Looking for a pair of closed planar headphones because I pretty much have every other type of headphone. My current setup is NDH20’s, b&o h6’s, m1060’s, 6xx’s, dt1990’s, and powered by a darkvoice and EL stack with a THX portable on the side. I don’t want to spend as much as the ether cx or the mr speakers aeon closed. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I’m open to sound signatures, just want planar and closed in that price range.
I have an Audeze EL-8 on the way. That fits your bill. I will report back when I get them.
have you looked at the Massdrop TR-X00?
I nice set of cans, but TR-X00s are dynamic, not planar.
Cool, thanks. I will look into those
my bad. what about the Audeze Mobius?
Closed back planars…this still confuses me?
Why? Planar magnetic is a driver, closed back is the back of the headphone.
Not a lot of them, but they exist.
Yes they do…
I also had a similar been looking for a closed back set that sounded different from my daily driver DT 1990’s and was struggling to find things in the same price range. I had thought about getting the Audeze EL-8C, but I ultimately decided to go with the Massdrop MrSpeakers.
Good luck in your search.
1 Like
"my daily driver DT 1990’s " as does the op …the grail is out there?..closed back’s are closed backed thought.
The ether cx? I would like to get those but I can’t spend $900. $600 is enough of a stretch as it is. I also am not a huge fan of massdrop because of their product release structure. I can’t understand why they manufacture popular items like the 789 in such small quantities intentionally. I get they want to drive the demand up, but they need to let that happen naturally by putting out quality products. Not making them practically unavailable to the public. And when you do get in on a drop at the perfect time, it takes at best 2 months to get to you. The combination of that makes me not even want to buy anything from them. Massdrop will put their own business at risk by trying to make more money.
1 Like
I doubt the lack of THX hardware has anything to do with MD, but rather everything to do with THX, since it is their IP and they don’t/haven’t made it available through them either.
why not build a list of planars in your price range, read and watch as many reviews of each will noting the plus n minus that concern you and start making a short list?
I totally get what you are saying as I rarely use massdrop any more, but sometimes they just have things that bring me back.
For the downside, delays. I haven’t had the support nightmare of others, but I usually expect things to be delayed. In the CX drop that ended recently, I have been notified that due to demand shipping is expected to occur late July now (was 05JUl19).
But if MD is calling the CX their flagship closed back, then I would think they will continue regularly selling or stocking them in the future. For the 789, I think that was a combination of MD and Monoprice working with THX to do something perplexingly awesome as a demo of mid priced AAA design/tech.
About the 789 thing, from what I understand it isn’t that they wanted to create hype by limiting supply, rather that they literally could not manufacture enough of them. Doesn’t make it that much better IMO, i’m also in the camp of waiting to get one as an upgrade to my vali 2. (had to get schiits solid state tube because tubes burn out insanely fast i found)
I can’t find any good closed back planars under 600 other than the m1060c, which everyone and their mother has said is better without the cups.
Have you considered buying used? You can find aeon flow closed around 450-550 on the used market, LCD2 closed seems to be a lot harder to find, but they seem to go for around 600-ish.
1 Like
It was less about THX 789 specifically and more about the massdrop strategy in all. Almost everyone is tired of the way massdrop is running things these days, including Zeos. Also about the list, I am not aware of many other headphones except the ether cx and aeon closed that’s why I created this posting. To get suggestions from someone who might have looked for the same thing once.
yes, open back variants of a closed back usually sound better because theyre benefiting from the naturally more pleasing airy and wide stage sound. that doesn’t mean they terrible as closed back tho!