Really? I'm not a fanboy of Valour (have never upvoted any of his videos), and find a lot of problems with most headphone reviewers on YT. However, it is specifically labeled as a first impressions video. And people have been dying in this thread for others to share their first impressions...

Here's a review from someone in music production. Listening comments for both pads

Post Christmas sales retail price. It was down around $150 not long ago. From the camel

He lost my interest when he started battling about the Motu M series not being good with low impedance headphones, while not once discussing sensitivity of the headphones. Julian Krause's measurement show the M2 has an extremely low output impedance, and very low distortion at 32 ohms. He...

It doesn't seem like from your comments you understand much at all about mixing and mastering. Well, that's a problematic goal as stated. They would have to have the same studio setup. And then they would have to train on listening with that setup. So it's not something you can state as fact...

Actually, the markets are quite different between audiophiles and people doing a lot of mixing and mastering. Audiophiles are looking for that next new nirvana listening experience. Convince them they're going to get it, and they'll buy your new headphone. People with a lot of experience...

I found a smaller case. The Geekria UltraShell on Amazon is just the right size for them when they are folded up.

Did you ever have any luck finding a good compact case for when the K361/K371 are folded up? I'm getting ready to go on a month-long trip, and I'd like them in as smaller case as possible in my backpack.

I agree. If a headphone sounds harsh on the THX 789, it's the headphone that sounds harsh, not the amp. And EQ is a great way to tame that.

You are asking if the guy on YouTube who only has one video on his channel is a reliable source of information??? Here is a very good reviewer for you to watch

I keep my glasses on the table. Otherwise, I end up spilling the whiskey on my head! :beyersmile:

How bad were the withdrawal symptoms? :beyersmile:

20hz to 20khz has long been the specification standard for equipment. What manufacturers put on their spec sheet. But some equipment does perform much lower and much higher than that. That being said, I have no idea what YouTube does.

They will bass it up a bit. I think you'll be in for a treat :)

Just to note that harmonic distortion is not the only bass distortion. Sundara and Ananda's sub bass group delay was off the charts in ASR's review.

Yes. It will be interesting to see if they have extremely low bass distortion profiles at high SPL like the HE-560 V4 or the (even better) HE6 SE. Or if they are more like the Ananda without as much headroom for bass EQ boost.

Ummm....no...that is not necessarily reality. There are factors for which a more powerful amp might be necessary. But seems like all the people saying "yes they need a more powerful amp" are not considering when that would be. Heck, one of them saying the Atom is not powerful enough didn't...

The E17 is it pretty old model. It could be related to power output. I think Fiio rated at 200mw at 32 ohms. But it could be a current limited amp and perform worse at lower impedance. And it could be it has some audible noise and distortion, which the DX3 Pro+ does not have.

Which the Atom can do.

There's a lot of snake oil in this hobby. And one of the myths is that more power is always better. If a headphone can reach your preferred listening volume, such that dynamic peaks are not distorted, then additional power doesn't do anything. If you were not getting enough power such that...

Unless Hifiman is grossly exaggerating how sensitive they are, that is nonsense. The Atom will easily power them louder than you will want to listen.

You forgot to mention "properly volume leveled." Most DAC units tend to differ from each other slightly in voltage output. So two DACs which should sound the same, will sound different if simply switched back and forth between a headphone amp, if they haven't been volume leveled.

It's against the Head-Fi rules for us to explain why to you. If you really want to know, go to the Sound Science forum on Head-Fi and ask these questions, where that kind of discussion is allowed. Or Audio Science Review forum.

First, I think it's better to differentiate between the influence of perceptual biases, and a false claim. I'm hesitant to lump them together. Meanwhile, if he was using a HIDISZ dongle, perhaps it was underpowered and distortion of dynamic peaks was emphasizing the sibilance.

I think it has more to do with the reviewers who are saying that they're not much different from DT 770, DT 880, and DT 990.