What are some good warm amps to pair with Eikon? Solid state and tubes.
That may just be the recordings. I was going to ask for an example, but you beat me to my question. Iām getting the same general sense of blandness out of DT 1770s via Atom and Eikons from RNHP. I think itās the mix.
FWIW, I have occasionally caught the Eikons stomping on pieces of certain tracks, but itās really rare and tends to only be something I notice on tracks I know really well. I canāt even think of examples off the top of my head, but there have been a few.
Meanwhile, the brain burn-in can be a real thing, too. Like if you stare at a bright red shape for long enough for your eyes to acclimate, then close them youāll see a blue afterimage of that shape. After spending a bunch of time with Beyers, a lot of other headphones sounded pretty bland to me, lol. Solution: listen to very plain chill music like Ulrich Schnauss to let my head recover from needing everything to be KMFDM.
Finally, I noticed Bob Marley sounded a lot louder than Led Zeppelin. So maybe a matter of comparative loudness?
I like a lot of the violectric stuff, real nice like a v280 or v281 if you want to go solid state
Maybe. Iām running into the issue of my amp being wayyyy too powerful, so I have to keep the volume knob pretty far below 9 30.
But yea. For some reason everything is sounding thin. I distinctly remember last night not feeling that way.
Kinda just happened out of the blue after switching around a bunch.
I tried cranking the volume knob and it doesnāt help too much.
My brain is melting
Adjust the output gain on the enog?
Itās on the lowest gain
I also have tinnitus from drum corps (which drives me fucking insane, and RIP any cure) so I realllllly try to minimize making that worse, so I donāt blast sound almost at all.
Volume knob on lowest gain at my comfortable listening volume is at 8 15ish.
Ah gotcha, yeah NVM then
You could always try going back to something that worked for you the other day: change your playback chain back to what it was before and revisit one of your other reference tracks and see if it comes across the same way as you remember. If it does, you can re-check those āthinā recordings. If they still sound thin, theyāre the culprit. If they sound better, itās the playback chain. And if nothing helps at all, itās you.
Iāve noticed in my critical listening tests that my hearing can vary day to day. Some factors might be rest, mood, something about the weatherā¦ Chalk it up to listening fatigue and take a break, give your ears a chance to rest, and come back to it tomorrow.
Ok. Iāll do that.
I would be a very sad boi if half of the led zeppelin remasters sounded that way. So hopefully thisāll help.
Thank you
Regardless, even when I canāt get that āthinā sound out of my head, these things still sound great.
Thin on an RNHP means your DAC is a on the bright/warm side for that particular headphone in my experience. If a headphone seems thin, the RNHP does not help the situation. Iāll report on my Eikons when they show up because I got a feeling theyāll play nice with my Bifrost 2. M0N has the dac recommendations but in a pinch, E30 might help the situation.
Ok. Itās sunday, Iām bored, and I figured Iād give my two cents on these guys and my other new gear. I think my initial thoughs on these guys were very accurate, and hold true now just as much as they did when I first got these.
TLDR :
I like them a lot. Would rather use my Elegias for 75% of use cases. However, that other 25% of use cases is where I get the most enjoyment out of music, so it balances out.
How I tested the Eikon :
Monolith LP via Enog2 mostly. Always balanced. Some time on the Geshelli Erish. Have had my hands on these for almost two weeks now. Very up in the air which amp I like them better with. They both do different things well.
Eikon General Sound Sig :
Natural, neutral, and dynamic. Good amount of everything. Sounds almost dead neutral to me. Microdynamics are great. Macrodynamics are good. Soundstage is not huge, but well portayed and immersive. Extension is great on both ends. No noticeable bleed between bass / mids / treble. Sounds very much like sitting in a wood room at a house concert. An absolute treat with acoustic / folk music. Again, other reviewers have beaten this to death, and for a more in-depth review check out the head-fi reviews.
Pros :
- Great dynamics. Does justice to a lot of the smaller stuff going on in a lot of the folk and trad music I listen to. I really, really, really appreciate it. Much better at really allowing for the musicality of that type of music to come through in an accurate way.
- Natural tone. These things have faked me into believing I was at a live performance more than a few times. Only really does it with small scale stuff (not huge concert venues / halls). Still makes large venues sound good, but not nearly as scarily accurately as it does small ones. Vocals and percussion really stand out as successes with these.
- Very non fatiguing. Listening to older albums and tracks as well as anything more acoustic is an absolute fucking treat. Would (and have) relax and kick back with these all day.
Cons :
- Does not handle electronic music and metal well at all. Anything with too much going on or thatās too electronic feels VERY lackluster on these. The Elegias still do ok on the more elctronic stuff, but these things make it sound very electronic in the wrong way imo. That being said, more modern rock and punk are still great on these (would still pull for my elegias there though). Classic rock is also great on these with no caveats.
- Balanced is really the only way to drive them. They really need it for some reason.
- Portability. These are not cans to bring with you on a walk. Theyāre fucking gigantic and very conspicuous. They also are not well fed by any affordable portable stuff in my research and limited experience.
Would I recommend you buy it? :
TLDR? Yes. More in-depth? I would pick the Elegias over these if I had to choose one. For the price, not being able to take these away from the desk and their limitations for me just donāt merit a buy of these over the Elegias as a first high-end closed-back can. At the same time, if you already have a high end closed back (and want something more natural sounding than the Elegias), these are a great pick to round everything out. Resell value is also very high (if well taken care of). For me specifically these are keepers because of what I listen to. That being said, what I listen to is wicked niche so take my opinions with a grain of salt.
Great post Sir - appreciated
So just for an interesting update on these.
Iāve found over the last few weeks that my absolute favorite pairing in my system is my Eikons running single ended via my Gilmore Lite Mk2. Everything is just clear, sweet, natural, and well layered / separated. 11/10. If you listen to acoustic instruments often, this is a winning pair. Better response / transients than the mlp imo. Makes up tempo bluegrass smexy.
Sounds nice!
I listen to a lot of instrumental (OST) so this could be an option and perhaps a look into HeadAmps and their products.
I mean, Iām seriously debating trading out my mlp for an rnhp or another gilmore and bringing that to work.
Is my favorite piece of kit.
And it helps that it works wonderfully with the eikons. The clears sound pretty good off of it too.
And it is an amp at a fairly awailable price point and a producer with a decent reputation.
Whatās not to like.
But no one has got it cause, āOMG MLP so gooood and RNHP hypeeeeeeā
Seems to get overlooked a lot lol. I need to try the rnhp just to see, though based on comparisons Iāve read and heard so far my preferences are solildly in the gilmore camp.
As of this week, I am finally on the Eikon spreadsheet. The waiting game has begun. Pairing it with a Liquid Platinum, letās see how that works out. I think it will be a just dandy combo as a little tubbiness seems to suit their cans well. I hope to soon find out.
Thanks for the review @Pr3ssAltF4 good info especially since you were testing my pairing. So curious to see how I hear things.
Today I have 2 month aniversary on that list - just sayingā¦
Is a good pairing. I like the gilmore more. I think these cans really benefit from the cleanliness and warmish sig. MLP almost mucks with the sound of the cans too much imo. Sounds pleasant for sure, but itās not nearly as clean as the gilmore is.
Iām curious to hear what you think. What DAC will you be pairing with it?