to tolerate it well. I would like to try it though, since surprisingly, I can easily tolerate the NM2+, which also has an upper midrange mountain.
100% agreed.
As you say, the NM2+ and SSP do look similar on graphs, but as usual, graphs don't tell the full story. And I suppose maybe driver type has a part to play too, of the beryllium sets (eg SSR) I've tried, a few seem to have faster transients and sound more "brittle", perhaps they will show more "peaks" than conventional drivers for a similar FR.
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unifutomaki
1000+ Head-Fier
Sony H.ear On 2 [MDR-H600a] Impressions
In these mask-wearing times, it can sometimes feel a little tiresome and sore to have your eyeglasses, mask and IEMs all tugging on your outer ear the entire day. Since none of the IEMs in my collection have proven particularly great for commuting, I decided to look at what the portable headphone segment has to offer. Spotting a good deal on the pre-owned market for a pair of Sony MDR-H600a cans in grey (RRP: SGD 249, purchased for SGD 110), I jumped in blind. This is what transpired.
The MDR-H600a hails from Sony's "H.ear" consumer lineup and is intended to be driven by smartphones and entry-level DAPs like my NW-A55 (the matching colour schemes illustrate this point quite well). It is a closed back, over-ear portable headphone with pleather earpads and a flat, linguine style detachable cable. The earcups are anodised aluminium, but the padded headband is metal-reinforced plastic. Nonetheless, creaking is kept to a minimum and the entire package feels relatively well built. The earpads are not particularly breathable but are soft enough to accommodate eyeglass stems. Clamping force is sufficient to keep them in place on my head and keep out most ambient noise without causing pain over extended listening periods.
Of primary interest, of course, is how they sound, and whether consumer Sony gear has anything going for it. The MDR-H600a sits above the general-store offerings and most of the Extra Bass and Bluetooth tat, but below the MDR-1AM2. It was evident from first listen that these have been set up for bus and subway commuting, combining good isolation with a pleasing and inoffensive but slightly bass-boosted sound signature. Most of the bass comes from the mid-bass section, for sub-bass rumble is fairly restrained and exists mainly to add some note weight at the low end. The opening bassline in Depeche Mode's Strangelove, for instance, is more heard than felt. Of course, the upshot is that the lower frequencies are fast and tight with no boominess or mud whatsoever.
Unlike a lot of Chi-Fi, the MDR-H600a presents its mids and upper-mids in a fairly linear and unaccented manner. Clarity and detail retrieval in this section is pretty good, and both male and female vocals are smooth and natural. The dry and gravelly nature of Knopfler's vocals in "One Song At A Time" is readily apparent, as is the fury and anger in Hayley Williams's "Simmer". As would be expected with this tuning, shoutiness and sibilance are absent with the MDR-H600a; Evanescence's Bring Me To Life is actually listenable with these cans. Treble, however, is a bit of a let down. While the treble roll-off is nowhere near as pronounced as on the Koss Porta Pros, there's no escaping the fact that cymbals sound somewhat faraway and lacking in bite and impact. Consequently, high frequencies are vague and laid-back especially in relation to the rest of the frequency range, which once again demonstrates the meaninglessness of that golden Hi-Res badge.
Treble misgivings aside, the MDR-H600a does claw back some points in imaging and soundstage. Despite the closed-back design of these cans, it is apparent even without closing one's eyes that the music is occurring around the listener in a broad and deep 270-degree arc, instead of being stuck inside their head or next to their ears. While things can get a tad congested on busier tracks, lead vocals and backing vocals are clearly separable and do not blend together into an amorphous whole, and instruments can be readily distinguished from one another.
Are these a keeper? For the price I paid for them, sure. I probably wouldn't get these at their RRP however. The MDR-H600a is a smooth, musical pair of headphones that is sturdy enough for portable use, is compatible with my sources and performs well for everyday, non-analytical listening. They have a place in my collection for this purpose.
Of primary interest, of course, is how they sound, and whether consumer Sony gear has anything going for it. The MDR-H600a sits above the general-store offerings and most of the Extra Bass and Bluetooth tat, but below the MDR-1AM2. It was evident from first listen that these have been set up for bus and subway commuting, combining good isolation with a pleasing and inoffensive but slightly bass-boosted sound signature. Most of the bass comes from the mid-bass section, for sub-bass rumble is fairly restrained and exists mainly to add some note weight at the low end. The opening bassline in Depeche Mode's Strangelove, for instance, is more heard than felt. Of course, the upshot is that the lower frequencies are fast and tight with no boominess or mud whatsoever.
Unlike a lot of Chi-Fi, the MDR-H600a presents its mids and upper-mids in a fairly linear and unaccented manner. Clarity and detail retrieval in this section is pretty good, and both male and female vocals are smooth and natural. The dry and gravelly nature of Knopfler's vocals in "One Song At A Time" is readily apparent, as is the fury and anger in Hayley Williams's "Simmer". As would be expected with this tuning, shoutiness and sibilance are absent with the MDR-H600a; Evanescence's Bring Me To Life is actually listenable with these cans. Treble, however, is a bit of a let down. While the treble roll-off is nowhere near as pronounced as on the Koss Porta Pros, there's no escaping the fact that cymbals sound somewhat faraway and lacking in bite and impact. Consequently, high frequencies are vague and laid-back especially in relation to the rest of the frequency range, which once again demonstrates the meaninglessness of that golden Hi-Res badge.
Treble misgivings aside, the MDR-H600a does claw back some points in imaging and soundstage. Despite the closed-back design of these cans, it is apparent even without closing one's eyes that the music is occurring around the listener in a broad and deep 270-degree arc, instead of being stuck inside their head or next to their ears. While things can get a tad congested on busier tracks, lead vocals and backing vocals are clearly separable and do not blend together into an amorphous whole, and instruments can be readily distinguished from one another.
Are these a keeper? For the price I paid for them, sure. I probably wouldn't get these at their RRP however. The MDR-H600a is a smooth, musical pair of headphones that is sturdy enough for portable use, is compatible with my sources and performs well for everyday, non-analytical listening. They have a place in my collection for this purpose.
logiatype
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
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Aren't these different from the WH-H900N or just name different in the western market?
Sony H.ear On 2 [MDR-H600a] Impressions
In these mask-wearing times, it can sometimes feel a little tiresome and sore to have your eyeglasses, mask and IEMs all tugging on your outer ear the entire day. Since none of the IEMs in my collection have proven particularly great for commuting, I decided to look at what the portable headphone segment has to offer. Spotting a good deal on the pre-owned market for a pair of Sony MDR-H600a cans in grey (RRP: SGD 249, purchased for SGD 110), I jumped in blind. This is what transpired.
The MDR-H600a hails from Sony's "H.ear" consumer lineup and is intended to be driven by smartphones and entry-level DAPs like my NW-A55 (the matching colour schemes illustrate this point quite well). It is a closed back, over-ear portable headphone with pleather earpads and a flat, linguine style detachable cable. The earcups are anodised aluminium, but the padded headband is metal-reinforced plastic. Nonetheless, creaking is kept to a minimum and the entire package feels relatively well built. The earpads are not particularly breathable but are soft enough to accommodate eyeglass stems. Clamping force is sufficient to keep them in place on my head and keep out most ambient noise without causing pain over extended listening periods.
Of primary interest, of course, is how they sound, and whether consumer Sony gear has anything going for it. The MDR-H600a sits above the general-store offerings and most of the Extra Bass and Bluetooth tat, but below the MDR-1AM2. It was evident from first listen that these have been set up for bus and subway commuting, combining good isolation with a pleasing and inoffensive but slightly bass-boosted sound signature. Most of the bass comes from the mid-bass section, for sub-bass rumble is fairly restrained and exists mainly to add some note weight at the low end. The opening bassline in Depeche Mode's Strangelove, for instance, is more heard than felt. Of course, the upshot is that the lower frequencies are fast and tight with no boominess or mud whatsoever.
Unlike a lot of Chi-Fi, the MDR-H600a presents its mids and upper-mids in a fairly linear and unaccented manner. Clarity and detail retrieval in this section is pretty good, and both male and female vocals are smooth and natural. The dry and gravelly nature of Knopfler's vocals in "One Song At A Time" is readily apparent, as is the fury and anger in Hayley Williams's "Simmer". As would be expected with this tuning, shoutiness and sibilance are absent with the MDR-H600a; Evanescence's Bring Me To Life is actually listenable with these cans. Treble, however, is a bit of a let down. While the treble roll-off is nowhere near as pronounced as on the Koss Porta Pros, there's no escaping the fact that cymbals sound somewhat faraway and lacking in bite and impact. Consequently, high frequencies are vague and laid-back especially in relation to the rest of the frequency range, which once again demonstrates the meaninglessness of that golden Hi-Res badge.
Treble misgivings aside, the MDR-H600a does claw back some points in imaging and soundstage. Despite the closed-back design of these cans, it is apparent even without closing one's eyes that the music is occurring around the listener in a broad and deep 270-degree arc, instead of being stuck inside their head or next to their ears. While things can get a tad congested on busier tracks, lead vocals and backing vocals are clearly separable and do not blend together into an amorphous whole, and instruments can be readily distinguished from one another.
Are these a keeper? For the price I paid for them, sure. I probably wouldn't get these at their RRP however. The MDR-H600a is a smooth, musical pair of headphones that is sturdy enough for portable use, is compatible with my sources and performs well for everyday, non-analytical listening. They have a place in my collection for this purpose.
unifutomaki
1000+ Head-Fier
These are the wired-only variant. The H900N has Bluetooth and ANC, both of which jack up the price considerably without any improvement on the sound front (both have the same 40mm titanium drivers and speaker cone materials)
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Otto Motor
Headphoneus Supremus
You probably see the situation realistically. The SSP is still bright, the low-end difference is really just a nuance. What makes it interesting is its difference to the usual $40 Chi-Fi fare: different cable, different/small shells, excellent metal build, great fit....
Don't beat me, but I really like the original Starship...
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dharmasteve
Headphoneus Supremus
Looking forwards to my Moondrop SSP coming in the next week or so. I have to say graphs measure 'quantities'. They don't measure 'qualties'. Even two similar graphs will be qualitively very different, so I am expecting many different responses from those who are getting this SSP IEM. The difference in responses to the SSR was astonishing and it will be interesting to see what the concensus is of the SSP.
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Otto Motor
Headphoneus Supremus
The basic qualities of the SSR and SSP are the same...looks like the same driver just tuned marginally differently or having different filters on the nozzle.
I wrote my video up in words...actually it was the other way round.
https://www.audioreviews.org/moondrop-ssp-review-jk/
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dharmasteve
Headphoneus Supremus
We have to personally experience qualties. Yes the graph is representative and means something, but you can't listen to a graph. The qualities, very many people will comment on, and they are based on the experiential. I thank you for the review, but I need to get my personal qualitative impressions and then 'listen', to the consensus.....but thank you for being a first user and reporting your views.
All of this Moondrop talk made me reminiscent of the Crescent; I threw them in the drawer of regret, after only a couple of days. I didn’t find the playback to be good enough, to overcome the annoying, cable harmonics.
At the time, I was new to IEMs and was only connecting directly to my Note 4. In your review (of the Crescents) I noted, “hard to drive”; I’ll have to give them another shot, on my Qudelix-5k.
Otto Motor
Headphoneus Supremus
The Crescent are excellent. At the time, I found them sonically more appealing than the KPE. And when it came to the choice which of the two to pass on to the next reviewer, I opted for the KPE...good decision as the newer Starfield are the KPE with a dialled-now low end.
The Crescent may not hold up quite to today's standards by their relatively slower driver, but they have a great timbre and a tall soundstage...rare in budget models at the time...2 years ago...
But what makes the Crescent truly excellent is their timbre and their haptic...great metal shells.
To me, the Crescent have always been a premium model with a sloppy resolution.
RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
The Crescent sounds similar to the Blon Bl-03 with that description.
kmmbd
500+ Head-Fier
DAP Roundup
Since it's weekend and I had some time to compare all the DAPs in my collection, decided to give a brief overview of them all. Do note that I don't care about BT/WiFi and not having Android is a big plus in my book (I need battery life more than Tidal streaming of albums I already got 24-bit FLACs of).
Sony NW-A55 ($200)
It's a Sony. So they won't have the highest output power, nor will they measure that well. Despite all that - they will sound awesome, and the A55 is no exception. There's a caveat: you need to install a custom firmware (easily reversible) courtesy of MrWalkman but then you're all set. Best handling and UI among the lot, also has great battery life.
Questyle QP1R ($800)
The best sounding DAP in my collection and the gap between this and the runner-up is rather substantial. Questyle hit the nail on the head with the QP1R, and then shot it in the foot with that atrocious UI and navigation system picked straight from the start of the century. Battery life is poor as well and there's no balanced out.
Then again, it doesn't need balanced out as the single-ended out wipes the floor with A&K SP1000M/AK380 and a certain Fiio M15 (one of the most overhyped DAPs on the face of the earth, but I digress). It does all that at around half the retail of those. Output can be a bit noisy with very sensitive IEMs but even then once the music starts playing you forget about those minute details.
Cowon Plenue R2 ($600)
The most versatile DAP in my collection. Got a true balanced out that provides stellar separation on certain IEMs and practically convinced me to get a pair of balanced cables. The display is gorgeous, it's not as bulky as the QP1R and got very good battery life for a device of such class.
Then comes the negatives: a laughable BT 3.0 support (A2DP yay!) and a watered down single-ended output. Also, the output power isn't that ground-breaking and can't drive high impedance cans like HD650 to satisfying levels. Things get loud, but I lose the dynamics, so it's not really properly driven.
Cowon Plenue V ($140)
It's a cute little DAP that has phenomenal battery life. In fact, it's got perhaps the best battery life in its price-class now. Output is warm-ish which is a welcome departure to the rest of the budget option with ES9218P chipset (most of them are too clinical/sterile in tone). The UI though runs at like 20fps and the display is pretty poor. I find myself picking up the Sony more often than these lately. These also have a memory limit of 200GB so if you have a large collection - perhaps not the most suitable option (not an issue for me).
LG G7 ($250)
This is a phone, but it's also a very capable DAP. The signature is a bit too sterile for my tastes but it does pair well with warm IEMs. Good output power for the most part, immensely more usable than any DAP on the face of the planet and you can also make proper phone calls! It's very good even as a phone btw, so it might even convince you not to buy a DAP.
Fiio M6 ($140)
Nothing but a dumpster fire. One of the worst DAPs I've ever used. Buggy UI, unusable music player app, poor battery life, slow operation, middling sound quality... a complete mess.
I hate myself for buying this. Will probably sell it down the road once I'm done with the review.
Since it's weekend and I had some time to compare all the DAPs in my collection, decided to give a brief overview of them all. Do note that I don't care about BT/WiFi and not having Android is a big plus in my book (I need battery life more than Tidal streaming of albums I already got 24-bit FLACs of).
Sony NW-A55 ($200)
It's a Sony. So they won't have the highest output power, nor will they measure that well. Despite all that - they will sound awesome, and the A55 is no exception. There's a caveat: you need to install a custom firmware (easily reversible) courtesy of MrWalkman but then you're all set. Best handling and UI among the lot, also has great battery life.
Questyle QP1R ($800)
The best sounding DAP in my collection and the gap between this and the runner-up is rather substantial. Questyle hit the nail on the head with the QP1R, and then shot it in the foot with that atrocious UI and navigation system picked straight from the start of the century. Battery life is poor as well and there's no balanced out.
Then again, it doesn't need balanced out as the single-ended out wipes the floor with A&K SP1000M/AK380 and a certain Fiio M15 (one of the most overhyped DAPs on the face of the earth, but I digress). It does all that at around half the retail of those. Output can be a bit noisy with very sensitive IEMs but even then once the music starts playing you forget about those minute details.
Cowon Plenue R2 ($600)
The most versatile DAP in my collection. Got a true balanced out that provides stellar separation on certain IEMs and practically convinced me to get a pair of balanced cables. The display is gorgeous, it's not as bulky as the QP1R and got very good battery life for a device of such class.
Then comes the negatives: a laughable BT 3.0 support (A2DP yay!) and a watered down single-ended output. Also, the output power isn't that ground-breaking and can't drive high impedance cans like HD650 to satisfying levels. Things get loud, but I lose the dynamics, so it's not really properly driven.
Cowon Plenue V ($140)
It's a cute little DAP that has phenomenal battery life. In fact, it's got perhaps the best battery life in its price-class now. Output is warm-ish which is a welcome departure to the rest of the budget option with ES9218P chipset (most of them are too clinical/sterile in tone). The UI though runs at like 20fps and the display is pretty poor. I find myself picking up the Sony more often than these lately. These also have a memory limit of 200GB so if you have a large collection - perhaps not the most suitable option (not an issue for me).
LG G7 ($250)
This is a phone, but it's also a very capable DAP. The signature is a bit too sterile for my tastes but it does pair well with warm IEMs. Good output power for the most part, immensely more usable than any DAP on the face of the planet and you can also make proper phone calls! It's very good even as a phone btw, so it might even convince you not to buy a DAP.
Fiio M6 ($140)
Nothing but a dumpster fire. One of the worst DAPs I've ever used. Buggy UI, unusable music player app, poor battery life, slow operation, middling sound quality... a complete mess.
I hate myself for buying this. Will probably sell it down the road once I'm done with the review.
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