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Drop Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X

Thanks, I appreciate the clarification. I'm tempted to try the Noire, but I do hesitate as I find many people discussing that DCA headphones lack dynamics and are a little boring. Not sure if that is true. I had a first generation Ether open for a few weeks several years ago, and I have to admit, I did find it fairly boring.
Many people say many things. You do you.
 
Many people say many things. You do you.
I'm struggling to understand your above response? Are you somehow attempting to get me to feel that my posting my impression was invalid and not appropriate?

If I read between the lines
"Many people say many things"

It seems that you may be saying, it doesn't really matter what others say, there is no reason to make note and post what I have read. It really was just me writing about what I have read.

"You do you"
This feels rather disconnected from any point at all. It may be you simply saying, whatever buddy nobody cares, don't post just be quiet. Maybe you meant something else?

Now I'm not going to pretend that my post that prompted your reply was overly useful, or substantive, but even so, I am confused why you replied the way you did. Do you doubt that I have read many posts over the years where people have noted that they find DC Audio headphones lack dynamics?

I have almost 13000 posts at head-fi and I don't know how many thousands I have read. I posted what I believed to be a valid observation. Did you feel like my post attacked you and somehow diminished the enjoyment you get from your choice of headphone?

Anyway. I really don't think that there was anything wrong with my post.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the clarification. I'm tempted to try the Noire, but I do hesitate as I find many pqeople discussing that DCA headphones lack dynamics and are a little boring. Not sure if that is true. I had a first generation Ether open for a few weeks several years ago, and I have to ia, I i md find it fairly boring.
I allow there may be more dynamic headphones than the Noire, from frequent testimony by others who have also tried Focal's, some Audeze models, etc. However, I don't want them, because with my Noire and very dynamic recordings, I already find it difficult to find a volume setting that allows for a correct average SPL, as well as useful volume for quiet passages, without also causing uncomfortably loud SPL peaks. I have read similar comments by others.

However, peeling back the onion, it is likely the case that not everyone hears that same thing. For example, some people are more sensitive to, say, treble peaks than others. I would welcome comment by anyone who is familiar with the research on this, if any.

Further, I see discussions of the "punch" of any given headphone model, with various definitions of it that are not simply a matter of the dynamic range of SPL's, but also involve transient response and related time-domain attributes; I gather that this kind of commentary suffers from the lack of any consensus definition of what is being measured or heard.

My thought is that this aspect of headphones is not clearly defined, and that there may be significant individual variation in perception and preference. This suggests you might want to find some recordings that you find dynamic and exciting, and then find a venue or two to compare different models with the same music. Or use the 'buy, try, and if necessary, return' mail-order strategy that some ASR members report using. In other words, let your own ears be your guide.
 
I've just grabbed a very nice used pair of these from eBay plus a custom cable with a 4 pin XLR plugs to fit my tube headphone amps and Benchmark HPA4. My current cans line up includes 2 pairs of Sennheiser HD580, a pair of Emotiva GR1 and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT150. They're a demanding load, that's for sure - wired to the 16-50 ohm taps on my tube headphone amps (World Designs HD3S, ECL83), the volume knob needs to go all the way around to 1 to 2 o'clock. On the HPA4, there's plenty of drive. At -22dB, they're plenty loud enough.

With no filter pads and Jaakko Pasanen's convolution filters applied via Roon, they are an incredibly enjoyable listen. By far the best closed backs I've ever heard.
What do you think of the Emotivas? I have a pair but nothing to compare them to except Senn Momentum. I do like them after not liking them much early on. They need EQ imo.
 
What do you think of the Emotivas? I have a pair but nothing to compare them to except Senn Momentum. I do like them after not liking them much early on. They need EQ imo.
Without EQ, the Emotivas are very bass heavy IME. With equalisation, they're a really good listen. Soundstage is decent, not as wide as the Aeon Closed X though. I don't enjoy them as much as my 2 vintage pairs of Sennheiser HD580, but being very open-backed I can't use them around my Mrs. in the evening. The Emotivas are semi-closed, so good for evening use when she's around. The Dan Clark's are on my bedside rig so I can listen when she wants to sleep.
 
Without EQ, the Emotivas are very bass heavy IME. With equalisation, they're a really good listen. Soundstage is decent, not as wide as the Aeon Closed X though. I don't enjoy them as much as my 2 vintage pairs of Sennheiser HD580, but being very open-backed I can't use them around my Mrs. in the evening. The Emotivas are semi-closed, so good for evening use when she's around. The Dan Clark's are on my bedside rig so I can listen when she wants to sleep.
Right. EQ is a must but then they really sound good I think. That Graphene stuff or whatever. A silky sound. The Sivga Phoenix was reviewed here, which is similar. The included cable is nice too. No micro stuff. Plus a hard case.
 
New and happy owner of a used AEON closed X. Using them with Dekoni sheepskin pads. These boost the bass a little so they sound fine to me without EQ. Did try that too.
The only thing I do not like is the look of the carbon baffle. Hoped to be able to replace those, but they are glued.
As I could not find any here are some pictures of the inside.
AEON X cups.jpg
AEON X driver back.jpg
 
Hard to find any info online about how worn out pads affect these headphones, so here's what I noticed when I replaced my earpads after a full year of several hours a day usage. I should've replaced them a few months ago when I started noticing issues, but I'm poor, they're like $60, and I didn't know the warranty would cover replacement pads until I asked DCA about it.

I've A/Bd my new and old pads a few times and here's all the differences I noticed. My ears aren't really trained for being able to pick out what frequencies are causing problems, I can only describe issues with some of the technicalities and tonal balance.

Worn out pads issues:
- Smaller soundstage. It slowly got that way over time, this issue didn't stand out to me until it got pretty bad
- Less precise imaging - sort of a "5-blob effect" where there's hotspots in the soundstage around panned left, mid-left, center, mid-right, and panned right, rather than instruments being placed evenly between those 5 points.
- Treble overall feels a bit less sharp, especially mid-to-upper treble. This and the imaging issue are possibly related?
- Bass reduction. I had to turn my bass shelf down by about 2 dB when I got new pads.
- Mids change shape in a weird way. This is what eventually drove me to ask DCA about it, synths and guitars just weren't shaped "correctly" anymore and it was a constant frustration.

Other things I noticed with new earpads that I didn't necessarily notice as "issues" on the old pads:
- Extremely clear reverb trails again. I loved this about these headphones when I got them but eventually the pad wear made reverb much less clear, though I never noticed. New pads brought it back.
- Better bass intangibles. Like I mentioned before I had to turn my bass shelf down by 2dB to get it back to the same level, but kick drums in particular feels a bit more precise and impactful somehow.
- More depth to the soundstage. My possibly BS crackpot uneducated theory is that it's related to the better treble clarity/imaging, where the upper harmonics of instruments feel more correctly placed "in front" of the fundamentals creating a better illusion of depth, whereas the placement of the treble was getting a bit fuzzy on the old pads and ruining the illusion.

Hope this helps someone else decide if they need new pads or not. I had heard before that pad wear is really bad for DCA headphones, but I still wasn't expecting there to be such a huge difference. I definitely won't be waiting as long when these start to wear out.
 
Hard to find any info online about how worn out pads affect these headphones, so here's what I noticed when I replaced my earpads after a full year of several hours a day usage. I should've replaced them a few months ago when I started noticing issues, but I'm poor, they're like $60, and I didn't know the warranty would cover replacement pads until I asked DCA about it.

I've A/Bd my new and old pads a few times and here's all the differences I noticed. My ears aren't really trained for being able to pick out what frequencies are causing problems, I can only describe issues with some of the technicalities and tonal balance.

Worn out pads issues:
- Smaller soundstage. It slowly got that way over time, this issue didn't stand out to me until it got pretty bad
- Less precise imaging - sort of a "5-blob effect" where there's hotspots in the soundstage around panned left, mid-left, center, mid-right, and panned right, rather than instruments being placed evenly between those 5 points.
- Treble overall feels a bit less sharp, especially mid-to-upper treble. This and the imaging issue are possibly related?
- Bass reduction. I had to turn my bass shelf down by about 2 dB when I got new pads.
- Mids change shape in a weird way. This is what eventually drove me to ask DCA about it, synths and guitars just weren't shaped "correctly" anymore and it was a constant frustration.

Other things I noticed with new earpads that I didn't necessarily notice as "issues" on the old pads:
- Extremely clear reverb trails again. I loved this about these headphones when I got them but eventually the pad wear made reverb much less clear, though I never noticed. New pads brought it back.
- Better bass intangibles. Like I mentioned before I had to turn my bass shelf down by 2dB to get it back to the same level, but kick drums in particular feels a bit more precise and impactful somehow.
- More depth to the soundstage. My possibly BS crackpot uneducated theory is that it's related to the better treble clarity/imaging, where the upper harmonics of instruments feel more correctly placed "in front" of the fundamentals creating a better illusion of depth, whereas the placement of the treble was getting a bit fuzzy on the old pads and ruining the illusion.

Hope this helps someone else decide if they need new pads or not. I had heard before that pad wear is really bad for DCA headphones, but I still wasn't expecting there to be such a huge difference. I definitely won't be waiting as long when these start to wear out.
I also felt like my Aeon Closed sounded much better after new pads. Definitely can agree on the bass and treble being off.
The rest I am not sure about but I didn't really A/B it so closely.
 
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