Aside from the usual advantages of this design, these models also have other qualities that open-back headphones can barely achieve……..
Room-filling sound resonances, merging of room acoustics, seemingly endless reverberation, and of course, the powerful bass reproduction.
All qualities that make listening a pleasure, but which are often acoustically lost in open-back headphones and are therefore a good argument in favor of closed-back headphones.
Dan Clark and Zach in particular have managed to combine these sound qualities with a certain natural charisma, creating headphones that have addictive potential.
I’m not “skeptical.” Closed headphones routinely make my ears ring, feel like being underwater or in an airplane (ear pressure and popping), and give me a headache. They sound fine or fantastic for up to 1 hour, but are intolerable after 2 hours.
“Skeptical?”, he echoed @generic the pink frog wholeheartedly. I tried to have an open mind and a closed ear. @tmarshl was gracious enough to lend me his ZMF Verite closed to try, one of those top headphones you mention.
Objectively there was nothing wonky about the sound streaming high res through the Schiit true multibit DAC into the seductively tubed Eufonika H7m OTL amplifier. The first few minutes were really okay.
Then, like the best of nightmares, the walls started closing in. The room acoustics of recorded venues shimmered with those of a discarded seashell. My ears strained to make it right but the attached cerebral cortex, wise in the ways of the world knew that it was not so. Fatigue, fatigue and annoyance.
And as Billy Joel sings, pressure.
No, these, some of the best closed backs I’d yet heard, are not for me.
Proof by listening, not skepticism.
I’ve got the DCA E3, Aeon RT, Sennheiser GSP600, ATH WS1100, AKG K371, and tried all kinds of other closed backs at Canjam and Japan. To me the closed vs open debate boils down to each user’s requirements.
For me personally where I normally use headphones, there’s a tiny bit of background noise, and my preference is a lot of bass, so for me, my favorite closed back is easily as enjoyable as my favorite open back. I don’t find any correlation between closed back and ear pain like some do.
If there’s no need for isolation or if I’m not going to bother anyone with noise leakage, then my favorite open back does have a slight edge in sound quality.
I had been pestering the guys on live streams for months to ask if any of them had listened to the H200s. After the semi-debacle of Adam Audio’s first set of branded headphones from a few years back, I think there was some reluctance, but those were apparently not made in-house, and Adam learned their lesson. I have the H200s in my studio and they are really nice, and built like a tank.
In the end I settled on a pair of Beyerdyamic DT-770 pros which worked much better for my main use case, which is overdubbing my harmony vocals on collaboration projects.
Needed the extra treble detail so I can nail getting the words and consonants / articulations perfectly in sync, and I had a better sense of pitch of vocal tracks I have laid down already.
the Beyers have a bit more headphone bleed than the Adams, and I think if I had to mix on a pair of my closed-backs, I might actually do it with the Adams as they seem more neutral to me, with great, clean low bass extension.
I commented somewhere recently that it would be interesting to hear takes on the new Adam, Kali, and Genelec HPs. I’m afraid the Genelec system is prohibitively expensive though. If they offered though, I bet @Resolve would consider giving them a try, because he is a Genelec fan.
The Kali HP-1 is available at a much lower price point. I think it also uses DSP though. And I think the Adam H200 is essentially passive wired. Though I believe Adam may also have some software for room modeling with their HPs like (to some extent) the Kali and Genelec.
These headphones are somewhat unique in that they’re designed by mfrs of speaker monitors. There are other monitor mfrs who have been making headphones though. Some for quite awhile in fact.
Neumann is another recent addition. I think Mackie, KRK, and Yamaha have been making headphones awhile though. And there are other mfrs of pro audio gear like Shure, Rode, Sennheiser, and AudioTechnica who also have their proverbial hats in the headphone ring. Rode is the most recent addition of these.
I unfortunately have not had a chance to listen to many of the newer headphones by these companies. Though it would be interesting. I’d probably only be interested in the passive wired models though, with a pretty neutral balance.
EQ-ing my 250 ohm DT770’s is an ongoing project. I’d like to get a more neutral pair of open-backs though, which are a little easiser to tweak (or use without tweaks) for the kind of sound I think I want.
I am still keeping an eye on the closed-back market though. And can post some of the EQ curves I’ve been trying for the DT-770.
Recently picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD 620S closed back headphones. The DMS review on them is pretty accurate. They are a good buy when on sale. Some recordings sound quite good with them, whilst other one not so much. It’s hard to put a finger on why. I think they are a good option for older legacy jazz/big band recordings.
One closed back that I don’t bother with EQ is the Ultrasone Edition 8 EX. It’s overpriced at MSRP, BUT, they are a good buy second hand. Built like a tank, and sounds good without EQ.
