šŸ”· Neumann NDH20

@brux You are probably aware of this, pinging you anyway.

Ohh thanks for tagging me, yes aware of @KingForKings issues. I last sent him an email on Friday afternoon I believe. Iā€™m disappointed that this type of thing has been posted publicly (I think Iā€™ve said before this type of stuff is a constant source of anxiety >_< haha. But it had to happen some day!). There are a few misconceptions that hopefully I can help clear up:

  • I am not a CEO. I think there may be a misunderstanding about the size of our operation here, but this is a very small business. There is a handful of us, and we do our best to take care of the customer to the best of our ability, which hopefully has been evident with your correspondence with us so far @KingForKings . Though with what youā€™ve posted here Iā€™d imagine not, which is on us. So sorry about that.

  • Sennheiser (who owns Neumann these days) is notorious for using propriety connectors in an effort to prevent third party cables (like the ones we make at Hart) from being used with their headphones. In the case of the NDH20s, they accomplished this by reducing the size of a standard locking 2.5mm connector that youā€™d find on things like M50x, or their previous headphones like the Momentums etc. Unfortunately sourcing the correctly sized, molded connector in the exact size that theyā€™re using on the NDH20s is very difficult (i.e. I have not found a good source for those as of yet). So what we do here, is we take a normal locking 2.5mm connector, and use a belt sander to carefully shave the molded section of the connector down to the same size of the Neumann stock connector or slightly less. From there we test every cable we make on my own personal pair of NDH20s and make sure they go through our standard testing process before going out the door.

  • I think you mentioned somewhere that I was saying you should just jam the connector in. And Iā€™d like to be clear that that is NOT what Iā€™m saying. I said that it is indeed a tight fit, I understood your reluctance to not want to force the connector in, I was confident that if the supplementary guidance we provided previously was followed it would work, and that I did not think us making a replacement was going to solve the issue (taking into consideration that itā€™s an international order, and the likelihood that youā€™d feel you had the same issue with the next cable weā€™d send you anyway), and that weā€™d process a refund if we could not satisfy you as a customer (which has been initiated). Here is that correspondence:

  • And here are the aforementioned instructions, sent by my employee that helps respond to customer emails / custom shop requests:




  • All this being said, we very well could have screwed up and due to tolerances part to part, what tests out and fits properly on my headphones may not be fitting on @KingForKings pair. And like I said weā€™ve refunded you for not meeting your expectations.

  • This type of thing keeps me up at night (itā€™s why Iā€™m at the office at 10:30pm on a Sunday) and I donā€™t want @KingForKings or other passersby who see this to think that 1) Iā€™d be dismissive of a customersā€™ issue and tell them to just ā€œjam it inā€. And 2) that we designed something ā€œout of spec by choiceā€. Both are not true. While Iā€™m sorry that we werenā€™t more careful in our communication to you to make that clear, Iā€™m also disappointed and sorry that the product we sent didnā€™t meet your expectations from the get go.

14 Likes

So I removed the pictures because my dad actually gave wrong diameters of the thickness. The og cable is 5.9 mm and the metal part might make it impossible to plug into the NDH20. I sanded it down to 0.01 mm difference I think. I will still try to alter it because the cables are good. Iā€™d say there is a possibility that only the NDH20 (also use by less than 5ish other headphones from other brands) is the hardest cable to make. James already send some info in the thread. I could try ordering a custom cable from Sennheiser if they dont already have one but man I have 3 addresses and unspecific number for German support. TD DR money back and I will still buy some connector to a new headphone probably for M1ST. Just beware outside NA, the NDA connector can be a hit or miss.

If you all need unbalanced cables that work for the the NDH20, these work, they also fit the HD 560s too.

1 Like

Iā€™ll look into it when I get the ear pads in a few days I guess :slight_smile:


My pads broke so I asked Thomann (the main competitor against Music Store) if I can get new pads for warranty (EU has 2 years). It happened just suddenly last week. I think my glasses pulled the stitching when I removed my glassesā€¦ I only did it like 4 times in 1 year and the last time was really long ago. A pair is probalby 44.90ā‚¬ with 16% taxes. Rona lowered the taxes from 19 to 16%

Itā€™s not people who read this site. Itā€™s very poor people and the elderly who will end up not voting if absentee ballots are late or not sent.

2 Likes

And the dead.

I received two ballots here in Californiaā€¦

My ballot had already made it to the clerks office via USPS and has been counted here in KY.

2 Likes

I thought this was a thread on the NDH20. Did I miss something?

2 Likes

Today I got the replacement pair. Had to swap both; look a bit different unstretched. The sound-change is like the 600 series where you need to replace the pads when one breaks. The sound difference is noticeable. Today Iā€™ll enjoy a 4h EuroTruck 2 spotify / foobar session to hear how much changed.

I think after 30 min of listening I can say Nadia Reid Ruby sounds finally right. I had problems with the acoustic guitar being off. I can not say for sure but bass got a tiny bit altered. Mids are more 58x but of course not elevated and high hats are now more to my liking.

TLDR mids are now more relistic. no placebo when comparing acoustic guitars. Sounds are more spacious and high hats seem to be better. rest can be placebo and olds vs new pads. Somehow my ears for better butt i canā€™t see a size difference.

2 Likes

I didnā€™t want to resurrect an old post on the forum, but I noticed that the last post was from only 26 days ago, so I might as well ask what I had toā€¦ I read around 200 posts out of 591 and found about the shorter cable on eBay and the headband pads that would fix all my concerns, but I was wondering, what would you use to drive it outside? would an Xduoo XD05 Basic be enough? And since last year has there been any changes or is it still the best closed back for around 500?

One of the best closed back under $500 would be the Focal Elegia if you can find one imo. The Neumann is decent but not nearly as impressive sounding and the comfort is meh. I would also rec any of the Fostex biodyna (TH/TR X00) in that price range and the denon d5000 as well for that matter over the neumann. The only caveat is most of those headphones i just mention are discontinued so you would have to buy secondhand but worth it imo.

It would also be worth mentioning that it depends on what sound you are going for as wellā€¦ do you have a preference?

1 Like

I think the xduoo xd-05 basic will drive it. I use the plus and it works nicely. Iā€™ve also plugged it into my btr5 and get a good listening volume at around 40 on the volume.

You should be good to go with the xd05 basic, as the ndh20 are not that demanding. +1 if you get the burson v5i opamp as it really does make the unit better. The ndh20 and the xd05 plus are my daily drivers for outside use on bus/subway.

Honestly, my thing about the NDH20 is that from what I can tell as a current owner of them, theyā€™re not the greatest off of solid state amplifiers. As I dip into tubes, they open up meaning that with a solid state amplifier, theyā€™re purely for reference but more or less feel like the drivers are ā€œrestrictedā€ with dynamics you would truly enjoy as an audiophile but I can see being a significant help when mixing.

However, if you get an OTL where the large voltage swings can allow the driver to come alive, I believe they could be well worth the price of admission but Iā€™m just speculating based on limited experiences and what Iā€™ve heard.

2 Likes

Ehhh kinda depends on the amp specifically. I really enjoyed the NDH20 on the g111 for instance.

2 Likes

Got the NDH 20 cable, the improved one and fits like a glove for every revision / condition of the NDH20 jack.

4 Likes

Link to the cable?

1 Like

https://hartaudiocables.com/pages/custom-shop Ask the support. Isnā€™t requested as much.

1 Like