I think bizarre is the word lol. Has a sale like this happened with any other headphoneā¦?
Elegia at $379 is another one right now that pops on paper. You could argue that when 8xx was available at $699 it was pretty crazy.
Like any consumer good, keep those deals in perspective with their current competition and especially their value fit for you rather than simply āthe dropā.
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Just an expression of how crazy low the price is, not an evaluation of intelligence. Sorry for the confusion.
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I am really confusedā¦ I bought a balanced(???) 2.5mm cable for my XS, and it has 2 MONO/TS connectors, unlike the TRS connectors that come on the stock unbalanced cable. Can MONO connectors really be on a balanced cableā¦? Hart apparently makes one, the HC-7.
The EDXS uses 3.5mm connectors at the cans, not 2.5mm. You need the HC-9.
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They are 3.5 at the cans. Itās 2.5 at the plug.
Okay, now I see what youāre misunderrstanding. Hart Audio Cables terminates all of their headphone cables at the device end with a 4 pin mini XLR. You need an interconnect to complete the connection to your source device. Thus, in your case you need an HC-9 with a 2.5mm interconnect (note the arrow in the screenshot below):
Once you purchase your first Hart cable any subsequent headphone cables can be purchased without the interconnect. Or, if you change source devices and need a different connection you only need to order a new interconnect.
Hereās my EDXS with a custom HC-9, and 2 of my interconnects, 4.4mm and XLR (I donāt have a 2.5mm interconnect)
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I did not buy a Hart cable for the XS. My cable has a 2.5mm plug, and 3.5mm TS/Mono connectors. Is this actually a balanced cableā¦?
Blackscreen is right. If you bought the HC-7 you got the wrong cable. It even says it is for M1060 and Nighthawk. I had both and they are surely 2.5mm on the earcup but you need 3.5mm.
That it is a TS is no Problem. Most headpones only use the tip and the sleeve. Exceptions like the Philips X3 are rare.
Ok. So itās balanced then. Thanks!
Listening to these a few hours so farā¦ Pretty damn good and spectacularly clean. Nice bass levels, and fairly smooth on the 3XP. There is definitely some treble tizz still there that I wish wasnāt. LCD-2 probably solves all the problems here; even better bass, no tizz. Unless you like em bright.
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While that may be true when looking at numbers (one dimensional representation of average values), it does not work like that in reality, headphones behave like this:
Source: SBAF Atomicbob
With a good DSP, a measurement mic and lots of time, you can correct for resonance issues or get the treble to be flat-ish. If the DSP has good speaker management, you can also lessen timing issues when running multiple speakers.
Despite a Saturday of walking about with a measurement mic and tweaking settings, a church will always sound like a church!
An EQ will not fix any time-domain issues such as spatial representation or width. If anything, it will introduce Phase-related challenges.
I donāt agree fully.
Spatial features are present in the recorded music which can be diminished via poor frequency response.
I can also produce an EQ setting which changes the positioning of elements of the music as presented via a set of headphones. Is this change good? or worthwhile? For me, no. I prefer timbre/natural response over considerations of width etc.
EQ / Frequency response is by no means the final word on this question of soundstage (this would be a ridiculous conclusion). Driver positioning, angle, cup design, open v closed all these thing are important.
With regards to the items being addressed in my original response:
- Timbre, to me this is close to 100% dependent on frequency response.
- Spatial reproduction, discussed above, can be diminished/influenced by frequency response.
- Imaging, similar to above this is information contained within the recorded music, I would think this better aligns to FR than spatial.
- Timing, well, itās hard to know what the OP means by timing exactly. It gets into the territory of catch-all meaningless terms like PRaT Pace, Rhythm, and Timing. If we consider a headphone driver to be minimum phase, then we could say that the decay is proportional to the frequency response.
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Okay, so, I am honestly lost as to what your point is.
Spatial info in sound is perceived by humans using the time difference between left and right ear. So unless your head is so big or you are streaming from outside the milkyway using radio telescopes you have problems with red-shift between your ears, EQ will not resolve spatial info problems.
No, unless above point about red-shift applies to your setup.
Again. Spatial info is TIME DOMAIN!
Phase-angle can also not be seen in Frequency Domain.
In the below video you can see how the driver flexes making it not
The other problem in that assumption is that amplifiers that are capacitor-coupled change their behaviour over the frequency range:
Spatial info is present in the recording. Can we agree on that?
Timbre can also be affected by time domain as well, despite FR being āidealā to a specific target. Leading or trailing edges of notes getting lopped off or having to much sustain can just throw everything off. Time domain is easily the most important thing to me in most things I look for, like bass accuracy, soundstage accuracy, and imaging. Amplifier control and speed, and clock accuracy/jitter play a massive role in those, while FR is just more about how in your face each one is. Phase angle is something I always seem to overlook (probably because itās a little harder to have any control over) but Iāve definitely had some problems that came down to very minute problems with phasing and once I cleared it up, it was a night and day difference to spatial presentation.
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Amplifier behaviour under load (into pure resistive and real loads) is something I am looking at since late last year. It is complicated and varies a lot from unit to unit. So no single number answers here.
Phase angle is also extremely complicated when looked at from the theoretical angle. I have a book on loan trying to understand that aspect of signals, I made it past the introduction so farā¦
The common phase related issue people run into is with subwoofers creating standing waves.
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Finding XS a decent bit too sharp/peaky/trebley/anti-relax, does Arya Stealth solve that problem? I know Arya v1 and v2 are probably even more problematic in the treble. The strange, extra treble energy of HE-500 also bothered me, so it runs in the family. :\
Long thread so apologies if I missed this info:
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What amp and dac are you using?
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What cable are you using?
HiFiMan has a house-sound trait in the treble that doesnāt work for everybody, but is often somewhat controllable with source gear and cable configurations, which I why I ask.
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