hifiman he-r10d

7-8db boost in the lower bass region. they’re the most bass centric can i’ve ever owned.

kz x hbb pr2 - if headphones are like looking at the moon through a telescope. IEMs feel like looking at cells through a microscope. technically the same but, completely different.

these do the microscope thing pretty well. i need more ear time with them…

before tws, i used to go on long bike rides back away from people and noise and traffic. it would be me, a little dap and those porta pros.

i would get completely lost in music biking along a trail for hours. they’ve held up through everything. and the yaxi pads are so comfy.

i prefer the many to the few - if i had unlimited funds, i’d still have all the cans i have now… along with the expensive ones.

they don’t sound better to me, i’ve demoed many - they sound different. if i’m paying for different, i’m going to spend hundreds, not thousands.

where you love the arya - i love having the choice between 15+ different signatures to choose from.

i reach for them equally. i just sat and switched back and forth between them for a few songs and while they are different. they don’t stand out as X is clearly "better’ than Y.

702 stage a bit wider, sundara are more balanced across the spectrum.

with eq they swing and punch and kick with everything you see in the picture…

it really comes down to comfort. which is subjective.

really expensive audio is like really expensive clothing. the reason the price is higher is usually something besides the core functionality of the product in question.

and keeping along that path, fit and synergy are more important than the mindset that thing over there costs more so it has to be better… that’s not true with jeans, and it’s not true with IEMs or amps etc.
IMHO you should go into all audio purchases with the idea that what you’re getting is going to sound different, not “better” - especially not if you’re already firmly in the mid-fi game and spending hundreds on gear.

that we all speak from a place of assumed knowledge and usually with heavy bias. i am included, as i read over the stuff i’ve posted, most of it is either wrong or i feel differently just 2 years or 6 months later!

most of what i read around here is thrown around with the heavy “fact” hammer attached to it but this entire hobby is deeply rooted in personal preference, opinion, feelings…

which are all exceedingly important and don’t need to be attacked or defended.

i wish we could present what we have and how we feel about it - without the goofy game of my stuff is better than your stuff. or you’re dumb for buying that you should get this cause i own this is and this is the best…

i know it’s never going away. but my pet peeve is how passively toxic this whole hobby is.

owner of 20ish pair of cans … the 800s, 8xx, 820 are all … cans

I don’t own anything I reach for more than something else because it’s “better”

different, yes … all out better … no.

listening to music is about synergy. not halo headphones or amps.

we get caught up on better because object A costs more than object B … but is a $500 pair of jeans better than a $50 pair? no …

is a Ferrari a “better” car than a civic? no…

faster yes, but how’s that daily reliability doing for you?

all that to say, no … IMHO, the 800s aren’t worth it from a saving up to get them standpoint. they sound like headphones… not magical music portals to a new realm of hearing.

they’re great! so are my akg 361 and arya stealth and koss 75s

one man’s opinion. if I had $1000+ to spend in this hobby on cans alone, I’d have 3-5 pair vs 1

(everything i say is my opinion and none of this is a fact)
as an owner of lots of dacs/amps/headphones … is a $400 amp much better than a $100 one? no.

how about $100 and $700 - the amplification part? no…

how about a $200 amp and a $1500 amp - surely, the $1500 amp … amplifies the signal “better” than the $200 one - no… no it doesn’t

when listening to my hipdac, which was $200 - music sounds amazing and perfect… nothing sounds wrong. there is no compromise.

this is the same for music coming out of the apple dongle…

rme adi? which cost 5x as much as my hipdac - everything sounds exactly the same, until you start hitting xbass or fiddling with eq.

my cambridge dacs/amps are also perfect - smsl… perfect - schiit - perfect… etc etc etc.

i don’t have a piece of equipment that is “better” than another from the pure dac and pure amp standpoint - the difference is in the inputs, details, features, smell… touch… etc.

but that’s from my point of view - other people have valid and valuable input on the matter.

we’re talking about wireless right? yeah give it less to do and not more. wireless signals are more stable with less to do… and you’re human like me so you don’t have the capability to hear anything outside of the 96db that 16/44.1 affords.

like setting it to 16/44.1 is saying ok, i have this whole ocean to swim in, i’m good - then setting it to 24/anything is saying, yeah i had that ocean but… i wanted to push all the planets out the solar system and swim in the solar system… what? no… you don’t need that much space to hear music. you need 20hz to 20khz and that fits in 16/44.1 like a blanket. almost like it was made perfectly for listening to music in the first place :)

so - set to that and find the most generic balanced mode for whatever dsp those have. probably called something latin and smooth like “optimusium” and - listen to your music. with that expensive of a headphone from BW it should literally sound perfect. without fiddling or worrying.

i’ve got cheap BT stuff i set to LDAC and fugedabouitsperfect. i can’t imagine those are giving you this much grief unless the settings are way out of true.

just went through about 10 tracks from qobuz tidal and apple, all at 16/44.1 bit perfect.

they were all identical.

to my dac and to my ears. if you hear something vastly different, something isn’t setup correctly…

my sennys, according to the boxes or headband were made in:
560s - china
660s - ireland
8xx - germany