I've been on a journey to find a good pair of closed headphones to use in my cigar room when I have the fan running. My cigar fan is 740cfm, so it can get pretty loud. I had previously written off closed back cans in the past and hadn't owned a pair in several years since at that time just getting a decent pair cost way too much money compared to getting better sound out of an open pair for a fraction of the cost. I know there's a host of issues in getting the tuning right vs open cans due to their nature. But at least something like a pair of denons ,fostex, or lcd-xc(again from several years ago) shouldn't cost 1000-2000.00 when a pair of open cans could be had that would crush either one for far less.
Now fast forward several years, and unfortunately like many others, I just can't avoid them any longer. My ety er4ps have been serving this purpose really well. They beat every closed headphone I've listened to, isolate astonishingly well. So what's the problem? Well I'm tired of shoving something in my ears when I want to sit outside or smoke a cigar in my cigar room. They do get quiet uncomfortable after a while. So now that it's been many years since I've tried closed cans maybe they have improved across the board significantly since the last pair I owned. So after reading many reviews and impressions which I don't like to do because of so much fluff and fanboyism, I decided to try something that received great praise that has now dropped in price. The elegia. I know crin hate these but his opinion seems to be in the minority. Well he was right. To my ears, they are even worse than what he says they are. The response curve should have told me all I needed to know. So I tried ratory1990 eq curve to get these close to the harman target. They were much better and now somewhat enjoyable. But there's still a glare in the upper mids that makes them sound wonky and a harshness in the lower treble that actually hurt my ears after a bit.
I then decided to use the raw response curve as a guide to just try to eq them flat and go from there with adding a mild high shelf filter and a decent bump in bass with a low shelf filter. They now sound quiet enjoyable with a bit of grain the the midrange, they still have a closed off sound stage which I can live with, but this sound overall would be ok for me. But even at the discounted price of 599.00, isn't that way to much work to get them to sound good. Shouldn't a pair that cost this much money sound good without any eq? I was tempted to try the celestee next given they follow the harman curve pretty close out of the box. But I'm now scared of focal headphones. And many of the previous elegia owners say these are the best thing since slice bread. But they said that about the elegia as well. So you know the saying "fool me once" lol.
So my current pair now is the ether cx. They measure pretty flat out the the box except for the treble that's subdued. They also sound just like they measure. But unlike the elegia, they don't sound offensive. But there's no bass to speak of. On the positive side, given how flat they are and the fact they have really good technical performance along with very low distortion for a closed can, they are the perfect blank canvas to work with. It takes just a little eq to make the sound close to high end open cans which is very impresive. But again, 900.00 for a pair of closed cans that still require eq? Though not nearly as much as the elegia. Am I just stuck with having to eq a closed can or past a certain price point having to eq closed headphones should be unacceptable. Having to eq 150-200.00 headphones is one thing. But headphones should sound excellent out of the box past a certain price point whether they are open or closed. I would like to know what you guys think.
Now fast forward several years, and unfortunately like many others, I just can't avoid them any longer. My ety er4ps have been serving this purpose really well. They beat every closed headphone I've listened to, isolate astonishingly well. So what's the problem? Well I'm tired of shoving something in my ears when I want to sit outside or smoke a cigar in my cigar room. They do get quiet uncomfortable after a while. So now that it's been many years since I've tried closed cans maybe they have improved across the board significantly since the last pair I owned. So after reading many reviews and impressions which I don't like to do because of so much fluff and fanboyism, I decided to try something that received great praise that has now dropped in price. The elegia. I know crin hate these but his opinion seems to be in the minority. Well he was right. To my ears, they are even worse than what he says they are. The response curve should have told me all I needed to know. So I tried ratory1990 eq curve to get these close to the harman target. They were much better and now somewhat enjoyable. But there's still a glare in the upper mids that makes them sound wonky and a harshness in the lower treble that actually hurt my ears after a bit.
I then decided to use the raw response curve as a guide to just try to eq them flat and go from there with adding a mild high shelf filter and a decent bump in bass with a low shelf filter. They now sound quiet enjoyable with a bit of grain the the midrange, they still have a closed off sound stage which I can live with, but this sound overall would be ok for me. But even at the discounted price of 599.00, isn't that way to much work to get them to sound good. Shouldn't a pair that cost this much money sound good without any eq? I was tempted to try the celestee next given they follow the harman curve pretty close out of the box. But I'm now scared of focal headphones. And many of the previous elegia owners say these are the best thing since slice bread. But they said that about the elegia as well. So you know the saying "fool me once" lol.
So my current pair now is the ether cx. They measure pretty flat out the the box except for the treble that's subdued. They also sound just like they measure. But unlike the elegia, they don't sound offensive. But there's no bass to speak of. On the positive side, given how flat they are and the fact they have really good technical performance along with very low distortion for a closed can, they are the perfect blank canvas to work with. It takes just a little eq to make the sound close to high end open cans which is very impresive. But again, 900.00 for a pair of closed cans that still require eq? Though not nearly as much as the elegia. Am I just stuck with having to eq a closed can or past a certain price point having to eq closed headphones should be unacceptable. Having to eq 150-200.00 headphones is one thing. But headphones should sound excellent out of the box past a certain price point whether they are open or closed. I would like to know what you guys think.
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