phthora
Sonic Preferences:
- I enjoy many different types of sound signature, but most prefer a signature in line with the OE 2013 Harman Target Response Curve for IEMs, and the same but with a flat bass response for headphones.
- I prefer "planar bass" for its fast decay, great texture, and linearity, especially in the very low sub-bass.
- I generally prefer linearity over accentuation in the sub-bass, and I find a lack of bass extension problematic.
- I do not usually like more than a modest 2-3 decibel mid-bass hump and prefer none at all.
- I am sensitive to peaks and resonances in the 2.2 to 2.6k region, and generally I do not like more than moderately forward vocals for this reason.
- I am more tolerant than average to peaks and resonances in the 7.5 to 8.5k region. I notice sibilance, but even moderate sibilance does not bother me much.
- I enjoy extended and prominent treble, usually more than polite treble, as long as there are no sharp peaks or resonances.
- I generally prefer clarity, resolution, and driver speed over musicality and liquidity, though I still prefer a smooth tonal quality.
- I enjoy moderate to strong dynamic impact or slam, and find low macro-dynamics unsatisfying.
- Soundstage width is a low priority for me. I find imaging and instrument separation much more important.
- Currently, what I consider closest-to-neutral is the Sennheiser HD600.
- My measured listening levels are between 77 and 86 decibels, depending upon music, headphones, and mood. I would consider this moderately loud. I measure somewhat frequently and will lower the volume if it exceeds 85 db at any point.
- I often listen to music at 20 db lower than my comfort level (using the volume dimmer on my amp).
- Location
- Albuquerque, NM
- Headphone Inventory
- All headphones, IEMs, and earbuds are rated against each other and on the same scale. These ratings do not consider price, comfort, usability, or aesthetics, only sound quality. Without exception, I consider any item with a higher rating to be better than any and all items with a lower rating.
*Running balanced.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ HEADPHONES
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
★★★★★☆☆ Audeze EL-8C Titanium*
★★★★★★☆ Audeze LCD-2C 2020*
★★★★★★☆ Audeze LCD-2F Aluminum 2017*
★★★★★★★ Audeze LCD-4 Ebony 2019*
★★★★★★★ Audeze LCD-5 2021*
★★★★★★★ Audeze LCD-XC Carbon 2021*
★★★★★☆☆ Audeze SINE C
★★★★★☆☆ AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon*
★★★★★★★ Focal Clear*
★★★★★☆☆ Fostex E-MU Teak*
★★★★★★★ HiFiMan Arya v2*
★★★★★★☆ HiFiMan HE560 v2*
★★★★★★☆ JM Audio XTC^2.5 Pau Santo*
★★★★★★☆ MrSpeakers ÆON C*
★★★☆☆☆☆ Philips SHP9500
★★★☆☆☆☆ Philips SHP9500S
★★★★☆☆☆ Philips X2HR
★★★★★☆☆ Quad ERA-1*
★★★★★★☆ Sash Tres SE Zebrano*
★★★★★★★ Sennheiser HD800S*
★★★★★★☆ ZMF Atticus Camphor*
★★★★★★★ ZMF Auteur Teak*
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ IEMS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
★★★☆☆☆☆ Blon BL-03*
★★★★★☆☆ Brainwavz B400*
★★★★★★☆ Dunu DK-3001*
★★★★★★☆ Dunu Studio SA6*
★★★★★★☆ Fearless Audio S8Z
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ Geek Wold GK3
★★★☆☆☆☆ Hisenior B5+*
★★★★☆☆☆ iBasso IT01
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ KZ ATR
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ KZ ZS5
★★★☆☆☆☆ KZ ZSN
★★★☆☆☆☆ Macaw GT600s*
★★★★★☆☆ Mangird Tea*
★★★★☆☆☆ MEE Pinnacle P1*
★★★★★★☆ Moondrop S8
★★☆☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK EP10
★★★★★☆☆ Noble Savant II
★★☆☆☆☆☆ NuForce HEM6
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
★★★★★★☆ Shure SE846*
★★★☆☆☆☆ Sony MDR-XB90EX
★★★★☆☆☆ TFZ King Pro*
★★★★☆☆☆ TFZ No. 3
★★★★☆☆☆ TFZ Queen*
★★★☆☆☆☆ TFZ Series 5S
★★★★☆☆☆ Tin Audio T2*
★★★★☆☆☆ Toneking Nine Tail*
★★★★☆☆☆ Trinity Phantom Master
★★★☆☆☆☆ Truthear HOLA
★★☆☆☆☆☆ TRN V80
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ EARBUDS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
★★★☆☆☆☆ Chitty's Docomo PK2
★★☆☆☆☆☆ EARKUBE The Kube V1
★★☆☆☆☆☆ FAAEAL Snow Lotus 1.0+
★★☆☆☆☆☆ HE 150PRO
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Moondrop Nameless
★★☆☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK B40
★★★☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK B70*
★★☆☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK DIY EMX500
★★★☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK DIY MX760
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK EB200
★★☆☆☆☆☆ NiceHCK Vido Red
★★★☆☆☆☆ RY GM500 300ohm
★★☆☆☆☆☆ RY RY4S HI Cable
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ TY Hi-Z 150S*
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ VE Monk Plus
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Yincrow X6
★★★☆☆☆☆ Yincrow RW9
★★★☆☆☆☆ Y BK2
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ AUDITIONED
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
★★☆☆☆☆☆ AKG K7XX
★★★☆☆☆☆ Audeze iSine 20
★★★★★★★ Audeze LCD-3
★★★★★★★ Audeze LCD-4z
★★★★★★★ Audeze LCD-X 2017 [SOLD]
★★★★☆☆☆ AudioQuest NightHawk Carbon
★★★☆☆☆☆ Audiosense T800
★☆☆☆☆☆☆ Audio-Technica ATH-M30x
★★★☆☆☆☆ Audio-Technica MSR7
★★★☆☆☆☆ Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80Ω [SOLD]
★★★☆☆☆☆ Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium 600 ohm
★★☆☆☆☆☆ BGVP DMG
★★★☆☆☆☆ BGVP DM6
★★★★★★☆ Campfire Audio Andromeda
★★★☆☆☆☆ Campfire Audio Cascade
★★★★★☆☆ Focal Elear
★★★★★☆☆ Focal Elegia
★★★★★☆☆ Focal Elex
★★★★★★★ Focal Utopia
★★★★★★☆ Focal Stellia
★★★★☆☆☆ Fostex TH-X00 Mahogany
★★★★☆☆☆ Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart
★★★★★☆☆ Fostex TH-900 mk2
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Fostex T20RP mk3
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Fostex T40RP mk3
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Fostex T50RP mk3
★★★★★☆☆ HiFiMan Ananda
★★★★★☆☆ HiFiMan HE400i v2 [SOLD]
★★★☆☆☆☆ HiFiMan HE4XX
★★★★☆☆☆ HiFiMan HE500
★★★★★★★ HiFiMan HE1000 v2
★★★☆☆☆☆ HiFiMan Edition XS
★★★★★☆☆ HiFiMan Edition X v2
★★★★★★★ HiFiMan Susvara
★★★★☆☆☆ JH Audio Layla
★★★★★☆☆ JH Audio Roxanne
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ JVC HA-FXC51-B [GIVEN AWAY]
★★☆☆☆☆☆ JVC HA-SZ1000
★★★★☆☆☆ KZ AS10 [SOLD]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ KZ ED4 [GIVEN AWAY]
★★★★★☆☆ Koss ESP-950
★★★★★★☆ Meze Empyrean
★★★★★★☆ MrSpeakers Ether 2
★★★★★★☆ MrSpeakers Ether C
★★★★★★★ MrSpeakers Voce
★★★☆☆☆☆ Oppo PM-3 [SOLD]
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Philips Armin van Buuren
★★★☆☆☆☆ Philips Fidelio X1/28
★★★★☆☆☆ Philips Fidelio X2/27 [SOLD]
★★★★☆☆☆ Sennheiser HD 560 S
★★★☆☆☆☆ Sennheiser HD 58X
★★★★☆☆☆ Sennheiser HD 600
★★★★☆☆☆ Sennheiser HD 650
★★★★☆☆☆ Sennheiser HD 660 S
★★★★☆☆☆ Sennheiser HD 6XX
★★★★★★★ Sennheiser HD 800
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Sony MDR-1A
★★★★★★★ Stax SR-007
★★★★★★★ Stax SR-009
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Toneking TP16 32Ohm [RIP]
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Trinity Hyperion [RIP]
★★☆☆☆☆☆ Trinity Vyrus 2
★★★★★☆☆ ZMF Aeolus Sapele
★★★★★★☆ ZMF Atticus Manchurian Ash
★★★★★★★ ZMF Auteur Cocobolo
★★★★★★★ ZMF Verite O Silkwood
★★★★★★★ ZMF Verite C
- Headphone Amp Inventory
- ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ PORTABLE
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ iBasso D14 Bushmaster DAC/amp [SOLD]
➤ iBasso P5
➤ iFi Micro iDSD Black Label DAC/amp
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ DESKTOP
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ iBasso P5 + PS
➤ iFi Micro iDSD Black Label DAC/amp
➤ Violectric HPA v90
➤ Audio-gd NFB-28.38 DAC/amp [SOLD]
➤ RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE
➤ Woo Audio WA22
➤ Benchmark HPA4
- Source Inventory
- ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ DACS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Onkyo DP-X1 DAP [SOLD]
➤ Lotoo PAW Gold Touch DAP
➤ iFi Micro iDSD Black Label DAC/amp
➤ Audio-gd NFB-28.38 DAC/amp [SOLD]
➤ RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE
➤ Benchmark DAC3-B
- Cable Inventory
- ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ HEADPHONE CABLES
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Amplifier Surgery OF AgCu (XLR/2x mini-XLR) [SOLD]
➤ Audeze OCC Cu (XLR/2x mini-XLR)
➤ Cardas Clear Light Cu 10' (XLR/2x mini-XLR)
➤ Dyson Audio OF Cu (XLR/2x TS 2.5mm)
➤ Hart Audio OF Cu ([modular]/2x HD800 plugs)
➤ Hart Audio OF Cu ([modular]/2x mini-XLR)
➤ Hart Audio OF Cu ([modular]/2x TRS 3.5mm)
➤ Hart Audio OF Cu 4.5' extension cable
➤ JM Silverhead AgCu (4.4mm/2x 2.5mm)
➤ JM stock OF Cu (XLR/2x 2.5mm)
➤ MrSpeakers DUMMER OF Cu (XLR/2x MrS. plugs)
➤ Periapt Pro OF Cu (XLR/2x TRS 2.5mm) [SOLD]
➤ Philips X2 OF Cu (2x 3.5mm TRS)
➤ Ursine Audio OF Cu (XLR/2x EL-8 plugs)
➤ Venus Audio OF Cu (XLR/2x mono 2.5mm)
➤ V-Moda cable Cu (2x TRS 3.5mm)
➤ ZMF Atmos Cu (XLR/2x mini-XLR)
➤ ZMF OFC (XLR/2x mini-XLR) x2
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ IEM CABLES
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ LZ 8 Core Cryo OF Cu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x MMCX)
➤ NiceHCK 8 Core OF Cu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x MMCX)
➤ NiceHCK 16 Core OF AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x 2Pin 0.78mm)
➤ Penon CS819 OCC AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x MMCX)
➤ Tripown C8 OF AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x 2Pin 0.78mm)
➤ TRN 16 Core OF AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x 2Pin 0.75mm)
➤ Y-- 8 Core OF AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x MMCX) x2
➤ Y-- 8 Core OF AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x 2Pin) x2
➤ Y-- 16 Core OF AgCu (TRRS 2.5mm/2x MMCX) x2
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ INTERCONNECTS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ @allanmarcus DIY OF Cu (XLR to 6.3mm)
➤ Audeze adapter Cu (6.3mm to 3.5mm)
➤ ddHiFi DJ44A plug (2.5mm to 4.4mm)
➤ Fiio BL35 OCC Cu (3.5mm male to 2.5mm female)
➤ Fiio L16 OCC AgCu (3.5mm to 3.5mm)
➤ Fog City adapter OF Cu (XLR to 4.4mm)
➤ Grado adapter Cu (6.3mm to 3.5mm)
➤ Hart Audio Interconnect Multikit
➤ Hart Audio XLR interconnect
➤ Impact Audio adapter OF Cu (XLR to 6.3mm)
➤ Massdrop adapter (2.5mm TRRS to XLR)
➤ Pangea Audio SE USB (A to B)
➤ Worlds Best Cables Mogami/Neutrik (XLR) x2
➤ Youkamoo adapter AgCu (XLR to 4.4mm)
- Power-Related Components
- ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ POWER
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Furman PST-8 SMP EVS LiFT Power Conditioner x2
➤ Furman SS-6B Surge Protector Strip x2
➤ Pangea Audio AC 14SE MKII Power Cord
- Other Audio Equipment
- ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ SPEAKERS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Vanatoo Transparent Zero
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ HEADPHONE STANDS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ SilverStone EBA01B (Black Aluminum) x6
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ ISOLATION GEAR
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Gladiator 6' Maple/Steel Workbench
- Audio-Related Tweaks
- ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ EARTIPS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Auvio silicone s/m/l
➤ Azla Sedna Light black ms/m
➤ Azla Sedna Light Short m
➤ Azla Sedna Xelastec m
➤ Blon silicone s/m/l
➤ Brainwavz silicone s/m/l
➤ Comply Foams narrow s/m/l
➤ Comply Foams wide s/m/l
➤ DUNU Grays s/m/l
➤ DUNU White Rounds s/m/l
➤ DUNU WhiteWhites s/m/l
➤ DUNU BlueGrays s/m/l
➤ DUNU Blues s/m/l
➤ Fearless silicone s/m/l
➤ Geek Wold silicone s/m/l
➤ Hisenior silicone s/m/l/wide/foam
➤ iBasso black silicone s/m/l
➤ iBasso gray silicone xs/s/m/l, flat m/l
➤ iBasso foam m/l
➤ JVC Spiral Dots m/ml
➤ KZ silicone s/m/l
➤ KZ Turbo red silicone s/m/l
➤ KZ Starline s/m/l
➤ Macaw s/m/l/foam
➤ MandarinEs Symbio Wide m/l
➤ Mangird silicone s/m/l
➤ MEE Audio silicone s/m/l
➤ MEE Audio silicone double/wide double/triple flange
➤ Moondrop silicone s/m/l
➤ NiceHCK silicone s/m/l/double flange
➤ Noble red silicone s/m/l
➤ Noble blue silicone forked s/m/l
➤ Noble double flange s/m/l
➤ Noble foams s/m/l
➤ NuForce silicone s/m/l
➤ RHA Dual Density silicone m/l
➤ Shure Olives s/m/l
➤ Shure Yellow Foams
➤ Shure Grays s/m/l and triple flanges
➤ Sony Hybrid silicone xs/s/m/ml/l
➤ Sony Isolation Tips s/m/l
➤ SpinFit CP100 xs/s/m/l
➤ SpinFit CP800 m
➤ SpinFit CP155 m
➤ TFZ black silicone s/m/l
➤ TFZ white silicone narrow s/m/l
➤ TFZ white silicone wide s/m/l
➤ Tin Audio silicone s/m/l/foam
➤ Trinity Audio silicone s/m/l/double flange
➤ TRN silicone s/m/l
➤ Ultimate Ears silicone s/m/l
➤ Ultimate Ears foam m
➤ Westone STAR silicone xs/s/m/l/xl
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶︎ EARPADS
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
➤ Dekoni TH900 Sheepskin
➤ HiFiMan Focus Hybrids
➤ JM Audio Leather
➤ JM Audio Perforated Leather
➤ JM Audio Hyrbids
➤ MrSpeakers AEON Tuning Filters Kit
➤ ZMF Auteur Perforated Lambskin
➤ ZMF Eikon Perforated Lambskin
➤ ZMF Ori Lambskin
- Music Preferences
- https://rateyourmusic.com/~phthora
- Gender
- Male
- Occupation
- High School English Teacher
Signature
Out of all of my gear, what is currently getting most of my listening time is:
Benchmark DAC3-B ---> Benchmark HPA4 ---> Focal Clear OG
RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE ---> Audeze LCD-5
*Any use of the term endgame should not be construed in any way to imply or establish any binding declaration, personal or legal, to forgo purchasing new gear. Rather, the term simply suggests the personal opinion that the gear so described is very fancy and greatly enjoyed.*
Benchmark DAC3-B ---> Benchmark HPA4 ---> Focal Clear OG
RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE ---> Audeze LCD-5
*Any use of the term endgame should not be construed in any way to imply or establish any binding declaration, personal or legal, to forgo purchasing new gear. Rather, the term simply suggests the personal opinion that the gear so described is very fancy and greatly enjoyed.*
