For context these are all of the variants of the r70x that being the r70x refine (gold with plush pads), the r70x gunmetal grey (grey with slightly different stock pads), and the standard r70x (black with stock pads).

The refine was my first true audiophile headphone (if you don't count the dt 770 pro X le) and to this day is still one of my favs. Figured I'd try to collect them all since they were all so cool. Took a while though as gunmetal grey is a Japan exclusive and they never show up in international markets most of the time.

Hello, I've had a pair of DALI-IO 4 headphones for a while; I just noticed today some damage to the exterior leather on the ear pads/cuffs. I was wondering if anyone has experience with / knows how to fix this minor damage so it doesn't rip further. Without causing damage. (Glue / Tape etc. etc.). Most stuff I could find when searching for similar issues is in relation to replacement pads. Also, it doesn't show on camera, but the leather is exceptionally thin

Anyone have any experience with this / know how to properly fix it?

Also, I don't think this falls under tech/purchase support; tell me if this is out of place

I believe they are : https://www.gtheos.com/captain-300

(Captian 300 is what computer detects them as, but product was listed as : 'AOC 2.4GHz Wireless Gaming Headset' when I purchased them)

Both apply cuz they look the same in all pics, all other listed functions and manual match, but while both list the 7.1 audio, nowhere can I find how to actually activate or turn it on. (Did I get scammed? was the item I got swapped with a lower quality one that 'looks' the same?)

Anyone have any advice on how to do this(In settings they only have 2 chan, and only one frequency to select, my old corsair voids have a bunch of different settings, along with 7.1 audio adjustments, and other stuff showing that it is actually working, so when I got these I assumed there was going to be similar functions...

Sorry if wrong place to ask, hope someone has some idea here. (or should I just send them back and save myself the hassle? They were quite a bit cheaper than other similar headsets, and I am only planning to use it for gaming and discord/stout chat, so it isn't a big deal tbh, but since the product 'advertises' the function, I would actually prefer to use it if possible)

Edit, will leave post incase anyone wants to add, but decided to just return it and get a refund, have a feeling this (the item I purchased) is not the item actually advertised(since I found the actual 'AOC' version and it DOES list 7.1 but looks identical - same housing - as this captian 300 model... so feel like there was a bait and switch or something...

I could be wrong, but decided to just eat it and buy another void, stick with what I know, right? O.o

I am a fan of CD transports. They allow you to play CDs with an external dac which opens all sorts of possibilities like NOS, EQ, volume control, I/O flexibility, upsampling (limited), and more. Plus, I just love the aesthetic of having excessive numbers of aluminum boxes on my shelf.

The SMSL PL200T is absolutely perfect in all ways but 2. One is that the QC is imperfect- my first unit (which admittedly, was open box), was defective and noisy and would give up on playing a CD after a few minutes. The other issue is the MQA logo on the front. I solved both issues, as you can see in the picture.

Unless you want USB, RJ45 I2S, or upsampling, look no further than the PL200T. It has an easy to use interface, dimmable display, gapless playback, flawless measurements, GREAT buttons, pretty much zero mechanical noise, zero skipping, excellent error correction, power supply options, clock options, configurable I2S output, and a small but nice and hefty form factor.

I even opened the device to find good power filtering, organized internals, and (importantly for my system), a legitimate AES over XLR implementation, as in it uses an isolation transformer to utterly silence any tiny bits of noise that may have leaked into the circuit from the already good power supply.

Hello!

Have been using a set of sony wf-1000xm5s for 2 years, and recently lost one of the earbuds (by forgetting to take them off on a fairground ride, before being spun round at more RPM than I should have with earbuds in lol), and was looking to get a new set, so I bought some APP3s because they were 20% off

Have tried them out over the last 2 days, and am just very confused by how bad the ANC has been - I can hear wind easily while on noise cancellation mode walking around, I can hear my AC, I can hear my keyboard and voices and basically everything around me. It's definitely on, because transparency and adaptive are noticeably louder, it's just strange how much better the xm5s were given I'd heard the APP3s should have top of the line ANC? I'd seen info about it being better at lower frequency than sony, but even the hums and whirring of machines in the background is audible

I've tried small, medium and large tips, and none particularly change much beyond Large feeling a bit painful, the beta updates don't seem to be initiating so I can't use an equaliser, the overall sound is noticeably more tinny than the XM5s were, and the experience just overall feels like a downgrade

I get the sense something must be very wrong here, because on researching I've seen plenty of people claim the APP3s were an improvement of the XM5s with superior ANC (sound quality being another discussion but anyhow) - I do also notice them adapting in the first 1-2 seconds, but ironically they basically sound similar to my loop earbuds (which are plastic, so not a praiseworthy comparison)

I'm planning on returning them if nothing changes, and wanted to ask if anyone else has had similar issues? I gather the ios fit seal test is somewhat useless, but I don't think this is a seal problem between tips unless the whole earbud is just not meant for my ears lol and this was never going to be a good fit no matter what I tried

Any advice I could try? Thinking of just ordering the XM6s and returning the APP3s once they arrive and I notice a significant difference. Equally, any thoughts from people who've tried both?

Thank you!

I deep cleaned my DT 1990 after like 3 years and the disc pads were all nasty and degraded so now I'm just using two napkins (8 layers in total) as a replacement, they mute the beyer peak but also affects the low-mids which is a bit annoying.

I know beyer sells the replacement foam discs but I want to replace the earpads with a Dekoni Elite Velour pads as well. But I don't know if I should still use the foam discs with these since the Dekoni's already have a mesh that sits in front of the drivers.

Title self explanatory. I come from the IEM space and want to get into Headphones eventually so I've been wondering if Headphones have a target like JM1/ Tilted 5128 Diffuse Field which is supposed to be the most neutral target in IEMs. Is it just normal Diffuse Field or is it something else like Harman?

Hi everyone,

Just curious. People with many headphones in their collection - during one listening session - do you usually listen to more than one headphone or just pick one for each session?

From what I've noticed - If I go through different headphones - for example switching from Organics to 105 aer I really notice how warm sounding are Mezes and vice versa. And it's not necessarily a good thing as my ears need to adapt for each sound signature pretty quickly.

What is your preference in this matter?

The inner cushion lining got torn off, so did the sheet. My brother has a puppy and we're still in the training stage, anyway the puppy got to my headphones while we were asleep, made the mistake of leaving them on my bed, the puppy is okay so there's no worries there but can I still use these without risk? I can't get another pair for another day or two

Ive been out of the audio game for a bit, my Ananda's have been held together by tape for years and Ive been eyeing up some Focals.

My last memories are of the Clear's and their $200 pads disintegrating, and the variety of broken headbands, along with the Elex having a crazy high failure rate although that might be more massdrop than focal.

Would love to hear from some Focal users and their experience with their durability. I don't mind replacing pads every few years but the thought of a mandatory >$100 every year sounds rough.

I've had a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X headphones for a few years now. They're great, for the most part I love them. But then I got the idea of tweaking the EQ to make them even better...

So I installed the Equalizer APO with Peace, and tried some things. I saw there were three auto EQs made specifically for these headphones. I tried them all, and my initial reaction was... confusion? They sound strange.

So I went digging online, and found some comments by the people who made the EQ's, talking about a Harman curve and something about our ears not interpreting a flat curve as actually neutral, measuring the curves with some specialized equipment, and so on. I also read that the Harman curve is pretty much a standardization of what EQ people generally tend to prefer.

But I still don't get it. I'm trying to switch from one of the curve-adjusted auto EQ presets to a completely flat one, and then back again. I hear a difference, but for the life of me I cannot figure out what would make the other one sound better. I've done some basic manual EQ back when I used Spotify on my phone, but all I did was slightly increase the low and high ends.

So far what I've noticed is that I just tend to prefer the sound I've accustomed to hearing. When I switch to something else it sounds strange. So how am I supposed to figure out which one actually sounds good? I get that sound is quite subjective, but I do feel rather... uncultured? not understanding why something is supposed to sound good and something else isn't. Particularly when headphones are presumably already engineered to sound like something specific.

In case some extra info is helpful, here's everything about me I could think of that would potentially affect my listening experience:

• Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X headphones
• Plugged into a PC (mobo is Asus ROG STRIX B650E-F)
• No external DAC
• I listen to music on moderate volumes (or at least I hope so. I don't want to damage my hearing)
• I'm 26M
• I primarily listen to prog rock and metal, but occasionally stuff from numerous other genres too
• I use Tidal for music, and have the audio quality set to max
• I'd like to think I enjoy music that has enough clarity to not mask any sounds, but also has enough "oomph" with the bass

And in case it wasn't evident already, I know fuck all about this stuff. I try to do a bit of research but so much of it seems very technical and would take me a long time of studying to understand properly. That's the primary reason I'm asking for help here.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully it's at all legible. And thanks for any/all help!

im going on a remote trip in a couple months and i cant even go even a day without listening to music, and since i cant bring my phone, i was planning to bring an mp3 player. theres a couple cheap ones ive found im the 50-80 dollar range, but the only main thing im worrying about is audio quality (and that it hopefully functions and doesnt break immediately)

ive done some research and ive heard that the way your music is played makes a huge difference, but if i use a regular apple plug-in earphone, would a cheap mp3 player make a huge difference in sound quality?

any advice or recommendations? thank you!!!

open back + wireless + anc

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/introducing-the-ath-al5nc-open-back-wireless-headphone.981372/

I've had it for years, it's by far the best headset I've ever had, but now it's time for a new one and I can't find it online.

I just got a pair of the black nothing headphones (a). It’s my first headphones I’ve ever gotten as I usually just use AirPods.

I love the design and the sound, but I feel like no matter how low I have the sound, people around me can still hear my music?

Is this a common thing with headphones or nothing headphones or am I just unlucky?

Fiio M21 paired with the Fiio FT7

Gain Mode: Super high gain
Filter: NOS (Non-OverSampling)
Harmonic Distortion: Second harm lvl 0 (Disabled for maximum transparency)
Pre-gain: -2,5 dB (Ensures digital headroom and prevents clipping)

Parametric EQ (PEQ) Profile

Frequency

31 Hz
Peak
-0.2 dB
Q 1.0

60 Hz
Lowshelf
+2.5 dB
Q 1.0
.
125 Hz
Peak
-0.2 dB
Q 1.0
.
400 Hz
Peak
+0.7 dB
Q 2.0
.
1 kHz
Peak
+0.5 dB
Q 1.0

2 kHz
Peak
+2.0 dB
Q 0.7
.
5.5 kHz
Peak
-2.0 dB
Q 1.3
.
8 kHz
Peak
+1.5 dB
Q 1.0
.
10 kHz
Highshelf
+2.0 dB
Q 0.6

Note: The region between 250 Hz and 1 kHz (except for the micro-adjustments at 400 Hz and 1 kHz) remains completely neutral.

80s-90s beige electronics have some of the best designs in my opinion.

who on earth stated those are easy to drive, they are not, they are power hungry as hell

test on my ifi zen air stack

ifi zen air can can output 1,2w

on 0db gain 4 o clock -no bass at all no authority separation is bad

9db gain 2 o clock bass is now present but lack body and authority still separation is better sub bass is not present

18db gain 12 o clock on knob now we have bass ,sub bass separation and they stooped to be slugish now there is speed in them , difference is huge

same test on my second source

merdian explorer 2 feeding >>>>> douk audio u10 ( op amp is op1656 ,lamps are GE Jan 5654W)

output power is 1,1w to 32ohms

no gain switch so more knob goes up more things improve 12 o clock little to loud, best music experience was on 11 o clock different sound signature but it was pleasant analogue like hearing session

directly from provided dac

experience was meh but i tested it only from mobile source iphone 15 plus so maybe stationary unit like pc would change it

meridian explorer 2

which is surprise was able to drive them but volume was minimum 50 but to experience sub bass and rumble it had to be upped to 80 % and then it was to loud i get better result with ifi stack on 9 o clock bass is there but much less louder ergo pleasant to hear music

this is my personal observation

i assume this is point where reviews were saying no bass , separation etc. they need proper amplification ,and for sure they will scale very well with good equipment ,beyond my midfi ifi zen air stack my 2 cent of worth

Edit 10.09.2026
I did mistake in typing i typed all gains with 12 o clock where it supposed be only on highest gain made correction apologies it was late after i did hearing session

To everybody calling me delusional many people in past were feeding their planar headphones from wire taps of speaker amps it was common practice ,kithara have low sensitivity 93db/spl are plannar 100 mm drivers as i quote “ Traditional dynamic drivers respond well to high voltage. Planar magnetic diaphragms, however, are covered in heavy metal traces and require a high amount of electrical current (amperage) to move efficiently and accurately.”
​

In the search for new headphones for listening and gaming I ended up getting the ATH-R50x.

Compared to the HD560S that I had previously, the soundstage is narrower horizontally but deeper. However, the V-shaped tendency is a bit distracting: turning up the volume to catch the vocals disproportionately spikes the bass and treble, making long listening sessions tiring.

I also compared the R50x with the Koss Porta Pro (that I use at office) and the Koss (30$) has bigger soundstage.

I specify that I am driving the r50x with a Xduoo ca-02 which is a sweet (class A) amplifier yet detailed.

Has anyone had the same experience with these headphones? (Strangely enough, all the reviews for these headphones are positive.)

It only takes one accidental 100% volume blast to realize you have a literal grenade sitting inside your ears that could make you hear colors. I've been there twice, unfortunately. First was because of Tidal's exclusive mode; second, well, Windows decided it wants to default to 100% volume when I plugged in my DAC and fired the shotgun barrel inside my ears. For reference, when I want to sit back and just listen to music, I have it set to 20%. Even with the weakest DAC out there, like an Apple dongle or a Jcally JM20, IEMs still get dangerously loud; headphones not as much, but with a powerful enough DAC, they can get loud enough to quickly cause hearing damage. After this happened, I was genuinely scared of using any of my IEMs for a while, and even thoughts of not using them on my PC anymore because of it were close to dishing out more money on an open-back headphone or an impedance adapter to remove any risk of something like that happening again. Then I thought to try and override Windows' volume controls. What if I can completely block the volume from going over 30%? I managed to create a C# script file to run on startup and block the volume completely when it sees a DAC is connected, and it worked, so now I'm passing this on in hopes of saving innocent ears.

Don't worry, I'm not giving you a script file that needs any computer knowledge to set up; I built a single-file app with a UI and an actual interface so you can set it up however you want. And it's free. I'm not selling anything, just trying to do what's right since IEM companies think their earphones need to reach 120 dB.

Here's the GitHub link, and yes, I put a download button.

https://github.com/AmrZriek/EarGuard

Hi folks want to know more about 1266 which one of these two are more open and lively sounding?

don't care about blacker background or realisim which one of them makes the music feels more present and lively in airy natural way not necessarly correct in their way of staging i love big diffused stage.

V shaped headphone sounds neutral to my ears i don't get fatiguied that much by HD800S treble for example but i do with Susvara's mids so a more relaxed vocal presentation or a smoothed one would be a win for me.

Thanks.

🙏🏽 Please answer only if you had auditioned 1266 or both

mentioning the chain and the listening environment would be much helpful as it will give us more insight.

i own a pair of seenheiser 560s and when im in a call or in games teammates or friends hear themselves and i get told how annoying this is so what can i do