For reference, I’d suggest the NDH20.
Yeah I wouldn’t suggest the sendy as a reference, so I’d say the NDH 20 is your best bet if you really want a flat freq response, although I’d say the 1990 is more detailed, but not as flat.
For the fun pair, the 2C and the Elex are good choices, although the sendy might be too bright and in your face for relaxing and listening to music, so it really comes down to the sound sig you like better between the Elex and 2C
Edit: personally I’d choose the 2C because of the warm wide sound and great bass and mids, but the elex is a very dynamic, balanced headphone with really good mids (but I prefer the elegia to the elex). Both are great choices
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Really? I kinda just have it set in my mind in general, my preference is always going to be open back headphones compared to closed back. I have both the Elegia and Elex and find it interesting you prefer the Elegia. I love them both but probably prefer the Elex. For me, they are both necessary for different reasons.
I guess that when I heard both, I found the very neutral sound of the elegia much more interesting than the almost W shaped sound of the elex, since great detail, neutrality, and timbre in a closed back is hard to come by, and I really wasn’t drawn to the sound of the elex, since to me, it just wasn’t as detailed and refined after listening for a while. Regarding soundstage, the elex has a larger more exciting soundstage, but the elegia seems to place instruments in a more realistic and more defined stage (if that makes sense), but that’s just how I hear it. Both are great, I just happen to prefer the sound of the elegia, and see the elex as a less detailed, differently tuned headphone that gets beat out by the elegia in my mind, but then again that’s just me. I would recommend both, but only if you don’t have one already
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I think of them simply as closed vs open back, and in general I always prefer open back. I agree the Elegia is the more impressive headphone for the simple fact that the Elegia is probably the best sounding, most open sounding closed back headphone I’ve ever heard. Obviously, I have yet to hear the Stellia which is considered by most, the best closed back on the planet.
This ^^^ x2 …
Why though? Ignoring the focals entirely, if something sounded very close to another, would open vs closed really matter? That’s like saying that if a speaker uses a soft dome, and another uses an AMT, they now are in a different league and cannot reasonably be compared to each other, even if they sound similar? I understand that open and closed have different use cases, but if you are judging purely by sound, that really shouldn’t play a large role, unless the fact of being open or closed greatly impacts the sound and experience
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just to confirm on the closed back suggestions, you guys seem to like the elegia and cascades for recommendations for a fun closed?
Well the Elegia are a good closed back, but idk if I’d say they’re fun, so based purely on fun, the Cascades or the argon’s are a great pick, otherwise for something more serious I’d pick the elegia. Can’t speak for papa
Thank you! Sorry I know these “categories” are very general but I know of no headphone stores besides maybe a Bose store. I really appreciate the responses.
After all of this I’m leaning towards:
Neumann/DT 1990
Elex/LCD-2c
Argon
IDK where you are at, but it’s pretty hard to find a store that lets you audition lots of higher end headphones, unless you live in a huge city with very niche stores. Your best bet is to watch/read as many reviews as you can, make your choice, and buy from somewhere like Amazon with a free returns policy.
Edit: well you might not be able to do that with the Elex since massdrop, but you might find a pair on eBay with returns, so who knows
Edit 2: if you don’t end up like the argons, you shouldn’t have a problem finding a buyer on eBay or another selling site as well
Hi I wanted to revive this topic and see the how the around $1000 market has changed in terms of value. And just some more suggestions since I am quite new to this forum.
All 3 in the first post still hold up real well tbh. Z seems to love the gold planar G2000, so maybe those instead of the 2C or elex, but no one else has heard them and said anything yet realy. Only real other thing would be to swap the 2C for the 2F which comes in just under the 1k mark.