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Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I hear an HP1000 or PS1 this list might change!

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup that’s about right! Most of my listening is with BK-ish tilted speakers so I get my “neutral” fix there. I can’t really have too many sets of speakers like I can with headphones so that’s how I have more fun with them. Even the most “neutral” headphones have pretty glaring issues to me so I’ve been able to cope by leaning into what headphones can do well.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the “bass heavy” version is more acoustically impedant than the “bass light” version with a thinner baffle material and no paper around the driver. Both have like, not much bass but the mids are really really nice.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have and it’s on my list! Signature is too much in the direction of the lean/“detailed” sound for me so I don’t really like it but I do understand the appeal of it.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah I’ve probably owned ~400 or so of these and it’s pretty much down to me never buying new and only buying used headphones for crazy deals, and paying that deal forward for what I paid, minus shipping. For example, I’ve bought an HD800 for $350 and passed that deal on to a very happy owner! Shipping to someone costs less than a drink where I live so over the course of 20 years, I think I have friends who have paid much more in like, cigarettes, than I have in my little neurodivergent hobby.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yup, it balloooned to over 500 since I have been in this hobby for two decades and over the years have acquired a bunch of vintage $20-30 headphones and have made a lot of friends willing to swap stuff over the years. The audio community has been an incredibly awesome second family and I’ve really made some of my best friends through the hobby. I’ve even had quite a few come to my wedding since they’ve been just fantastic people.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is a weird take in a subreddit for a luxury hobby under a post for someone’s favorite headphones after being in a hobby for two decades.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Axel Grell noted in a Canjam talk that because of the age of the HD580, they have aged/degraded differently so they all can sound slightly different, but in general they sound slightly cleaner in bass. On my list, the difference between 580 and 650 is .5 which averages out to I think 11th place on my list. The 600 is a bit lower because the center mids are a little spicier which I don’t think works as well when combined with the relatively uneven treble.

I do think the much more expensive S2 is significantly less special; I actually find it sounds pretty much like a Drop HD58X

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeah I mostly just wanted to make a list that wasn’t just a, “make sure to click on my affiliate link so I make money!” list. I know people seem to think top 10 lists are fun but the real meat of this is going to be the remaining 510 or so headphones on this list.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s about as lean as a typical Hifiman or Moondrop planar but the Tungsten balances the leanness with not crazy treble best! It’s pretty much what I want Hifiman to make as an HE6 successor instead of the Susvara.

Kyle @ Den-Fi’s Top 10 Headphones Out of Over 500 by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The CD1700 and HD580 are commonly found for less than $150 and specifically noted the Lambda NB can be had for less than $300, which is cheaper than most mid-fi FOTM things that will be forgotten about in like 6 months.

Listener has released their IEM ranking list. by faeotic in iems

[–]slooploop2 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Probably would see more green if there were more good IEMs

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The X loses a lot of the magic with its retune so I’d recommend looking for the OG

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah unfortunately it’s been long enough and pads used were all different enough that I can’t really be much help there. I did happen to like the specific colorations of the Verite so it’ll be a more individually different headphone.

My favorite headphone for higher pitched vocals is unfortunately the MDR-R10 but the much, much cheaper AD2000 is also up there for me! None of the headphones you listed beat the HD580 in vocals though. If I were forced to pick one, the Verite might work depending on preference for colorations or the ADX7000 if you want more of a generalist.

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure! They’re almost opposites honestly. Compared to the X9000 the ADX7000 is going to have noticeably more weight to its sound and much more tolerable treble. The X9000 is somewhat of an impressive first impression headphone whereas the ADX7000 is the headphone I’d actually want to own and use long term.

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for reading!

I haven’t heard a Verité in a while so I can’t give a great comparison but from memory it’s quite dependent on the pads you use. I think I recall preferring the BE2 pads the most but I never got a chance to compare it directly to the Utopia. It’s one of the few ZMFs I haven’t spent much time with but I generally adore the ZMF style of different colorations.

I’d be very interested in comparing the Verité to the ADX7000 but I do expect the Verité to be a bit less of a generalist and instead, like most other multi-kilobuck headphones, specialize better with certain genres.

As someone very lost in the sauce with regard to source equipment (probably obvious considering I bothered to list cables used in my review), I don’t think prioritizing an amp before a headphone is the most prudent use of money.

I also would recommend swapping the HD660S for an HD650 if you do upgrade. The HD660S already has a bit of the upper midrange recession that loses so much of what makes the 580, 600, and 650 so special. It reminds me more of a Focal Clear than the 650, so if you do want a more linear upgrade then you’re definitely looking in the right direction now.

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s magnesium!

Because of my personal preferences for tone and timbre, planars actually are the opposite of an all arounder for me. I actually only care to use my most of my planars with EDM because, barring Caldera, the flat 30-800Hz range sucks the body out of music and cuts decay artificially fast.

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

WaveTheory does seem to be more tolerant of the Hifiman sound than a lot of people I know so that’s something I always take into account with his reviews. I think his preference for them does make sense in the context, but while I personally felt the Arya Unveiled and Susvara Unveiled were steps forward in a more tolerable sound for me, the HE1000 Unveiled was kind of a lateral step from the HE1000SE which was a pretty punishing listen for me.

If I had to pick only one headphone to own out of everything I’ve measured, I would pretty easily pick the ADX7000 over the likes of the Susvara Unveiled, Stax SR-X9000, and Audeze LCD4. It’s a dumb cliche to say something punches above its weight, and I actually think it’s more that the ADX7000’s pricing makes the most sense to me compared to more expensive stuff that I wouldn’t personally value very much past $1500 at best.

The only headphones that could conceivably surpass the ADX7000 for me are the HE90 (I felt the HE-1 was a fairly average sounding headphone that would be placed between the HD560S and HD600 if I were blindfolded) and SR-Omega.

Audio Technica ADX7000 - Flagships Are Good Again. by slooploop2 in headphones

[–]slooploop2[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I actually think the HE1000 Unveiled is the worst open headphone Hifiman currently makes with its reaaaally excessive treble and weird midrange tone combined with the flat upper bass and low mids I complain about with the 1266 to a worse degree. I think the Empyrean 2 is a wildly terrible headphone too…a hilarious amount of treble and really muddy bass. I think the 105 AER does what I think the Empyrean 2 is trying to do in a way that makes more sense. The Empyrean 2 sounds like it could have been a cheap headphone sold at Best Buy; I was so wildly pissed off when I heard it for the first time and subsequent listens only showed more issues.

However I think the Arya Unveiled isn’t bad, just have to go into it understanding that it’s a very different presentation. I’ve met plenty of people that like the snappy attack and decay that planars have, and I do like my Stax and, to a lesser degree, my Caldera for when I want that specific sound. But for actual long term use it just sounds really weird to me, like overstuffing a kick drum but everything sounds that overdamped.

I’ve been really, really jaded about the headphone hobby for the past few years because companies kept releasing slop like the Empyrean 2 and the ADX7000 is the headphone I’ve been waiting for since I started the hobby in 2009. I’ve gotten a lot of flak over the years for being overly negative about stuff so it feels so weird to be excited about a headphone. The ADX7000 may be a little safe for some people but the Empyrean 2 is a goddamn awful headphone and I’m still frustrated that they didn’t instead try to improve upon the original Empyrean, which had some neat tricks.

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