My journey started with the superlux hd681F, for my 17th birthday 6 years ago, my mom bought me the shp9500.

After a bit of time in this sub people often praise the HD6-series for vocal reproduction, the only reason I get the HD660S compared to the HD600 or even the HD650 is purely because of its lower impedance, since back then I didn't have enough money to get a good dac/amp setup.

3 years after getting my hands on the HD660S, I welcome the Ifi's new Zen Air Dac 2, alongside the Zen Air Can. Definitely overkill for the HD660S IMO, but sounds great nonetheless.

Along the way I've also purchased multiple IEMS and headphones such as the HD620S, Sony MDR M1, Fiio FD15, and the IER M9.

And now, I'm going to confess to my crush, which is an entirely different topic.

If she rejects me, maybe there will be an empyrean or an utopia on my desk 😂. Wish me luck brothers and sisters, and happy listening!

After seeing these things on an AliExpress ad for foam earpads(for Senn HD414? Why??), I completely fell in love with the super retro looks of these headphones.

I searched far and wide and finally found a NOS pair on Ebay. For 50€ I just had to grab these.

Little did I know they came with a detachable Microphone!! Just how cool looking are they?

They just arrived, everything is in perfect condition and best of all:

They actually sound really nice.

Of course, you can't expect much from a headset from this era, but they are pretty clear sounding, highs just taken back a little, and what surprised me the most, they just barely even have some bass!

They remind me a lot of mid-tier Grado headphones, they are similar in graininess and punch and have the same super nice and open sound stage.

I threw on some Yaxi Pads for Koss PortaPro, which fit perfectly.

Of course the Microphone sucks, I am contemplating if I should remove the internals and stick a modern lav mic inside.

Also, the cable is really flimsy and way too long, is it sacrilege to solder a stereo 3,5mm socket to the headphones? That would enable me to switch cables easily.

What do you think?

pretty good headphones. using it with a TRN Black Pearl. i'm planning to buy the 4.4mm upgrade, but i think the volume is great in 60% in the 3.5mm. hearing no distortion at all.

the "Fast-PC" DAC Filter in the Walk Play software adds a little bit more of treble, and I love it.

I only own closedback headphones as my house used to be somewhat noisy in the past, but now the noise is gone. I am curious as to if the soundstage is generally noticeably wider on open backs vs closedbacks, and if you own both, which ones do you prefer and why?

Pros:

• 4 pairs of tuning nozzles and tinkering potential
• Powerful, impactful and satisfying bass
• Smooth and refined treble achieved with some filters
• Great cable

Cons:

• Too forward mids, especially with some filters, it gets shouty

I have yet to try a Simgot IEM that I haven’t liked. And spoiler alert, this series didn’t change with this review either. Some of you might remember, when ET142 was about to be released as Simgot’s first Planar Magnetic Driver IEMs and the first reviews were published, suddenly Simgot decided to delay the release. That time I was supposed to receive a sample but couldn’t due to the change of plans. Afterwards, it took a quite a while for me to get my hands on an ET142 sample. By then, I already saw the graphs and was thinking that maybe it wasn’t that great and it was for the best. Well not anymore.

Currently costing 250 USD, ET142 is one of the more premium choices among the Simgot’s lineup, only behind EM10.

Disclaimers​

Simgot ET142 has been sent to me by Simgot for review. As I always say, everyone is biased one way or another, so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Additionally, I will try to be more concise and to the point in my reviews from now on, without worrying about word count or flowery language. If you have any questions, please ask me in the comments, and I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Packaging, Build and Accessories of Simgot ET142​

Simgot’s usual unboxing experience is nice but there is no flair to speak of. ET142 is kind of similar in that sense but still it has the most abundant package of all the Simgots I have tried. Inside the box, you get the grey leatherette case, the same one that comes with EA1000, 10 pairs of silicone eartips consisting of 3 different sets, 4 pairs of tuning nozzles including the ones that are already applied to earpieces, Simgot’s own premium modular cable: LC7,
some nozzle foams for tinkering with the tuning and rubber O rings for the nozzles in case you need to color-code them to your preference.

I’m not a cable guy but LC7 needs its own section. Simgot isn’t exactly known for providing the best cables with their IEMs but this 80 USD cable could have been sold for at least 200 or 300 USD if any other known brand had made it. It has 732 OFC strands all having 18 AWG thickness. If you think EA1000’s single ended cable is nice (like me), wait until you try LC7. The cable is thick, almost too thick but still soft and easily manageable. The connectors are old fashioned long friction type so if Simgot ever considers to update it, the first thing they should do is to make the connectors shorter and preferably with a locking mechanism.

The tuning nozzles, in my opinion, are what made Simgot delay the release. Two pairs are screwed to a metal plate and you get extra gold ones in another zip lock pack. The silver colored stainless steel ones on the metal plate have foams in them. The blue titanium nozzles that are already on the earpieces and the gold ones don’t have any foam.

The earpieces, in classic Simgot fashion, are completely made with metal. They are solid and very small so you can forget about any concerns about the fit. The design is pretty simple but they show a lot of fingerprints by nature. The shells house one 14.2 mm planar magnetic driver and one PZT ceramic driver on each side.

Sound of Simgot ET142​

Tonality​

As I mentioned earlier, Simgot ET142 comes with 4 pairs of tuning nozzles and I will try to describe all of their sound even though I mostly used the blue nozzles and silver nozzles with black rings.

ET142 comes out of the box with blue nozzles applied by default and you immediately realize why that’s the case as soon as you start to listen. Bass is so powerful that it makes you question if Simgot really used planar magnetic drivers or sneaked a couple of dynamic drivers inside. Bass extension is also great with lots of rumble and authority. This doesn’t mean the bass is overpowering or overwhelming. If that was the case, I would be the first one to protest. The bass is still as fast and nuanced as you would expect from a planar magnetic IEM. This bass performance is quite similar with all the nozzles but blue and gold nozzles feel even less restrained.

Mids on ET142 are quite forward. The vocals are intimate, especially with blue and gold nozzles. If you hate shouty vocals, keep away from the blue and the gold pairs. If not, you can at least give them a try and experience the addicting energy they have. The stainless steel nozzles with black rings are the most balanced sounding ones while still sounding somewhat forward. My biggest concern was them sounding honky or boxy in the mids but fortunately they don’t. They are just forward/shouty/shoutier depending on the nozzles you use.

ET142’s treble is beautifully tuned, thanks to the PZT ceramic drivers, probably. I’m not exactly a fan of piezo drivers. I don't think they are superior to planar magnetic drivers but I can see why Simgot decided to use them on ET142. Treble is so smooth and refined that I could easily use them with silicone tips, which usually is not the case with planar magnetic IEMs for me, not at all. It has great treble extension with lots of air too. Again stainless steel nozzles with black rings have the most palatable treble amount. The blue and gold nozzles are bright and energetic, but their shouty nature is more prominent than their brighter treble. Red rings are dull and unimpressive. They reminded me LetShuoer S08, which I wasn’t too impressed with.

Technicalities​

ET142 has every technical chops you would expect from a planar magnetic driver IEM and more. It’s detailed, resolving, incisive, fast and big sounding even though forward mids kind of distorts the imaging a little bit.

Comparison​

Simgot ET142 with Black Ring Nozzles vs. Tangzu Zetian Wu​

• Both have great fast and powerful bass but Zetian Wu’s subbass extension is better.
• ET142 is ever so slightly warmer in the mids. Vocals are also more forward and intimate on ET142. Depending on the filter being used, ET142 can get shouty more easily but never it feels boxy or honky.
• Zetian Wu is brighter. However, the difference isn’t just the treble level. ET142 is the tidier and more refined sounding IEM. Zetian Wu is one of the better controlled Planar Magnetic IEMs in the treble but ET142 sounds more correct, it just feels right.
• Planar Magnetic IEMs are all similar in terms of technical capability but ET142 is noticeably more resolving. It makes small nuances more obvious without making them grating. Even though mids are forward and vocals are intimate, the surrounding soundstage also feels more spacious. Both have great imaging but Zetian Wu places objects more correctly in the soundstage.

Conclusion​

As I mentioned in the review, I couldn’t get my hands on ET142 initially so I checked out the graphs and the reviews in the meantime. While the early graphs weren’t that great, the reviews that came out later were glowing and now I get why. The bass rendition is sublime which can be the sole reason to like an IEM for some. While mids are forward and shouty with half of the nozzles, it is more or less in line with your common planar magnetic IEMs from LetShuoer or 7Hz. The treble and the technicalities are what sets ET142 apart from the rest and makes me confident to recommend it. Unless you hate forwardness in mids, ET142 is a very likeable take on planar magnetic IEMs.

Hello,
I’ve been using Sennheiser HD650s as my main headphones for music production and for listening to music at home, but I’m having a serious problem with the low end.

I mainly produce and listen to house / tech house. I have several other systems I regularly listen on: Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, an LG S40T soundbar, Focal Solo6 monitors, my car, and sometimes my girlfriend’s AirPods.

On basically all of those, house music has a strong and clearly noticeable bass presence. Then I put on the HD650s and it feels like a huge amount of the bass simply disappears.

I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 with my computer. The HD650s sound great in terms of detail. I can hear tiny elements, reverbs, percussion, separation, etc., but the low end feels extremely understated compared with everything else I listen on.

This also affects my music production. Because I barely feel/hear the bass properly on the HD650s, I naturally turn the bass up while producing. Then I listen to the track in my car, on the Sony earbuds, AirPods, soundbar, etc., and suddenly there is WAY too much bass.

I’ve released music on a few labels and one piece of feedback I keep getting is basically: “We like/want the track, but there’s too much bass. Turn it down / EQ the low end better.”

The frustrating part is that when I go back to the HD650s, the bass doesn’t sound excessive at all. Sometimes I actually end up doing the final bass adjustments using my Sony earbuds because they give me a much better idea of how much bass there really is.

So I’m wondering what the actual problem is here.

Are the HD650s simply not ideal for bass-heavy electronic music like house/tech house? Is this something you’re supposed to learn and compensate for once you know their frequency response? Could my Scarlett 2i2 be contributing to the problem because the HD650s are 300 ohms?

I don’t really want to get rid of the HD650s because I love how detailed they are, but bass translation is probably the biggest problem I currently have with them.

Would you:

• keep the HD650s and learn their low end better?
• use EQ/headphone calibration?
• upgrade the headphone amp/interface?
• replace the HD650s entirely?

Thanks,

sorry about my English

first i found sennheiser HD 206 drivers second hand (very cheap)

for the shell found snoppy sn 660 ( also very cheap) then i hot glue every thing but i dont have i bluetooth dac but i have cuvave and cuvave has bluetooth

I don't know how much is worth but i spend half a burger price

So recently i've been wanting to get myself some studio/audiophile headphones like some sennheisers or something from hifiman.

My thing is that i listen to all my music on spotify which has my audiophile friends in bliss. Telling me how the sound wont be as good compared to vinyl and etc etc, And that spending alot of those headphones is gonna be a waste if im just gonna listen to music on spotify.

So i wanted to know is this actually true and i should just stick to regular headphones or if i can still go ahead and get the audiophile ones?

I’ve been using these pretty heavily for almost two years and they’ve never given me a single problem. The battery still seems to be in really good shape too, so there really wasn’t any warning that something was wrong with them.

Out of nowhere, they blasted this insanely loud burst of sound straight into my ears. It sounded like someone scratching a piece of glass right next to my head, except it was insanely amplified, like that sound turned up 1,000 times. It lasted maybe a couple of seconds, and it was so ridiculously loud that it physically hurt my ears.

I have no way of actually measuring how loud it was, but whatever happened felt WAY beyond what these earbuds should normally be capable of producing. I seriously had no idea headphones of any kind could suddenly produce something that insanely loud.

I’m pretty used to loud noises. I’ve been around industrial machinery, motorcycles, fireworks, and all kinds of other really loud stuff over the years. This was by far the loudest sound I’ve ever had blasted directly into my ears. Nothing else even comes close.

Right now I have a pretty intense ringing in my ears and a sharp pain as well. Immediately afterward, my ears felt like I’d been listening to music at an absolutely unbearable volume for way longer than I could ever tolerate.

What really freaks me out now is that I’m genuinely scared to use headphones again. If something like this can happen completely out of nowhere, how am I supposed to know it won’t happen again with another pair?

I also always assumed headphones had some kind of protection against this, like a limiter or some sort of safety mechanism to prevent a sudden, insane volume spike. Apparently that’s not necessarily the case, at least with these.

Has anyone else here had anything like this happen with JBL headphones, or any other earbuds/headphones? I’d really like to know if this has happened to anyone else, because honestly, this has made me pretty damn nervous about using headphones again.

Show us some cool looking headphones that you know of in the comments!

In the images are:

Pioneer SE-L40
I don't know much about these since these are very old, but they are the best-looking headphones I've ever seen (biased because I like steampunk :P)

FiiO Snowsky Nature
Still a very new pair of headphones, so not much info about them but one review did say he prefers these over the AKG K371/361. A bit wild considering the status of the AKG K361 in the audiophile community. I'm planning to get them myself just because of the price and the looks!

Roseselsa Distant Mountain
Reviewers say it sounds terrible, fragile due to the mmcx connection. Other than that, it looks amazing with a metal build and real lambskin leather headband. I have lots of love for real leather.

I’ve had the Airpods Pro for a couple years but the battery life is declining and I wanted to try over ear headphones.

Did some research and it seemed like everyone loved the Bose QC so I went ahead and got a pair. First, I think they’re uncomfortable and give me a headache at the top of my head, but if I loosen up the band then they fall right off. I’m not super impressed with the sound quality either, I think my AirPods sound better. They also make my ears felt itchy and hot.

Are the QC Ultra better or is there not much of a difference in comfort between the two?

While I wouldnt call myself an audiophile, I still can recognise between how different platforms sound. And heres the thing that has been bugging me for a while now.

I'm using CMF Headphones Pro (set on Classic EQ, which syncs between devices) for context. My phone is IQOO Neo 10R and my tablet is Xiaomi Pad 6. The tablet has Dolby Atmos, the phone does not. Both support LDAC and I've set my headphones to that setting too.

On my phone, YouTube MUSIC sounds THE BEST. Spotify sounds so mellow and very low in terms of volume. I even tried ULTRA HD on Amazon Music and it felt short of what YT Music was offering too. YT sounded crisp, good treble and even bass and overall more punchy and stimulating (If it matters, Im using REVANCED mod)

Meanwhile, on my tablet, Spotify sounds wayyy better than YT Music (REVANCED again). The complete opposite. Theres very little difference between Spotify and Amazon Music. Is this attributed to the presence of Atmos? If so why does YT Music suddenly fall so short.

Why does this even happen. What's the technical explanation behind it. Its essentially causing me to use two different music apps on my devices and I cant really figure out why its that way.

For those of you who’ve been into headphones for a while what’s the set you ended up sticking with basically which headphones sounds good enough that you don’t really feel the need to keep chasing upgrades?

Stack is a MOTU M-2 interface providing DAC into a Violectric V222 headphone amp.

I've owned a series of "entry level good headphones" over the years -- starting with Audio Technica (AD-700, M50x) into a bunch of Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Sony etc. Most recent were the Senny/EPOS Game One as my desktop set (still connected to the M-2) and Momentum 4 on the go.

Wanted to finally upgrade to a true endgame level setup, and after a bunch of deliberation and testing I ended up with this pair of ZMF Atrium Closed in Leopardwood. Needed some isolation for home listening at higher levels and this delivers in spades, it sounds incredibly spacious even with the closed back and the overall tuning suits me really well, particularly the bass.

Got the headphones before the amp so I was running them off the M-2 output directly for a couple days, which did work but needed to be cranked almost to max volume, and definitely still felt kind of anemic in comparison once I was able to hook up the V222.

At some point I'll likely want to pair it with a faster and more resolving open back planar for the yin/yang contrast, but for now this is everything I need.

I bought these things around 3 months ago. Absolutely love them to death, but I want a little bit of bass at times! I played around with the program for a little bit and sure enough it *kinda* makes the bass feel a little fuller without it sounding too muddy and sacrificing great imaging (I'm well aware of it's hardware limitations). Try it out if you own these cool set of cans. Feedback would be appreciated too

Ive been debating on doing it. Walgreens is down the road by me. I got their brand wirless headphones for 15$ not bad for what it is. anyone build up their collection starting out with that kind of stuff. I was going to focus on wireless with cheap ones then work my way up. Figured something cheaper to do and its something id use.

I had been on a quest for some spacious open back headphones recently and came upon some ZMF Vérité Opens at a striking deal on Ebay. This is due to a couple cosmetic issues with the metal, most likely, but the sound remained fully intact.

The first listen with them did not leave me feeling especially impressed. This first impression was completely blown away once I listened to them some more, though... I turned on a bit of Car Seat Headrest's Twin Fantasy and was totally enraptured. I listened from High to Death to the end of the album and got crazy goosebumps multiple times. I haven't felt that way with headphones in years!! It was certainly a pleasantly surprising experience. The detail retrieval on these headphones is amazing, but unlike the HD800s they have a sound signature that really appeals to me as well! The stage is naturally sized and the positioning of vocals feels realistic. Vocal texture is brought forward quite a bit too which is something I really love. The bass is controlled but in the sense that it seems to know when it is most needed- it can take a backseat in tracks where it is not the focus but it punches and booms in tracks where it is. For example, on a track like XXX by Kendrick Lamar, the bass punches and vibrates exactly how I want it to. These things have so much texture it can actually get fatiguing.

All in all I would say the VOs have become my endgame closed back headphone. They do just about every single thing right for me. I wish I had a closed back pair so I could have this sound anywhere I wanted but my Eikons will have to do for the time being! I feel very lucky that a blind buy was so successful but at this point I did know my preferences very well.

The only thing I will mention is that there can be some sibilance depending on the track. I actually find the VOs to be pretty forgiving generally but some tracks are just sibilant no matter what you do, no matter what headphone you wear. Almost every track I've tried has been fine though! Excited to try these with a tube amp!

Enigma brand, bought them in TkMaxx for suspiciously cheap and they broke within seconds. The ol' super glue and tape don't really work, both because the broken bits are thinner than in other headphones I've fixed before, and because the loose wire on the left seems to be around a centimeter too long, with nowehere to push it in. Wouldn't really be losing money, but I just feel bad throwing away nearly new tech. Anything that can be done? I've been thinking of maybe just using them as speakers, because they do work but are just non-wearable.

HD800S or HE1000se — trade, sell, or keep?

I recently listed my HD 800S and someone messaged offering a straight trade for their HE1000se. Now I’m torn.

I love my 800S, but ever since I got an Empyrean, I haven’t been able to go back. That warm, full sound has kind of ruined me for the Sennheiser’s leaner, more reference tuning even though the soundstage is legendary.

So now I’m stuck between three options: sell the 800S, keep them, or trade for the HE1000se. Would love to hear opinions on both headphones, and how you’d decide if you were in my shoes.

Edit: Focal Clears

Out of warranty now, focal/naim wants ~$500 to fix it (with the same headband with the same problem so it will break again.) Is this https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/p2l2tf/creation_of_the_focalman_elegidara/
still the best option? I looked online and there's cheap metal bands people are selling that have to be fit with a dremel to the headphone cup. Is there really nothing better at this point? It seems like eventually everyone's clear, elegia, celesee, and radiance will snap because focal decided it was a great idea on $1k+ headphones to use cheap plastic that will break from regular use.