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Is an expensive headphone worth it if you have to apply eq to get them to sound good?

LTig

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@304290: Have you tried the AKG K371? AFAIK this one comes very close to the Harman curve. Still I use EQ where available.
 
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304290

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Believe it or not, there are still tons of people (not reviewers) out there who like their Elegias a lot.
So what do you think Focal should do? Build a headphone which is to your liking? And than all the others Focal users suddenly needs to look for another brand?
If you don‘t like the Focal sound go and look somewhere else.
Demanding all headphones should be tuned to Harman curve so you do not need to EQ is a bit unrealistic.


Yes, I'm fully aware of many who love their elegias. No I don't think focal should build a headphone to my liking. That is such a ridiculous statement. And no I don't like the focal sound and I've already went and looked elsewhere. And please show me where I ever said all headphones should be turned to "Harman curve". That's also ridiculous. I never said any thing like that. Please don't troll my thread!!
 
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304290

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@304290: Have you tried the AKG K371? AFAIK this one comes very close to the Harman curve. Still I use EQ where available.

It's actually on the way now. I order one open box from amazon last week and only one driver worked. :(
 

Daiyama

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Yes, I'm fully aware of many who love their elegias. No I don't think focal should build a headphone to my liking. That is such a ridiculous statement. And no I don't like the focal sound and I've already went and looked elsewhere. And please show me where I ever said all headphones should be turned to "Harman curve". That's also ridiculous. I never said any thing like that. Please don't troll my thread!!

My apologies for my sarcastic post, but after reading your ridiculous thread title, I thought you were the troll here.
 
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304290

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Yes, I'm fully aware of many who love their elegias. No I don't think focal should build a headphone to my liking. That is such a ridiculous statement. And no I don't like the focal sound and I've already went and looked elsewhere. Please don't troll my thread!!
My apologies for my sarcastic post, but after reading your ridiculous thread title, I thought you were the troll here.

The thread title must not be too ridiculous given the amount of responses. But still your posts are all about my dislike for the elegias. Where do you see anything about elegia in my thread title. Your posts are just laughable at this point.
 
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304290

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Dan Clark Audio AEON RT.

I'm intrigued by the aeons. I would like to try all versions of them eventually. But I am enjoying the ether cx at the moment. I got them for a decent price on amazon. But I'm a little disappointed by the noise isolation with these. I expected more given the description about these. They really don't isolate much more than the elegias which isn't much. But still a good bit better than the "semi" closed headphones from denon and fostex. From memory the best isolating non active headphones I tried in the past was the beyer t70 years ago. Those we also among the best sounding ones closed ones I tried at the time also. I did eventually sold them because they still didn't compete with any of my open cans at the time. I just scored a pair of those on ebay with a broken cable to give them a second try. I hope the broken cable is the only thing wrong with them since that would be an easy fix.
 
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304290

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I never said any of that. Having to eq a headphone to your liking has nothing to do with the harman curve. In fact my preference actually deviates a bit from the harman curve. Now you are just flat out lying. Last time I asked you to show me where I said what you claimed you didn't. Now you continue to just flat out lie. You also say my thread title is ridiculous but yet you continue not only to read this thread but to post in it. I'm now reporting you. As going to the point of lying on me is unacceptable.
 
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304290

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Is an expensive headphone worth it if you have to apply eq to get them to sound good?

That's the title of this thread, and everyone except you have responded appropriately. Show me anything having to do with my dislike or the harman curve in the title. Please, you have derailed this thread long enough.
 

Sombreuil

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Is buying a $5000 dollar guitar worth it if it's the amp that does 95% of the job?
Is buying a $4000 T.V worth it if you need to calibrate it?

It's the same for headphones, it won't sound better than a pair that costs $150. It's more conformable (sometimes) and a bit easier to E.Q (I guess). Also it gives you a good excuse to buy a $1000 DAC with diamonds on it.
 

Brianc

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Answering a qualified yes though I've never spent more than $300: if the build quality and comfort level are superb and they have relatively low distortion. I would rather have a comfortable pair of headphones that need EQ than an uncomfortable pair with "perfect" sound.
 
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304290

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Is buying a $5000 dollar guitar worth it if it's the amp that does 95% of the job?
Is buying a $4000 T.V worth it if you need to calibrate it?

It's the same for headphones, it won't sound better than a pair that costs $150. It's more conformable (sometimes) and a bit easier to E.Q (I guess). Also it gives you a good excuse to buy a $1000 DAC with diamonds on it.

Now I like that tv calibration analogy. I have had TVs and projectors that both looked great out of the box but still benefited a good bit from being calibrated, and a projector that was lack luster out of box and was stunning after calibration. So I can definitely see both sides on wether one answers yes or no. I guess for me, right now, I’m leaning toward it depends
 

dasdoing

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the tv calibration analogy makes no sense. if the TV doesn't produce a dark black, you can't calibrate it so it does. now a cheap headphone with no exessive distorsion and a good FR extension can absolutly sound like a 10 times more expensive one
 
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304290

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It makes plenty of sense to me. You can’t say on one end if a tv doesn’t have dark blacks and on the other end if a headphone don’t have excessive distortion. A tv can have dark blacks and can also have poor blacks. The same is true with a cheap headphone. It can have low distortion and it can also have lots of distortion. This can be true with headphones in any price bracket really and not just cheap headphones.

So a headphone with high distortion can’t be help any more than a tv with horrible blacks. But a tv with decent blacks can be made to look much better just like a headphone with decent distortion specs can be made to sound much better even though both could be lackluster out of the box.

That’s why I’m still leaning toward the it depends statement. But thankyou for your thoughts.
 
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304290

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So I got my replacement pair of the akg 371. One word, floored! I really like my ether cx after eq. The 371 sounds pretty good out of the box. Out of the box, I could live with the way they sound. After applying some eq they sound almost as good as the cx with eq. The cx have better imaging, and are a little more transparent and refined. If the cx was 100(which they are not) the akgs would be about a 93. These have not business sounding this good for less than 100.00 I paid. These are definitely a keeper. I'm not 100 satisfied. But these sound too good not to keep for the price I paid. The search is still on, but I now have to wonder if the cx are worth keeping given how close the akgs comes to them.
 

SimoF

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In my opinion yes, it is worth! Tonality is just one of the parameter that I use when I judge an headphone during listening. Distortion, soundstage, imaging, how they render the attack and decay of the notes. All of these (for me) are way more important since they cannot be fixed (at least not entirely) with EQ unlike tonality.
 
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