[Amish]

Stax used is in that price range (including energizer).

Focal Elex comes up used around $500. Pretty close.

You are saying 95X is more resolving than those Sennheiser models?

To my ears and sonic memory, during my listening session yesterday, my answer would be yes.

I agree to a point. The Koss IMO is much more enjoyable than say any Senns headphone I have owned. You can see all the ones I owned in my gear list. I admit I love the HD600 and paired with my OTL amp it was awesome but I still enjoy the Koss more. The Koss is not in the same league as say my STAX headphone though. I never listened to anything from Focal so I can't comment there.

I went from having a shelf with 6 headphones on it and several off to the side to keeping two headphones on that shelf, The 95x and L700. I still own the other headphones but they are all packed away now in their boxes. To me, the Koss 95/x was an ear-opener and an entry into electrostatic bliss.

 

[GirgleMirt]

So detail/resolution, how does this compare to say the Hifiman Edition XX, Focal Elex, Hifiman 400i or Sundara, etc.?

At 400$, even more interesting, but add shipping, convert to canadian $, add the ~15% tax, brokerage fees, etc., you're likely around 666$CDN ~ $500 USD... The Hifiman Edition XX is 500 now, down from 600.

Listening to metal571's review on utub: "It's laid back, but a little bit hazy, little bit grainy, more so than the price would suggest.". I'm still somewhat hung up on trying to find a great all-rounder which would tick every box, albeit not being top in everything, and when I hear things like: "it doesn't have the best dynamics. If it's something you don't mind, the detail is very good for the price", I'm wondering how great these are 'overall'... He does say at the end that it is a great value (for $500 at the time), but in the comments, commenting on how great M's Black album would be: "It does with these mids but the bass is pretty weak for that sort of thing"... That just seems like a serious flaw; one which would probably cross them off the list of great at 'everything' list... (like out of 10, I'd rather have an 8 everywhere, rather than a 9 for detail and a 5 or 6 for dynamics/bass...)

And again looking in the rank the headphones you own; these seem very close to the Elex (as in; rank consistently lower than HD820 for instance, but vs Elex, almost 50/50 which is ranked higher), and by extension I'd guess Edition XX also... And from the above; even though it's an electrostatic, it doesn't seem to be a detail/resolution monster like you'd think an electrostatic should be vs similarly priced dynamic or planar headphones... :\

 

[timb5881]

The Koss is far from hazy! I find it very detailed. The leading edge of notes is excellent and details that I previously had not heard are now plain to hear. While you get bass, it is not impactful. I find the bass to have much more detail than my other headphones.

 

[Shane D]

So detail/resolution, how does this compare to say the Hifiman Edition XX, Focal Elex, Hifiman 400i or Sundara, etc.?

At 400$, even more interesting, but add shipping, convert to canadian $, add the ~15% tax, brokerage fees, etc., you're likely around 666$CDN ~ $500 USD... The Hifiman Edition XX is 500 now, down from 600.

Listening to metal571's review on utub: "It's laid back, but a little bit hazy, little bit grainy, more so than the price would suggest.". I'm still somewhat hung up on trying to find a great all-rounder which would tick every box, albeit not being top in everything, and when I hear things like: "it doesn't have the best dynamics. If it's something you don't mind, the detail is very good for the price", I'm wondering how great these are 'overall'... He does say at the end that it is a great value (for $500 at the time), but in the comments, commenting on how great M's Black album would be: "It does with these mids but the bass is pretty weak for that sort of thing"... That just seems like a serious flaw; one which would probably cross them off the list of great at 'everything' list... (like out of 10, I'd rather have an 8 everywhere, rather than a 9 for detail and a 5 or 6 for dynamics/bass...)

And again looking in the rank the headphones you own; these seem very close to the Elex (as in; rank consistently lower than HD820 for instance, but vs Elex, almost 50/50 which is ranked higher), and by extension I'd guess Edition XX also... And from the above; even though it's an electrostatic, it doesn't seem to be a detail/resolution monster like you'd think an electrostatic should be vs similarly priced dynamic or planar headphones... :\

I am in day six of my E95X marathon. I LOVE these headphones! They are the most "open" open backs you will ever hear. However I need to qualify my love:
If I didn't have the Schiit Loki to fill in the missing pieces I likely would not have kept these.
On my first day of listening I was blown away by the detail! But after a few hours it started to sound thin to me. It seemed to lack body.
The next day I hooked up the Schiit Loki and jacked all four bands (a first for me) and the sound was wonderful.
For me, my never part with list is now my Grado's, my Beyerdynamic's and my Koss. To me, they are each brilliant in their own way.

Shane D

 

[GirgleMirt]

It seemed to lack body.

That was kinda my (very limited) experience with Magnepan speakers (1.7?); they literally seemed to lack a body; maybe what some call ethereal... I mean, dynamic speakers there is some slam to the sound, Magnepan seemed in contrast to have a sort of 'fizzly' ghostly sound, with no 'body'; as if you were listening or looking at a semi transparent 'ghost' image. You can sorta get a bit of this slam with headphones, and IMHO, that's part of the music; without it, well, it's sort of a limited/flavor of music. Not that there's anything wrong with that; but I feel like if I'd be splurging over >$650cdn, it should be a great all around performer, and at least beat say a 400i in pretty much everything...

The Koss is far from hazy! I find it very detailed. The leading edge of notes is excellent and details that I previously had not heard are now plain to hear. While you get bass, it is not impactful. I find the bass to have much more detail than my other headphones.

Yeah he didn't mean that it was literally hazy; I'm sure he meant in absolute terms; as in; vs the best headphones, or, a bit of my fear, vs other headphones in the same price range. But certainly, yeah, I'd expect them to outperform the Porta Pros & Monoprice, or 400i for that matter; but if the 95x bass gets 'destroyed' vs a 400i or most other headphones around that price, well its certainly lacking in that respect. :/

 

[Shane D]

That was kinda my (very limited) experience with Magnepan speakers (1.7?); they literally seemed to lack a body; maybe what some call ethereal... I mean, dynamic speakers there is some slam to the sound, Magnepan seemed in contrast to have a sort of 'fizzly' ghostly sound, with no 'body'; as if you were listening or looking at a semi transparent 'ghost' image. You can sorta get a bit of this slam with headphones, and IMHO, that's part of the music; without it, well, it's sort of a limited/flavor of music. Not that there's anything wrong with that; but I feel like if I'd be splurging over >$650cdn, it should be a great all around performer, and at least beat say a 400i in pretty much everything...

I forgot to mention that I am also in Canada so, like you, I paid the inflated price.

I can't speak to the 400i, but I had the HE4XX and thought they were junk. I hated the sound.

The E95X are NOT hard hitting drivers, even with EQ'ing. They are soft, Very open, detail monsters.

If you want to feel that drum kick in your gut, it's not going to happen. If you are an EDM, Hip-Hop or heavy metal fan these are probably not for you.

I think these would a perfect companion with a set of Fostex or Denon bass monsters. I love my Meze 99 Classic's and I have a pair of Fostex TH-610's on their way to me.

Shane D

 

[Amish]

Bass is detailed but not deep or boomy. I prefer detailed bass every time. Just good clean bass that shows itself when needed and not any other time.

 

[Fickle-Friend]

I am in day six of my E95X marathon. I LOVE these headphones! They are the most "open" open backs you will ever hear. However I need to qualify my love:
If I didn't have the Schiit Loki to fill in the missing pieces I likely would not have kept these.
On my first day of listening I was blown away by the detail! But after a few hours it started to sound thin to me. It seemed to lack body.
The next day I hooked up the Schiit Loki and jacked all four bands (a first for me) and the sound was wonderful.
For me, my never part with list is now my Grado's, my Beyerdynamic's and my Koss. To me, they are each brilliant in their own way.

Shane D

Does the Loki affect the sound signal path at all? I’ve just bought the 95x. It ships tomorrow. I’m thinking about a Loki.

 

[Shane D]

Does the Loki affect the sound signal path at all? I’ve just bought the 95x. It ships tomorrow. I’m thinking about a Loki.

It does make it louder as the EQ does seem to raise the volume up. And I really crank up the bands:


It really does fill the sound out though. And the cups are so light/flimsy that you can wear them all day. Yesterday I had them on for the better part of eight hours.

And there is no headphone that cannot be improved, at least a little bit, by the Loki. I also use it to add a bit of bass to my Grado's and my Beyerdynamic's (also pull out a bit of treble). Not always, just when the mood strikes.

Even at that maximum bass setting in the pic, it doesn't distort. Great little piece to have in the system.

Shane D

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

I had a bit of a problem with the dual channel volume knobs that I did not think that I would have. Here is my simple but ugly solution.

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

The very cool feature of the Loki is the switch on the far right. It allows you to hear an unaltered signal. That way you can switch back and forth to get your desired sound set perfectly. A very worth while addition to any headphone set up, imo.

 

[GirgleMirt]

The very cool feature of the Loki is the switch on the far right. It allows you to hear an unaltered signal. That way you can switch back and forth to get your desired sound set perfectly. A very worth while addition to any headphone set up, imo.

Why go analog when you can go digital though... Digital = free (if you're using a computer, which you should in this day and age), it doesn't negatively impact sound quality like introducing an analog doohickey that messes with the signal (attenuates + boost from what it appears), it is more powerful and flexible and give you better control & results, etc. You're just much better off going digital, which is totally transparent.

But as the metal571 review I mentioned, it doesn't solve everything.

The E95X are NOT hard hitting drivers, even with EQ'ing. They are soft, Very open, detail monsters.

Are they really? m571 didn't seem to think so, and again going with the rank your headphone thread (see my post here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/any...p-95x-for-high-fidelity.891988/#post-14563052), they didn't appear to hit beyond their price point. Well I guess as I stated in the other, it would be more accurate to state that you just basically can't conclude anything from the rankings as they're pretty much all over the place...

Sigh, think it's a pass for me, still looking at possibly something like the Elex, the Verum1, maybe some higher end planar like XX or hfm upcoming model, etc. But there seems to be quite a lack of comparisons with the koss 950/95x, I'm guessing because these headphones aren't that popular.

If they really were detail monsters, think I'd go for them, but it doesn't really seem to be the case; I'm not seeing many direct comparisons with similarly priced headphones with comments saying that the 95x blows them away in terms on detail; seems like good detail, but nothing too spectacular; and if you're sacrificing low end so that a ~$200 400i these days blow these away (400i has pretty good detailed bass), well, that's a pretty damn big sacrifice for a very expensive headphone.

 

[Fickle-Friend]

How do I EQ on an iPhone and Mac please? I’ve never done it before.

 

[GirgleMirt]

How do I EQ on an iPhone and Mac please? I’ve never done it before.

Can't help you in the Mac world, you'll have to do some research on the interwebs, but I'm sure it's possible even on a Mac, as they're more popular than they were 20 years ago and now there are a lot of compatible programs that can run on them.

 

[barondla]

Why go analog when you can go digital though... Digital = free (if you're using a computer, which you should in this day and age), it doesn't negatively impact sound quality like introducing an analog doohickey that messes with the signal (attenuates + boost from what it appears), it is more powerful and flexible and give you better control & results, etc. You're just much better off going digital, which is totally transparent.

But as the metal571 review I mentioned, it doesn't solve everything.


Are they really? m571 didn't seem to think so, and again going with the rank your headphone thread (see my post here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/any...p-95x-for-high-fidelity.891988/#post-14563052), they didn't appear to hit beyond their price point. Well I guess as I stated in the other, it would be more accurate to state that you just basically can't conclude anything from the rankings as they're pretty much all over the place...

Sigh, think it's a pass for me, still looking at possibly something like the Elex, the Verum1, maybe some higher end planar like XX or hfm upcoming model, etc. But there seems to be quite a lack of comparisons with the koss 950/95x, I'm guessing because these headphones aren't that popular.

If they really were detail monsters, think I'd go for them, but it doesn't really seem to be the case; I'm not seeing many direct comparisons with similarly priced headphones with comments saying that the 95x blows them away in terms on detail; seems like good detail, but nothing too spectacular; and if you're sacrificing low end so that a ~$200 400i these days blow these away (400i has pretty good detailed bass), well, that's a pretty damn big sacrifice for a very expensive headphone.

You are comparing headphones that do opposite things best. Dynamic headphones, including planars do bass best. Electrostats do high frequencies best. The only planars I've heard are the Hifiman totl of about 4 years ago. These were $4000. They were hooked to a $2000 ladder dac and $2000 Ray Samuels amp and Sounded great. At the same meet the Koss 950 were hooked to a $2400 Schiit Yggdrasil ladder dac and a modified Stax amp. The Koss had quite a bit more air and decay than the Hifiman. And of course the Hifiman had more low end impact.

Detail is a very tricky thing to judge. Slower drivers can sound more detailed on a quick listen. Why? Because they reduce or don't even play all the ambient cues. This means the main sounds aren't having to compete with these subtle sounds, so they stand out more detailed. Also peaky frequency response can accent some ranges, making them stick, out in more detail. Stats don't throw detail at the listener, they present it.

Digital eq does mess with sound quality. Schiit designed the Loki because they thought most implementations of digital eq sounded bad. A digital eq designer still has to choose from different filters and algorithms.