GL2k Impressions
Picked up another pair after returning my Drop ones because I couldnāt resist for $320 off Ebay. My reference headphones are: DT880 600ohms, HD6XX, and modded Koss kph30is. Driven by an Asgard 3 sourced from a SMSL Sanskrit 10th MkII via Foobar. I intend to mod these headphones by removing the tuning filter eventually but for now these are stock thoughts. All of these comparisons and critiques are my own and based off of my own subjective tastes.
The Good
When these work with a song they are quite pleasant. Instrument placement is really accurate and spatial recreation can be quite special. Smoothness between instruments is also really pleasant, elements āmeldā together in a surreal/3D way that makes me forget the noises are emanating out of earcups more so than other headphones. The DT880 has a wide soundstage but the placements are more distinct and āseparateā than the GL2k. The DT880 to my ears seems more accurate and resolving due to this separation, which is ok as Iām approaching the GL2k as a fun headphone which its wide/liquid soundstage certainly is. These also do a great job with upper and mid-bass reproduction in pop or trance.
Tracks that show off these aspects of the GL2k:
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Adventure Time OST - Wild Animals, Forced Forest, Movie Filming Time (magic stuff in here with background panning elements)
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Gontiti - Ensemble of Landscape (3D layering liquid and magic placement)(honestly the whole Amanchu OST is mind breaking on these)
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Flobots - Fight With Tools, Combat
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King Gizzard - Blue Morpho, Catching Smoke
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Meshuggah - Bleed (the hi-hat/china hits in the mid/far right feels isolated yet in connection with the rest of the mix)
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Infected Mushroom - Guitarmass (good mid-bass reproduction, suitable bouncy kick/synths, very fun 3D presentation with depth)
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Delta Sleep - Single File (instrument placement and mid-bass warmth during the intro)
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Halo 3 ODST OST - Overture / Yet Alone (Rear horns emanate from the void itself, more on this track down below)
As Iāve been listening to them more Iāve started to like their very āforwardā in your face sound.
Update: I found a track I actually prefer on these, Killing Spree by Obrother, it presents such good detail with dimensionality and it only gets better when the final breakdown occurs!
The Bad
As others have commented these have something going on in the mid range and can sound compressed at times. I noticed they had particular trouble with complex/loud pieces that are mid range heavy, see 3:05 in Fight With Tools which sounds very cluttered, but not all mid range heavy songs have trouble, see Meshuggah - Bleed or Tool - Fear Inoculum to be wowed. They also do weird shit to some vocals, either compressing (pringles-can) or recessing them into the mix too far.
Since these are planars I went in expecting bass āslamā and good bass presence, I came away a bit disappointed. The sub bass is weak and slam is nonexistent when it calls for it. Paradise by Mersiv and Fryar comes across weak as hell, and the second drop @ 3:10 which should be oppressively bassy sounds hollow even when compared to the bass extension of my DT880s, itās simply too weak in the sub-bass region. This is apparent on the majority of my heavier electronic library.
These also really mess with strings, that mid range compression effect doesnāt just jack with vocals. This can lead to strings sounding unnatural.
They also seem to be a tad rolled off, maybe this is my Beyerdynamic tastes coming out, thereās noticeably less āairā than Iāve become accustomed to. I noticed this playing Ghosts N Stuff by Deadmau5 if you can believe it, which is never a song I associated with āairā.
They are also quite heavy. My neck started hurting due to the weight increase over my DT880s after a moderate listening session, guess I need bigger lats?
Soundstage can actually become quite narrow given the right instruments or frequencies (I think this is related to the vocal effect)
Tracks that āshow offā these aspects of the GL2k:
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Trevor Something - Isolated (weird compressed/pringles can vocals)
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Denzel Curry / Kenny Beats - Take_it_Back_v2 (overly soft, lacks bass slam)
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Mersiv / Fryar - Paradise (lack of bass sub-bass pressure listen @ 3:10)
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Delta Sleep - Single File (pringles-can vocal effect, vocals are obnoxiously present in the mix now when they should be relaxed but still energetic, lack of bass slam and overall muddy presentation once the song gets loud/complex listen @ 2:45)
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Manaka Kataoka - Main Theme from the BOTW OST (The piano sounds like it too is emanating from a pringles can, bass notes in the louder section become flabby and almost intrusive to the strings)
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Manaka Kataoka - Opening from the BOTW OST (Again crushes the piano and removes the dynamics from the strings however the 3D/background detail is /superb/, conflicted)
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Eernesto Schnack - Sober (An acoustic cover, the GL2k are almost unlistenable, the compression or pringles can effect murders this and thereās no background elements to save it)
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Halo 3 ODST OST - Overture / Yet Alone (Intro rain sounds seem compressed, almost like theyāre echoing in a box, strings lose detail and are pushed very forward into the mix and lose fullness)
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Hans Zimmer - Waiting For a Train (During the final crescendo of the song the strings which present very wide and enveloping on other headphones stick to a center narrow image instead, allowing other elements such as mid bass/low bass and horns to become the blanket you wrap yourself in, could be a pro or a con)
Detail retrieval is also finnicky, on some tracks all of the elements are present and gel but on others, such as Mombasa from the Inception OST it loses pieces. This track is my best example of this as the GL2k loses a large amount of string texture and background percussive elements. Perhaps Iām missing these in the presentation because of the lack of dynamic range paving over smaller details such as synthesizer growl/high hats/whatever the hell else it decides to suppress.
On that note, these headphones do not work well with tracks that have high dynamic range and use it. Listening to Dream Within a Dream from the Inception OST was significantly less terror inducing on the GL2k because of the compression, it simply does not get as loud as I would like when called for.
Conclusion
I know this sounds like I dislike these headphones, I donāt, they simply donāt work with some tracks/sounds for me. My general observation is this excels with lower volume tracks that have a lot of quiet pieces moving at once, or energetic tracks that ābounceā. The placement of background elements and panning effects is so chewy and easy to get lost in on tracks that it gels with, even tracks it doesnāt work with can still have tasty backgrounds that show me things I hadnāt thought to look for before.