Ok tried these tonight and wow. These are amazing. Just… wow. Ive been listening to Simple Minds with monster detail headphones. The Aiva, Elex, 95x, Ananda. But tonight i tried these and for the first time ive heard something that was missing before but i couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Simple Minds are a band that create huge walls of sound. They use synthesizers to create sublime almost spiritual music. And i was wondering why those synths weren’t as strong as they used to be. i thought, “well maybe in higher resolution thats just the way they are in reality, and what i was hearing before was not really there”. But tonight ive heard it again. Thanks to the Fostex Ebony’s more fuller sound. And it is. the Sound seems lush. more body. and it brings out things in Simple Minds music that the others did not.
This sounds more like the music i was used to before i got into this whole hifi thing. The Bass is so nice and complements Simple Minds so well. Mel Gaynor is a very powerful drummer and not afraid to use the deeper bass drums. and they come through gloriously in these headphones. Simple Minds can be bombastic sometimes too. This headphone will sound great with U2 also. the simple minds track “brass band in african chimes” sound amazing on these with its heavy hitting bass drums. unfortunately on a couple tracks the music gets a little distorted by the bass i think. maybe its vibrating the driver surface so much that its distorting them? idk. But its very minimal. tiny. and it only happens for a few seconds on certain songs. i can ignore it.
Simple Minds
Bass doesn’t get boomy most of the time, only heard it on one track. but you can tell its always there, but it doesn’t dominate the music. i’d say these headphones are bass leaning but really not that much unexpectedly. I heard the TH-00X line were bassy. but everything else is here and is not overruled by bass. at first i was a little disappointed as i expected the bass to be a little stronger. but on some tracks it is a little too strong. I find on those songs i want this full sound with more normal bass. Maybe the Aeolus will be this.
Surprisingly it has great treble too. Sometimes sibilant but mostly fine. I was surprised at this cause i heard they were warm headphones. but there’s plenty of treble here. Midrange seems fine. Soundstage is good also, id say close/normal. and theres nice detail also, but not as much as those headphones mentioned above. but yeah these sound awesome. these are a revelation to me.
The Cups arent black. you can see the wood grain there but you have to look closely in good lite. it reminds me of old English houses and their walnut paneling on the walls that darken with age and maybe haven’t been cleaned in a while lol. I wish it was brighter. I was thinking of replacing it with the TH610 cups, which are beautiful in dark walnut. The Lawton cups would look fabulous with these. The cable is good. not detachable. sound leaks and they are not that isolating.
The pads are a problem. they are not over ear but on ear. and my ears arent that big. i can imagine how they would be on bigger ears. i can stuff my ears into the small hole in the pads but the music doesn’t sound as good lol. so it rides on top of my upper ear and bottom and after a while it starts to hurt. i was thinking of getting pads with a larger hole but i hear that causes the treble to rise and the bass to drop. not sure i want that as the treble is already high. i could stand to lose some bass. so maybe i’ll try them. but why not just leave these as my bass headphones?
There are other headphones in this line. The mahogany and the purple hearts. but a lot people think these are the best of the lineup. and i know that the mahogany and purple hearts carry more bass. these seem to me at times to not have enough bass and at other times too much bass. so not sure if i would like those lol.
but yeah. these are wonderful headphones. gives me hope for “warm” headphones. Thumbs up, way up.