Audeze Sine - Quick Impressions and Stream of Consciousness

Do you have the Cipher cable for testing?

 

So Audeze is brow-beating you?

 

Sold as an additional accessory by Audeze to pair with iOS devices and provide an integrated DAC/Amp/DSP in the cable. Was just curious if you had it available to test versus the regular 3.5mm

 

Haha yeah I was just curious if you had it or not, since it seems to be a subject of concern in the HF thread (cipher vs no cipher) and most that DO have the cable seem to think the sound is more "consumer" oriented. Could be whatever DSP they have going on in there bumps the bass and reduces the upper mids in comparison. I know it has an accompanying app for iOS that lets you set EQ if you are using the cable.

 

Interesting, I thought the Sine actually had recessed mids and more prominent bass than the PM-3 which was my previous portable driver.

The Cypher cable is actually very nice and offers EQ through an app you download to your idevice. For convenience, my phone with the Sine and cypher cable beats out any other combination, and the sound is very decent as well.

 

These were at a mini meet recently and I didn't see what all the hype when they came out was about, but I'm not a iPhone guy. They sounded hollow and to me, looking at measurements, I can now see that it is likely due to the dip in the high end. Bass wasn't terrible, but low low end was not there - I can see how this is very fit dependent. Not bad for on ears, fills a niche of high end portables, but I seem to miss the point (I also thought the same thing with liquid carbon - transportable, yes, but over matched when compared to similarly priced desktop setups).

Don't necessarily take this impressions too seriously, I am currently in a Sennheiser dynamics are the only headphones that matter and all other headphone suck kick.

 

Yeah, I thought the Cypher cable was pretty cool. Once I put an EQ in that I liked, it's stored and stays with the cable. They're also planning a number of firmware updates to the cable to include other functionality...can't say more than that.

 

So is this actually better than the HD 25?

 

Just got myself a pair. I find these to have a nice amount of bass. Clearly more than say HD600. This might be fit dependent.

What is this? The sound goes out when I push the cups against my head. It also gets louder when I slowly pull them off my ears. Weird.

Could this have something to with the closed in planar drivers? I think I noticed the same thing with a test pair at the store.

 

For me it was a perfect storm of portable audio. The cypher cable meant I could ditch portable DAC/amp combos, the sound quality is better than average for portable use, and having it be on-ears rather than over-ears meant I could still hear enough of the outside environment that I wouldn't walk into an incoming train. I found the separation and detail retrieval superior to the PM-3, but if someone were looking to maximize their portable budget I'd still recommend a refurb PM-3. For me the premium was worth it because I'm an iPhone user and expect to remain one for the foreseeable future.

IEMs would still be my drug of choice for air travel, but the Sine is perfect for my needs for walking around town.

 

Curious findings. I felt that the SINE has slightly recessed mids and quite prominant bass, pretty good planar hits and slams. Guess the fit of on-ears is really a bitch?

 

Listening through the standard 3,5 cable (from my soundcard) these have a nice amount of bass. With the Cipher cable there is clearly an extra boost (maybe a DSP presetting there). Esp with the Cipher these have lots of kick and amount of bass (some more amount and lots more kick than my V1 Momentums), very enjoyable. With the standard cable I noticed something in the mids that was slightly annoying. Some guitar leads jumped up too loud etc. While on the go with the Cipher, no. Actually I thought they had a hair too much mid bass / low mids (some vocals sounded too phat). Let's see what the EQ-app can do.

All in all these were quite a revelation when on-the-go. Punchy, clean and deep bass with none of the extra highs energy I was worried about. That toe-tapping sound was just great when moving about outdoors. But yeah, these are just my very early impressions.

I have a pretty big head, so they might sit more snugly than with some, thus creating a tighter fit & more bass.