[olinko]

Today, $5 off and free shipping, with "Bundle1114". The mark of how much you like something, is buying it again. I just ordered a backup Ghost.

I've seen crappy cables being sold for more than the $84 lol

 

[Kerry56]

Had to give up on these. I am SO glad I bought through Amazon and was able to return them without issue.

The Ghost sound was just too thin, lacking bass and uneven in the upper mids/treble for my tastes. Oh well, it is always fun to try out new sets, even if they don't always match your own individual tastes.

 

[yeldarb17]

The bundle I bought came with a Tripowin Granvia cable. Using it now. Bass is punchier and more detailed. Treble detail also improved.

 

[oknenir]

I've got mine in that bundle and received yesterday. I was considering buying the GranVia cable for the HifiMans anyway (although a 2m one), also used the "$50 for $25" discount code, so cost of the headphone was close to nil

Attached to the Schiit Lyr 3 (stock Tung-Sol tube) fed by Audio GD R8. For the first couple of hours, I was disappointed - they were sounding really dull, but then things started to improve. Left them buring in over night as well. Today it's much better! The #1 thing that caught my attention in this headphone is bass. The amount is just right, without affecting the mids, but not lean any of the lows/low mids spectrum, and is very textured. #2 is the overall tuning - it's not bright in either part of the mids/highs (I consider my self sensitive to high-mids) which is great for long sessions. The midrange is pretty muddy though, and they lack some sparkle in the highs even for my taste (which is the side effect of the muddiness). Hoping this will clear up with burn-in. I'd say the tuning is neutral, but I imagine really neutral would sound a little lean to me, so let's call it "on the warm side of the neutral".

Comfort-wise, the clamping force a little too strong, give some discomfort after a couple of hours, but 2nd day is better than the 1st, so might get used to it.

Using with the stock pads and stock cable and I don't like to tear things (even cheap), so will keep the stock pads stock and look to order some brainwavz.

I've also got a Meze 99 classics on the BF sale, so will do some comparison as I will be choosing one for portable use at home with a dongle. Can post some impressions if anyone is interested.

 

[oknenir]

The bundle I bought came with a Tripowin Granvia cable.

Did you expect something else?

 

[Okcerg]

I think pad swap is important for the Ghost. Stock pads is lacking bass and the thick foam that makes them muffled.
But like everything in this hobby it's subjective.

 

[preauxtip]

I think pad swap is important for the Ghost. Stock pads is lacking bass and the thick foam that makes them muffled.
But like everything in this hobby it's subjective.

Or cutting out the foam layer over the driver at the very least

 

[JMCIII]

I think pad swap is important for the Ghost. Stock pads is lacking bass and the thick foam that makes them muffled.
But like everything in this hobby it's subjective.

Well, I can say that after installing the Brainwave pads the bass "problem" is no more. Now there may well be too much bass, at the expense of the highs. Thank goodness the Brainwave pads were not expensive.

 

[Ggroch]

I think pad swap is important for the Ghost. Stock pads is lacking bass and the thick foam that makes them muffled.
But like everything in this hobby it's subjective.

Absolutely agree. I tried your AliExpress pads recommendation and am very happy at the results. Thank You! For me, they add just enough warmth without negative impact. They are much more comfortable, and certainly look to be much higher quality. The Ghost has a premium look/feel for the price, on everything but the pads. I am sure the manufacturing cost difference between the AliExpress Pads and stock pads is almost nothing. If Thieaudio shipped them with better pads they would be selling a lot more Ghosts.

 

[Okcerg]

Absolutely agree. I tried your AliExpress pads recommendation and am very happy at the results. Thank You! For me, they add just enough warmth without negative impact. They are much more comfortable, and certainly look to be much higher quality. The Ghost has a premium look/feel for the price, on everything but the pads. I am sure the manufacturing cost difference between the AliExpress Pads and stock pads is almost nothing. If Thieaudio shipped them with better pads they would be selling a lot more Ghosts.

Wow, thanks a lot for your feedback, makes me really happy to hear that!
Completely agree, Thieaudio would probably have sold much more of these if they had shipped them with better earpads.

 

[JMCIII]

I think pad swap is important for the Ghost. Stock pads is lacking bass and the thick foam that makes them muffled.
But like everything in this hobby it's subjective.

I too thank you for the AliExpress recommendation. I have a set of the grey pads coming and will compare them to the Brainwave and original pads. If they can split the difference between the two, they’ll be a winner for sure.

 

[Okcerg]

I too thank you for the AliExpress recommendation. I have a set of the grey pads coming and will compare them to the Brainwave and original pads. If they can split the difference between the two, they’ll be a winner for sure.

Don't thank me yet, you might hate them lol! Hope you'll like them! Yeah, to my ears the grey ones do not change the sound as much as the others, just add a bit more warmth with the improved bass. And no thick foam helps the treble.
I've tried a lot of pads, and the grey ones are my favorites. (I know, it's looks crazy, but I had really fun doing this lol)
EDIT: I still use the angled Brainwavs sometimes, when I'm the mood for a more cozy warm sound. Great to have both.

 

[Ggroch]

.......I've tried a lot of pads, and the grey ones are my favorites. (I know, it's looks crazy, but I had really fun doing this lol)
.......

Audio tweaking is fun, and compared to rolling vacuum tubes or op amps, rolling earpads actually does something real, that is not all or mostly expectation bias

I like Ali Express options because they are cheap, and the long shipping time actually increases anticipation. By contrast, Z Reviews recommendation of Meze pads cost almost as much as the Ghosts and were made of unobtanium.

 

[preauxtip]

Audio tweaking is fun, and compared to rolling vacuum tubes or op amps, rolling earpads actually does something real, that is not all or mostly expectation bias

I like Ali Express options because they are cheap, and the long shipping time actually increases anticipation. By contrast, Z Reviews recommendation of Meze pads cost almost as much as the Ghosts and were made of unobtanium.

The meze pads sure do sound nice on the Ghosts though!

 

[saujamhamm]

i went into these as skeptical as you can. i watched what Z had to say, then lachlan said the opposite...

i figured, $130 shipped and arriving in 2 days? let's see what it do.

first off, they look very temu'ish - the plastics are middling quality, lower density, they feel "cheap" - the gold accent looks like it has already decided to start falling off, it's just waiting to tell everyone.

i have 20 pair of headphones, and these, by far, "look" the cheapest.

i left the cable in the bag, connected up my own and away we go!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

20 songs and lots of adjustments later (they don't adjust well...) - i'm still stuck trying to figure out why and how these sound this good.

i'm not super into the flower superlatives when it comes to specific components of sound. a song is a song, from a bt speaker to being played so far away you can barely hear it. your brain takes over and fills in all manner of details.

all that to say, how it sounds to "you" is the only thing that matter about how it sounds. and to me. these are way too expressive to be $130.

put it like this - sitting around this house are the usual suspects, austrian audio sennheiser buyerdynamic sony meze yeah yeah etc etc - well now they have a new sibling, thethieaudioghost.