[ra990]

The best 1266 is the earliest head screw with a flat head screw
It's very rare, but it's 1266 with the best sense of music

Birth of a new head-fi 1266 myth.

 

[Ruddy1]

Birth of a new head-fi 1266 myth.

This conclusion has been circulating for several years
It's just that no one mentioned it on head fi

 

[smodtactical]

Exactly the same here. I've kept the LCD4 and still use them, but definitely use the Abyss more. Took me about a week tho to get the Abyss "right". They are definitely not your usual headphones, and from the review from above the guy obviously didn't know what he was doing, or maybe he was using his flip phone to drive them?

He was using first watt f5 and dartzeel clone.

 

[Ruddy1]

This makes people laugh. These devices are better than those of most people in this post

 

[Frankie D]

He's right. TC is indeed like this. I don't understand that Joe clearly makes the sound so natural and true on og and phi, but TC is abnormal. What else does it have besides ultra-high solution? Is analytical power so important that it needs to give up the natural sound and become a false sound?

Are you posting here just to see how many people react? You are free to like and have your own opinion, but there are allot of listeners that feel the TC is the best available, including the ultra expensive HP’s. At the most recent CanJam a number of us felt the 1266 on the WA33 was the best sound at the show.

All our ears are a bit different. I auditioned the Solitaire P and did not care for it. It could be fit, set up, anatomy, but sometimes a HP will not be right for you. That is okay. There is a large choice, just try something else. I hope you find what you really like and enjoy it. Please feel free to let us know when you find it. Tks.

 

[listenerwww]

Can I just clarify, in your view anyone/everyone who has asserted/recounted a positive experience of the 1266TC is because they either:

a) Don't have "standards"? or
b) Need to validate the cost of Abyss? or
c) Have a commercial relationship with? Abyss

That's quite the hot take...

For politenesses sake, I'll say that instead of "no standards" it's more like "standards so far south of the people who's listening skills I respect that they only get the sun for a few hours a year."

I just can't think of how someone can find that experience satisfying, much less worth the price unless they really really heavily index for the sound of a bad 2.1 system in an untreated 10x10x10 room. Even it's purported "flagship level resolution" just doesn't seem to add up. IMO it was closer to mid-tier planars like Ananda or LCD2Classic... but with enough crazily mismanaged treble to fake it for some listeners, I suppose.

 

[listenerwww]

I validate my addiction with 6 under my belt. Price has not fixed my issues. Not my fault they sound good. I love that they look weird. I love that bass isn't like other headphones.

Joe can hate my guts and I'll still buy his stuff. If his sound turns crap then yes I'll stop

I do need a new women to validate me as the last one totally crapped me into the abyss of black mold.

People crap on something as it might be what rich people buy. I remember the Russian Mafia guy at Valley Forge entering the baracks and bragging about his $700 Versace pants(fancy jeans). That guy makes license plates at the federal pen now. He would be the example of what people would think of the type of people that buy Abyss headphones. So they have to find Abyss to be Gucci of headphones and create a deep resentment towards it. Unless we as a whole have really bad hearing.

I'm having a hard time parsing this but i'll try my best:

To start... it's not about price. There's tons of overpriced stuff out there, sure, but some expensive headphones are genuinely very nice sounding, if flawed.

Utopia, despite its easily discernible faults (metallic timbre, oversharpened transients/unevenness of dynamic envelope) isn't nearly as much of a head-scratcher as 1266 is to me. Is it worth the money? IMO no, but I can very clearly understand why it would be to someone else. Susvara, which I'm really not a fan of regardless of price, at least gets tonality within the bounds of what I'd call acceptable, and I can understand why people like it.

Far be it from me to say what someone can and can't like, but do me a solid and don't assume that I'm some bitter poor person who resents expensive things for the sake of their price. I just don't like when headphones sound like a raw metal sheet in the process of being turned into a washboard... and I can't really fathom why someone would buy and ostensibly build a system around something with so many clear flaws.

 

[ra990]

For politenesses sake, I'll say that instead of "no standards" it's more like "standards so far south of the people who's listening skills I respect that they only get the sun for a few hours a year."

I just can't think of how someone can find that experience satisfying, much less worth the price unless they really really heavily index for the sound of a bad 2.1 system in an untreated 10x10x10 room. Even it's purported "flagship level resolution" just doesn't seem to add up. IMO it was closer to mid-tier planars like Ananda or LCD2Classic... but with enough crazily mismanaged treble to fake it for some listeners, I suppose.

It seems to me like you have a very narrow mind about what can be enjoyable in audio.

I've auditioned these headphone for so many who have come into my house and it's always a guaranteed ear-to-ear grin. It's not that hard to understand why so many people love these headphones. They're a lot of fun!

 

[ra990]

Far be it from me to say what someone can and can't like, but do me a solid and don't assume that I'm some bitter poor person who resents expensive things for the sake of their price.

Conversely, please stop assuming those who enjoy this headphone do so because they bought something expensive and now can't do anything about it and have to love it. There's plenty of really expensive things I've purchased and sold because they didn't suit me. This assumption that always comes up makes no sense to me.

 

[galacticsoap]

For politenesses sake, I'll say that instead of "no standards" it's more like "standards so far south of the people who's listening skills I respect that they only get the sun for a few hours a year."

I just can't think of how someone can find that experience satisfying, much less worth the price unless they really really heavily index for the sound of a bad 2.1 system in an untreated 10x10x10 room. Even it's purported "flagship level resolution" just doesn't seem to add up. IMO it was closer to mid-tier planars like Ananda or LCD2Classic... but with enough crazily mismanaged treble to fake it for some listeners, I suppose.

You're entitled to your views, of course, it's an internet forum and we're talking about headphones. Given the societal decay occurring around the world at the moment, your views on a headphone aren't going to keep me up at night.

What I do find concerning is how overtly combative and acerbic you seem to be. In both of your posts, you make assumptions about others, then seek to deploy an undeniably confrontational tone...at people, discussing a headphone. You then go as far as to mete out insults to people who seem to be minding their own business and connecting on something that gives them satisfaction. That's a worry. Not a worry for me, but a marker that points to a far more complex neurotic malaise you seem to be grappling with.

When I see these sort of scorched earth posts on internet forums that discuss relatively mundane and niche topics as a hobby, my heart goes out to who ever it is that sits behind these comments.

I truly hope you're either young and naive, and finding your way in the world. Where in time you'll develop the cognitive ability to hold two diametrically opposed perspectives in the one thought pattern without resorting to confronting people. You can be right, but others needn't be wrong. This is a sign of maturity.

If you aren't young, I hope you're getting the help and support that you need. Please take care.

 

[deuter]

CC was just a cosmetic change over the Phi, do you mean with the new CC earpads? There was no driver changes between Phi and CC. I have owned every iteration of the 1266, the TC is the most refined version of them. Less bombastic than the original but also more controlled in bass and treble. One thing I will note is that I think imaging took a slight hit with the CC pads. I think I wrote about that on this thread when I first got them.

The more I read such comments the more Iam scared to let go my OG.
Almost seems that I will pay almost 3 times what I paid for the OG secondhand only to get a downgrade in sound going to TC.
The bass is what I really enjoy with the 1266 and I so don’t want to loose or reduce it’s visceral feel.

 

[Ruddy1]

Are you posting here just to see how many people react? You are free to like and have your own opinion, but there are allot of listeners that feel the TC is the best available, including the ultra expensive HP’s. At the most recent CanJam a number of us felt the 1266 on the WA33 was the best sound at the show.

All our ears are a bit different. I auditioned the Solitaire P and did not care for it. It could be fit, set up, anatomy, but sometimes a HP will not be right for you. That is okay. There is a large choice, just try something else. I hope you find what you really like and enjoy it. Please feel free to let us know when you find it. Tks.

So when I put forward this view, there are many people here who think the same as me, don't they?

 

[paradoxper]

It seems to me like you have a very narrow mind about what can be enjoyable in audio.

I've auditioned these headphone for so many who have come into my house and it's always a guaranteed ear-to-ear grin. It's not that hard to understand why so many people love these headphones. They're a lot of fun!

Listening preference aside, It's clear to question this listener's acuity as some characteristics are blatantly obvious. It would be like someone claiming an 009 sounded slow, muddy and veiled -- time to completely disregard the experience and move on to those experiences with rational supporting context.

 

[Frankie D]

So when I put forward this view, there are many people here who think the same as me, don't they?

Not that I have read.

 

[listenerwww]

You're entitled to your views, of course, it's an internet forum and we're talking about headphones. Given the societal decay occurring around the world at the moment, your views on a headphone aren't going to keep me up at night.

What I do find concerning is how overtly combative and acerbic you seem to be. In both of your posts, you make assumptions about others, then seek to deploy an undeniably confrontational tone...at people, discussing a headphone. You then go as far as to mete out insults to people who seem to be minding their own business and connecting on something that gives them satisfaction. That's a worry. Not a worry for me, but a marker that points to a far more complex neurotic malaise you seem to be grappling with.

When I see these sort of scorched earth posts on internet forums that discuss relatively mundane and niche topics as a hobby, my heart goes out to who ever it is that sits behind these comments.

I truly hope you're either young and naive, and finding your way in the world. Where in time you'll develop the cognitive ability to hold two diametrically opposed perspectives in the one thought pattern without resorting to confronting people. You can be right, but others needn't be wrong. This is a sign of maturity.

If you aren't young, I hope you're getting the help and support that you need. Please take care.

It was not my intent to offend anyone. I criticized a product. Despite my wording being acerbic, I wish nobody ill. Audio is a passion, and with that passion other emotions are bound to enter the ring... but your use of emotionless, analytical, "adult" language doesn't make your armchair diagnosis, erroneous reading of the content of my posts, and minimization of very real criticisms in any way better. It's arguably worse, actually.

I didn't decide to flippantly call anyone cognitively impaired, naive, or immature. I didn't even call anyone deaf, and this is Head-Fi!

All I said is that in my view most of what seems to be fueling the 1266 love is:

-A lack of standards rooted in lack of ear training, comparative tests, references, and experience: You may say this is an assumption, but I've yet to encounter a situation where someone's fulfillment of the rubric for what is ultimately my trust and belief in them isn't almost immediately apparent in reading/hearing their impressions. (Note: Admittedly, only after having spent a good amount of time myself in the hobby do I know how to parse the signal from the noise.)

-Sunk cost/purchase validation: There is literally no way to deny this in good faith. People are bound to defend their purchases from a place of emotional denial instead of brutal honesty. It happens all the time. I'm certainly guilty of it at times. Hell... Even the owner of the exact 1266TC unit reviewed in Ish's (and Resolve's, for that matter) review admits that they did, in fact, defend 1266 in an effort to do this... or as we call it in certain circles, in an effort to "cope."

-Needing to keep a positive relationship with Abyss: Their history with reviewers in particular speaks for itself, but there is other information out there (even spoken about in this thread) that would illustrate why one would want to shy away from criticizing Abyss products too much. If you want hard info/sources, feel free to DM me.

You say I insulted people, and I don't know if you mean a person in particular, because I don't think I did. I did angrily and perhaps impertinently state a discontent in the abstract about people in the hobby not being understandable or believable based on the reasons above, but just because my experience differs so wildly in a way that's hard to even reconcile re: 1266TC.

If you read again you'll notice, the common thread through all of this is not me insulting anyone, or even just saying my thoughts on what fuels the 1266 love... but also that I truly do not and cannot understand how someone can love 1266 so deeply when it sounds the way it does and it costs as much as it costs...

...other than the 3 reasons I've mentioned, of course.

I've not attacked anyone, all i've done is criticized a product as well as the hobby as a whole and stated my absolute confusion at how 1266 could be so passionately defended.

If you want to criticize my tone, fine. I could be better at trying to get things across neatly and effectively in text, I admit that. Passions run high in this hobby for me, I care about it a lot. I could and should do better. I do try.

But you are the one that decided to escalate this from talking about (admittedly) strong opinions and confusion about audio peripherals and the surrounding hobby... to diagnosing someone through a screen as cognitively deficient and in need of psychological intervention.

I might call people out on not backing up their hard-to-grasp takes in a way that meets my, frankly, high standards of believability, but I'd never do that, dude. That's like... very serious. Nowhere near as innocuous or free of consequence as headphones. And fwiw man, I don't seem to be having trouble managing cognitive dissonance or anything, I've been pretty consistent. You are the one grasping at what is actually a gravely serious straw in an effort to minimize or rug-sweep my very real criticisms of the product and the hobby (criticisms that neither of which are held by me alone).

But hey... Your escalating into condescension, thinly veiled under the guise of false compassion or care for my well-being, is noted, dude.

I'm not talking about this anymore. Read Ish's review if you want a salient take I agree with, because you won't find it most other places.