What headphone(s) do you own ?

[Somafunk]

Forgot I previously owned Etymotic ER-4P earphones and a Ray Samuels Tomahawk headphone amp back in 2008ish fed from an iPod. Earphones were good once you got a good seal but cable microphonics were annoying, amp was a bit meh.

 

[hhsohn]

Been lurking for the last month or so, and appreciate all the information you guys have provided in my search for a decent set of cans.

Current headphones:
-Philips SHP-9500 + Amazon boom mic: My first headphones. Got it during early COVID situations for calls, music during work, and gaming. Wanted an open headset to monitor kids and their various needs while they're zooming for school. The sound was mind-blowing compared to the various cheap ear buds that came with various phones and tablets. I had considered the Samsung wired earbuds to be very good solution until the SHP9500. I've heard a few closed back headphones many years ago, but never liked the cup-on-the-ear effect. It is little thin on the low ends, but the clarity and the airiness was well worth it. I'd highly recommend it for someone looking for budget headphones, with only experiences from ear buds and bluetooth junk.

-Sennheiser HD630VB: Just got it about a year into the COVID situation. Wanted a closed back headphones as I'm thoroughly tired of the noise from the kids and their zooms as I'm working. Primarily used for music, running Equalizeer APO using slightly modified EQ setting for Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro (no EQ currently available for HD630VB). Also wanted a step up from the SHP9500 in sound and in build quality, with max budget of $200. This was priced at $199 on Amazon. Great build quality, and just a little blingy. The variable bass is awesome as you can see on various reviews. There is something minor going on in the mid-vocal range where the vocals sound little detached, but using slightly modified EQ for Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro addressed most of it. Mainly relied on the review and graphs from Solderdude's blog, so tons of thanks to him. This one was the winner physically compared to the two headphones below. There really aren't too many reviews on this headphone, but I'm attributing most of the hate due to it's original price of $500, and it's rather confused product positioning. I mean, really? $500 for on-the-go mobile use, but big and heavy, permanently attached cable, somewhat gimmicky-sounding variable bass (which I love and well implemented), and aluminum construction and finish that won't survive the hard mobile usage. Yeah, not exactly well thought through, but well worth it for my intended usage and my price requirements. I really would love to see someone put out a real EQ for it though.

Tested headphones:
-Master & Dynamic MH40: Build quality is exactly what it's known for, as well as the bass. I really wanted to like it, but it didn't take too long for my mind to be made up. Even at Amazon sale price of $167, not worth it due to the muddled sound, even after EQ. It was a really an easy decision.
-Beyerdynamic DT770 80ohms: Very comfy, sounds good, and I didn't experience the treble spikes that everyone talks of. And bass was there, but nothing to write home about. There is something minor going on with the sound that I didn't bother nailing down, but if I had heard it before the HD630VB, I'd probably kept it. Just wanted something nicer.

Driven from laptops through Schiit Fulla 3, and Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

Given that there's a ton of subjective evaluation with our hearing and music evaluation, little bit about me. I enjoy music and played a bit guitar 20+ years ago, and always enjoyed higher quality of music. But I'm also a fan of loud cars, and recently firearms, so most likely my ear's are not what it used to be. Currently I consider myself to be someone who enjoys gadgets and music, but not exactly a sonar operator.

 

[eboleyn]

Each section in order of newest to oldest in my collection:

Over-ear: Raal SR1a, Hifiman HE-6se, Hifiman HE-500

IEM: Shure SE846, Shure E5C (oooold!)

I have balanced cables (and optional unbalanced connectors) on all of them but the old Shure E5C. Not sure if it really matters, but there were a few cases where the unbalanced "crosstalk" seemed to blur things a bit and when I computed the numbers, it would have been in the -30db crosstalk range, so I just went with balanced cables as much as possible for paranoia and curiousity.

 

[chekhonte]

I recently got a pair of Audeze LCD 3F I like them a lot. Adding a little EQ to the bass makes them my ideal headphone. I bought them as an upgrade to my Hifiman HD560 350ohm version. I also have a pair of sendyaudio aiva planar headphones. I bought them used on a lark because everybody in the head-fi thread has a completely different take on how they sounded. On top of that somebody posted their measurements when they admitted they were having problems with their dummy head giving inaccurate measurements. All in all they’re middling headphones with the exception that they’re ultra revealing. I still use them for chamber music. I like to listen for small glimpses of the musicians themselves such as their labored breathing during a demanding passage of the odd tap of a cuff link on ivory. These headphones are great for that kind of listening. I also have a pair of akg k702’s. I’ve had them for about 15 years or so primarily for use as a studio monitor for my wife editing her home recordings. I also got them used. They were a flavor of the month, a bunch of people bought them on a whim and then sold them as they’re a very bland headphone. Like the steamed broccoli of headphones. I have a pair of Sony w1000 xm3’s for general use. Like listening to a tv show while cleaning the house or blocking out noise on an airplane. I also have a pair of shure se535’s along with various other crappy general purpose wired and Bluetooth headphones.

I used to drive the better ones with a lyr mk1 with a Bifrost mk1 but my lyr went on the fritz, with a crumpling paper like static that I couldn’t resolve. It was definitely tube socket related as wiggling one particular tube would produce the static. I tried swapping tubes, cleaning the socket and tube contacts with deoxit and a stiff bristle brush. I was going to try and resoldering the socket itself but the hex head screw that holds the volume knob is some size that I can’t seem to find. I have several Allen wrench sets that go down to sub mm but none seem to be tiny enough to fit so I just gave up and found this place and ordered a topping dx7 pro.

also if amirm wants to measure any of these headphones I’ll lend them as we both live in the Seattle area.

 

[Robbo99999]

I recently got a pair of Audeze LCD 3F I like them a lot. Adding a little EQ to the bass makes them my ideal headphone. I bought them as an upgrade to my Hifiman HD560 350ohm version. I also have a pair of sendyaudio aiva planar headphones. I bought them used on a lark because everybody in the head-fi thread has a completely different take on how they sounded. On top of that somebody posted their measurements when they admitted they were having problems with their dummy head giving inaccurate measurements. All in all they’re middling headphones with the exception that they’re ultra revealing. I still use them for chamber music. I like to listen for small glimpses of the musicians themselves such as their labored breathing during a demanding passage of the odd tap of a cuff link on ivory. These headphones are great for that kind of listening. I also have a pair of akg k702’s. I’ve had them for about 15 years or so primarily for use as a studio monitor for my wife editing her home recordings. I also got them used. They were a flavor of the month, a bunch of people bought them on a whim and then sold them as they’re a very bland headphone. Like the steamed broccoli of headphones. I have a pair of Sony w1000 xm3’s for general use. Like listening to a tv show while cleaning the house or blocking out noise on an airplane. I also have a pair of shure se535’s along with various other crappy general purpose wired and Bluetooth headphones.

I used to drive the better ones with a lyr mk1 with a Bifrost mk1 but my lyr went on the fritz, with a crumpling paper like static that I couldn’t resolve. It was definitely tube socket related as wiggling one particular tube would produce the static. I tried swapping tubes, cleaning the socket and tube contacts with deoxit and a stiff bristle brush. I was going to try and resoldering the socket itself but the hex head screw that holds the volume knob is some size that I can’t seem to find. I have several Allen wrench sets that go down to sub mm but none seem to be tiny enough to fit so I just gave up and found this place and ordered a topping dx7 pro.

also if amirm wants to measure any of these headphones I’ll lend them as we both live in the Seattle area.

Lol, K702 as the "bland steamed broccoli of headphones"! I think you got that backwards, they have the best soundstage of any headphone I've listened to, amoungst other qualities....I'd be surprised if any other headphone has a better soundstage than the K702 apart from perhaps the HD800s which I've not tried but touted as the best soundstage headphone. Of course you can use EQ to change the frequency response to your liking. Also, Audeze being your favourite headphone, every Audeze headphone has a pretty ****ed up frequency response with sharp dips & peaks or just plain "way off" frequency responses (with a couple of exceptions, 2 of them are not too bad in terms of salvageable with EQ), here is pretty much every single Audeze headphone measured by Oratory showing how messed up they are:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqkdze8w82zguyj/Audeze LCD-2 Fazor.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vqkqgd872axl8ir/Audeze LCD-MX4.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0okg13euj4kh06l/Audeze LCD-X.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9drg3gqr368uxro/Audeze LCD-XC.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yqy73f9hrdcmm1/Audeze Mobius (Default Preset).pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5lq5hr8mfj3d77o/Audeze Sine.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4xxaonrbs11efh/Audeze LCD-1.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9fr02x7blwze6uz/Audeze LCD-2.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4341dbn3nrcou4k/Audeze LCD-2 Classic.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y11srm8v7rdxxu9/Audeze LCD-2 Closed.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nm18lctf4xwh7cg/Audeze LCD-4.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jmgm4xu72fh6dk3/Audeze LCD-4z.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i1hujciatpwxocb/Audeze LCD-3.pdf?dl=0

And it's not like you can use the argument that "everyone's HRTF is different" because a lot of those frequency responses have random sharp peaks & dips that aren't gonna match someone's HRTF and are just too far off the Target too to account for HRTF difference. From where I'm sitting, I'm thinking you haven't learned what good sound is yet. Sorry for biting, but your K702 bland broccoli statement (admittedly funny but misrepresented) combined with your preference for Audeze headphones meant I could not resist!

 

[solderdude]

People can have differing opinions on the sound of various headphones for many reasons.
What person A finds best will not be so for person B and vice versa.

Everyone can post their personal opinions of headphones (how they perceive and rate them) with or without their favorite EQ.
There is no 'right' or 'wrong' here. Just personal opinions and measurements that all can not be trusted completely and may not 'show' what an individual will hear... again for many reasons.

 

[Robbo99999]

Yes, ok, people certainly have a right to post their opinions, and @chekhonte was right to have posted his opinion/experience.....just I think his was flawed, or at the very least I wanted to put in a counter position.

 

[chekhonte]

The sound stage of the k702 is good but only for a dynamic driver headphone. It’s blown away by the 3 planar headphones I own regardless of their frequency response. The k702 have an embarrassing low end which is the origin of my broccoli comparison. They’re good for acoustic guitar and and classical (I’m sure others but I’m only coming from my listening taste) but with rock the cymbals sparkle but the drums have no punch. The lcd 3F has 2 strange dips and admittedly they’re deep. while the k702 are very great for dynamic headphone but is a disaster in the high end. It’s way too pronounced and can make sharp sounds like violins sibilant and varies 10db in the high end before it completely rolls off. I’m glad you’re opinionated and I don’t take it personally. But I also think that you’re way off.

also being yelled at by a “major contributor” on my second day of very on brand for me.

 

[Robbo99999]

The sound stage of the k702 is good but only for a dynamic driver headphone. It’s blown away by the 3 planar headphones I own regardless of their frequency response. The k702 have an embarrassing low end which is the origin of my broccoli comparison. They’re good for acoustic guitar and and classical (I’m sure others but I’m only coming from my listening taste) but with rock the cymbals sparkle but the drums have no punch. The lcd 3F has 2 strange dips and admittedly they’re deep. while the k702 are very great for dynamic headphone but is a disaster in the high end. It’s way too pronounced and can make sharp sounds like violins sibilant and varies 10db in the high end before it completely rolls off. I’m glad you’re opinionated and I don’t take it personally. But I also think that you’re way off.

also being yelled at by a “major contributor” on my second day of very on brand for me.

K702 I don't really recommend without EQ, so you can cure a lot of those missing lows. I'd be surprised if your planar headphones blow the K702 away for soundstage, I have a planar headphone that is supposedly very good for soundstage, and it is better than my other headphones, but not as good as the K702 re soundstage. Re EQ, I don't really recommend any headphones without EQ, my HD600 is the only one I've enjoyed without EQ.

I wasn't yelling at you, I just couldn't resist giving a sharp reply when you saying how bad the K702 was (bland broccoli, lol) when your favourite headphone is an Audeze, that's like an oxymoron or something! But, yeah, it's fine.

 

[chekhonte]

I admittedly have not eqed them. They are from the original run when the k702 first was released. I was still using an oppo CD player to listen and mo3 was considered passé. I gave them to my wife for when we mix her music because I do love their midrange and soundstage which to me makes soft vocals feel more intimate which is my wife’s whole thing. Their accentuated high end makes acoustic guitars sparkle.

thanks for the conversation. You and anybody else can call out my hyperbole and appeals to emotion all they want. I’m typically guilty of it and don’t take it personally.

Also I’m going to try to eq them. I have a falling apart pair of k701s that I’ve ruined by using in my ceramics studio. I’m going to order new pads and do some critical listening which to me is the fun part of this hobby.

 

[Robbo99999]

I admittedly have not eqed them. They are from the original run when the k702 first was released. I was still using an oppo CD player to listen and mo3 was considered passé. I gave them to my wife for when we mix her music because I do love their midrange and soundstage which to me makes soft vocals feel more intimate which is my wife’s whole thing. Their accentuated high end makes acoustic guitars sparkle.

thanks for the conversation. You and anybody else can call out my hyperbole and appeals to emotion all they want. I’m typically guilty of it and don’t take it personally.

Also I’m going to try to eq them. I have a falling apart pair of k701s that I’ve ruined by using in my ceramics studio. I’m going to order new pads and do some critical listening which to me is the fun part of this hobby.

I don't know if you like the Harman Curve for headphones or not, but a K702 EQ is not widely available, however a bonafide "Harman-approved" measurement of K702 exists from a guy called Crinacle, I did an EQ based on his measurement, so you could try out my EQ I did on the basis of that if you like, also the EqualiserAPO config file attached:

But welcome to the forum, keep going, don't mind me taking a little bite at you, I'm harmless!

(In the attached text file the filters that are on lines that start with a # are deactivated, you want to leave those deactivated as I was just experimenting.....and also the greyed out filter in the filter list in the pic above is not active either, so you wanna leave that one out.)

 

[chekhonte]

Thank you. I am going to try that.

 

[devopsprodude]

Hifiman Sundara - easily the best headphones I've owned and listened to, plus they're pretty comfortable
Sony WH-1000XM3 - Great for noise canceling and comfort, but not music unless you need the noise canceling
OPPO PM-3 - Comfortable, pretty good sound overall, soundstage definitely lacking because of the closed backs

 

[chekhonte]

I definitely want to get a pair of sundara or ananda. I have not heard any of the lower ohm hifiman headphones. I might even go up to the arya if I find a used pair at the right price.

 

[Todd k]

I have a pair of Arya and I love them. My go to though is the sennheiser 800 with the DuPont mod. Powered by a Gustard H10 thru a LKS dac, sublime sound. my first good cans are senn 600 prodably 20 years old and still going strong. I also have hifi man 400, fostex purple heart, focal elaer. For iem my favorite are my custom molded JH audio 13’s. My bike riders are shure 535, I also have a half dozen pair of various other ear buds that I acquired over the years. I have finally decided that my headphone aquisition days are over because I’ve realized that those senn 800’s are just so much better than anything else I’ve put on my head to my ears. The list of cans I’ve passed on include senn 650, 6xx , akg and some chi fi buds. On a unrelated note does anyone in this forum know someone who can mod, like mod my fostex cans for replaceable cable? Thanx

 

[chekhonte]

HD800's are a pair I have to try some time when headphone clubs start up again. I moved to seattle 6 years ago but haven't gone to a meet up yet. I had a pair of Hifiman he560's and that for a time was the end of the road for me and I've missed out on a bunch of cans.

 

[Project2501]

Fidelio L2
ATH M50XBB

 

[companyja]

Figured I'd copy this over from a comment I made giving my impressions on past gear, you might find something there that you're wondering about -

Might as well bring you back a few years for my collection as I tried some slightly weird and forgotten headphones (this might be long sorry I'm bored):

1) AKG K712 Pro

2) Shuoer Tape*

3) RHA MA750

4) iBasso IT01

5) Musicmaker Toneking TK12

6) AKG K240 MKII

7) Sennheiser HD518

8) Sennheiser Momentum In-Ear (1st gen)

9) Beyerdynamic DT770 32ohm

1) AKG K712 Pro - Incredibly hard to move away from these. Over the years I slightly moved my preference from low-end to soundstage primarily. I still mostly chase these two parameters as you can probably see from the overall collection. The soundstage is fantastic, the imaging is fantastic, the low-end extends surprisingly low and it's fast and tight. Tonality is the big issue with a big DF peak but I've gotten used to it, only surprises me once in a while. Mid-range tonality has always been the least of my concern so I am lucky that this is the weakest point of this headphone. Overall, can't see myself going to anything short of a HD800 in the future, but I doubt I'll ever own something that expensive.

2) Shuoer Tape - big disclaimer as this is quite a flawed product, I can only listen to it with wide bore foam tips, otherwise it's literally unlistenable. I always prefer technicalities over tonality but this is just way too over the top in stock configuration. Luckily, the foams bring it to just about listenable levels and their low-end and sounstaging is mind-blowing. At times they are wider than my K712 and their combination of magnetostatic driver and weird treble tonality really makes microdetails incredibly apparent. On the downside, brass instruments destroy your ears.

3) RHA MA750 - my favorite low-end timbre I've ever heard, just a really cool pair. It's not a great qunatity of low-end but the texturing is really incredible and the strongest point of these. Great sounstage and fairly neutral upper midrange.

4) iBasso IT01 - a safe pair but disappointing where I needed it to shine - soundstage was merely okay and low-end timbre was kind of weird, overly warm and raspy, not quite textured correctly.

5) Musicmaker Toneking TK12 - my first foray into chinese IEMs, a truly non-sexy product that doesn't even have OEM packaging, just a carton box. Incredible instrument separation, okay soundstage, disappointing low-end that's soft and makes every bass instrument sound like a warm mush.

6) AKG K240 MKII - A very weird pair of headphones and I liked them a lot which is strange considering I really liked low-end back then and still do now. Very weird tonality with quite a boost in the mid-bass. Fairly nice imaging and sounstage, but north of neutral in tonality for music production.

7) Sennheiser HD518 - my first pair of nice headphones after the HD202 (I didn't even mention them cause they were kinda meh). I used them the longest and they damn near disintegrated during the years, poor construction and cheap plastics. I really wanted a lot of bass back then so I always EQd them to like 6-8 dB boost under 125hz, and reduced 8k a lot. Over time I reverted to using them at stock, which brought back the soundstage a bit. When EQ'd, the bass is actually kinda thumpin if distorted, but overall it's a relatively unexciting pair of headphones.

8) Sennheiser Momentum In-Ear - I remember first putting these on and not believing how wide the soundstage could get. If you want to hear an absurdly large sounstage, find a pair of these and then discard them when you hear how broken the tonality is. I usually get used to a lot but this is just too much and I could never get used to it enough to sound neutral. Vocals especially get destroyed with these, and cymbals sound like shakers. Nicely controlled low-end, though.

9) Beyerdynamic DT770 32ohm - got these for my dad a year or so ago, tried them a couple of times, never really had a good thing to say about them so last they go. The low-end is very boomy and undefined, the top-end is shrieky and sibilant. The soundstage did not impress and that was that.

 

[jonfitch]

Hifiman HE1000 - the original "soft like toilet paper" headphone according to Tyll Hertsens of Inner Fidelity. Bought it because it won that shootout with Bob Katz, Tyll and a bunch of other audio geeks back in 2015 over the HD800, Stax SR009 and 007 and a bunch of other headphones due to its ability to make everything sound good.

Sennheiser HD800 - the first TOTL headphone of the millennium that basically created the high end headphone market that we know today. Has SDR mod. Only way to listen to it. Still a bit bright but its the most comfortable full size headphone I've ever worn and has the best soundstage.

Focal Utopia - I'll admit it, I bought it because it has beryllium in it. This was when I was in the beryllium hype a long time ago, having owned the Revel Ultima2 speakers for over a decade, and also owned the Usher BE series before dumping them in disgust because of the Brush Wellman fiasco when it was revealed their beryllium was just titanium. I probably listen to these the least, they have good punchy bass...but otherwise I prefer listening to the HD800 and HE1000 for better soundstage. They mostly just sit on display these days...

I used to own the SR009 too, but I finally got tired of it because it was so thin sounding. It actually made the HD800 sound bassy. I did buy into the HD8xx Drop. Hopefully it will be worth the money...

 

[Robbo99999]

Hifiman HE1000 - the original "soft like toilet paper" headphone according to Tyll Hertsens of Inner Fidelity. Bought it because it won that shootout with Bob Katz, Tyll and a bunch of other audio geeks back in 2015 over the HD800, Stax SR009 and 007 and a bunch of other headphones due to its ability to make everything sound good.

Sennheiser HD800 - the first TOTL headphone of the millennium that basically created the high end headphone market that we know today. Has SDR mod. Only way to listen to it. Still a bit bright but its the most comfortable full size headphone I've ever worn and has the best soundstage.

Focal Utopia - I'll admit it, I bought it because it has beryllium in it. This was when I was in the beryllium hype a long time ago, having owned the Revel Ultima2 speakers for over a decade, and also owned the Usher BE series before dumping them in disgust because of the Brush Wellman fiasco when it was revealed their beryllium was just titanium. I probably listen to these the least, they have good punchy bass...but otherwise I prefer listening to the HD800 and HE1000 for better soundstage. They mostly just sit on display these days...

I used to own the SR009 too, but I finally got tired of it because it was so thin sounding. It actually made the HD800 sound bassy. I did buy into the HD8xx Drop. Hopefully it will be worth the money...

I do like the look of the HD8xx from what I've seen, seems to be the one to get if you're interested in a Sennheiser HD800s. Slightly better bass and better value. I'd be interested in seeing the HD8xx reviewed here. I gotta say though, it's still too much money for a headphone, I'm keeping my EQ'd K702 as my favourite.