ETHER 2

Thank you for taking the lead on this. Glad that it got worked out and that a few of the senior folks can hear this. Hopefully there can be a loaner list put together.

 

A pad tour for those who have the Ether 2 would be nice also.

 

The new pads won't be available for about another month. But duly noted.

 

Could throw in my Voce pads that I bought for myself and never really used much.

 

Good to hear that the loaner tour seems to work!

Regarding newer pads, I kinda tend to hate (and fear) pads using adhesive-tapes: MrSpeakers, Audeze, and so forth. That said, I'm already pretty satisfied with the default protein pads both sonically and ergonomically. So, may not (buy and) change to newer ones until more convinced than now. Really hope all the headphone manufacturers to follow the practice of Meze and Kilpsch in terms of smarter pad replacements.

It may sound a bit weird to others, but I am considering to join the loaner tour, because

1. Want to try newer pads without potentially sacrificing the current E2. lol
2. Mostly due to the traumatic experience regarding E2 product failure, yet not very confident to assure myself that my unit is representative. Sometimes I cannot help speculating my one just happens to be a unicorn outlier (or intentionally cherry-picked to handle a dangerous claimer at early stages). For this reason, I have been restraining myself from strongly recommending E2. Testing two (mine and loaner) would be definitely helpful to convince myself than one.

 

And my 3-month impression updates

• My E2 nicely define southern boundary of my tonality preference zone: the other boundary is also perfectly defined by HFM Arya. Note that to me only a few products were successful to stay within this zone: can't think of any pairs except Eikonuteur and Suadolus.
• Finding an "optimal" amp is important AND difficult (imho more so than discussed earlier in this thread). Low-juiced magni 3 or dx3 hp out could easily pull 90%. The problem is to pull the remaining 10% -- which I believe to need a whole another level of effort. Yes, even out of crappy upstream, E2 pretend to work well. BW has been overall the best amp among I tried.. but I sense that there still leaves 4-5% of potential with E2. Auditioning different amps, while they're overall outperformed by BW, hinted me that BW might be still slightly sub-optimal. Will talk about this with more details when my 3F is delivered.
• Nevertheless, the synergy between convert-2 and E2 freaked me out nearly every three day. Easily destroy my productivity and sleep.

 

I moved to the Dallas area last year and recently purchased the Ether 2. Haven't burned in mine in yet but if you want to meet up to make comparisons let me know. I also have the Liquid Platinum and Glenn's OTL in case you want to have a listen.

 

Can someone who owns the Ether 2 show a picture of the magnet array or diaphragm (Have been trying to find pictures of the Ether 2 and the old Ether's drivers)? I found this picture which kind of hints at the diaphragm but a clearer one would be great. Just need to confirm which side the magnet array is located.

 

@Phantaminum Welcome to E2 owner's club. And the suggestion sounds so lovely. What I want is more private and isolated (hopefully spending several days) listening+measuring session though. Anyway thanks!

 

Hi Vtory,

Overall, do you prefer E2 or Arya for electronic music/EDM?

Thanks in advance.

 

I just peeled back the pad enough to reveal the baffle and magnetic traces on the ear side. So based on that look I would say that the magnets are on the outside side of the cup.

https://imgur.com/ScrxYxu

 

Thats awesome. Can you also get a clearer picture/description of the shiny rectangle part beneath the grill on the outside like in the picture i posted?

 

Absolutely. I enjoy numerous houses, dubsteps, and dance pops with both and my current rig. While both have great bass (deep and well-nuanced), they are quite different in mid/treble expressions: E2 having more forgiving and smoother top ends, and Arya having better articulation and delineation. This gives me a lot of fun by switching back and forth for the same track. How to amp and source them matters much, too.

 

I'll see what I can do in the morning... But unfortunately I cannot remove the mesh on the outside of the cup.

I'll shine a light through and see if it becomes visible

 

One of you lads ought to try it on a Ragnarok 2, or borrow someone's high end he6-style setup.

I've never met a planar that didn't want more power.

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/JFnpmUA

Best I could get!

 

Oh cool its the flow array if im not mistaken. So magnets on the outside and driver between magnets and ear. Thanks for the confirmation. Just to note, I'm certain the ETHER 1 and Aeons have magnets and the flow array between the driver and the ear, so in a pull configuration vs this push configuration.