So the HEDDphone is the most balanced across the frequency range then, because it is less U-Shaped than all of the others!!!
I kid, I kid 
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Kidding aside, are you talking about the FR plots or the staging diagram? As there’s no frequency information in the latter - just an illustration of what gets rendered where in space.
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I was referring to your soundstage diagrams, but also clearly joking. The HEDDphone had a linear stage while all the others had umbrellas .
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Got it!
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But I’m just messing with you. The way you described the HEDDphone sound is exactly what I just posted in Head-Fi. I just said that, unlike the way the 800S spreads everything out and puts you in the 2nd row of the audience, the HEDDphone puts you right up on the stage and in the middle of the band or instruments. You feel like the instruments are surrounding you instead of more in front of you. And I love it!
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Incidentally … I blame the HEDDphone for my not having posted my SR1a review yet.
Partly because I wanted to listen to it enough to include in my comparisons, and partly because it is compelling enough that I just keep stopping in my edits and listening …
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So maybe not a killer of giants, but one that can strike a heavy wound!
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Rest In Peace, Terry Jones. 
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One of my top five favorite movies (top three even, between Amadeus, Star Wars and Holy Grail)!
It might not outright kill any giants … but if this occasional sibilance abates (and it seems to be becoming less obvious over time) it’ll earn a place as a giant.
Value wise, I think it already has.
The metallic timbral aspects to some non-metallic percussion I was hearing initially (and which was my first comment to @TylersEclectic when he brought the demo set over) is no longer apparent.
That was something easily heard on David Fesliyan’s “Drum Warfare” (Elimination), but I don’t hear it at all now. And this is an EXCELLENT track for evaluating dynamics, speed, percussion, depth and so on … so if you’ve never heard it, do it now (it’s on TIDAL at least).
Comfort/ergonomic issues aside, and perhaps with the allowance for a dB of sub/bass leeway, it is getting progressively harder to see how any open-back can under $2,000 is going to be able to stand next to the HEDDphone.
Even under $3,000 I can only think of a couple of headphones that would be worthwhile (ZMF Vérité for sure, maybe RAD-0 … which is better than the HEDDphone tonally, and on bass, so far, but the HEDDphone is ahead on detail, speed and impact).
Detail and micro-dynamic resolution equal or better every planar can I’ve heard (which includes all the flagships). Though the SR1a and some dynamics (ZMF, Sennheiser, Focal) are more subtle and “correct” with regards to micro-dynamics.
Macro-dynamics are explosive. Easily Focal territory. The SR1a stays ahead. But the HEDDphone might just be 2nd overall there.
Speed? There’s the SR1a, MySphere/Electrostatics, the Abyss and then … well, this.
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It’s growing on you Torq!!!
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I liked them from the start …
I’m just super-wary and generally-allergic to massive pre-production hype. It’s almost never good for anyone involved.
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I respect that about you. But I own these, and they’re the real deal. Certainly not perfect, but then what headphone is?
Here’s why they live up to the hype for me. I have to keep reminding myself that they cost under $1900. That variable cannot be emphasized enough when evaluating their technical ability.
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One step forward … one step back …
Playing Trentemøller’s “Chameleon” (The Last Resort), when the bass and REAL sub-bass comes in at 31 seconds, the left-hand driver on my set of HEDDphone sometimes starts making little crinkly/vibrating sounds - much like if you press on the cups (the driver flex for which is normal) … and once it starts it’s persistent through the rest of the track.
This is just at my normal 80-85 dB listening level.
Swapping connections on the HEDDphone doesn’t change which side I hear it on (still the left). Neither does swapping channels in software. It is not apparent with other headphones.
A bit of fiddling with how the cans are sitting on my ears will make this go away for a bit. But it’s a consistent left-side issue with this much sub-bass (EQ is disabled).
Will try with the demo set of cans this weekend and see if it occurs at all there.
BLEH!
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Rub roh Shaggy!!!
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I do own my set too - bought (my own money, as always) without even a demo, in fact.
They are excellent value.
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I don’t like the sound of that. I hope it’s not a quality control issue.
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Hard to say, not sure what else it would be.
This is the only track I’ve heard it on, so far. And this track IS a bit of a bugger (on my speaker rig, this track will easily over-pressure the room). There’s a reason this is one of my bass-test-tracks.
It comes and goes. It’ll not do it for a couple of minutes. Then it’ll occur for a minute. Or not. And then come back, or go away …
To give you an idea, here’s part of the spectrum plot for the track:
The bass level, around 40 Hz, is as much as 30 dB above the rest of the track.
(If this is the only track I can hear this on, I’m not going to worry about it … but I guess I’m testing my big church-organ pieces next!).
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I’m going to play that track on my HEDDphone and see what happens. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes.
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A quick blitz through my test points in Felix Hell, “Organ Sensation” (2012, Reference Recordings), yield nothing odd - and some of these pieces have sub-bass down into what is technically infra-sonics (5-10 Hz), at substantial levels.
(You do have to turn these up to get the same net bass levels as with the Trentemøller track.)
Not ideal, regardless … clearly one driver (or cup) is behaving differently to the other. Almost sounds like “flutter” or the concertina is hitting itself. And it’s a pretty specific issue, which since the right-driver isn’t exhibiting it, even when fed the left-channel’s signal, at most it’s a minor driver issue (which is what warranties are for).
Though it might also go away with a bit more run-time … so a few hours of various parts of “Organ Sensation”, interspersed with “Chameleon” are in order!
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So I played that track with my HEDDphones and I got a rattle sound only out of my right earcup. But it didn’t sound like a driver rattling. It sounded like the entire earcup chassis was rattling. Funny enough, the bass sounded like it was hitting harder out of the left channel, but I could hear rattling/vibration out of the right channel. I think that song produces so much bass that it causes, literal, physical rattling. The same way strong bass can make mirrors and glass shake or even your entire car if someone next to you is pumping the bass really hard.
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