Munich High End 2024 or does anybody has a bottle opener?
May 14, 2024 at 1:29 PM Post #16 of 39
I missed a lot! :)
Need to check out these

Audio Technica ATH-WB LTD (not my music)
- Remarkably beautiful design
- Sounds well balanced... I think?
- would love to listen again!
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These

Tago Studio T3-01
- One of the bigger surprises of the day
- VERY good for a medium-sized over-ear closed-back headphone!
- Good clean sound with great extension
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These

Crosszone CZ-8A (with familiar music)
- I LOVE this headphone
- Overall the most 'balanced' sound with a HUGE helping of subbass
- Best tuning for electronic music
- It just sounds really fun - I want one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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and these :)

Perun (Electrostatic) (not my music)
- Somehow these were one of my favourite headphones from the whole day
- Kind of like a DIY SR-Lambda... but more musical, bigger sound, perfectly tuned
- REALLY musical sound
- Would audition again 100% (I kind of want one... kind of)
(STAX SR-X9000 also sounded REALLY good beside it - The STAX sounded warmer than the Perun)
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May 14, 2024 at 4:47 PM Post #17 of 39
Thanks Greg great write up!
Have you been to the Viva booth?
They had Elite, Empyrean 2, Susvara, Immanis and L700 MKII with their amps.
Would be great to hear your impressions of the headphones there.
(again... NOT Greg...)
Man..... somehow this was one of the noisiest corners of the whole exhibition, at least while I was in the area.
I tried the L700 and just gave up, there was too much noise.
 
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May 15, 2024 at 3:39 AM Post #18 of 39
I found the Immanis and Egoista 2A3 especially addictive and also the L700 MKII did not sounded "thin" anymore, it was suddenly a quite "beefy" headphone with the STX. :sunglasses:
 
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May 15, 2024 at 4:23 PM Post #20 of 39
Thank you Dayama for the complete recap! I was there too and would like to add some, especially on some amps or HPs you didn't cover and may be of interest for the community. OFC this is all IMHO, in a noisy environment and with a bit of a bias towards "value".

Cayin booth:
The new Soul amp vs HA-300 mk2 --> If you focus on the difference between the two amps, you'll find two flavors: a bit more mid-forward the SOUL, a bit more V shaped the 300 /clearer sounding... but if you weight them compared to the overall amps pool, you can definitely hear the Cayin tuning on both. So more common than different. Main takeaway is there's no better, just different presentation. Susvara sounded very airy and estats like in presentation out of this two.

FINAL:
D7000 is a total let down. BOOOOMY bass out of scale. Pity the rest was good.
D8000 pro is still the most balanced, even if a bit on the smooth side
X8000 is its opposite: much more forward and percussive, a bit too much for me, but I see huge potential here (pads were just a temp fix, and they impact sound a lot so... let's see)

Meze:
The new empy 2 was... dunno. I liked a lot out of lesser amp (e.g. HA-3A) and less on the Envy. Anyway, I had the elite and sold them because of their exaggerate smoothness /lack of bite... Empy is still a meze, but a bit more balanced... BUT:

ALLN/C:
Then here I came. Well... AMAZED? The soon to be released HPA-300B with the Elite were just wonderful. For sure the amp was quite mid forward and aggressive (in the good way), and pushed the body and attack of the meze out of scale, making it really a wonderful headphone. The charybdis on the same amp was in fact too much slammy. I after tried to triangulate and charybdis on Envy worked better/ very good. Synergies, as we know. BTW, HPA-300B + Elite stays in my heart, with a little sadness when I was told the price of the amp (16k).
IMG20240511131337.jpg


Hifiman
Since we are here... the other fav combo of the show was the susvara + hifiman EF1000DAC (that's also an amp). I heard the susvara on many chains here and in the past, and simply this is the perfect balance, or what I would consider the reference point. Just everything was right and in the right amount. This is the first time I considered to buy the susvara. I liked this combo more than Shangri-La
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Holo stack + LCD5
I heard the LCD5 at other shows and... meh. You know, all right but not engaging. On the holo stack it was just more engaging! Super fun? No, but musical in its composed way to present music.
IMG20240511141830.jpg
Ah yes, did I say value?
Ok here probably you will think "ok this is a strange user, I know I shouldn't trust him!"... Sendy audio peacock. Yes, I mean hell yes! So knowing nothing of this hp, I put it on and: ooooh wow. So fun tuning for sure, some bass bleed? yes. With maybe a bit too roll off on the highs? Yes... But damn, clean and impactful, with stage. What the Hedd2 should have been for me (I bought the hedd v2 after NY canjam, to understand later that even if really wow on many things, it was at the end a bit of a let down for no stage and no highs). So exactly what I was missing in my collection, with a price tag of 1500€, not 5000€.
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Auris Audio
The new headonia 300B is another behemoth, and the sound is really as the amp: huge. The scale is huge and the body and mass also, but keeping it away from being ofc congested. Very balanced also in tuning (especially compared to the ALLNIC) anyway. It was driving the immanis very synergically. I like when 300B amps can slam and have bite, something that made me sold my Envy. Strange again, I really like also the still to be release Lyre, which I found very enjoyable with Empy 2 (so probably coherently with my impression out of the HA-3A). I found the chain of tradutto + Ultima + susvara a bit too lean, but I feel the tradutto was giving this character to all their amps, since also the headonia sounded quite better out of the Rockna DAC.
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ZMF
I am a bit of a zmf fan, so... I will do my best to be fair:
Caldera closed --> the most 1:1 transposition of sound from open to closed. You like the caldera open, you like this, as I did. Best closed HP for me (ok ok, I own one so...). Weighter sub bass with the caldera tuning is really tempting.
Bokeh open and closed --> Very lively and dynamic with a safe tuning. After all those top end stuff, I felt the level was "lower", but value wise, they score very high for sure.

Others:
Charybdis: Depends on amp. A weighter susvara with 2kHz with some forwardness in the mids, making everything snappier but sometime too much. Due to the fact that no online music was available, muse "madness" really clapped too hard on some amp, ok on others.
Austrian composer: Oki, but nothing stood out, for the good or the worse.
Abyss 1266 tc: why spend words here? Slammy and clear, but wtill a bit too honky for me, but amps and setup can save it probably.
Diana felt more ok timbre wise.
Rosson RAD: sorry, didn't like it. Too classical audeze tune, probably better but... not my taste

Overall, it was a pity that most of the setup had offline music, with almost nothing I really knew or was familiar with. So this started happening...
IMG20240512155459.jpg

What would I buy if I could pick anything from this list? The ALLNIC HPA-300B or the Headonia very likely.
 
May 15, 2024 at 9:11 PM Post #21 of 39
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May 15, 2024 at 9:12 PM Post #22 of 39
It is! We sent the green Blue Hawaii SE and ES Lab ES-1 Alpha to Zavalinka Records and the blue Blue Hawaii SE with STAX SR-X9000 to Mytek Digital
I'm glad to see the ES-1a being shown off.
It is a headphone that is seriously slept on.
 
May 15, 2024 at 10:02 PM Post #23 of 39
Thank you for the time and effort everyone has put into their impressions so far. I know I speak for many in saying it’s much appreciated! :)
 
May 16, 2024 at 4:04 AM Post #24 of 39
Thank you Dayama for the complete recap! ....
Thank you Stefano, but I only started the thread with some minor impressions.
Kudos really goes to @GREQ for his great write up (even we disagree a bit on the HD620S :wink:).
and thanks also to you for your great additions! :)
 
May 16, 2024 at 4:05 AM Post #25 of 39
May 16, 2024 at 4:17 AM Post #26 of 39
I had to use google for translation (I am an old guy). :scream:

:joy:
 
May 16, 2024 at 4:18 AM Post #27 of 39
Thank you Stefano, but I only started the thread with some minor impressions.
Kudos really goes to @GREQ for his great write up (even we disagree a bit on the HD620S :wink:).
and thanks also to you for your great additions! :)
Sure things, actually my apologies and extended thanks to @GREQ as watching this thread on mobile, with lots of pics, I lost who was actually posting what, eheh!
 
May 20, 2024 at 3:21 PM Post #28 of 39
The team around Final Audio i can only wish that they manage to make this extraordinary construct X8000👍
.....tonally much much better................ because it was much too bright and aggressive in the highs🙈
(Let's see if they can make it better to the end of the year)

NOMAX

PS.lol
 
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May 20, 2024 at 4:40 PM Post #29 of 39
I grave them the feedback that for me it was very good but the high mids (2khz range) were a bit too hot. Nice to get that direct feeling but a bit overwhelming. But they highlighted that the pads were just a temporary and they alter the sound a lot
 
May 20, 2024 at 4:45 PM Post #30 of 39
The planned model with the silicone pads wasn't ready.....'m curious whether this can work at all.....because the X8000 with the foam pads
comes Acoustically not even close to the Hadenys for only 700 euros😎
(Let me be positively surprised in the end of this year....but without additional damping material it won't really work with the silicone ear pads😉)

NOMAX

PS.But something different in terms of design and construction.... for that a 👍 from me
 
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