TOTL disappointments
Mar 10, 2021 at 3:31 PM Post #196 of 970
You are of course correct, but a few member keeps coming back over and over again to share the same negative impressions which can get a bit annoying.
100% agree. I'm on the Drop 8xx/Senn collaboration and one particular guy comes on the thread 10-20 times a week and says the same negative things over and over, and is rude about it to boot. Calls us all stupid people in denial..... I'm not a Senn fanboy (actually I am, my name is Leo Senn LOL) but this guy annoys me to no end.
 
Mar 10, 2021 at 3:37 PM Post #197 of 970
100% agree. I'm on the Drop 8xx/Senn collaboration and one particular guy comes on the thread 10-20 times a week and says the same negative things over and over, and is rude about it to boot. Calls us all stupid people in denial..... I'm not a Senn fanboy (actually I am, my name is Leo Senn LOL) but this guy annoys me to no end.
In those cases the ignore function works wonders.
 
Mar 10, 2021 at 4:17 PM Post #198 of 970
What a refreshing read!

I'm thinking to upgrade my Arya and didn't see the Final D8000 ever mentioned in the thread: does this mean they are specially good?
 
Apr 10, 2021 at 11:09 AM Post #199 of 970
My disappointments of 2020/2021:
- Sennheiser HD820: 1999€? More like 19,99€
- MrSpeakers Ether C Flow 1.1 (2150€): They have clearly forgot to add bass frequencies, but to compensate they added a peak in the high frequencies capable of penetrating inside your brain. Well done .... I guess. The open back version is slighlty better, still not worth the price tag.
- Ultrasone Edition 15 (2399€): I'd rather buy a pair of Bose QC35 than these.
- Pretty much all Grados: uncomfortable, non detachable heavy cable, zero bass, ear raping midrange.
 
Apr 10, 2021 at 12:10 PM Post #200 of 970
My disappointments of 2020/2021:
- Sennheiser HD820: 1999€? More like 19,99€
- MrSpeakers Ether C Flow 1.1 (2150€): They have clearly forgot to add bass frequencies, but to compensate they added a peak in the high frequencies capable of penetrating inside your brain. Well done .... I guess. The open back version is slighlty better, still not worth the price tag.
- Ultrasone Edition 15 (2399€): I'd rather buy a pair of Bose QC35 than these.
- Pretty much all Grados: uncomfortable, non detachable heavy cable, zero bass, ear raping midrange.
Completely agree with that.

For Grados it's a bit complicated though. I owned the GS1000e for around a year and it was with me with various gear changes. It was the only headphone that constantly moved between my most hated and my favourite headphone when i've done changes to my gear. No other headphone i had reacted that hard to system changes especially in the digital section.

In the 1 year i owned it (i bought it new) i actually had to send it in 3 times because either the driver failed or it fell apart.

I also demoed the PS2000e and i think soundwise it's a condiderable alternative to the Utopia when you want to trade in speed and details for a meatier low end and a more natural timbre.

That consideration faded away soon when i noticed that it's the most uncomfortable headphone i ever wore and additionally to that has an attached cable for 2.999€ all with the reasoning of lowering quality loss through connectors.

Now if you don't sit away 2m from your amp but 3m you need an enlargement cable. Makes sense in the light of getting rid of connectors.

If you want to run it from your dap (which makes perfectly sense since it is amongst the most sensitive headphones out there with 24 ohm) you don't only have to carry 2m of cable with you but also a 1/4 to 3.5mm dongle. Makes sense.

If you want to plug it in the XLR out of the amp you either had to buy a new PS2000e with the XLR cable attached or sent it to Grado and let them change the cable there or get out your tool case and terminate it yourself. I mean what could be more relaxing when you want to listen to some music in the evening with your new amp than to build a new cable.

This cable is the most useless design choice i've seen in high end audio so far. It was almost like Grado said: lets exclude as many potential customers as possible an make the most niche product ever. And even when you use it without any extension or dongles so that you can fully benefit from the mighty "no sound degradation due to no connectors" it still doesn't stand a chance in technicalities against the Utopia with a detachable cable so i really wonder what it all was for.
 
Apr 12, 2021 at 2:46 AM Post #201 of 970
What a refreshing read!

I'm thinking to upgrade my Arya and didn't see the Final D8000 ever mentioned in the thread: does this mean they are specially good?
They are really good, but a bit over-priced. I own the Arya and am about to sell it in order to put towards a D8000. Now, the Arya is excellent, especially for the price, but the D8000 just nails all of my personal preferences and suits the music I listen to very well.
 
Apr 18, 2021 at 5:31 AM Post #202 of 970
A human's DNA is only 1% different than a Chimpanzee and that 1% makes all the difference in the world.
Maybe there are other differences but nobody figured out how to measure them :wink:
 
Apr 18, 2021 at 6:29 AM Post #203 of 970
My disappointments of 2020/2021:
- Sennheiser HD820: 1999€? More like 19,99€
- MrSpeakers Ether C Flow 1.1 (2150€): They have clearly forgot to add bass frequencies, but to compensate they added a peak in the high frequencies capable of penetrating inside your brain. Well done .... I guess. The open back version is slighlty better, still not worth the price tag.
- Ultrasone Edition 15 (2399€): I'd rather buy a pair of Bose QC35 than these.
- Pretty much all Grados: uncomfortable, non detachable heavy cable, zero bass, ear raping midrange.

Yeah, I agree about the Sennheiser HD820. However I discovered that it is down to a sealing issue, because if I press both sides of the headphone against my head with my hands, it all sounds fine then.

So Sennheiser needs to get back to the drawing board and design better pads for these headphones. Or maybe they need to increase the “clamp”.
 
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May 3, 2021 at 1:34 AM Post #205 of 970
Not really a disappointment but It was surprising that mids are recessed on the Susvara. For vocal centric music I clearly preferred my ADX5000 which was clearly better than the Susvara. The bass slam was much better on the HE6SE compared to the Susvara which seemed mellow and laid back in comparison. For what price it is available in my country, I expected it to blow away both of headphones in everything.
 
May 18, 2021 at 10:09 PM Post #206 of 970
Not really a disappointment but It was surprising that mids are recessed on the Susvara. For vocal centric music I clearly preferred my ADX5000 which was clearly better than the Susvara. The bass slam was much better on the HE6SE compared to the Susvara which seemed mellow and laid back in comparison. For what price it is available in my country, I expected it to blow away both of headphones in everything.
ADX5000 is severely underrated. It’s the best dynamic driver headphone currently on the market. I also have Utopia but prefer ADX5K

However, also a huge fan of HiFiMAN’s especially the OG HE6. That being said, Susvara is definitely two notches above the competition.

They are notoriously picky of amp pairing, and can be either very warm and forgiving or extremely shrill and thin based on pairings.

They require lots of current and ideally speaker amp
 
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May 18, 2021 at 11:51 PM Post #207 of 970
ADX5000 is severely underrated. It’s the best dynamic driver headphone currently on the market. I also have Utopia but prefer ADX5K

However, also a huge fan of HiFiMAN’s especially the OG HE6. That being said, Susvara is definitely two notches above the competition.

They are notoriously picky of amp pairing, and can be either very warm and forgiving or extremely shrill and thin based on pairings.

They require lots of current and ideally speaker amp
What do you like about the ADX5000 over the Utopia?
 
May 19, 2021 at 9:50 AM Post #208 of 970
ADX5000 is severely underrated. It’s the best dynamic driver headphone currently on the market. I also have Utopia but prefer ADX5K

However, also a huge fan of HiFiMAN’s especially the OG HE6. That being said, Susvara is definitely two notches above the competition.

They are notoriously picky of amp pairing, and can be either very warm and forgiving or extremely shrill and thin based on pairings.

They require lots of current and ideally speaker amp
Offtopic but does the BHA-1 drive Susvara, HE6 and K1000 better than the 789?
 
May 19, 2021 at 10:22 AM Post #209 of 970
ADX5000 is severely underrated
Agree. Careless amp matching can turn ppl off. Tube amps (not hybrids or tube buffer input stage of some sort) work extremely well with ADX5K. Didn’t find many SS amps that I liked with them. Except, V280 which I have tried recently.
 
May 19, 2021 at 10:33 AM Post #210 of 970
Offtopic but does the BHA-1 drive Susvara, HE6 and K1000 better than the 789?
BHA-1 is quite a bit better for each and every headphone, however, maxing out volume on the THX 789 does give more volume gain, and can be more satisfying for HE6/ K1000.

That being said, all these headphones deserve speaker amp.

I've got a first edition 789 and keeping for life just as a benchmarking tool (baseline to compare sound tuning of any new amp I bring in). It's great for what it's worth.
 
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