What headphones would you like Amir to measure next?

[Rja4000]

Sennheiser - HD25-C II​

A classic closed-back for on-the-field recorders.
Relatively cheap, robust and flexible, and quite sensitive (to allow proper monitoring with low power HP amp included in portable recorders).
Provides good isolation as well.

Also popular amongst DJs, it seems.
Probably for the same reasons.

 

[srsxmi]

Ah, apologies you know the deal then. Just didn't want anyone waiting in vain. Side note, I'm assuming you know crinacle, oratory1990 and resolve all do comparable reports on frequency response, just not the rest of the measurements. Might help you rule either of your considered hp in or out.

Understood and appreciated.

Re; the frequency graphs, I was not aware, thank you, that's helpful.

 

[Jimbob54]

Understood and appreciated.

Re; the frequency graphs, I was not aware, thank you, that's helpful.

HAvent checked them all but Oratory has definitely measured the LCD5 https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

I must confess I dont know who / what the second pair you mentioned even are!- Edit- ah the Audeze electrostats!

 

[srsxmi]

HAvent checked them all but Oratory has definitely measured the LCD5 https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

I must confess I dont know who / what the second pair you mentioned even are!- Edit- ah the Audeze electrostats!

Thanks. I did use the Oratory PEQ for the LCD-5, but here's the conundrum that Amir's reviews resolve for me: I made a few HP purchases pre-ASR's HP reviews (and EQ). One of those was the Audeze LCD-X and I thought it sounded pretty good due in part, to reviews and the rest due to my untrained ears. My LCD-X purchase was by someone I trusted at the time, Tyll Hertsens at InnerFidelity_com (the site and Tyll are now retired).
When I read Amir's LCD-X review, it convinced me to sell mine, hence a good teaching lesson.

Continuing the saga... I bought Stax HP and amp based on a friend's recommendation of the brand, Audeze LCD-i4's (in-ear), because of a good price, etc. In short, I've not had a comprehensive way to evaluate a headphone until ASR started HP reviews. Amir's measurements, his trained ears and audio expertise, are comprehensive and the results are subjected to a due diligence inspection with diverse community of knowledgeable audio folks.

 

[Robbo99999]

Having submitted (more at surrendered) 4 hp's to ASR review process previously, I am painfully aware of the (variable) timeframes. From that experience I do appreciate your comment.

The 4 hp's were ones I owned - the value I gained from the interviews made me rethink spending money w/out fully understanding what I was buying, so now I wait.

Since I've already auditioned both HP's I have my own opinions and a few facts.

Which ones did you send in & which ones did he review?

 

[srsxmi]

Which ones did you send in & which ones did he review?

The LCD's X and 24, Koss 95x, and a HD-800s sent and reviewed.

 

[Robbo99999]

The LCD's X and 24, Koss 95x, and a HD-800s sent and reviewed.

That's an exotic array of headphones sent in & tested, albeit they all have some pretty significant frequency response flaws apart from the HD800s which is more easily EQ'd and is probably the best headphone there. I'm guessing you wouldn't have bought the LCD-X and LCD-24, and probably not the Koss 95x if you'd seen the measurements first. That's the good thing about this site & other measurement resources like Crinacle / Oratory / Resolve, you get to see what you're getting and saves you wasting thousands of dollars in some cases! That's good of you to send them in, did you sell them?

 

[Robbo99999]

Hifiman Edition XS ?

Yes, please.

We do have reviews and measurements from headphones.com and rtings.com for the XS, but ASR would be great too. Hope Amir has them on his bench somewhere.

I was just looking at Oratory's reddit "Weekly EQ Thread" and he posted up to a user that asked about the Edition XS saying that he actually went out and got a couple of units to measure, here's the results:

Dropbox - File Deleted

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!

www.dropbox.com

He's not put it into his official listing, but he gave this link out to the guy that asked. Looks like a pretty reasonable frequency response which is fairly easy to EQ, but the massive peak at around 12kHz looks a bit worrying.

 

[srsxmi]

That's an exotic array of headphones sent in & tested, albeit they all have some pretty significant frequency response flaws apart from the HD800s which is more easily EQ'd and is probably the best headphone there. I'm guessing you wouldn't have bought the LCD-X and LCD-24, and probably not the Koss 95x if you'd seen the measurements first. That's the good thing about this site & other measurement resources like Crinacle / Oratory / Resolve, you get to see what you're getting and saves you wasting thousands of dollars in some cases! That's good of you to send them in, did you sell them?

Correct.

Selling: great question. The LCD-X yes, and I want to sell the LCD-24 and the Koss when I find something that replaces them type for type. I.e., I was looking to replace the LCD-24 possibly with the LCD-5.

I have a pro-bias connector for the Koss and an SRM-353x that powers it nicely, so I am not in a hurry to sell it. Ideally, I would sell both together once I found another electrostatic headphone to replace the Koss, e.g., the CRBN. (I have two energizers and would keep the other one for my Stax SR-007mkII). I might sell the other energizer if Amir was still doing reviews on energizers, its the tube based SRM-700T, which I am not happy about since the first reviews were done - distortion generators is what I recall. Again, another purchase I would not have made. That I will sell or trade for a SRM700S.

Sadly, the only headphones that passed muster aside from the HD-800s is their older brother, the HD-650.

A final point, I would not own both a CRBN and LCD-5, and maybe neither.

 

[Robbo99999]

Correct.

Selling: great question. The LCD-X yes, and I want to sell the LCD-24 and the Koss when I find something that replaces them type for type. I.e., I was looking to replace the LCD-24 possibly with the LCD-5.

I have a pro-bias connector for the Koss and an SRM-353x that powers it nicely, so I am not in a hurry to sell it. Ideally, I would sell both together once I found another electrostatic headphone to replace the Koss, e.g., the CRBN. (I have two energizers and would keep the other one for my Stax SR-007mkII). I might sell the other energizer if Amir was still doing reviews on energizers, its the tube based SRM-700T, which I am not happy about since the first reviews were done - distortion generators is what I recall. Again, another purchase I would not have made. That I will sell or trade for a SRM700S.

Sadly, the only headphones that passed muster aside from the HD-800s is their older brother, the HD-650.

A final point, I would not own both a CRBN and LCD-5, and maybe neither.

If you've got the funds (assuming you do considering the exotic headphones), and the time to spare then you might gain something from trying less costly well-measuring headphones (praps HE4XX planar to compare against your other planars after they've been EQ'd to the same target), perhaps HD560s (dynamic driver) to compare against any of your headphones. You are in an unusual place where you have some of the most expensive headphones already.... so comparing them against less expensive headphones could be interesting for you, probably most interesting to compare them once they've been EQ'd to the same curve, but also at stock if that's important to you (and is where you'd see most differences).

So you like the HD800s and the HD650......both very different even when EQ'd to the same curve. I have the HD600 which is basically the same as the HD650, especially when EQ'd to the same curve as they have same physical dimensions / overall structure....and the HD600 is very narrow soundstage, so the opposite of your HD800s, but the HD600/650 would be good in every other way (apart from bass EQ is not the best on the HD600). If you got the HD560s (after EQ), you might find it sits between the HD650 and the HD800s in terms of soundstage size whilst having better quality bass than both of those headphones, and probably the same level of "clarity" as both those headphones. So you might find it interesting to experiment with lower cost headphones as a means of putting things in perspective - but choose some good measuring ones. I say this mainly because I'm not a believer in the benefit of $1000 headphones. I do "believe" the measurements though, and overall trends in people's reported perception of soundstage.

 

[ngs428]

I was just looking at Oratory's reddit "Weekly EQ Thread" and he posted up to a user that asked about the Edition XS saying that he actually went out and got a couple of units to measure, here's the results:

Dropbox - File Deleted

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!

www.dropbox.com

He's not put it into his official listing, but he gave this link out to the guy that asked. Looks like a pretty reasonable frequency response which is fairly easy to EQ, but the massive peak at around 12kHz looks a bit worrying.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[srsxmi]

If you've got the funds (assuming you do considering the exotic headphones), and the time to spare then you might gain something from trying less costly well-measuring headphones (praps HE4XX planar to compare against your other planars after they've been EQ'd to the same target), perhaps HD560s (dynamic driver) to compare against any of your headphones. You are in an unusual place where you have some of the most expensive headphones already.... so comparing them against less expensive headphones could be interesting for you, probably most interesting to compare them once they've been EQ'd to the same curve, but also at stock if that's important to you (and is where you'd see most differences).

So you like the HD800s and the HD650......both very different even when EQ'd to the same curve. I have the HD600 which is basically the same as the HD650, especially when EQ'd to the same curve as they have same physical dimensions / overall structure....and the HD600 is very narrow soundstage, so the opposite of your HD800s, but the HD600/650 would be good in every other way (apart from bass EQ is not the best on the HD600). If you got the HD560s (after EQ), you might find it sits between the HD650 and the HD800s in terms of soundstage size whilst having better quality bass than both of those headphones, and probably the same level of "clarity" as both those headphones. So you might find it interesting to experiment with lower cost headphones as a means of putting things in perspective - but choose some good measuring ones. I say this mainly because I'm not a believer in the benefit of $1000 headphones. I do "believe" the measurements though, and overall trends in people's reported perception of soundstage.

Your point on cost is well taken; I started off at a lower price point but being naive to the benefits of EQ'ing (and sans ASR) I thought I needed to spend more to achieve better results. For example, my second pair of headphones were the HE4XX, but I rarely used them because the bass response was poor compared to the HD650. Similarly, I only used the HD800s where soundstage mattered, but again not they were not EQ'd. After Amir's review of the HD800s, I tried his EQ and then learned what was possible.

Fitting twixt the 650 and 800s with the benefits described would be ideal. I will try the HD560s - thank you for the recommendation, the data points and the perspective in the last 2 sentences, echoed below:

I say this mainly because I'm not a believer in the benefit of $1000 headphones. I do "believe" the measurements though, and overall trends in people's reported perception of soundstage.

 

[Robbo99999]

Your point on cost is well taken; I started off at a lower price point but being naive to the benefits of EQ'ing (and sans ASR) I thought I needed to spend more to achieve better results. For example, my second pair of headphones were the HE4XX, but I rarely used them because the bass response was poor compared to the HD650. Similarly, I only used the HD800s where soundstage mattered, but again not they were not EQ'd. After Amir's review of the HD800s, I tried his EQ and then learned what was possible.

Fitting twixt the 650 and 800s with the benefits described would be ideal. I will try the HD560s - thank you for the recommendation, the data points and the perspective in the last 2 sentences, echoed below:

(I measured 3 units of HD560s recently and they all sit exceedingly close to each other, as well as the channel matching, so I think the chances are that any HD560s you get should be a good one, and therefore any EQ's you find based on measurements should be valid as your unit shouldn't stray much from those that have been measured - eg Oratory EQ's. If you do get one and they still sound harsh after Oratory EQ then try an 8200Hz peak filter, -2dB, Q6 - there's sometimes a peak there on some headphones that are worse than others that Oratory chose not to correct for in his EQ.)

 

[dluksza]

HiFiMan Edition XS

Would like to see how this new addition to the HiFiMan family stackup. Is it better than Sundara? or Dan Clark Audio ÆON RT?

 

[RHO]

Tanchjim Hana 2021
SeeAudio Yume Midnight
Shuoer S12
FiiO FD3

 

[Zoide]

Electrostatic headphones please!

Nectar Hive X, STAX L700, etc.

 

[Stawidy]

Stax SR-X9000 please They just came in the mail after waiting months for them, and they are hands down the best headphone I've ever heard. Have them hooked to an absolute world leading signal chain too (Benchmark DAC3 B -> HPA4 -> AHB2 x2 in mono -> iFi iESL electrostatic energizer. I must admit, I thought only my main system could sound like this.

STAX SR-X9000 NEW FLAGSHIP HEADPHONES — Stax

Introducing the latest creation of Stax Electrostatic Earspeakers. A newly developed driver and headband. Made in Japan since 1938.

staxaudio.com

View attachment 187348

Here's a measurement result by B&K 4128C HATS.

 

[buscon]

Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X

 

[RHO]

Tanchjim Hana 2021
SeeAudio Yume Midnight
Shuoer S12
FiiO FD3

Lets add Moondrop Chu to the list.

 

[deafenears]

Lets add Moondrop Chu to the list.

"headphones" - maybe start a new thread for IEMs / earphones / earbuds?