I’m in the same boat as you were.
The 1990s have been on my list to try for a while. How would you rate the soundstage on them? Is Huge, big, medium, narrow? I have found after trying many headphones, a narrow soundstage absolutely kills the experience for me.
It seems on par with my HD 6xx? Maybe a little wider. Maybe
That’s a little disappointing. It seems something like a Hifiman Edition XX would be a perfect headphone for me, but their QC is too risky. Eff.
I wouldn’t let the QC stop me from buying their stuff as long as I have a warranty. But regarding the Edition XX, you probably want to pass anyway. I haven’t seen any good reviews for it.
I guess we just differ. If I’m spending over $500 on a headphone I want it to last a long time. I know I will get that with Fostex, Senn, BD, Mr Speakers, etc. With Hifiman, I might not get two years. My 400i made it 10 months. Warranties only last so long, unfortunately. And Hifiman makes you pay shipping for warranty service. It really sucks because I love their look, sound and feel.
Also, I have actually seen really good reviews for the XX. I know Metal571 didnt like it (I usually disagree with him anyway) and neither did SBAF people, but most seem to really enjoy it from what I’ve read.
Yeah if I was expecting a pair to die shortly after the warranty ends I wouldn’t buy from them either. In general, if a headphone is going to fail prematurely, it would happen earlier rather than later. On a side note, I had very good warranty experience recently with Sennheiser (got my HD1 replaced). I didn’t have to pay anything and the whole process took less than two weeks. But I imagine if I sent in something like the HD800 it would take longer.
I just did an A/B between them and found the BD having a more expansive soundstage. I did the Zeos thing and ppionted to the width of the soundstage and found myself pointing at, say 40-45 degrees with the HD6xx and 70-ish with the BDs. Gigantic grain of salt with this, of course.
That’s really good know. That seems wide enouhg where the sound will be natural and not over-emphasized (hello AKG k712). I just purchased a LCD-X, and if it’s not to my liking, the 1990 will definitely be my next can to try.