Whoa! That definitely wasn’t my experience, but I’ve heard a few people who disliked the NDH20’s. I’ll settle for your opinions on the Ebony’s, since my Neumanns are about to be sold in favor of the Kennerton Magni.
I am very interested in what you think of the Magni when you get it
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I’ll post up my impressions for sure.
wow magni, nice. those are expensive headphones. why closed?
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The Vali are like a speaker. Wife doesn’t love that. She sleeps mega early and I stay up until 2:00am on most nights. A closed back was needed. 
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.
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These also have a break in period where the treble gets more refined, the bass gets better, and the mids improve a bit. The driver is stiff and needs to get a decent amount of usage
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good to know, thanks
I agree with this 100% I initially wanted the thicker bass of the Argon and thought, “this is a letdown, maybe I need to buy back the Argons”.
The more I listened, the more I changed my mind. Not only do I prefer it to the Argon, but it’s starting to threaten my Phantoms as my #2 favorite headphone. I think it’s emotional attachment to the Phantom that is keeping it’s spot. More listening needed.
What I like about the Ebony is that I purchased it as a utility headphone to add bass to certain music that wants it. It’s giving me that, but I’m finding I just enjoy it all the way around. I used metal571’s 1 band EQ suggestion and it really made me happy.
Glad you’re enjoying them. I am, too.
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If you find the pads uncomfortable then I would recommend ZMF Ori lambskin. I find that they only slightly reduce the midbass and add a very small amount of treble. If you don’t like that then all you need to do is add attenuator rings behind the pads and it sound basically identical to stock as far as I can tell. Also the Ori pads look GREAT!
I made mine out of a ~1/2mm thick price of soft vinyl like plastic from the front of a spiral note book. Also dekoni sells some for $15 if you can’t be bothered.
The lip on the Ori pads is a bit big, but I found if you get the tabs into place and then spin the pad the wrong way until it spins freely (get the lip out of the tabs) then twist it the right way to lock the tabs they go right on.
Also just a good picture of my purple heart cups.
Also also the stand. (Sadly currently unavailable at the moment)
Edit: hay @M0N can we get a purple heart and mahogany thread as well?
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If the Phantom is your number 2 what is your number one? What’s Metals one band EQ suggestion?
Kennerton Vali 2019 is my favorite. Not as much bass as the TR-X00, but warm, slightly bassy, just enough detail. So many genres sound good on that headphone. Sounds very refined, like you know you’re listening to a quality headphone. For example, I liked the sound of the Hifiman HE560, but I found the sound thin. Vali 2019 has really good sound stage and a thick sound that I like. The biggest difference for me between the Vali & Phantom is the vocals. Vali does everything the Phantom does well but a little better, and with closer, clearer vocals (sorry I suck at describing sound).
Metal suggested 10000, -4db, Q3 (sorry if that’s not how you write out EQ bands).
Hey I heard these are being discontinued in another thread, is that true? Also, the mohagany is still available for $420, is there a difference between the colors or should expect the same quality from both?
Yes I believe they are being discontinued, the ebony is the most refined of the bunch, the purple heart is the bassiest, and the mahogany is in the middle of the ebony and the purpleheart
Is the difference between the mahogany and ebony significant? Or do you recommend finding a used pair of ebony over the mohagany?
I think the ebony is an improvement imo, and if you can find a good condition used ebony for a similar price I would go with that
I think the ebony is more coherent and refined
thats sad thats its being discontinued. that mean massdrop is not gonna do another run? if so what does fostex offer thats close to it?
They have been on massdrop for a relatively long time actually (I think like 4 years or something) so the sales were dying off so they just decided they were done lol. They offer the th610 and higher end stuff like their th900. Denon headphones are pretty similar like the d7200 or d9200
Are those 2 companies owned by the same conglomerate or something?
They both use foster biodynamic drivers I think