Not a fan of the DT1990. Bought them twice, tried them on two different chains, and never could learn to love them. Props to those who feel it’s a HD800S alternative. I just don’t see it.
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The worst treble-murder I’ve heard was the DT990 Premium (600ohm?).
DT1990 induced severe dt990 PTSD. I freaked out, huddled in a corner, rocking back and forth like a mental patient, finally cried myself to sleep.
True story.
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I’ll throw in my agreement on Hifiman cables. Also the Elegia cable is just awful. The HD8XX kinda sucks unless you EQ or mod it. Oh, and an unmodded Darkvoice. Yeesh. “Just burn in the 6SN7 tube overnight until it stops buzzing” should never be said about any proper tube equipment.
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Actually, the cable that’s included with the Edition XS doesn’t half suck so HFM must be listening.
My hate is Schiit and other gear that insist on using blindingly bright power LEDs. For the love of god people, I live near an airport. I don’t want airplanes crashing into my house thinking it’s a runway light.
Way back when I was first getting into iems, I was looking at a Skullcandy Titans based on a review in Absolute Sound. They weren’t available in Canada and most US stores wouldn’t ship north so I finally managed to track down a pair through some snowboard shop in Utah. Nothing but treble and bass. I literally couldn’t listen at anything higher than whisper levels. How on earth they got so much praise in the review is one of the great mysteries to me
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I bought a sheet of 80% block “Light Dims”, dark plastic stick-on’s in assorted sizes. Used over half of them so far, no more power LED induced blindness.
Mark Gosdin
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Schiit is positioned as a budget brand and has to cut corners somewhere. A bright LED can be made dimmer but a dim one cannot be made brighter.
Yes. Schiit is positioned to provide good examples of useful and distinct amps, DACs, etc. at the lowest reasonable price. You can solve the LED problems for a few dollars. One Light Dim kit is enough to fix many devices. If you are handy with an X-Acto knife you might also create your own dimmer stickers for almost nothing from colored tape. Or, just tear off and slap on a piece of masking tape.
This surely doesn’t appeal to the luxury or cosmetics-driven market.
I have one. From what I’ve read it was designed for 220/240 volts so the power delivery is slightly wrong for 110/120 systems. Also, Russian tubes (e.g, Foton, modern Tung-Sol) hum much worse than others. Some people buy external voltage regulators rather than modify the DV itself. But yes, it’s a budget amp with multiple design flaws and compromises. Pay more to work around its flaws, or just buy something that works right from the start…
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I have a light dim kit, it’s called electrical tape
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I tried the tape route and even blacking out the LED with a paint pen. Finally got PO’d and cut the freakin thing out altogether. The issue is the LED lights up the inside of the amp as much as the outside.
If I would’ve known at the time that liquid electrical tape does exist, I would have let cooler heads prevail and used that instead
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Gear that sucks: Wired earbuds!
They are cheap and break are fragile like a piece of fucking paper!
I once was trying to untangle a pair of wired earbuds that got tangle and guess what happened?
The connection ripped and I was like “Are you fucking serious!?”
sighs in frustration
So, I would NOT recommend buying wired earbuds (as they can be a real pain in the ass)!
Not sure if you are referring to actual earbuds or IEMs, but earbuds stretch up to the $6000 mark and IEMs more than double that.
I am not arguing if they suck or not but “cheap” is not necessarily the case 
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I modded the hell out of mine. It was my first real venture into tube amps and modding. Led me to building a Crack, then the Speedball addition. Started out just wanting to calm down the insane volume ramping and put a Fitz mod to lose the buzzing. Next thing you know I’m replacing sockets, adding a center tap, replacing most of the caps (other than the big power caps), and running twisted cables everywhere to replace those bizarre scaffolding-looking “wires.”
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Schiit is a budget brand. Their stuff is decent for the price. I’ve owned a few of their pieces (Gungnir MB, Lyr3, Moljnir2, Bifrost1, and Wyrd), and thought Schiit gear was a good value. You get what you pay for.
There’s only two above $100 audio products I’ve tried that I remember disgusting me:
Cleer Audio Next: Had a horribleeeeee metallic timbre that was exasperated by its bright tuning. It sounded as if tin cans were being used as the drivers…a little harsh, but for over $600, they deserve it. Gross
Sony WH-XM4: I tried the XM3 in store, and they actually sound ok, but the XM4 sounded…bad. It reminded me of a friend of mine that used PA speakers for his home theater: sure they go boom boom and make sound, but ewwww. There is no detail or life-likeness at all. Plus, both the XM3 and XM4 do NOT work well wired, and using the app eq literally (it even says in the app) makes the sound quality jump into the abyss, gone. Disgusting
The $40 KPH30i beats those two no question. “But the XM4 has noise canceling!” Yes, it’s actually really good. But they’re headphonesssss, expensive headphones. Headphones with active NC but sound like garbage are like a car with great air conditioning but no engine, axil, or wheels. If you want isolation, get earplugs😂. Airpod pros aren’t bad either.
I have the XM2. It’s very handy when there is environmental noise, and I use it for work and any time I want music when neighbors are running their leaf blower or mower.
I am on my second pair of Koss KPH30i (the plastic headband broke on the first pair). I would never use them for music, but they are great for phone calls or virtual meetings when my environment is quiet. The inline mic gives better voice quality by far than any of the ANC headphones I’ve tried.
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HiBy customer service for sure, experienced by an 11-month experience with getting a R6 2020 that actually works.
My rants are in my communication section of my profile. (To be clear, I’m talking about a direct purchaser from HiBy Asia. This is has nothing to do with Musictek.
(Side note: I got so frustrated with HiBy that I decided the R6 works well as an expensive door stop. I haven’t put it through it’s paperweight task. But, my experience suggests it will dissapoint in that role aw well.
R6 2020 case anyone???