Fair enough. I will add an edit to my review for clarity.
I’m with Torq on this one, sorry. I don’t see it being an amazing stretch to infer standard = flat.
With that said, prior to now, I have not been to the Rosson site to examine their options or information. When I write a review, I don’t do research on the headphone beforehand. I want to avoid the bias. The term “standard” is what I was told by Mark, and it carried into my review. However, having just visited their site and order page, I do see this listed as the default option for custom RAD-0 orders:
Apologies. Not my intent, but I can see how one might be motivated to perceive it that way. From my perspective, having defined which tuning the reviewed item was - on the first sentence, of the first paragraph, of the Impressions section of the review - I saw your comment as willfully erroneous.
For the record, I wasn’t even referring to your review. I was just making a general statement. And apology accepted. My apologies to you as well. It was all just a misunderstanding. But we all know manufacturers have a house tuning or their own “standard”. Hifiman is bright, Grado is bright, Audeze is Warm, etc. Alex used to work for Audeze so I had no idea if his “standard” tuning had a house sound.
Purely on the basis of listening (in an ultra-high-end rig) … I’d say he’s gone for (and achieved) what the Audeze LCD-4 w/ the “Reveal” (or Roon) DSP delivered. Not needing the DSP, and being much less demanding of power, are quite remarkable feats …
… even if I’d take the LCD-4 w/ “Reveal” vs. the RAD-0 if push came to shove (if DSP wasn’t available, I’d go with the RAD-0).
My Cocobolo/polished chrome LCD-4 (200Ω) are irrefutably gorgeous. Bitches to get good pictures of (reminds me of ZMF African Blackwood cans), but insanely pretty. At least in a “classical” sense …
BUT …
They have nothing on this … aesthetically at least …
Rad! I’m set to get silver/aluminum grills (to match a wristwatch etc.), but your post has me reconsidering to get grills (and/or screws) that match the dominant color of my resin rings instead.
Your grilles look awesome and you convinced me to level up to custom grilles!
Regarding alternating/rolling grilles, the Rosson team mentioned the importance of being careful and not cross-threading the screws in order to maintain durability since the resin and wood (tapped holes) are soft materials compared to metal. I don’t plan on rolling grilles.
@bpcarb after reading the entire thread, I’ll be saving my pennies for this headphone! Thanks for the recommendation! Now to find an amp to match, and maybe a DAC too, if I can figure out how some mastering engineers have a monitoring DAC and an analog loop AD/DA all at the same time…
You bet! You might want to keep an eye out on their B-stock listings on their website (not frequent). Based on my demo days and friends that own a RAD, check out the following amps: Vali 2+, Rupert Neve Headphone Amp, Violectric HPA V200, HeadAmp GSX-Mini, Bryston BHA-1, Schiit Ragnarok 1, Mogwai OG (used and no longer in production), Headphones.com Forge (succeeds the Mogwai OG). I like the Schiit DACs up to the Bifrost 2, then the Chord Qutest for the aforementioned amps. I can’t speak to how mastering engineers do it I’m afraid.
@bpcarb sounds like a plan! I’ll check all of those out. No worries on how mastering engineers handle their monitoring…I just made the comment “thinking out loud”. I’ll eventually figure it all out! Does anyone have any comments on how the RAD-0 would pair with Burson gear? I was reading the Burson threads and noticed the neutral-yet-musical comments being made about it. Obviously, I’m interested in that. Thanks for all the help! @taronlissimore@andrew y’all have an AMAZING forum!
