I am attempting to find a closed back headphone that will make me want to use it more than my Dunu Zen and has minimal sound leakage.
I will not EQ. I do need to be able to drive them from some bluetooth amp sometimes. I am considering centrance hifi-m8 v2 for the harder to drive options below. Xduoo xd05 balanced may also be an option. Yes, I know there are bunches of you that will roll your eyes and say these headphones are silly driven from bluetooth on those amps. At some point I may add a desktop setup, but it’s not a now thing.
The list below is not exhaustive. Just what has floated to the top in my research. If you have other suggestions, please let me know.
I want to call out the stellia: It’s not “officially” in the list because I am trying to keep it sub $2k. The verite is, because if ZMF sound ends up being a good fit, I know that is what I will end up getting at the end of the day. The verite gets a pass currently, the stellia doesn’t. Feel free to try and change my mind on that.
LCD-XC would be on this list, but I have heard and it did not blow me away. It also had some vocal harshness. Despite that, it is the best over ear headphone I have heard (includes he6se, arya).
Obviously I am asking here because of the ZMF options, but I also thought many people here will have heard the other things in this list:
Aeon 2 Noire
LCD-2 closed
Celestee
Radiance
Eikon
Verite Closed
Denon *200
Sony Z1R
What do I like?
- Balanced. I have found headphones that overly emphasize one part of the FR do not work well for me. However, V-shaped can very much fall into balanced by this definition.
- All arounder. I recently tested the ath-wp900. It was obscenely good for some music and made me cringe with others. An all around headphone doesn’t have to be amazing at everything, but definitely functional at everything.
- Bass impact (which doesn’t have to be elevated). I like to feel bass.
- No bass bleed. Elevated bass is tricky. I found the bass on the ath-wp900 would take over some songs in a very bad way.
- no EQ required.
I want to call out the noire. It feels like it fits quite well on everything but bass impact. I do not believe I have heard a planar with elevated bass, but zero impact (the arya/sundara do not have much impact, but also have neutral bass). So, I am tempted to see if it works for me. (The Audeze Euclid was like this, and I liked it a lot, but twice the Zen to get a similar thing with less impact didn’t make sense. Also, the fit was horrible. And, oddly, it just got shouty when loud on the iDSD signature)
I find myself liking a clean engaging sound where bass is present. I tend to appreciate planar speed, but not planar impact. The ath-wp900 sounded loose, not bad, but loose and that didn’t help it’s bass situation. The Dunu Zen seemed both very fast (not planar levels, but close) with impactful articulate bass. Thus far, nothing I can pinpoint to treble areas has offended me or impressed me.
Anyone want to take a pot shot at the above mess with a recommendation? 