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Your question is similar to: Which car is closest to a bike?

or

What vegetable tastes like meat?

Want a speaker like experience? Decent studio monitors five to six inch woofers go for like 350€ a pair.

Anyone who even THINKS any headphone can come close to the speaker experience AND VICE VERSA has NEVER experienced speakers. It's like a lifelong vegetarian telling me that beyond meat tastes like meat. NO IT FUCKING DOESN'T (sorry but that made me angry :) )

yup that's a valid reason, my HD800 don't really leave my desktop setup

Going to try that and see what happens.

Sadly I tried a different cable and the left side was still louder than the right side.

Maybe you just don't like their sound signature (it's darker than the Sundara) Always check if you connected the jack properly I had times when something little was blocking it.

You can check your audio options maybe it has enhanced sound on or the quality set to CD or lower. Also it depends what on your music service lower quality means more compression that could make sound muddy.

When I had them I didn't have problems like you also your ears need time to get used to new headphones. Maybe you are looking for something v shaped around the same price you can buy a AKG K361 or 371 which has more bass and top end.

Don't worry I got the reference!

Hahaha! Jabra Elite 45h.

The full story- Bought it May 2021 at discount 40% discount. Did the mistake of mistreating them and wearing them after showering without drying hair, sleeping while wearing them etc. Found ear pad replacement on Amazon. Going to order, then search on YouTube videos and replace them. Don’t want to purchase new ones coz the audio is still working fine on both ears. I liked this model coz it’s soft, comfier and lighter than other Bluetooth headphones I used.

Of course. I dare say they are on the Next Level.

I've had headphones for 10 years that don't look like that. Almost all from Sony, but I had a razer gaming headset that I used for teleconferences for like 6-8 hours per day 5-6 days per week for two years without any noticable degredation, too.

There are some headphones (like the nurophones, for example) which use silicon instead of leather or fabric.

Finally, there are pad covers which you can buy to keep the actual pads from getting sm sweaty or dirty.

It's a mixed bag and basically like playing a lottery once you start buying vintage tubes. I personally achieved sound that is slightly softer, but it's still very close to solid state, but with more bass, basically.

A tube amp is a cool thing to own, but it's far from necessary.

Fiio k3 has a balanced 2.5 mm input and also k7 is wayyyyyy out of budget man

Upvote if you, like me, want to know what manufacturer produced such a scary looking product?

u/michelleross94 You never told us what they are!

Wow thanks for the detailed answer. As far as I can tell its not a quality control problem. I tried to eq them but I just couldn't make them sound good no matter what I tried. Maybe it's something personal but I just really don't understand why people praise them so much. Also I find over ears much more comfortable than iems.

My tube amp setup has smoother, cleaner sound with bit better sounding vocals (more organic/live sounding) and a more expansive/3D sounding space and bit better separation for the music. The tube used really determines how it sounds... some tubes are extremely clean with maximum etheral 3D sounding space and maximum separation (like a Cifte 12AU7) while others are warmer more bassy focused with not much separation or 3D presentation and a bit of noise (like a Mullard 6201). Solid state is punchier, tighter with a more energetic sounding low end - but it sounds overall less separated/flatter in presentation. Prefer listening to tube amp without question... that certain special spacial sense & added separation along with that more 'live' vocal sound you get with right tube setup just doesn't exist with any SS amp I've heard... even a SR-L700/SR-L300 LE STAX with custom SS based amp setup (which has a pretty nice 3D separation & tracking/panning feel.)

Running RME ADI-2 DAC with Schiit Lokius EQ to a Garage 1217 Project Ember II amp w/ Sovtek 6H30P-EB preamp tube. Headphone is a modded Denon AH-D5200. Solid-state amp is a Garage 1217 Project Polaris.

Sounds muddy and muffled without the amp as well

I listen to pretty much any type of music. I feel like these struggled the most with classical music and most mid focused tracks.

Exactly.

Yeah, im trying to prevent myself from buying an Audeze just because they look badass. I also really like Hifiman modern-minimalistic look.

Maybe the amp is making it sound muffled/muddy

I kind of like that nobody bothered to make it neat. Suit's it's possible users well.

Try the regular 3.5mm cable, rotate the cables around a bit and see if it's properly plugged in. Try them with your phone/other devices or directly (without using the FiiO K3/anything else) into your front/back panel 3.5mm ports/plugs for the computer.

Make sure your glasses/hair/piercings/etc. are also not in the way, they may be affecting the sound.

For comfort with headphones, if you have a big head, ear piercings, glasses, et cetera, basically anything that will interfere with the seal/fit of the earpads, here's more info about headphones and glasses and workarounds it: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/zkjjcu/are_there_any_headsetsphones_that_are/j00kjt2/

Essentially try to isolate if it's a headphone problem as HiFiMan is infamous for quality control issues.

See here for a bit more info on HiFiMan quality control problems: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/zicl2e/most_common_defects_for_the_he400se/izrcf3p/

Otherwise yes it's probably just the expectations. Try IEMs instead as they are often better for value.

If you already tried parametric EQ, still go on squig.link and see if other sound signatures of headphones are to your liking, it's not gonna be like the other headphones but it should give you an idea.

See here for more info about Qudelix 5K, parametric EQ, squig.link comparison graphs, AutoEQ, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/109meb5/eq/j40cy1n/

Look up oratory1990 (check the subreddit, /r/oratory1990, don't forget the preset parametric EQ list (mainly for headphones but there's some IEMs there): https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets) and crinacle's articles on what amps/DACs/etc. are and what they do.

More info on headphones/IEMs and PC gaming: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/1151ezm/looking_for_1st_real_pair_of_headphones_mostly/j8zm0q8/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/10zxpfb/why_are_you_using_openback_headphones_for_gaming/j85vv18/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/10ks4tr/looking_for_iem_for_gaming_and_music_listening/j5sjhyh/

Open back headphones noise reduction (scroll to the bottom half part of the comment), earwax clogging issue, parametric EQ, noise reduction for your PC/room, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/115c99b/coming_from_iems_and_looking_for_headphones_150_eu/j92mpe9/

I used the HE400SE with the FiiO UTWS3/5 TWS adapters and they were just fine too. Again just make sure HiFiMan quality control didn't strike you and it should be just fine.

And yes don't forget the library or genres variability part, for some people they need a bit more bass or say less treble with some headphones when it comes to certain songs/albums from genres and so try different songs from your usual library and compare it to your friend's Sundara/other audio stuff.

The other main recommended headphone in that price range is the Sennheiser HD 560S.

These days Sennheiser is always running them sales on their refurbished stock of the HD 560S/etc. and these are sometimes the new revised version (different cable/etc.), btw, but they are significantly cheaper. I've heard people are also able to get another (replacement) unit if their package is like clearly used/dirty/etc. but it's normal for the dust/etc. to be there though. Check /r/buildapcsales for those refurbished/renewed/used/etc. sales, it's usually with Best Buy and Amazon too.

My right ie600 stopped working in 6 months

Not the cable. Its the earbuds themselves, the RH of mine stopped working and I'm currently waiting for a replacement via RMA

Gotcha. Thanks so much! Wow there’s so much to learn lol even about headphones 🥲

Yeah but the big plus with modding is that it will sound the same from every device. Which is relevant because I take them with me when making music and plug them into different interfaces and stuff. Having a baseline sound would be pretty cool. But yeah for now EQing does everything I want.