Ah, thats good. I recommend the Helios to people cause its a amazingly great headphone for 180$ with a U shape, and amazing detail and openess that can compete with 600$ headphones. Besides the speed, separation and imaging thats also awesome. The Helios can driver headphone prices down.
I own the Auteur and Arya. Not the Clear. The Arya is a neutral bright headphone with good bass extension and depth. The Auteur is the most neutral headphone ive ever heard. with great bass extension and timbre. both are very detailed but the Arya has more detail than the Auteur.
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What I want to know is why there is an option to buy the Helios with 10 pads?
IDK. I think they sound best with the stock velour pads. But whats strange is they keep showing them with the leather pads. i dont think those are the best pads
My trip down the rabbit hole started when I decided to “splurge” on $30 Sony headphones at RadioShack. My objective was just to do better than crap ear buds. They were better. But then I got a job in an office with tons of noise and I started listening all the time and realized that the headphones had boosted bass that bothered the hell out of me. It was putting bass where it shouldn’t be and throwing off everything (I listen to classical…maybe for other genres it would have been fun). Then I started reading and talked myself into spending $100 for a pair of Sennheiser 4xx (I dont remember the numbers). They weren’t bad, but I came to see them as lacking something. Like they were being held back (in retrospect I bet an amp would have made a huge difference).
I stopped using them and opted for IEMs. Fischer DBA-02. They were highly rated at the time and praised for being neutral kings with terrific value for money. And they were great. When I lost them a few years later I didn’t bother doing any more research and simply bought another set, the Mk2. $150. Then I decided to get back into the headphone game. Started with the DT770s (closed made a lot of sense then, given my use), then I bought a Magni 2 and decided to try open-backed and went for theDT880 600 ohms…I liked them, but they’re a bit bright and plus I was super curious and ended up owning both a HD600 and HD650, one for home, the other for the office.
Much of this really is about learning to be comfortable with spending certain sums of money. When this started, $30 for headphones felt like a big splash…and then $100…now, after all this, the idea of spending $1000 doesn’t strike me as at all crazy, and I just might do it for my next purchase. I’m thinking of stepping up to Focal Elex or Audeze LCD2.
I do want to up my IEM game as well, but there I’m slowed by concern that IEMs are exposed to abuse and stand a good chance of being lost. Spending $$$ on them still strikes me as imprudent.
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Going to actually step in on that statement that you made there rice and confirm this. as someone who games a absolute ton. There hasn’t been any headphone that I have tried in game that can compete against a dt 990 or 880 outside of select few sennheisers but they aren’t as good… While if you were playing casually theres an absolute TON of headphones… when it comes to gaming competitive the beyers seem to win in every margin, thats not to say that their isn’t other options… anything with a very sharp V signature with a expansive yet analytical sound stage and imaging will work perfectly
Which has better bass?
I found this thread to be quite interesting. This prompted me to go back through my Amazon order history and really think about how and why I’ve progressed through different headphones over the years.
Essentially, 10 years ago I bought a really crappy Turtle Beach headset for my Xbox 360. This caused me to buy other headsets (which were also crappy). Then, I bought a set of DT770 Pros and an amp. Then moved to a T50RP, which I modded and happily used for years. For some reason, around 2016, I traded my T50RP for an M50X, which I didn’t like.
I then bounced around to a few different headphones / headsets until trying the PC37X. I liked it for gaming, but as I started listening to more music I found it lacking. So, I demoed the 58X, 6XX, and M1060. I kept the M1060, but that hunt got me into the habit of watching headphone reviews on Youtube…
Now, with COVID, I’ve got too much time on my hands, and let’s just say things have gotten a little out of hand.
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Why are you selling the lcd-x?
The LCD-x is a very good headphone, but I want a warmer sounding headphone…the LCD-x is very neutral.
Razer Mastodon + Sony MDR7506 for 17ish years -> VAVA Moov 28 for 6ish years -> Arctis 5 + Arctis Pro + Sony MDR7506 for about 1 year -> DT 990 + DT 770 250 Ohms -> Hifiman HE-4XX -> Hifiman Sundara -> Andover Audio PM-50 -> ZMF Eikon + Moondrop Starfield -> LZ A6 Mini
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see, the only thing i really doubt is that it’s actually better than the nighthawks lol. The hawks are super competitive with the sundaras with i would say pretty similiar detail (slightly less maybe) completely opposite sound signature and sitll have the most realistic timbre i’ve heard. You have also mentioned it competing in enjoyment for you with the elex, sundara, aiva etc but at the same time you think it would compete with anything under 200. If it’s not better than a sundara, and piercing at times i don’t think it competes with the nighthawks in any way. I’m sure it’s better than the 4xx tho lol that one is just not good. I’d love to get some helios and really test it against other headphones tho, since i haven’t heard it ( I know dark headphones are def not your style and that’s fine, but not being able to enjoy a headphone calling it bad is different from not enjoying it and just saying it’s not for you)
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I’m the opposite £2k on an iem is totally exceptable where as the same on a headphone which probably wouldn’t get used much is imprudent lol.
Yea. I would definitely say it depends on how often they’re on/in your ears. For instance, I don’t really move from my desktop during work, so headphones and an expensive static setup make a whole lot of sense. I only invested in IEMs so that I’d be able to use them during walks and stuff, so spent less money on them since I only wear them for like an hour or two a day max. Whereas my cans are on my head for 6-12 hours at day minimum.
Spending ~$3500 for all my cans, iems, wires, sources, and miscellaneous equipment is worth it for the knowledge, enjoyment, and amount of use I get out of them. For other people the cost/value evaluation will be different. Even though I use cans all the time, I refuse to spend over $1000 on a single piece of kit for now (even though I have an Eikon, I got it for less than $1000). My next foray for just enjoyment purposes is vinyl, a Schiit Bifrost MB. and Moondrop Blessing 2’s, but I’m waiting until September (at the very least) for that.
If your standard is $2000 IEMs, you make a good amount of money, and you wear them all the time / will get good use out of them, go for it. If you are only gonna use them for like an hour a day they might not be, and vice versa with cans and speakers.
I have headphones on my head 5 days a week, nearly all day. At my desk. So even dropping $3k on a pair of Meze Empyrean doesn’t strike me as crazy…not that I have $3k to spend. But also I know that there’s little risk to them. I only use IEMs occasionally, and sometimes I drop them, stuff them in my pocket (where they might rub up against keys or at the very least my ES100), or even, on rare occasion, step on them. ANd I’ve already lost one set of IEMs. I think I left them in a hotel room. Imagine doing that to Andromedas!
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But for some people it isn’t imprudent. For those that prefer IEMs on their head all day, $2000 might be just fine.
Same with people who do field work during the day or are on their feet.
All depends on your circumstances and your personal cost/benefit. Meze Empyreans are extremely imprudent for me, but they aren’t for you, and that’s fine. Even though I am in a similar office / desk situation.
Like if I worked on a boat (which I still might in the future cough cough Woods Hole Oceanographic please hire me cough cough) I’d be on the $1000 IEM train wholeheartedly, cause headphones and boats don’t mix and I definitely wouldn’t be able to bring a fancy tube amp for a good set of cans.
Same thing for my long distance racing. I only have so much space to pack shit and headphones are d e l i c a t e comparatively. I’ve packed my wireless earbuds before. For the stuff this summer (like Newport to Bermuda and shit (assuming people are still going >.> )) I’ll be bringing the starfields cause they’re relatively cheap, small, and sound great.
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I totally understand but music is my hobby and hand on heart I prefer the way iem’s deviler their sound, I find them more comfortable, headphones make my ears too hot and try to replicate a speaker system which apart from detail they mostly fail at, where as the iem sound delivery sounds almost like it’s plug into your brain…Money no object and somewhere I could run it then a speaker system would be my first choice by a country mile followed by iem’s…if I had those two bases covered I doubt i’d even own a pair of over ears tbh.
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We live on a continually cruising barge and you can run tube amps and headphones within reason time dependent too obviously, solar panels can pretty much run all our electric stuff including a 240v fridge in summer and in full sun, we run the engines for about 3hrs in winter to keep the batteries topped up 
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oooooooh. I’m extraordinarily jealous.
For the WHOI stuff or Marine Robotics I’d be on a research / military vessel, so I’m pretty sure there are more stringent restrictions. Then again I might be wrong. You also only get so much space that you can pack. Taking iems that take up basically zero space (even for multiple pairs) is by far the better option. Same with racing sailboats. There is power, but rationing is important so IEMs / DAPs / Phones / Laptops are really the only allowable electronics.
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Yeah the nighthawks are pretty detailed. but does it have detail that can reach the level of the aiva/elex? And it may not be upgraded by the Helios but it certainly can be complemented by the Helios. with the Nighthawks being so dark and the Helios being so bright lol