The All Purpose Advice Thread

I bit the bullet and did the pad swap. I was able to remove the stock pads without damaging them. I'm super happy with the comfort and the sound is indeed better with these (Dekoni Elite Velours). The upper mid range dip is better (reduced). Big thanks for your help on this!

 

I feel that I've been running myself in circles chasing ultimate technicalities when most of my music is badly mastered metal. I'm looking to buy a pair of headphones under $1K which prioritizes forgiveness/smoothness. When I find the right pair I'll build a system up around it, I've downgraded to the predictable & boring JDS OL/Atom stack so that I can minimize variables while I shop for headphones.

I'm strongly considering a Massdrop(Hifiman) Edition XX(Tweaked HEX.) The 'X' series tend to be reviewed as ethereal which I think I'd like(having enjoyed STAX SR-5 previously.) I'm hesitant because I followed this line of reasoning before and bought the Sundara, which I decided to sell after much deliberation. My chief complaint was that the performance fell apart at lower volumes & it was neither forgiving nor resolving. Out of my current headphones I'm frustrated with the Audio Technica R70Xs grain/slight bloat & the Beyer T70s sheen/subtle echo. I'm leaning toward planars because most 'forgiving' dynamics boost the mids while planars remain flat. Vocals are never the focus in the music I like and I fatigue quickly from boosted mids(and lower end bloat.) I've discounted Audeze, ZMF, modern STAX due to talk of vocal range boost & cup reverb.

Any gaps in my thought process or models which I've overlooked? I know I may be a bit too specific for the general advice thread but I didn't want to take up posts clarifying either.

 

I just went through a similar experience trying to chase an upgrade for my he-4xx and hd650, with a budget cap of $1000. I tried the Focal Elear, Massdrop Elex, Hifiman Ananda, Hifiman Sundara, and finally Audeze lc2-classic. Ultimately I found issues with all of them, but ended up sticking with the Audeze lcd2-classic. That said, my issue with the Ananda, which should be very similar to the Edition XX, wasn't sonic - i liked how it sounded, it just didn't fit my head properly. Anyway, I know you said you had ruled out Audeze, but I thought I would share my experience as I had also initially been reluctant to go with Audeze. The lcd2-classic is a forgiving headphone that would work well for your Metal purposes. Maybe.

 

Yeah I'd more say I'm more reluctant than completely throwing it out, I appreciate the recommendation. Does the LCD2C sound like it's boosted in the lower-mids compared to the Ananda? I've been agonizing over the measurements with a limited understanding of what'll be audible in practice.

 

The lcd-2c is warmer sounding than the Ananda, and more laid back in the mids than the Ananda. Which is to say, I think the Ananda has a more boosted midrange than the lcd-2c. Really, if I had a complaint about the lcd-2c, it's that the upper mids have a bit of a dip, which causes strings to sound a little muted. I found that swapping the pads to the Dekoni Elite Velour had a positive effect on the midrange, but you may be happy with it as is.

 

The main issue for me on the 2C is the treble escarpment - there is no better term - where the FR slopes off, then meets a cliff and climbs several db in no time flat, then slopes off again.

It works for some things, but mostly it just sounds disjointed.

 

Yeah, I basically agree with that; they aren't perfect. I do think that the Dekoni velour pads do a lot to correct this. Well, for that matter, the Audeze Reveal plugin is pretty nice for them too.

 

I think I may just need to buy a few pairs with distinct differences and try things out for myself. I'm not entirely sure I'm clearly explaining or even understand what fatigues me with my current setup & my two headphones here are more similar than different. I'm getting overwhelmed by the (mostly low)mids but I'm not sure if its an issue of the frequency curve, forward staging, or roughness/punch factor. It's worse when I switch from the Atom to the Ragnarok.
I should clarify the metal I'm building my rig for is atmospheric & lacking in bass. There are metal sub-genres which sound amazing with what I have right now, anything with downtuned guitar. I just don't listen to that very often.

I don't think Audeze treble will trouble me, I've been listening to mount Beyer for awhile now.

 

Do you need volume control or headphone out? A Fulla 2 is a fantastic AIO.

 

I'm not gonna tell you what does and doesn't fatigue you, but it's usually specific frequencies people are sensitive to and not anything generic - someone who can listen to the hd800 all day might be troubled by a small peak in another frequency in another can and vice-versa.

 

A very dumb question... what exactly is "clipping?"

All this time, I thought clipping happens when a relatively powerful amp is used to drive a relatively sensitive transducer at high volume, overloading it. For instance, if you were crazy enough to plug something like a TH900 into a Schiit Ragnarok in high gain at full volume, or the speaker taps of a 100W+ stereo amp. In other words, clipping is the death throes of headphones before they explode in smoke, and therefore serves as a warning that you're feeding them more power than they can chew.

However, I read somewhere that clipping isn't quite the same as overloading. That clipping can happen in the opposite case, when a relatively week amp is used to drive a relatively inefficient transducer, so that even when the volume is cranked to the max, the amp still struggles to drive the headphone effectively. If this is true, then that explains the weird noise I heard when I tried the Code-X on the ZDS for fun.

This reminds me of something weird I experienced many years ago, when I had used a Pathos Classic One (stereo amp with 70W pc delivery) to drive my HE-6. As difficult to drive as the HE-6 was, I expected a 70W amp to be more than enough to make it scream. However, raising the volume to around 60 (100 being max) caused what could only be described as clipping noise, but the sound coming from the headphone was anything but loud. It was only when the volume hit around 80-90 that it reached satisfactory SPL for listening, but the clipping became so severe it was unlistenable.

So what is the correct definition of clipping, or to make the question simpler, when does it exactly happen?

 

It's your second one: a limitation of the amp. Not good for transducers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio)

 

Ah, I'd thought it was the other way around.

Then is there a term for the first one, where the amp overloads and almost blows up the transducer?

 

From my understanding clipping is any time a component fails to properly reproduce the peaks/valleys of a sine wave, usually replacing it with a flatline at the top. Sometimes its a driver reaching maximum excursion, power limitations, or its baked into the recording and gear agnostic. The first two will strike first in the bass as it requires more power and excursion, the kind of music you're listening to will interplay with the gear you have to determine what volume causes clipping.

I can't speak to your situation but power issues usually crop up before excursion issues. Your amp may be 70W at 8ohms but its an unknown at 50ohms. I demoed a HE-6 years ago running off the headphone out of a 40W vintage receiver, sounded nasty & thin but nothing I would describe as 'clipping noise.' Can you explain what you mean by that?

 

@purr1n mentioned blowing up his HD650 drivers once, so I'm guessing its just blowing drivers. However, transducer clipping definitely happens, albeit usually beyond normal listening levels. Look up the Focal drivers clicking on loud low freq signals and. Its when they reach their maximum excursion and the surround or voice coil get really stressed, not enough to blow up but maybe enough to loosen up the glue or cause permanent deformation. Amp clipping happens when something is maxed out in the amp chain, which is probably the case with high output impedance OTL tube amp into low impedance planar. Even DACs can clip digitally if a signal surpasses 0db. As mentioned above, its anytime a signal has its peaks "clipped", normally into flat.

 

I agree with @Biodegraded . The other type of clipping is with digital recording and is less common but happens more than it should. Back in the early days of digital recording, it was common for recording engineers to assume digital recording was like analog, and therefore set the levels so that the dynamic peaks were into the red on the meters. You can't drive it into the red with digital recording or you get digital clipping. So at even normal playback levels you get crunchy sounding peaks.

As far as overloading the speakers with too much clean power, this is what I have usually heard referred to as over excursion. Where the drivers were powered into a situation where they would go beyond their rated travel characteristics, ( the spider no longer has the ability to control the linearity of the woofer) and the voice coil would either slam into the rear pole plate, or the excessive heat would effectively weld the voice coil within the pole gap.

 

@RedFuneral Have you spent serious time with the Sennheiser HD650/580?

 

No, only the HD598 and HD700.

 

A hard decision for sure, but another option over the Modi 3 is the Khadas Toneboard . But you do have to fashion a case (or not). Quiet, clean and no hard treble and no extra bloat on the bottom. Then again, some prefer the Schiit, both are decent. With the revealing nht,s I would lean to the Khadas, imo better space.

 

If you're sensitive to mids, want smooth treble, and don't care much about subbass performance, I'd try them. I didn't mention the HD600 specifically because I think its mids would bother you. I'd probably start with the HD650/HD6XX (from Drop) as they are readily available and cheap. You may also like ZMF headphones (I personally preferred my HD6xx to both the Atticus and Eikon, but haven't heard the Aeolus, Auteur or Verite).

For what it's worth, I also own a Ragnarok and don't love how any of my headphones sound on it, but of all the headphones I've tried on it (HD600, HD650 (JAR mod) and Focal Utopia), the HD650 sounded the best. It will be changed out within a year. Sounds a bit forward and grating in the mids, light-ish on the bass, and also a bit sterile.

6/25/19 EDIT: I'm actually really liking how the Utopia sounds on Ragnarok using low gain. For some reason I was still defaulting to medium gain and turning down to between 11 and 12 o'clock, but low gain at 12 o'clock took some of the Utopia edge off and has been awesome.

FYI: Ragnarok 2 is out in the next week or two. There's a thread if you want to read up on it, but unless you're also using speakers then I would look elsewhere.

Sounds like you need something smoother and more atmospheric, which probably means tubes.