Audiophile and gears

MadAxe said:
Why so?
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See specs yourself -
1. F&D has more power 110W vs 70W.
2. Better frequency response.
3. It has got 8" woofer for a sound with a thump.
Not mentioned in specs but I've seen myself.
Can expect some good bass.
4. More inputs including USB and RCA.
5. Its a 3 way speaker.
6. Price is approx 3k less than edifier.
7. Very positive reviews on Amazon and Flipkart.

With these tower speakers you don't need a stand. It won't take up space on desk like bookshelf speakers.
It looks better adjacent to TV.


*
One of my friend (owner) at the gym plays them daily for about 8-10 hours at moderately high volume. It still rocks after 3 + years of use.

Sound quality is very good and its really loud for a big room size 16x14 feet approx.
There's an upgraded model too it's F&D T70X.
I've not checked the specs but I assume it may be a tad better.

Considering all the aspects it's an over all better buy.
red dragon said:
Topping L30 must sound good, all Topping's desktop amps tend to sound very similar. But there were some reports about L30 getting damaged and damaging the headphones with them.
Possibly Topping has made necessary changes considering how popular ( and good sounding) they have become. But please be cautious.
Fiio K5 Pro can be another option, many people like it a lot. However everything is so expensive at headphonezone!!

Oh boy!! I was trying to avoid all news about the K9 series ( specially the Pro and limited edition) now I am curious again...was giving gyan to others about practicing patience!!
rdst_1 is the one who is blessed.
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Its a feature rich item and suits my needs so I've already decided to buy this one, I hope Indian pricing doesn't kills the joy.
Only thing I consider superior is RME DAC but I don't think it's worth for me to spend more just for driving a couple of 15-20k price headphones.
 
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If you meant RME ADI2..yes, they are great...with all those extra controls and parametric EQ stuff.
But aftering using RME interfaces for years in studios, I'm not very confident about their long term reliability.
And ADI2 with the integrated headphone amp is a touch warm (though very enjoyable) and for the absolutely neutral tonality I will always prefer A90/D90 stack for now even over my old trusty Cambridge Audio set up ( it's infact too warm but very tastefully coloured) 789 is a hair too agressive.
BTW, anyone thinking about tubing your new HD650?
With tubes, they can be very exciting. But please don't buy a pure tube amplifier as your first amp. Tubes are for fun only...not at all suited for critical listening.
 
I've been enjoying my HD599 SE for the last month and it sounds lovely paired with my Fiio E10K.

However with the Sale going on and a developing itch of wanting to get a Planar headphone I'm thinking about picking one up. Which one should I get guys...

The HifiMan HE400SE @10.9k

OR

The HifiMan DEVA for 12.5k

These will be my first Planar HPs so please tell me which one I should order? Will pair it up with either my Fiio E10K, T-2 Tube Amp, Fiio M3 Pro, XDuoo MT-602 Tube Amp or from my Marantz PM5005.
 
Get the Deva if possible, it is slightly more punchy at the bottom end and the soundstage is definitely larger than 400SE.
The SE is also very good but sound too clinical to my ears.
Deva has a one sided cable with balanced internal wiring. If you want to try balanced, all you will be needing is a TRRS aux cable at both ends and a balanced 2.5 or pentaconn adopter. And it works just fine as balanced cans!!
M3 Pro can drive both of them very well, and should sound fantastic with PM5005's headphone out.
I really love the Deva's sound signature and the synergy with the DAP ( also have the same tiny DAP)..so much so that I've glued the M3 Pro with a cheap amp dac from xduoo ( already forgot the model number....those bulky ones with battery...the cheapest one) Using the combo as a DAP with Deva even outdoors ( I live at the edge of a city and the locality is very quiet)
BTW, happy Durga Puja everyone...if anyone reading this lives nearby ( Budapest/ Praha/ Kosice/ Bratislava) and missing the festive season in India...please drop a PM, we and our neighbours are organising a small puja, will gladly pick you / your family up and enjoy together ( ofcourse will drop you off whenever you want)
 
Black_Hawk said:
I've been enjoying my HD599 SE for the last month and it sounds lovely paired with my Fiio E10K.

However with the Sale going on and a developing itch of wanting to get a Planar headphone I'm thinking about picking one up. Which one should I get guys...

The HifiMan HE400SE @10.9k

OR

The HifiMan DEVA for 12.5k

These will be my first Planar HPs so please tell me which one I should order? Will pair it up with either my Fiio E10K, T-2 Tube Amp, Fiio M3 Pro, XDuoo MT-602 Tube Amp or from my Marantz PM5005.
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Used Deva is listed at the hifi forum for 10k
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/ngwxnf
This has been the general quality of discussions in reddit about headphones. If you read some posts carefully, it's obvious many are giving their opinion without even listening to the headphones even once.
Wish head fi took themselves a little more seriously and be a little more organized.
It just took only a couple of years after Tyll retired...almost all audio forums have become like this ( reddit is the ABSOLUTE WORST)
I don't know, may be my ears are completely destroyed ( last time I checked with the audiologist in 2019, things were normal for my age) or most of the big audio reviewers are liars.
How on earth can a pair of passive headphones have inconsistent soundstage logically (unless the drivers are loose and moving around inside the earcups)? Different music can have different panning of instruments, completely different mastering leading to different soundstages. Not the headphones!!
Was reading some IEM review by "The new God of IEM reviewer" where he was talking about timbre of some modern rock band's lead solo and boldly claimed that the IEM got it all wrong.
I have never listened to the song before, but gave it a try... fantastic song...and I was 99.99 percent sure the lead guirist was using a single coil pickup and the DI signal was processed through a Neural DSP amp sim ( we use it everyday and very familiar with all the preset and a particular preset was used without any/ minimal changes in that solo) and of course won't sound like a DI signal...but Mr. God possibly never heard this amp sim sound before but confidently wrote that particular IEM's timbre is "un natural"
People like Tyll or joker never made such bold statement, they were straight shooter. Still remember in some Ety review, Tyl clearly said, the guitars don't sound like guitars, but I know nothing about amps, cabs, pedals etc. So decide for yourself.PXL_20211011_154239129.PORTRAIT.jpg
This is the amp sim used...who judges timbre on a distorted guitar anyway?
 
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I hate reading reviews which go into too much detail. Those reviews are good for people who can understand that lingo, provided, like you said, that the reviewer knows what he/she is talking about. Until you posted in this forum, I never realized that so much depends on the way music was mixed and mastered. And I realized I don't want to know about that. I look for a very few things in a review. First and most important is the sound signature. Second is the soundstage and last but not least is detail retrieval. Apart from these 3 things, I don't require any other mumbo-jumbo to help me decide whether this HP/IEM will work for me or not.
 
There are very few things in technology ( and life in general) I know about. Science of audio production is one of them.
In a computer component/ laptop/ phone/ other gadget reviews I don't understand most of the things and don't bother myself with them. But bad audio equipment ( specially headphones/ IEMs) reviews bother me, specially the outright lies.
Strangely speaker reviewers ( specially near field monitors) are much more experienced and they usually know what they are talking about.
 
@red dragon How is the soundstage on the Deva compared to that on the HD599? Is it much wider? Also, is the imaging better? Need the imaging for playing games. Also, will a Fiio E10k be enough to power it? I need to start saving and can spend maximum 20k total. The Deva is frequently available for 12.5k. So 7.5k max for the amp dac combo.
 
dissel said:
New Topping Stack with New ESS 9068AS (MQA Built into the DAC Chip) - Fully balanced (using TRS connection - No XLR) for the budget segment in mind....NO BT though.


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They're launching new products frequently, I hope they maintain quality. Another DAC/AMP combo is EX5 Link.
L50 is just balanced version of L30 with slightly different gain settings and matt finish.
see this -

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rdst_1 said:
I hate reading reviews which go into too much detail. Those reviews are good for people who can understand that lingo, provided, like you said, that the reviewer knows what he/she is talking about. Until you posted in this forum, I never realized that so much depends on the way music was mixed and mastered. And I realized I don't want to know about that. I look for a very few things in a review. First and most important is the sound signature. Second is the soundstage and last but not least is detail retrieval. Apart from these 3 things, I don't require any other mumbo-jumbo to help me decide whether this HP/IEM will work for me or not.
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This is very true, so much detailing isn't worth, at last it's subjective experience. Most of the self proclaimed audiophiles don't even know these plethora of audio terms
Link.
So it may make buyer's decision wrong or purchase experience awful.
 
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roygarg said:
@red dragon How is the soundstage on the Deva compared to that on the HD599? Is it much wider? Also, is the imaging better? Need the imaging for playing games. Also, will a Fiio E10k be enough to power it? I need to start saving and can spend maximum 20k total. The Deva is frequently available for 12.5k. So 7.5k max for the amp dac combo.
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Deva is slightly wider. Both have nice imaging. Yes, any amp would drive them.
 
Nitendra Singh said:
They're launching new products frequently, I hope they maintain quality. Another DAC/AMP combo is EX5 Link.
L50 is just balanced version of L30 with slightly different gain settings and matt finish.
see this -
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EX5 looks great solution what it offers but this kind of Orange LED is a weak point as I presume there is 'No Screen OFF' possible until the unit is Shut OFF which may lower the life span of the unit....For EX5 they may provide a proper LCD display.

One New feature which looks unique for EX5 as well L50 DAC offer dual output via RCA+Balanced Port at the same time - Which enables two users can enjoy audio stream at the same time by using their respective Headphone Amp, LIke - Gaming, Movie session....without disturbing anyone.
 
Red Dragon got banned... what's particularly sad is the photograph he posted showing all of his Headphone collection was perhaps not even his. Sigh.

In any case, the show must go on here... has anyone bought any new audio gear recently?
 
Black_Hawk said:
Red Dragon got banned... what's particularly sad is the photograph he posted showing all of his Headphone collection was perhaps not even his. Sigh.

In any case, the show must go on here... has anyone bought any new audio gear recently?
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Any particular reason for the ban.. stepping over the toes of moderators perhaps?
 
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