My main headphones at the moment are the Hifiman He400i 2020 which I really love. I’m thinking about purchasing a pair of closed backs to take with me to the office. I recently tried the Sennheiser Momentum 4 which were great, but both pairs I got had technical issues, so I gave up on them. My budget is up to €300, if possible I’d like bluetooth and ANC, but they are nice to haves.
I was looking at the Edifier Stax Spirit S3, Meze 99 Neo or the WH-1000XM4. I’m in the EU so options are a bit limited. I also considered the Sivga SV021 which I can get for very cheap and really like the aesthetics of, but the reviews are very mixed.
To give an idea of my tastes, I like the He400i 2020, FilO FH3, Blon Bl-03 and Tripowin Mele. I like the Porta Pro’s, but I prefer the KSC75 over the Porta Pro’s
I don’t think I have particularly big ears, but I doe have a sizeable head and I wear glasses. I kinda dismissed them because they don’t look very comfortable. I have the edifier w820nb, but those hurt after a while (and I wasn’t very impressed with the sound, though they are of course pretty cheap).
Maybe I should give them a try though. I’m contemplating ordering the meze 99 neo’s and the final ux3000 and maybe also the Rode nh-100 to compare them. It feels a bit wasteful and annoying to the webshops though
Head’s up: The Meze 99 Neo and Rode NH-100 couldn’t be more different, man.
The Neos are very bassy, with bass bleeding a bit into the mids. Nice highs, though. A very colored, musical headphone. Accurate? Hell, no. Fun? You bet.
The NH-100 is a studio monitoring headphone. Designed more for music, podcast and video production than listening, with a neutral sound. Still solid for music by many accounts (I’ve never heard them), but some people say the treble is a bit veiled.
Another difference between the two: build quality. Meze has excellent build quality, while the Rode NH-100 has a headband adjuster clasp with a flawed design, with numerous reports of cracking or failure.
Yeah that’s why I find it so hard to decide. I think the he400i is a bit of a middle ground, but I can’t really find anything comparable in a closed back. I have the mh752 (takstar 82 pro rebrand), but I really don’t like them for listening to music. They’d be for on the go, so I think I’m looking for a relaxed headphone, not too analytical which can be carried around in a case without worrying.
I saw those, I found it quite hard to make out the sound quality of them, since most reviews rate them as gaming headphones making it hard to compare them against other headphones mainly for listening to music. Also they are €399, making them €100 more expensive than the Stax Spirit S3 (also a planar without ANC) and €241 more expensive than the Meze 99 neo’s (there’s an opened box I can pick up for €159).
Oh that’s completely fair, I didn’t realize you were in Europe. Neos are great but I do recommend getting the Dekoni pads for them as it smooths them out a bit.
Ordered the Meze 99 neo and the Sivga sv021, both open boxes. I’ll try the 99 neo stock and attempt to fit the velour pads of the dt880. If I decide to keep the 99’s I will order some velour pads, either the Dekoni or the Brainwave HM5’s, depending on what I can easily order over here.
Only audio focused review of the Maxwell’s are by Resolve at headphones dot com. He does have measurements and his argument makes sense about these being great when DSP corrected.
Some other options for headphones to use in a office work:
AKG K361 (especially BT) have a nice Harman -tunned sound that I find agreeable. Gave one to a friend for both music and calls at the beginning of the pandemic and she’s still using them strong. Don’t know much about the isolation though, I think it’s so so.
Sennheiser HD 569 is the choice of a friend of mine in the hobby for office work. The nice warm Sennheiser mids work great for calls and for most the genres he listen to. It also isolate very well, although it’s passive isolation, and one of the cables come with a microphone.
Curious how the 569 have completely stayed under my radar, I thought Sennheiser didn’t have closed backs at this price point. Reviews I can find mostly say that they are decent for the price. 99’s and sv021 are divisive, some people absolutely love them and some people hate them. If I hate both of them then the HD569 will probably be a safe bet to settle on.
You may fall in love with the pads on the sivga. For the life of me I haven’t found anything that has comfy squishy pads like that
Yeah, holy crap these are comfy!
The SV021 take some getting used to, but with some small EQ tweaks (boost that 500Hz a bit mostly) they sound pretty nice. They don’t sound as good as my HE-400i 2020, but for a closed at this price range and how awesome they look and feel I cannot be disappointed. They sound a bit harsh, but maybe I’ll find a way to tame that a bit. They also get pretty hot.
The 99 neo on the other hand, boy I wasn’t expecting this. They sound (to me) so bad that I am seriously wondering whether there is something wrong with them. Drums sound so incredibly weird on these I hardly recognized them and singing is so distant It almost feels like the singers weren’t actually in the booth while recording the songs. Maybe the best way to describe they way they sound to me is like I’m listening to a recording of a song played through a speaker in an empty room.They lose to the Sivga both in terms of comfort and sound. Also my ears touch the inside of the cup.
569 aren’t my thing TBH. I agree with you about the “veiled” part, it cut the highs in a way I don’t like. But their isolation is great and a lot of people at my office who tried them and really liked. And they do isolate white well, so for office use I thought it made sense adding them to the possibilities.
But yeah, if it was me, I would go with the K361, as their sound quality really is closer to what I like.
Good to hear your opinions. So, will you keep the Sivga?
Yep. I am not treble sensitive and kinda like a bit of a bright signature, I already had the DT-880 in the past and I could listen to those for hours with little fatigue. I hadn’t tried any dark headphones before the Meze, and it turns out they really aren’t my thing.
As a glasses wearer, I have had to sell / return / not buy many a headphone because of discomfort, these sound pretty good (to me) and I can wear them for hours on end, so that’s enough for me .
Not sayng that I won’t buy a different pair in the future, when the closed back planars get under the €300 mark I will probably be trying them out.
