I just dropped them off at the post office. You should have them in a couple days.
Comfort is not bad, IMO, they donāt clamp too hard, but the cups hug your ears very tight. IMO itās pretty tolerable. They can be borderline āhotā in the treble, but they never got sibilant to me. Overall very pleasing sound signatureā¦ and bass is very nice and tight, despite being accentuated, IMO.
Iād be curious to know what you think of the soundā¦ reactions seem to be mixed, but I really enjoyed them overall.
Right on, I will let you know. I will give them a run through some of my FLAC and give them a go with some mild gaming. Iāll be running them off of 2 setups: Geshelli Labs Enog2 Pro and SMSL SP200 THX 888 and a JDS Labs El Stack.
I was debating between the Neumannās and Focal Elegia. I couldnāt find an Elegia at a reasonable used price. Also, Elegia may have less bass than I prefer.
Being a drummer, bass player and saxophonist in my youth, I tend to gravitate towards a tastefully boosted or neutralish bass and even treble. I hate when there are drastic treble spikes. Boosted treble is fine, but peaky is what gets to me. This all leads me to believe the Neumannās were the better choice for me.
Absolutely what I thought. I also must say M0N that your contributions to this forum are invaluable. Compared to other audio forums, this one sure is much more polite. The cult-like behavior of other forums were so negative that I took a long break in the hobby.
I got the Neumannās early, they arrived this morning. Only listened for 30 minutes so far, but Iām impressed. Tested out āLazy Eyeā by Silversun Pickups and guitars and strings in general just excel on these. Then I tested āElevatorsā by Outkast to test the sub-bass and these do extend better than I expected. Bass doesnāt have a ton of depth, but it still sounds good. Last song I tested was āHappy Idiotā by TV On The Radio, which is my main catch all test song. Reason being is that there is a loudness factor to this song. Because of that, if any frequency is elevated too much, portions of the song can become distant. That didnāt happen luckily, but Tunde Adebimpeās vocals did sound prominent, in a pleasant way. Took me by surprise. I will add that if soundstage is important to you, these headphones are not for you. The imaging, timbre and linearity are their selling points. Iām going to do some lengthy testing later on, but color me impressed so far.
Glad they arrived quickly. And nice to see youāre happy with them so far. Definitely, they exceeded my expectations as well. Glad they found a good home. =)
Absolutely, thanks for the prompt shipping. The comfort didnāt bother me, but I only listened for 30 minutes. The pads were comfortable, but Iām interested to see if that changes after a lengthy listening session.
The stock cables are definitely microphonic, but once the music starts playing it is a non issue. I dont plan on going portable with these, so non issue.
Just had a listening session with my pair last night for the first time in weeks (been listening to my sendy aiva a lot) and man Iām reminded how much I love these headphones. Warm and bassy and so detailed. Add in a tube amp and holy shit I could listen all night.
Going from Aivaās to Neumannās is like night and day ā¦ I bet that can be an interesting trick for your brains and ears to recalibrate. I sometimes do that with my LCD-2C and then switch to my Argons. It is like a lesson in mindfuckeryā¦how the hell are the closed backs going to have wider soundstage, lmfao.
Cool, I have a darkvoice 336se here that I Fitz Modded. Have an RCA JAN 6as7g and a Ken Rad VT-231 black glass. Iām looking forward to testing them on the tubes.
Gaming on these are surprisingly good. Played a few matches of Dead by Daylight and was surprised. The audio on Dead by Daylight is not very well done, but these cans held their own.
Ok, anybody that calls these headphones dark is a treble head with no idea or experience listening to anything outside of their comfort zone. They are U shaped and the treble definitely gets hot if you listen at higher volumes.
But on tubesā¦these things on tubes are ridiculously good. Now I have a closed back for tubes to pair with my HD600.
Comfort became an issue around the 2 hour mark, but I canāt sit through much longer than a 2 hour session without having to get up anyways.
Doing some quality listening on the Neumannās today while working from home. Have them hooked up to the DarkVoice 336se (Fitz Modded) with a Mullard 6080 tube and TungSol 6SN7WGTA brown base tube. Listening to the song āPicture Bookā by Simply Red (underrated song and band btw) and am really surprised how strong and focused the vocals sound. There is a strong bass guitar line and percussion throughout the song, but it doesnāt overpower the vocals. This is very surprising given the minor scoop in the mids that some dislike. For the life of me, I honestly can barely tell. It sounded so good, I just had to share. These headphones are amazing, but on tubes they really are top tier. My only issue so far is these pads after 2 hours or so become ear crusher city.
Also, the reports of these having some kind of exaggerated bass is completely overblown. Is the bass elevated?..yes, but tastefully so and it falls in line with the Harman TRC. I really believe that there are many in the audiophile community that get so accustomed to (and prefer) rolled off bass and open backs, that they canāt properly recalibrate their ears for a set of closed backs that dont have rolled off bass. This isnt a derogatory statement as we all have different tastes, but I do feel that a lot of the criticisms that have been given on this headphone were from people that allowed the hype to make them believe they were getting some kind of unicorn, and when they got a thoroughbred instead, they were still pissed. On head fi, there was a guy arguing that these were the worst heād ever heard and that AKG K701 are truly neutral, lmfao. Anything that has portions of the frequency response rolled off is not neutralā¦quite the contrary. Also some cant make the differentiation from what measures neutral vs what we hear as neutral. These arent perfect, nothing is ā¦ but these have very few flaws sonically for what they are.
I agree itās tastefully elevated for sure. I still donāt think itās overblown, but that bass hump is too much for me to consider them for studio use for my preference. If it was just a little less bass hump it would be great imo. But for listening it doesnāt matter and I would agree itās a tasteful bump for listening pleasure
