Yep, that seems to be a problem.Agree about the matching when it comes to miniature levels,etc,
What it seems is NOT happening is rejection of broken/bad drivers (like the one with the high distortion tested) which is usually one of the hidden costs but unavoidable if you want to make a good quality product.
Yes,the cost could up but the trust would be there.
Really looks like a budget model too, doesn't it?
They just don't work as headphones imo. No problem with planar speakers but I haven't heard a good PM headphone yet.
Always very bass deficient and with a strange zzzing in the higher regions, which are probably the resonances shown in the graphs.
I think they've got some inherent weaknesses. "Fine Grass" (sharp deviations) above 1kHz for most of them, and I'm assuming they're more expensive & troublesome to get right than dynamic drivers. (DCA seems to the best job with them, pretty much eliminating the "fine grass" problem).Gave up on planers years ago.
Identically driver built-in no matter which prices?yes, all the hifiman headphones follow the same general curve
about to post your review of the XS... oh wellEdition XS (2023)
back to HIFIMAN back to measurements home published: June-04-2023 NO SMOOTHING is applied to the shown plots. Most measurement sites have some smoothing applied which ‘irons flat’ sharp peaks and …diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com
vs some other hifiman:
vs some other headphones:
Once again, thanks @amirm for your work. I wonder if a review of any model of the Arya range is planned.
Don't Grado have a similar product hierarchy model, at least lower down? Same basic 'module' dressed with different ear pads and headbands as you go up the range, at least to a point? Clearaudio did this with pickup cartridges too, select from a batch and double the price, select from these and double again and so on...tnx Amir... my doubts were justified... I have been observing Hifiman's commercial policy for more than a year. I was intrigued by the exaggerated discounts and their products and I was convinced to buy one, but every time I searched for information on Google I found dozens of messages from users angry about the quality problems of the materials. I spent weeks evaluating their graphs to try to understand which headphones had enough bass and were closest to the Harman. One day I superimposed them in a single graph and they were really very, very similar. At that point it almost seemed to me (but that's not the case) that they had taken a single driver model and used it in 5/6 models, changing only the name, the headband or the colour. But only to me does it seem like they are practically identical with differences of 1000 or 2000 euros? I believe that the differences between a driver and the next model are so small that they make the entire price list just a meaningless marketing policy. In the end the differences in sound, if we exclude the inefficient he6 and Susvara, will be truly negligible. This borderline ridiculous discounting also reinforces my thesis. With prices varying by 50/80%. We then add the number of headphones put back on sale after repairs or returns is always very high. It doesn't give me the impression of a company that renews or invests in innovative models but more of a company that is exploiting a model, always the same, which among other things shows a lot of quality problems. Perhaps the value of Hifiman headphones is measured on the Sundara models, 299 euros.... at a discount...
Grado makes the most absurd headphones in the galaxy. The most unlistenable headphones without EQ but the brightest and clearest with a very wide soundstage when you EQ them. Only after buying the SR80x and equalizing them did I understand the true power of this frequency correction system. Everyone should buy a cheap Grado, change the pads and EQ it. After this positive experiment I convinced myself to buy a Grado TOTL model... I bought a limited edition Grado "the White Headphone".... a tragedy... 50mm driver, wooden case, super cable... nothing to do. ...it was such an incorrigible headphone that after 24 hours it was already on its way to the seller...the frequency response graph was a meaningless scribble.... Grado is at its best with the economical SR60/80 x models and with a nice equalization.... spending 1000/2000/3000 euros on a Grado is the most absurd thing an audiophile can do... incidentally the SR80x and GW100x equalized and with large pads are among my favorite headphones and they are the only headphones that can match the soundstage of my 800s....Don't Grado have a similar product hierarchy model, at least lower down? Same basic 'module' dressed with different ear pads and headbands as you go up the range, at least to a point? Clearaudio did this with pickup cartridges too, select from a batch and double the price, select from these and double again and so on...
Just a thought using loudspeakers in this - underdamping the diaphragm may well give a more 'dynamic' and 'airy' kind of presentation, but if conventional speakers are anything to go by, this can cause all manner of resonant issues, boom in the box (OK, not a headphone thing here), but look at the resonances in the group delay plots. maybe it gives an added excitement or 'frisson' but it ain't there in the original recording and I suspect it's highly addictive to audiophiles without much of a clue as to how it should really be (excuse the clumsy words, but I was one once upon a time and do remember the mistakes I made back then, then wondering why my gear choices 'sounded' so wildly different - and worse - from the orchestral concerts I used to attend regularly back then, then later, jazz gigs in a quite intimate setting (the 'Old' Stables at Wavendon, Milton Keynes...)
Does the above make any sense, or have I gone off on a tangent yet again?