sine sweep

Short version: It's a headphone in disguise. First thing to notice, the comfort was actually better than I thought. I used a Sony XBA-A3 for two years and it was always a pain in the ass putting those on. The iSine at first seems equally hard to get along with, but after several practices, I found out that it was actually easier to wear on, and once it's there, it stays there. Sound wise, it's true about two rumors about them: The Soundstage They have the largest soundstage I've ever heard on IEMs this price, or even double the price. In fact, I would rank their soundstage close to HD600. Just a tad behind HD700. Clarity:  I really think that objectively having an astonishingly low THD really translates to subjective listening experience. These sound really, really clear. The transients, the vocals, the drums, the snares sound so vivid and transparent. I would say that coming from these little things to full-sized dynamic headphones like HD700 you...

Even at the very beginning of my audio journey, Sennheiser headphones have been the reference of the headphone world. My taste in music & headphones have changed through the years, so dramatically that some headphones I used to love became boring and some others became irritating to the ears. Yet I always liked the HD600's sweet smooth comfortable sound, and I can never get over with the enormous soundstage representation and detail retrieval of HD800s. Here's my take of a comparison between HD600, HD700, HD800, HD800S Soundstage & Imaging: HD600 has the smallest soundstage of the 3.  HD700 has a 20% soundstage boost (over HD600) with a more exciting imaging ability.  HD800 has an astonishing soundstage boost (over HD700) and an alarmingly accurate imaging ability. Wow is the only word for them on first listen. HD800S takes a little bit of it's imaging ability and trades for some soundstage and overall balance. HD800 is a tad more precise. HD800S i...

Got my Gumby (Gungnir Multibit) for a few days. I have a Chord Mojo and a Nuforce DAC-80 and I thought I’d compare Gumby with them so that it might help people who are also interested in these DACs. The comparison between the three DACs is based on using Jotunheim’s amp section into stock HD800S. (Gumby is running XLR input to Jotunheim, others are via RCA) Soundstage & Imaging: Mojo has a relatively small soundstage, its imaging is quite accurate but feels congested inside its soundstage. DAC80 has a larger soundstage with an excellent imaging ability. It creates a 3D-like experience. Gumby has a soundstage about the same width as DAC80, yet with deeper depth. It creates a more holographic experience. More on this later. Micro-detail: Mojo is not capable of reproducing every last detail. DAC80 is significantly better than Mojo and obviously brings out a lot of details. Listening to DAC80 the first time brought out a lot of “Ah” moments for me. Gumby has the s...

I started from using a NuForce uDAC-2 and later on upgraded to a Taiwanese brand DAC/AMP combo called DA&T U1s which costs about $400. Recently I've acquired a Chord Mojo and even though Mojo is intended to be a portable DAC/AMP, I found that the DAC portion is somehow better than the one in my U1s. (And of course WAY better than uDAC-2) I've been using the Mojo as a reference DAC for a while and became curious about how a well built dedicated DAC would sound like. After getting one for over half an year of listening, I can say that the DAC-80 is clearly better and offers a balanced sound all around. I'm using an HD800S through Jotunheim and the soundstage really opens up coming from Mojo to DAC-80. Instruments are more realistic in the recordings, especially piano and strings. Vocals tend to get hot because of the treble spike on HD800S, but on the DAC-80 it feels more relaxed and well placed in space. I even found out that a certain sound which I always consid...