Elear

Relax. Even Tyll Hertsen retired with a pair of Bose QCs - there is definitely something to be said about the convenience of BT ANC headphones, and it can be just as enjoyable as any high end set. I have a few nice pairs of cans myself (Audeze LCD 2 / Focal Elear / HD 650 /Fostex) but I can easily enjoy music just as much out on the deck, ice cold beer and some good tunes on my Sonys XM6. The trick is to enjoy the content more than nitpicking the equipment, human ears adapt really easy - and when on the go there is no contest. Point is, let people enjoy their headphones, nobody cares about audiophile’s opinion anyway 😊

honestly, its still extremely bad. somehow all reddit people know to name only the worst headphones on the planet. momentum 4 ... ts... all the marketing stuff pushed onto people. while the real studio geeks only talk HD599/Dt770/Hd600. basically the xm6 only wins from childs headphones. factually the sennheiser HD599 (can be had new for 100 dollars some places), is far overboard better than the xm6. and the HD600 is worlds ahead. and believe it or not. when you upgrade frequently, you eventually pass over the price of some of the bestheadphones around. such as the focal bathys (if you truly have to be wireless), but you wont ever overcome a HD600, or a focal elear. and if you are really rich, the yamaha yh5000se is the best. the xm6 is highly overrated and not even better than the sennheiser HD280. if a headphone hsa a generation number, your quaranteed to be fucked by the company. those are the worst options to choose from. Get a focal bathys now, and youll earn it back, skipping generations, or if you really love your music: i dont even recognise my music for music if it aint on a HD600 or better. on the xm6, music is just noise to me.

honestly, its still extremely bad. somehow all reddit people know to name only the worst headphones on the planet. momentum 4 ... ts... all the marketing stuff pushed onto people. while the real studio geeks only talk HD599/Dt770/Hd600. basically the xm6 only wins from childs headphones. factually the sennheiser HD599 (can be had new for 100 dollars some places), is far overboard better than the xm6. and the HD600 is worlds ahead. and believe it or not. when you upgrade frequently, you eventually pass over the price of some of the bestheadphones around. such as the focal bathys (if you truly have to be wireless), but you wont ever overcome a HD600, or a focal elear. and if you are really rich, the yamaha yh5000se is the best. the xm6 is highly overrated and not even better than the sennheiser HD280. if a headphone hsa a generation number, your quaranteed to be fucked by the company. those are the worst options to choose from. Get a focal bathys now, and youll earn it back, skipping generations, or if you really love your music: i dont even recognise my music for music if it aint on a HD600 or better. on the xm6, music is just noise to me.

A used pair of Focal Elears would be a good option. They were my “gateway drug”, so be warned. 😜

Meine erste richtige Erfahrung die mir zeigte das es nochmal eine neue Art Musik zu entdecken gab mit hochwertigen Kopfhörern waren als ich mir Beyerdynamic T1 (2nd) & Focal Elear bestellt hatte. Ich konnte es gar nicht begreifen wie klar und auch druckvoll Kopfhörer sein können. Tage lang sperrte ich mich ein um mich für einen von den beiden damals zu entscheiden. Schließlich behielt ich den Beyerdynamic. Das ganze für 7 Jahre. Ein toller Kopfhörer mit vielen schönen Momenten. Den richtigen Ohrgasmus hatte ich tatsächlich aber dann mit den Focal Utopia. Sowas hatte ich bisher noch nie gehört. Der punchige Bass katapultierte mich in eine andere Welt . Die extreme intime Bühne mit den Stimmen die so klar und direkt in deinen Kopf waren überforderten mein Gehirn komplett. Es war am Anfang wie eine Droge die mein Gehirn leer saugten und ich nach den ganzen Details und Eindrücken erstmal eine Pause machen musste. Danach folgten noch ein paar andere Kopfhörer doch der Utopia war das erste und größte Feuerwerk für meine Ohren.

I tried flac vs 320kbps mp3 and 250kbps Opus with A/B/X blind tests and I can't hear a difference in pretty much any song as long as the lossy version is compressed from the same master - and that was with a pretty solid DAC/AMP (JDS Element II) and Focal Elear, no tiny DSP+AMP inside a DSP corrected ANC headphone optimized for power efficiency.

technically, my focal elears but there's something magic about the akg q701 with the khadas tone board feeding the alo pan am with mullard 5654rt (nos) that just makes me bliss out, and the harman curve eq in neutron is the chef's kiss

I have the OG MrSpeakers Aeon Closed and they’re just a damn good closed back set. Neutral bright is how I’d describe them, with some EQ they can become warm and lively if that’s your bag. I also have elear with clear pads and will say the elear KILLS the aeon closed for dynamics and punch. The elears are almost a “harder” headphone to listen to due to such, the punch and dynamics are so great and so heavy it can be fatiguing. I’ve heard much the same about clears. But if it makes ur decision any easier, the aeons are the ones I reach for almost daily, and I’ve owned them for 7 years. They ended my constant hunt for different or new gear. Before the aeons I would buy and sell and buy and sell just to mess around with stuff, the aeons were so good and I loved them so much they single handedly ended that. They may not blow u away immediately, but they were (and are) very very much a keeper for me. I wouldn’t sell them if I got MSRP (850) for them even however many years later, nothing else fits its bill in my eyes.

It’s funny too because my elears, again, hugely hyped up from big names in the community at the time. Now they’re hated. Lol. But the drop Elex are praised, even though they are LITERALLY an elear with a clear ear pad, legitimately no other difference. What’s hugely interesting to me these days is what JM audio offers, I’d suggest you get that instead actually. He offers retunes of his headphones to your personal preference, which is extremely intriguing to me. The first thing I’ve seen in a loooong while that’s making me want to drop 4 digits lol.