what are your views on focal clear?
oh, absolutely fantastic headphones just expensive. Forward mids, ever so slight bump in the highs, bass still around neutralā¦ gorgeous sounding headphone and planned to replace my Sennheisers later on. Great for music, not so much on the Competitive gamer front as the staging and imaging isnāt the greatestā¦ like the stage sounds relatively large but there are better options. Still, for a musical headphone if you want a more neutral sound thatās gorgeous for an all round use caseā¦ quite amazing. Granted, I would definitely recommend finding deals on that one as the sales fluctuate pretty wildly. Focal headphones from my experience arenāt that great for competitives after having sat with several of them
well the 1990 is the peakier one in that regardā¦ the hifimans are much smoother, spacious, relaxed, and very airyā¦ quite nice honestly.
Have you tried hd660s ? people say they have a great imaging as well including zeos
i aggree with this sentiment imaging is pretty great solid 360 performance they are great for gaming but similar performance can be had for much cheaper with the 58x. just like the 58x the 660 can lack in soundstage compared to its other german competition whichch it does make up for for more consistent imaging.
Generally speaking, thatās how Sennheisers areā¦ They can have good imaging but they will pale on soundstage. Any of the Sennheisers of the 600 series have a narrow soundstage meanwhile 500 series was just more around average for an open back. These are fine for gaming unless your playing larger fps such as battlefield, some cases of valorant and csgo, among some others. The other thing is they are a neutral signature so I wouldnāt say they are better than the brighter headphonesā¦ but generally have more uses outside of gaming as you donāt have fatigue to be concerned about.
does the high treble of 1990 causes fatigue during gaming too?
It goes on a person to person basis when it comes to treble, so I really canāt answer that for you. Any brighter headphone can cause someone fatigue. Myself personally? No, not at all fatiguing for me personallyā¦ plus if the brightness gets tiring or annoying in some cases I can just swap the pads out to a dekoni or equalize it a bit.
If you have a set of speakers with sound controls or just your car radioā¦ a neat small test you can do is just crank the treble on your music, of course this is a bit more severe than the 1990 but itās a nice way to get the general idea of what the bright headphone is doing to the sound.
In the event of the worst case scenario, Sibilance, heres an example of thatā¦ warning: turn down your sound if you have it cranked up for this video. https://youtu.be/E-07flDfK4Q?t=29 that there he turned up the treble to such a degree that forces sibilance.
Problems such as brightness is rather easy to deal with, pad swaps can drastically alter and deplete treble, equalizers of course can deplete treble peaks, foam inserts work well, cable filters can work but may not be the best option, and lastly of course using an amp/dac that has some treble roll off works well too as it helps decrease the peaks
Which dekoni pads would you recommend for them?
Depends on what your wanting. Skip the sheepskins. Velour are quite nice and are closest to the base signature puts it around the 177x GO signature a bit in my opinionā¦ but they add more comfort and a touch more to the soundstage(your ears further from the driver), Elite Hybrid brings up vocals, dials back the treble a little, and definitely brings up the bass so you get more in the mids but a big increase in the bass so it becomes more V signatured, Fenestrated are an addition to the soundstage by a good margin, less on the treble, it sounds more smooth, but keeps the rest of the signatureā¦ so a good option, Choice Leather are great if you want the signature to become more warmā¦ it depletes that treble by a very large margin and increases the bass and vocal warmth by a good amount but nothing crazy, lastly you have my Favorite the Suedes wider soundstage, great bass, big deplete on the treble and I prefer these over the choice leathersā¦ these are my go-to for casual uses and if the brightness is just getting on my nerves
First of all: amazing! This is a great guide and Iām considering the MH751 based on this guide. Iām just left with one question: what about the Pandaās? Can they be considered ācompetitiveā headphones?
At work so short response. Those will be added to this list, they work fine and are relatively low latency with the proper signature. Though soundstage is a bit on the narrow side imaging is still good. Cheap alternative though not as good musically is the new penrose. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I know Iām looking at marketing pages by Audeze themselves, but knowing that the Mobius is pretty well respected, those might just be exactly what Iām looking for. Wireless, even for my new Xbox Series X, good mic and good sound. And most likely easier to buy in the Netherlands (Drop is possible, but import fees and taxes are a bitch).
Thank you a 1000 times for the tip. I will look into these.
Bruh any chance you gonna get a hold of the Penrose hearing great things about them
Do you think something like the Panda or Penrose sound way better than the MH751? Will I immediately hear a difference in sound quality?
plan to buy my own copy later instead of auditioning more than likely. Just dependsā¦ we already have the general idea of exactly what the penrose sounds likeā¦ itās a mobius clone without the massive amount of issues and low latencyā¦ Removed 3d head tracking though. Itās the mobius but ya knowā¦ doesnāt suck lol
Penrose? Debateable and highly recommended you wait till they iron out all the kinks as it has some distortion issues and other things going on right now. Itās essentially just the mobius but improved to a certain degreeā¦ though I wouldnāt say āworth $300ā as thatās rather ridiculous considering you can buy likeā¦ the hyperx orbit(same as the mobius but wired) for like $150 or the mmx300 at $300 among a wide variety of other things(deva immediately comes to mind involving wireless)ā¦ Does the original mobius outperform the mh751? Yes, but it had a huge amount of issuesā¦ if they iron out all of them with penrose yes, it will definitely be a step up from mh751ā¦ As for panda, thatās a more musical headphone with a rather narrow soundstage, while it works for gaming itās not one I would generally recommend under certain circumstancesā¦ only if you play rather smaller fps really would I say itās alright to use.
I will make this a bit simple for you as I feel it gets a bit confusing otherwise, if your just starting outā¦ go with mh751ā¦ if you really want a proper setupā¦ make sure you have the budget for it and get yourself an amp/dac + Headphone + dedicated microphone(will generally run you $200 for the amp/dac at entry level, from $60 - $200 for the microphone, and from $150 - $??? for headphones). If you want wireless, Penrose and Panda are great options with the other two that come to mind being the Hifiman Deva(needs extra items for setup so deceptively more expensive) and Coolermasters MH670 which is the more āfunā version to the mh751 they made and is wireless alongside having an equalizer software. Of course these are all closed backs excluding deva, open backs I would have other suggestions
also, little note because holy hell I have been getting a lot of messages of lateā¦ please be a little patient if you message me, I do work very long shifts(12 hours or longer per day) so if I donāt get back to you within give or take an hour, I will when I get the chance. Thanks for all the kind words and I look forward to potentially helping more of you out
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Interesting thread, i appreciate the detailed posts.
Has anyone here used the D7200 in comp gaming ? The dude behind Gaming Audio Guide (on youtube) rate them the highest off all the great cans he has tested so far. Generally when i read feedback about them excellent imaging always comes along as one of their strengths. Also i was looking at the Realiser A16 the other day and saw the D7200 along with the HD800S being the top recommendations overall, but they specifically points out their great ability for spacial recreation. And while this was probably more tested in movies environment i thought it made sense to talk about it. Keep in mind they must have tested a bunch of headphones and itās no secret that the HD800S has impressive soundstage so i was a bit surprised when i saw the D7200 being there.
Iām also curious about the ath-A2000z and Austrian audio X55, thereās very few talks about them and i find their price tag acceptable compared to the competitions. All closedback but it wasnāt on purpose nor my preference, i just want to put some lights on them and if anyone has some experiences with them.
Lastly, for @Falenkor , i read your comment on the K702 and i think performance per price vary hugely on the region youāre in. For us in EU the K702 is very relevant imo at around 120ā¬. They were 110ā¬ for a long time while the K612 doesnāt seems to move as much at 99ā¬. Sometimes you can find deal on them so it makes them very competitive imo. K702 at 75 bucks lowest iāve seen is pretty nice.
Audio Technica is overpriced in EU while for NA it seems to be the same for AKG stuff.
hmm, so the denon d7200 is an interesting one. It does have very nice imaging but also a wide depth-y soundstage and a very nice seperation and sound to it. Overall definitely more musical. As far as gaming is concerned, I think people get to stuck on thinking you only need soundstage and imaging to make a good gamer headphone when thatās not the whole truth. With the D7200 it has too much in the bass as itās on the warmer side of headphones making it not very ideal for competitive but quite nice for just casual gaming and listening. HD800S doesnāt have a laser sharp imaging but itās still very good and the soundstage is ridiculously large while not being a very bassy headphone, mids are where they need to be, and the treble is raised making it plenty idealā¦ granted the brightness is quite a bit much and comfort is a little iffy in my opinion. Denon D7200 can still be usedā¦ itās just that you would generally want to equalize or find a way to dial back that rumble to kind of balance out the sound so you can hear footsteps and the like better
regardless of region the price per performance seems to varyā¦ K702 and k712 can be seen posted online here for literally over $400 which is insane when you think about it.
the particular write up here if you happened across my other remarks is outdated, I have not got around to fixing price tags and the like to begin with. I understand that in EU this headphone is more accessible. K702 and K712 are generally ones I recommend but it depends on if you can get them at their appropriate price due to stupid price listingsā¦ this write up is also more catered towards the gamer, not the music lover. K702 is quite an easy recommend at up to I want to say around $150.
They have this at my audio store but I have not bothered with it
closed back version, have not bothered with eitherā¦ so I canāt really speak on that personally
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Yeah that makes sense. Iām aware of too much bass isnāt what you want when thinking comp gaming, i pointed at this one because from what i heard i thought the bass would be more tight rather than over present, i guess i got it wrong. I was supposed to demo all the Denon family but thanks to Covid and lockdown itās postponed for the moment.
Gotcha, my bad the update in progress in title got me confused.
I tried these but only for music not in a gaming environment, i thought the imaging was particularly good and the brightness and bass presence seemed just the right amount for being nor obtrusive nor boring so i felt like these could be interesting to try aswell. I think the A1000Z (red cups) arenāt that different but the slightly more present bass might not be ideal. Unfortunately i canāt find many users about this closedback series, attached cable + questionnable pricing (mostly for the first few years) probably scared people to go for it.
As far as the X55 goes, from how NTR described these, it might be an interesting one to try cause on paper they have the good ingredients. It remains just a guess obviously. I wish there was more opinions about these, unfortunately i canāt find a local place with these to demo.
They are quite niceā¦ just rather pricey.
I mean, sounds interesting at least. Though trying to keep alot of the list here on the lower brackets of pricing due to word limit constraints. Thought about putting it on a .doc but thatās a bit more of a headache. It doesnt surprise me though that an ad1000z would work as ad1000x the open back version is quite nice in the same manner
This is an issue for many as its complicated to try this stuff to begin withā¦ Iām fortunate that within like 2 hours drive I have the big city Chicago and other stores like sweetwater and others so I can hit different stores to try many headphonesā¦ also having friends in the hobby is a godsend.