Here’s one we haven’t tried yet:
Top Soundstage:
- HD800/HD800s
- ?
3 ?
etc
Are you going for top soundstage width? Accuracy? Range? Spatial ability?
If you average those out is HD800 #1 still?
I don’t think so but some might agree
Does it get number one for any of those in particular?
Not in my mind but some may disagree lol
It’s pretty good if you want the best width imo, but it lacks in the other soundstage areas
Since that’s what I know, then let’s go with a width list 
Trying out the Elex now
Are you playing everything through the Fiio M6? Or do you have a different source?
Only source I’ve got that’s not trash.
Earliest impression is that the symbols that were nearly giving me a headache on the 58x are chilled out and I can hear bass in a way I like for things like 2 chains that was painful to listen to on the 58x
Next, I noticed the 45 degree angle part of the soundstage being filled in much better
But still feels too intimate. It’s about the width I expected the Sennheisers to be based on reading stuff
Main thing is the I’m still mostly on a “in the head” soundstage that with both of these headphones. Almost all of the time it sounds like singers are hovering just above my head and I find that vertical nature as opposed to in front of me kind of annoying.
Weird that I’ve never seen it described like that before. For me it’s intense. My mind gets confused on if singers are just behind me or just above me. Something like that.
Btw FR is basically perfect on these. Wouldn’t change a thing. They seem both relaxed and aggressive at the same time somehow.
Yeah I would see if you get more used to the signature after listening and see what you think (also perhaps a little burn in lol)
While it doesn’t have the widest soundstage, I also don’t find the Elex to be as intimate as you describe. I’m not familiar with your amp, but that may be contributing to it somewhat
I don’t think your going to find headphones that will do that.
The way you determine if something is in front of you is based on the way your head occludes the sound before it enters your ears.
You can simulate this with headphones by pre-processing a sound based on acoustic models, it’s what 3D Audio does it’s called an HRTF (Head relative transfer function).
But it would either have to be in the Mix, or added afterwards by preprocessing or some sort of DSP.
It would also degrade fidelity and not be as accurate
Yes indeed.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s there was a fad for orchestral recordings that used microphones attached to a manequins head to give the spacial effect. That’s the analog version of an HRTF.
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Yes, that’s typically called binaural recording, and is still used today and is much better on headphones rather than speakers
3 guesses on how this album was recorded.
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Any of these any good?