My first impressions: Neumann NDH 20 compared to Jubilee 58X

Headphones Headphone Discussion / Help
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Now, I’ll preface this by saying that I’m really new to the audiophile game and so far has only gone by advices from professionals such as Z, Joshua Valor, Clavinet just to name a few. My current DAC/AMP is a Topping MX3, which is what I’m going to base my impressions on.

So, I’ve listened to a few songs for a few hours, alternating from a pair of cans to the other, and basically the main differences I see between both is that the Neumann sounds maybe a bit more precise in its rendition of instruments and vocals. Also, the soundstage seems a bit wider to me, for instance I feel everything a bit closer to me on the 58X while on the NDH 20, it seems a bit farther and better divided. The bass also has a much better showing while not sacrificing details and clarity. The sound overall seems a bit warmer than the dryer highs feel I get from the 58X, which I don’t hate depending on what I’m going for.

So yeah, it’s a great pair of cans, and I’m trying to have my findings not influenced by the difference in price between both sets of cans, which I will admit is kind of hard. I do hear a difference between both sets, but overall they feel so minimal and not THAT impactful that I’m finding it hard to justify such a higher entry price. I tend to prefer the signature of the NDH 20, but as I said the differences feels so minute to me that there’s always that voice in the back of my head wondering if it’s because I’m trying to justify acquiring them.

Granted I just acquired the NDH 20 and had no burn in time at all on them while my 58X have been properly burned in for a few hundred hours. Also, maybe my DAC/AMP is not the best suited for this, but still I’m comparing apples to apples since I’m evaluating both on the same gear.

Have you had the chance to hear both sets of cans? Are your findings similar to mine or do they differ, and if so how? Any particular songs that have made one or the other shine more than it’s counterpart? Would love to hear your opinion.

And yeah, just created an account for this, first post.

EDIT: Had made an error by calling them NHD instead of NDH, corrected.

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FYI… It’s NDH 20. Not NHD 20.

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Yeah ok, granted, my mistake, doesn’t change anything about what I said though. Have you had a chance to compare the two? That is what I’d be interested to dive deeper into.

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I owned both at the same time, but ended up returning the NDH 20, due to comfort, and honestly, I like the airy-ness of the 58X since they are open back vs closed back. Felt like with the NDH 20 I was claustrophobic. The detail and vocals in the NDH 20 were definitely superior, without a doubt, but it wasn’t my cup of Tea, for closed backs I will stick with my TH-X00’s.

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Thanks for your input. I definitely feel an added value to the set in the details department as well as the overall warmth. You can definitely have a better feel for the room where recordings have been made and things are overall a bit more precise. But for the price I thought the difference would be substantially more noticeable out of the box, without having to really lean on the music to notice the subtleties, which are nice, but sometimes hard to figure when compared to 58X’s.

I’ll take a peek at those TH-X00’s, looks interesting.

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I own both currently. I’ll compare the two soon. I’ve had the 58xs for a while now but haven’t had a ton of time with them because I was stuck on the t60rp and Argon’s for a while. NDH20s I’ve had for a few weeks now and I absolutely love them. Haven’t done any A B comparisons yet though.

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Nice, keep us posted, I’d love to have your feel for the comparison!

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Hello :slight_smile:
Are you testing them with mp3s, CDs? (or even higher-than-CD-quality files, maybe?). Obviously, mp3s won’t be detailed much.

Also, all ears are different… but keep in mind, you’re testing, like, 500$ headphones, with a cheap/noisy 100$ dac/amp combo… time to try plugging them in something else, and maybe upgrade accordingly!

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24460

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Thanks for your input. In A-B testing the headphones I listened to a wide variety of different media and files. Listened to 320 kbps MP3’s, FLACs, Spotify (have premium on and maxed out quality, still I don’t know what their output is), MPEGs, WMAs, WAVs, etc…

As you said, my focus should now be towards upgrading my DAC and AMP. I know it’s not an ideal setup for such a pair of headphones, but I thought even though it might not be the best output box out there, that the difference in quality between both sets would be more pronounced. Admittedly, I also might just not have the ear for this kind of hobby, which I’d find kind of sad because I’m always listening to music. But you never know until you try, which is why I wanted to create and have a conversation over this and get a better idea if my take is an outlier and out of the common consensus while also getting pointers on what people did to extract the most out of their NDH 20 when compared to the 58X.

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As soon as I get a little time I will give you my AB comparison of the two.

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michael giacchino medal of honor soundtack really shows the difference to me. The Sennheiser is more like good recorded rain. The bass is always giving be some feeling on my ears. I can pin-point what sound happens. It is neutral but when I started a LinusTechTips video I thought “Wow his voice seems even more neutral?!” on the NDH20. Portal soundtrack feels kinda more distant but it feels like someone hunts you. LG Orbifold - HL2 soudtack has more space than most of my music. To me the NDH has more space. The song Defend The Crown by Bruce Fritzhugh and Jerremiah Scott tells me that the bass seems the same - “Many say dont compare Open vs Closed headphones” and I think in this song, to me, the bass difference is only open / closed so nearly the same. The music is warmer with the neumann but also still shows which song is cold, which is warm :slight_smile:

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I am no audiophile except when talking to casual like bose quietconfort (wait whats the name) II audiance. I listen to Metal, Hardcore, Hardbass and Japanese Music the most. Then K POP only Psy and Blackpink.
My favourite bands are As I Lay Dying, Rob Zombie and let us just say Demon Hunter for western music.
BUT I often when not listening on the go or driving trucks in Euro Truck Simulator 2 (best way to listen to music imo), I skip through a lot of songs on spotify. I rarely use Foobar :frowning: Money… I would need to import a lot of albums or look for good sources. The songs I often play are mainly hardcore and Jpop / Jrock / Jmetal - PassCode, Bish, GangParade (my fav Japanes Band - they try to do Parades on stage. Very energetic- always goosebumps), Yonige, Yanakoto Sotto Mute (live songs have extreme highs with Jubilee :smiley: ), UtsuP for my Ayaya Needs (I dont like Anime but this kinda makes me happy - Electronic music - DJ is doing songs with electronic female voice …) and many more bands. I never get to listen to all - to many good bands.

I found out that the Jubilees and NDH are extreme similar. I guess MassDrop killed the price. 220€ in Germany and 500 for the NDH20 from Thomann / or Music Store for example.
Hardbass can have deep bass which hits you but retro wave seems to like the NDH more than the Jubilees. Most music seems to be an Open vs Close Headphones preference war and no real difference - only how cold the Jubilees are compared to the NDH but the NDH can also show cold sounds but the bass is more like a concert or movie. I thought the audio technica e70 iem are the concert sound kings but nope 300€ are too much if you dont factor in the sound resolution with 3 BA recievers. NDH sounds so real so you directly would know what sounds great when creating music but are not enough when mastering (I think I would use a more cold headphone). Still there would be a need to swap headphones, I dont do music etc so I just guess from my taste.

Fleeing The Catacombs - Michael Giacchino has good bass. E70 add to much bass and the Jubilees are just flat (normal consumer flat not actual flat or neutral) I like both.

Hornets Nest - Leenway The voice is so clear but on both headphones.

Srpskibass (hardbass band) makes good music like most - the bass can be more depending on the song but often same with Jubilee and the peaks are at least 15-20 % less than the Jubilee’s. I rate the J to be between 80-95% treble (100% can hurt and the beyerdynamic custom studio are 120%). The NDH can be between 70-85% treble - need more time.

Moscow Death Brigade (HipHop / Rap in English and Russian) - Renegade Stomp -> this song has nearly the same highs as the Jubilee. It is so similar.

Kvartira (Квартира) - Zveri Sounds like I imagined it as a 10 year old playing GTA 4 on my CTR.

So what is the point of the NDH20 as a normal-ish consumer? I think it is a pair everyone should try if they like to listen music / make / produce / video edit and get a sound how most would remember their favourite songs. It sounds great. Pianos have punsh like most other instuments when it is mastered to sound punshy. You imagine sound and it will sound nearly the same on the NDH20.

On the Jubilee’s it is more sterile and I would have to imagine how music sounds on normal cheap consumer audio devices and swap heaphones and monitors to get the most out of it.

Edit: based on the flat audio of my Dell XPS13 with wide bass (not compared to the AT2020 USB+ mic - bass is much harder hitting and depending on the headphone narrower on the mic)

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