I noticed that as well and itās such a shame as I really liked his videos as well. All well
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For a non-trained ear curious about open-backs for gaming/music: PC38x and SHP9500
Iāve seen videos of folks trying out the SHP9500 and being dazzled by them. I want to experience that. The buzz seems to carry with the higher price point nowadays. Theyāre popular in the gaming community.
When I look up reviews for the PC38x, itās mainly āideal for gamingā and ādecentā for music.
So which one is more impressionable to introduce open-back sound to someone new?
Iād appreciate a comparison only between these two. Thanks!
Anyone? Thanks.
Hey there, and welcome! I havenāt tried the PC38x, but had the Game One, which was very similar. The SHP9500 is good for the price, but I wouldnāt personally say it competes with the Senns. The SHP is much more open and leans a little bright from memory, where the Senns tend to be more intimate and mid focused. Iām not a gamer, so I canāt speak to performance in gaming, but from memory, the SHP is probably a bit wider, but the Senn will be more precise.
Hey thanks for the reply! Your description sounds accurate from what Iāve read/watched.
So that said, between āmuch more openā vs āintimate and mid focusedā which of these are generally more influential to someone new to hifi?
Iāve also read that the PC38x has some audio compression and not as dynamic (not against SHP per se but hifiās in general) to help gamers ātameā explosions/bullets in favor of footsteps. Would you consider that a noticeable downgrade for newcomers curious about hifi?
Pc38x is tuned bright as well so I think itās a fair comparison.
Hmm Iād say almost equal on staging in my opinion but 38x wins on imaging accuracy. Speaking as someone who owned both of these
I think itās a good step up for its priceā¦ shp9500 is nice but in my opinion only becomes better post modifications as then it gains the ability if a microphone and multiple sound signatures. I like the fit more of the 38x but it is a bit compressed, it lacks detail retrieval, definitely isnāt that good at separation, highs are slightly grainy, mids are clean and clear for the most part, bass is kinda hollow and the weakest spot of the headphone. Shp9500 has a better bass post mod with more impact and fullness, the attachable mic vmoda is easily better than 38x mic, the treble offers sparkle and fair detail retrieval but still a little grainy, mids are a bit more of a toss up on the two but Iāll give that to 38x as they definitely present themselves better, build quality is rather poor on 9500 and the clamp force is borderline non existent so 38 wins there. All in all 9500 wins only post mod and if you want musicality in my opinion. For gaming 38x is just fine and the bass is plenty present itās just not hi fi grade of sound for sureā¦ 38 will however noticeably struggle placements in larger fps due to issues with separation and sound stage sizing
Thanks for the info!
Some games have great soundtracks so I think about that as well.
In terms of musicality, if you had to choose between an unmodded SHP9500 or a PC38x, which one would you go with? You may squirm because you have 10+ headsets to recommend over them, but just curious to ask.
38x at that point because gaming is involved and I really hate the base comfort on 9500
I just want to throw out there that the pc38x changed sound more than any other headphones Iāve ever used after giving them a thorough burn in. I almost sent them back at first because the bass would literally rattle the cans and it sounded like something was loose inside of it bouncing around when the volume was full and explosions were going off. Honestly sounds great now and I have totally changed my initial opinion on them. I really like them as a whole and with no EQ theyāre great for games out of the box. With some EQ changes they can be great for music too but thereās definitely some processing going on in them that you have to fight kinda hard against to balance. Would still recommend them to anyone for gaming exclusively and theyāre pretty good for movies as well.
Agreed as far as a gamer standpoint they are very goodā¦ I just wouldnāt call them good for musicā¦ plenty of better options for that
Thank you guys! I think Iām gonna be happy with this headset as my first open-backs.
At the very least Iāll get rid of this old gamer headset with its volume/mute hub that pulls down like an anchor. It gets old after a couple years.
These came in today so I figured Iād report back.
I think I understand now why these are good for gaming. I played some Mario Kart and Smash (realtek drivers). The headphones grab an array of varying sound effects and figures out how to organize and āvisuallyā place them. In other words, I guess these are good at organizing a mess of sounds which are video games 
.
Iām not an audiophile so ignorance is bliss. These are pleasant to listen to and beats the crap out of my janky old ones.
I received my PC38X today. They do sound good, but I noticed almost immediately at low frequencies there is a pop/crack/rattle type of noise. Is this clipping? It will only happen at certain volumes or if I have the bass boost on my Ifi zen dac turned on - its pretty horrible. I can replicate it by using 40hz or below on this tool - https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/. This is a mic recording of the issue Iām experiencing: https://gofile.io/d/klT9u8 Iām just turning the volume up a bit then dragging the tone slider down past 40hz and up again.
Kinda sounds like it.
or just drivers flexing. lol
Burn them in. Seriously. Burn them in. Donāt judge them until you burn them in for like 50 hours.
Really? You think that might fix this issue? I read that was a myth
Read what I said further up. I literally almost returned them with 10 seconds of use after the first grenade went off in a tarkov game I was trying them in. The driver rattled and sounded like it was going to fall out or there was a broken piece of plastic in it or something. Burned them in for 3 days straight and I think the drivers relaxed enough to not rattle because they sound fine now.
Most drastic burn in Iāve ever experienced.
Anything mechanical needs some time to get all the bits and pieces moved to resting position.
Electrolytic Capacitors also have a forming period (few hours to a few days).
Conductors and Semi-Conductors donāt need burn in.
Wow, ok Iāll give it a go then. Thanks guys.
I tried it for 10 hours using these 4 wave files on repeat - https://www.head-fi.org/threads/free-burn-in-files.466827/ and I think it might have actually improved a little! Iāll run it for the next 30 hours and see how that goes.
Can anyone recommend a better file? Seeing as this happens mostly at lower frequencies should I be running something mostly bassy or is it good to have the range.
Thanks.