dubharmonic

Best leather pad?

Everything I've had from Focal, Audeze and ZMF have been great!

I've had decent luck with a few of the protein pads from aliexpress but in general it's not great. I've had more flaky headbands than pads. Protein leather often gives more treble than lambskin too. That being said, size, shape, perf arrangement, and internal foam are more important to SQ.

This was a good episode, but I'm bummed there's an obligatory section in every single podcast where John bitches about the tendencies or requests of his audience. I get his pet peeve and all, but dude could use that time with his guest in other ways.

Ah shit, I'm all turned around. This IS the one I was thinking of.

@Superexchanger you're absolutely right about that! He does it every time.

@fp627 thanks for the impressions. Do you ever use the Stellaris with planars?

No. I don't think it synergizes well with any of them other than Verum, which after what happened, I won't be buying anymore. Note that I'm not saying it's all bad or won't work, just that there was no synergy.

Good synergy - Verum
No/neutral synergy - MrS/DCA Ether and Aeon, newer HFM (soft-fi-man stuff), RAD-0
Bad synergy, probably due to not enough current - Audeze, older HFM

Haven't tried Meze Empyrean.

Note that Verum and RAD-0 were only in meet conditions. Newer HFM was briefly borrowed. Ether was EFO1.1 and the Aeon was a shorter listen.

In short, there are other amps out there for less $ (maybe way less), easier tubes or just SS, etc. if you want to use planars.

The curse of fairly neutral-ish or slightly bright headphones is that these differences will be more obvious.

I also had chronic ear infections when I was a kid. Not fun. Luckily my kids didn’t inherit that.

So much of how we perceive what we hear is dependent on mood. I also think power might have something to do with it. A lot of people underestimate how much quality of power going into the amp matters

https://youtu.be/zhCB4GR5Iis?t=30

@BenjaminBore You're getting the most out of the Auteur with Starlett. It's a great pairing. In terms of Utopia, you're leaving a bit on the table, but not that much.

@dubharmonic I had the same crossroads and ultimately picked the Utopia. Interested to see if you end up keeping both, or maybe perhaps try Verite at some time. Verite doesn't have any Be coloration, although timbre-wise it's clearly far from neutral.

@ChaChaRealSmooth to be clear, I don’t dislike the Utopia! When I visited Zach’s place I was able to try everything he makes (aside from Verite closed, which wasn’t released yet) and the Verite didn’t click with me like the Auteur did. Maybe when the world gets back to normal I’ll give them another listen!

Hopefully....

It’s the power and Ethernet slack that bother me!

Mine has an under-desk tray, and I mounted a power strip underneath, so the only attached cable is power.

I do have a long HDMI cable off to the left to connect the monitor to the tower though.

Oh yes, zip ties, velcro, and stick cable ties are my friend.

Coffee and alcohol can make my tinnitus worse. But I'm not going to give up either coffee or beer. So tinnitus be damned. I'm going to continue to listen wired and buzzed.

Here's an example of a type of recording and music that can trigger my tinnitus: https://www.soundliaison.com/index.php/612-landscape-of-sound-meditation

Not sure if I want to listen to that, for fear of triggering my tinnitus (actually, it's always there, just depends if I notice it or not).

At this rate it seems like half of SBAF if going to have one of these things before year end.

Jealous! Can't wait to hear impressions as I wait for mine to finish!

Time to work on those neck muscles!

@netforce my neck is fine, it's the pressure on the top of the head that's getting to me. First time I've had this happen!

Lol. So true. Grados were anathema for a while, and now I want a pair of the Hemps.

Never thought I'd see headphones with such high treble distortion make a comeback but I guess people like that speedy, prickly, 'lit' sound. My ears might just be too young for such things, and I like to turn it up too. I'd be curious to re-evaluate transient ability tho, which seemed like a strong suit for them.

@E_Schaaf I didn’t see this coming either!

@rlow How dare you. They’re perfectly objective in all things. That’s why they only listen to sine waves.

Wait what??

ASR has declared the dongle “audibly transparent.” Can’t argue with, uh, “science.”

I kind of see full-size planars as being somewhat un-ZMF in terms of sonic strengths. Planars almost always lack midbass emphasis, have diffusive imaging, and slightly to majorly withdrawan upper mids... and I've never heard a closed or semi-closed planar that actually had pleasant cup effect like the ZMFs do. Planar wall + cups = weird

Unless Zach went for a smaller planar driver that didn't take up the whole 'baffle' and seated them more like the dynamic drivers fit into the housings. But at that point, you might not get great bass extension so why bother.

The cup resonance part that he enjoys in his headphones would be difficult with a planar. Something about rear reflections on planars really fucks up the sound. I'm not too sure why this is.

I use it for all my iem reviews/comparisons. It sits at my WFH desk, so gets plenty of iem listening for pleasure as well.

Remember all, IEM Headphone Amp. @shotgunshane approves. Don't listen to @tommytakis, he is too scared of his Sonic Frontiers DAC going away from him.

On a somewhat related note, anybody listen to iems on Hel? It uses the same opamp as the RME ADI-2 DAC, the TI OPA1688. The OPA1688 also uses feedforward, like the opamp in the THX 789.

You have taken the techie approach? Played a tone centred or mono, shut your eyes, and "seen" where it comes from? Maybe you have to do a sweep if you think if might be frequency dependent.

Pisses me off that balance controls became an audiophile no-no about 30 years back. Ears are not perfect, rooms are not perfect...

After sleeping on it, I'm 95% sure that there's some fluid in my inner left ear.

The MHA150 actually does have tone and balance controls!

It may just be wax. It may clear itself, or you may need to consult an ENT doc. My ears need cleaning out at least once a year. It used to make a huge difference, but as I get deafer it makes less. Look after your ears! If in doubt see a doc. :)

Some channel imbalance may reduce your resale value a bit, but it needn't affect your music pleasure. Your brain will adjust.

Your coworker is not wrong

Finally had a day light on meetings. Was able to listen to some music and get some work done.

I've been a little lucky with the pads on my Ananda lasting about 1 1/2 years now. I was thinking of trying to get a used HE 1K SE then I see the horror stories of pads falling apart after one year of use. The pads aren't cheap either.

I've always fancied Auteur pads on HE6 most of the time. Deep pads are hit or miss. I generally avoid perf pads on planars.

@Phantaminum I've never had an issue with the egg shaped pads, but then again I’ve never tried to replace them either. @E_Schaaf I do have some extra ZMF pads here, but what’s the best way to attach them?

Huh, @E_Schaaf helped me out a bit. Not great, but not unlistenable.

That is, until you switch to other music and wonder why it sounds hilariously bad, then realize EQ is all over the place.

There is no cure for clipping. That is the most frustrating to me and I cant understand why so many can accept it on so many albums such as the newest Tool album. The mastering is absolutely terrible.

Cheap speakers or Koss PortaPro.