It is just another hyped cheap chifi IEM.

It is better than cheap IEMs from a year or two ago, but really nothing groundbreaking. Still loses to Moondrop SSR in the technical department, and tonality wise it's just a well executed V-Shape, it you're into those things. It's definitely a good IEM, but doesn't really come close to things like Titan S, P1 Max or Starfield.

Yes it is

Yes it is!

Yea, I wish I had done my due diligence with researching the Heresy. I thought it was safe but a little while after getting it I saw several people suddenly posting about theirs exploding. Stupid me then thought it was just a bad batch!

Your right, it's not worth it. I wish Schiit would realize this and use it to their benefit, 'We care about your hearing, so if you have a Heresy you can trade it in for the safer Heretic!' however they're proving that they don't sadly.

Pretty much everyone here is going to recommend that you get an amp/dac combo to connect through your tvs optical output and just get a long cable so you can have the amp close to you.

Using an amp with a controller output is a little bit of a waste because the controller has pretty terrible audio output and transmits via Bluetooth compression.

I'd imagine after grabbing that behemoth of a gaming headphone, you're willing to sacrifice a lot for the best audio performance, so running a wire from your TV isn't going to be the biggest inconvenience ever.

For a cleanest set up possible however, I'd recommend returning the gx and getting one of the wireless audeze gaming headphones. The GX isn't really built for a 'minimalist' set up (I mean, they're bloody huge man).

The UI on zune HD was great, still looking for a player on android that mimics it.

Thanks, that sounds right around where I thought it would be

Expanse > Utopia > Verite ~= Empyrean

Can't really say one is better than the other when comparing Verite and Empyrean, it's more a situation where they're different. Whereas Expanse is better in every regard than the others to my ears. One exception being I think the Utopia wins just in terms of pure "open-ness" in that they're more speaker-like. Yet the Expanse still feels like the notes stand out more even though there's more open-ness in the Utopia.

I would say the Utopia sounds like there's nothing but clear air between the notes, hence it feeling open. Whereas the Expanse goes even further and it's almost as if there's a vacuum between the notes, thus my "black hole" comment about the background. Hope that makes sense.

They're all fantastic, at this level I'm really nitpicking. There is something special about the Expanse though, I just find myself coming back to that one for hours upon hours and ultimately that's what matters. They're also the most comfortable (Empyrean close second)

😥me when I am asked to write a paragraph of text while pretending to have room temperature iq 😥😥

it's also a more exagerated version of the u-shape, most mainstream stuff are v-shaped.

Theoretically?

Most definitely.

But since you likely don't have the Firmware Update Tool of the chipset that is being used:

Practically? No.

skip the ears and go for direct-transfer of music to your brain, no more weak biologicals limitations /s

Don’t bother. If they don’t care about it let them carry on with what they’re happy with.

I actually just bought a 5gen iPod and put a 2000mah battery and a 128gb flash drive in it all for about $90. It was just kind of a fun tinker thing for me, I still use my phone with a fiio btr3k alot because of Wavelet.

Mackie MC-450 $170 on Amazon

that explains it lol

Have you tried headphones dot com ?

You can’t EQ detail, slam, soundstage, etc. and any smoothed graph you are looking at won’t tell you that. So if it sounds good to you, that is awesome but even with DSP they are lacking quite a bit. I would be curious of your thoughts on the Dusk if you EQd them to the same target.

Just received them today. First impressions:

1. Saw some red and other colored lint as soon as I opened the case
2. Case hinges seem delicate and not as sharp as my gen 1/2 airpods
3. Audio sounds awfully muffled…
4. Luckily I am able to get Apple Care after reconfirming my purchase date with Apple Support… definitely will be switching out this pair with a new one

interesting, how would you rank your TOTL headphones you listed on your post friend?

Is the Tab 8? Tempted to get one of these ams hook it up via USB to my IFi Neo ISD Dac amp. Can get one for £170

I dragged my friend to Audio46, who also mainly uses mdr7506, plopped the Sundara's I was trying on his head, and his reaction was "they sound like headphones". The same headphones that sounded so amazing and immersive to me didn't even make him flinch.

My point is that a headphone that universally "wows" doesn't exist. And unless you know what to listen for, diminishing returns start way cheaper than you may think. I guess maybe blasting him with soundstage with a k612 and then putting on Yosi Horikawa might work, but I don't think it would change his worldview. Especially if he prefers a more intimate sound (like me).

I don’t know, it doesn’t feel as authentic as on Spotify or Tidal

Bluetooth Audio Transmitter will probably be your only choice here, but quality and latency will suffer.

Now... Does your headphones really need EQ this much to sound good in small handheld devices with somewhat low audio quality?

Oh thank you! I’ll have a look— mine are currently stuffed with cotton balls and I feel silly lol