Austrian audio Hi-X60

So got these the other day and they are quite interesting, thought i'd start a thread for these since i quite like them.
These are very comfortable and offer very good isolation which is a rare combo. Sound wise they need some eq especially if you wear glasses since the pads are thin walled so loss of subbass is apparent.

They are a bit thin and bright with bass a bit below neutral but no mayor peaks in the treble, they will show sibilance quite easily if its in the recording though. But they take EQ quite well. Mids are clean and natural to my ears. No big problems i just fill it in a bit for my taste.
Where they do shine though is how open they sound for a closed back, instrument separation and headstage. No boxiness etc, good air.

Build quality is pretty good except for the pad attachment system, it's has a bunch of tiny clips inside the rim of the cups that i can see snapping if you're not careful or mess with the pads too much. Though if they do snap pads would probably attach easily enough with some double sided tape. Hinges and headband are metal and plastic and look and feel solid. But time will tell. The padding on the headband is replaceable and is attached with velcro and is memory foam like the earpads.

They also fold which is nice to have, weight is reasonable and i've been wearing them all day without much issue just shift the headband a bit after a while like most headphones. Comes with a 1.2m and 3m cable with screw on adapter and the cables have a locking mechanism inside the earcup.

The company is quite new and formed by former AKG employees after their Vienna offices got closed down. Replacement pads and cables don't seem to be available yet. They have several other models on their website which might be of interest. Don't seem to be available yet in the US. I paid €333 for them.

https://austrian.audio/headphones/hi-x60/

 

Not much interest in these which is cool. Just want to say that after a couple of weeks that they are not going anywhere. The comfort and isolation is just too good to pass up, the eq i use make them great for my use case. Which is mostly gaming and general use. Not for critical listening. Not that they sound bad it’s just that i have better toys to play with.

 

I like these. Clean and good articulation. Well separated.

These are fast in decay and are a touch lean. Upper bass and low mids seem a little reserved at first.

The warmth they can portray is created from the clean response within the chamber and black background, I think this is what also gives them better than average imaging and soundstage.

I think audiophiles would apprecaite them as awell as they are good in resolution and the treble is correct in timbre yet has no grain at all.

Somehow the bass can be thumpy on some tracks and dry on others, I feel like when it wants to place it center image it is dry, while when it focuses more on stereo it is more full bodied.

 

Tried these again after they were not getting much use since i got LCD-XC and maybe it's the new glasses with super thin stems(i get a suction effect when taking them off) but these sound a lot better now without EQ. Not a big burn-in believer at least not this drastical but who knows. Saw a tweet by Oratory mentioning to not wear them to far back and that helps as well. Still sound a bit thin but no major problems anymore. Tested with with an Apogee Groove, have not had it on the big rig yet.

Take away is be careful with glasses and experiment with placement on your head.

 

At first I passed over this thinking it was yet another newbie company jumping onto the headphone bandwagon, but then...

... Dude, you should have led with this!

 

Haha sorry, they are interesting cans for the price with indeed a good pedigree.

 

They look designed for a full seal. Bass probably suffers quite bit when the seal is broken (any glasses, really) hence the bass woes, you may also be getting some honk or wonkyness in the mids due to the compromised seal, try to listen without glasses at all to get the intended response.

 

Yup that’s what I’m hearing. Current glasses make no difference though, they are really thin titanium ones.

 

Update, the plastic that holds the adjustable bit for the headband that connects to the yoke has cracked on both sides. And in two years i didn't use it daily there were months where they went unused. End result is that the adjustment for the headband is very loose, not a big deal but still not acceptable for a brand that designates itself as a studio brand.
Thomann should have given 3 years warranty on it so i'm covered.

 

The fact that so many headphones that are overtly targeting the "production" side seem to be shoddily built around the headband area of all places is just staggering. There's that Rode NTH-100 which seems to be infamous for barely lasting the warranty period?

Hopefully you get a new pair in soon and this is a one-off.

 

Yeah, but it's not like this their first headphone with this design.