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Showing 1 of 9 reviews about:
Fayne
2603
Jan 23, 2021
checkVerified Buyer
Uncomfortable. Ugly. Poor fitting.
This is day zero impressions. Zero burn in.
My signal path at time of testing is Roon -> Ropieee on Rpi4 -> Airist R-2R -> Yaqin SD-CD2 buffer with WE403B tubes -> ZDR Jr. with Voskhod 6Ж1П-ЕВ input and Zaerix ECC89 power (probably Tesla manufactured, definitely not Russian or Brit) using the high Ω socket. I'm using the stock cable as the amp I'm testing with is single ended.
These are uncomfortae at best, painful at worst. They press in a very not cool spot on my skull. The headband padding is a joke, and I'm not sure Dekoni nuggets can fix that. The earpads are complete garbage ugly fuzzy abominations. I get just barely enough seal against the sides of my head when extending the headband to the maximum size.
Sound wise? Surprisingly not horrible for the price. Not accurate, not tuned towards any of the worthy targets, but fairly pleasant. Very fat bottom with nice sub-bass. Mids and treble feel a bit recessed. Female vocalists and classical these are not made for. EDM and classic rock though? Almost worth the cost if they weren't so bloody uncomfortable. They are playing rather nice with pure tube amp, which is good.
I'll definitely have to leave these playing Opeth Blackwater Park on repeat while I sleep. Seems to work all the tightness out of all the cans and IEMs that have gotten the treatment.
My initial feel on these is that you should buy something else unless you plan on doing heavy modifications. The HE-35x for example is cheaper, more comfortable, and sounds better out of the box.
Same day edit:
Switched to using my xDuoo TA-03s (with JJ ECC802s for voltage/gain and 6С19П-BP for drivers) for a bit of OTL amplification. Tightened up the bass, but it is still pretty excessive. Treble is still somewhat recessed, at least compared to how overpowering the bass is. I also stopped trying to serious listen and did the TV and Movie thing. These cans actually sound pretty great for action movies and the likes. If their target sound was cheap full range speaker from the 70s, they definitely nailed it.
They are still incredibly uncomfortable. They need 3-4x the padding they ship with, and the headband needs to be about an inch longer and bent with a sharper angle inwards inwards to allow the cups in yokes further freedom to conform to big heads. I absolutely hate the feel of the hair magnet earpads and have already ordered a set of Brainwavz sheepskin that should fit. My causal inspection has shown this set does NOT have the earpads glued in place.
I've also learned that they will happily eat long hair when being taken off, and painfully so. My Meze 99s eat hair via compression, these eat it via sharp upwardly bent metal star style lock washers holding the post to the yoke. I'm not sure which I hate more, but these are definitely learning towards being the winner of rage. Not cool that, but totally in line with the absolute shit level of fit and finish.
Same day edit 2:
Forgot to mention the cable and case. Out of all the crap and rage I throw at these cans, the most basic accessories they come with are surprising in the price bracket.
The cable is ultra basic 3.5mm TRS to 3.5mm TRS*2. The connectors are the standard high quality generic chinese stuff you see all over the place, not bad, not amazing, but easily repaired. The wire feels like 26gauge and just a simple pair of conductors per channel. I'll have to hit it up with my multimeter to get resistance and capacitance reading and map out the wiring some time. They used a very simple twist braid which leaves the cable supple and the nylon wrap they used is smooth feeling against the skin. Most importantly it is NOT microphonic. No noise is heard in the cans when running ones nails down the cable or smacking it against surfaces. Cheap, but surprisingly better than a lot of stock cables. My only complaint is the length, it could easily take another metre, but if you're sitting within metre of your amp, it is more than enough.
The case is a generic nylon cloth covered plastic thing with a double zipper. It fits the cans fairly well, but leaves a bunch of empty space for them to rattle around a bit. Totally not horrible, but like everything past the drivers/earcups/cable it feels like an afterthought. I'm not complaining about it at all as it'd be easily modified to provide better protection with some glue, foam, and felt cloth.
Same day edit 3:
These things make metal on metal noise when I move my jaw. Like noshing on pizza and all I hear is clink clink clink of the yoke hitting the metal cup. Am going to have to slap a small bit of kapton in there.
Last Edit; Day 2:
Reducing score from two stars to one. One of the yokes fell off the stupid post, dropping the earcup to the ground. The bloody screw came undone. Instead of using lock-tite, they used a shitty star style lock-washer of the wrong size. So, while I was trying to figure out why the cans had so much distortion when moved a bit that happened... then I saw why these things distort so much. Pull the pads off and lightly blow (and I do mean light), you'll see the bloody driver flap about like a jellyfish in a wave-pool. I checked the other side to be sure it wasn't a fluke, and it was consistent. Plus it turns out at least one of the screws holding one of the driver assembly in place to the ear-cup was just press-fit, barely holding in place. The screw hole was drilled wrong so the threads didn't bite.
These go straight into the garbage pile. The first and very much so last BLON product I'll be wasting my money on.
TL; DR:
Do yourself a favour and buy something else. These cans are shit. Their design is shit. Their construction is shit. Their components are shit. They're heavy and uncomfortable, requiring more than they cost in modification parts to be viable, and even then they'll be shit. They sound like the absolute trashiest and cheapest of the cheap full range range speakers you could buy from Rat Shack in the 70s and 80s (you know, the ones your idiot friends inadvertently purchased while thinking biggest driver bestest driver).
Bugger that noise.
(Edited)
Recommends this product? No
ItsJustChase
0
Jan 23, 2021
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FayneRandom comment here but I noticed you mentioned opeth, what headphones do you use for metal? Thats what I mainly listen to so I always like to ask people with the same interests what they use.
Fayne
2603
Jan 23, 2021
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ItsJustChasePlanar magnetic is my go-to for metal. HE4xx, T60RP, Aeon 2 Closed, HE5xx, Panda, T50RP, etc. I like the tightness of the response as well as the level of detail that most dynamic cans can't compete with. Fairly similar to what I do for electronica. Jean-Michele Jarre and Tangerine Dream demand cans with enough detail to hear all of the happy sounds floating in and out of the tunes.
Mind you, if I'm already using something like my Elex or T1.2 and get a hankering for something like Fear Factory or Sepultura, I'm not likely to swap cans. If I'm sitting down for the express purpose of serious listening to something though, I will absolutely grab the cans that work best with the music... and also likely use the amp that pairs best with the cans and music as well. I'm generally not a big fan of doing equalization (I likes my Roon signal path icon to stay the proper lossless shade) so I have somewhere between 6 and 11 amps on my desk at any given time, cycling out amps with stuff I keep on a shelf in another room depending on sound mood of the month.
ItsJustChase
0
Jan 24, 2021
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FayneDamn man, Id say youre into it a lot further than I am. I have a THX 887 with a S.M.S.L. SU8 V2 DAC. Headphones I mainly use for metal are the HD650s and 58x. Recently got the fostex t20rp and those are pretty fun for metal. My first planar headphones (other than the linsoul P1 but thats an IEM, good for metal as well) I have been thinking ahout the HE4xx for my next try, I like warm sound signatures because most metal isnt mixed as great sadly..the treble gets to me so thanks for the list of other cans. I would like the focal elex but money is tough at the moment
Fayne
2603
Jan 24, 2021
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ItsJustChaseOh, I wouldn't recommend the Elex anyways. They're amazing sounding cans, but the failure rate is stupid. I'm still a bit salty about my set experiencing a driver failure in under a year with less than 150 hours of gentle use on them. Drop replaced them, but now I'm worried they'll die again.
The HE4xx is pretty great bang for buck, but the headband on the it is painfully tight without bending and modification. The 4xx is also fairly compatible with a bunch off tube amps. The HE5xx is also pretty great bang for buck, but still has that same headband, though instead of being too tight it is too loose without bending and modification. Plus to get the most out of the 5xx you have to pop em apart and do a bluetack mod to fix the ear side seal on the driver and restore the sub-bass and mid bass detail. 5xx is kinda poor performer on anything but solid state.
I rather like the Fostex RP series, they're quite possibly the easiest modded cans on the market. My biggest complaint with them is that the headphone socket is prone to failure. I found the open back versions to be too airy when I tried them, ended up sticking with the semi-closed. The T60RP variant comes based off of the semi-closed T50RP and sound wonderful with its wooden earcups and balanced wiring. Only complaint there is the wood rubbing against plastic makes a godawful squeaking noise.
Yeah, I can't take sibilance (or crazy treble), it makes my head feel like it is going to pop, and I really don't like that feeling.
ItsJustChase
0
Jan 24, 2021
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FayneShame to hear about your experience with the elex, I think Ill stay away from them if that is the case. If i would get another fostex it would be the t60, ordered the Modhouse Argons and waited 12 weeks only to sadly be overwhelmed with its treble.. really upset that they didnt work out for me.. took a chance at the T20rp and thankfully enjoyed them.
I like the look of the HE5xx but heard it was more sibilant than the HE4xx so If I'm going for either one its probably going to be the HE4xx.
Thanks again for the reply and info on the cans, would be cool to talk about music with you sometime. I listen to a vast variety of metal genres and some regular stuff as well.
Dmac6419
194
Jan 24, 2021
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FayneI would go with the Blon over the R2R,just a bad bad bad dac,son let me give you some advice stop throwing your money 💰 away
Fayne
2603
Jan 24, 2021
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Dmac6419Oh, I totally don’t use the Airist because it is good, I use it for the mostly analog sound style. All them bits falling off the crappy stolen ladder design used by the contractor of the contractor of Drop. I’d prefer to use the happy warm Burr-Brown in my TEAC UD-501, but that fucker eats too much desk space so it tends to live with my Freya+ feeding my Ragnarok 2, Prologue 5, and MC-6P1P. I could totally use my M500, DX7s, or SDAC-B too, but meh, I usually save them for when I’m driving my balanced amps (usually the M500). ;)
Truthfully, most of the time I’m using my amps, they’re getting their signal from a Behringer XR-18, and that bugger is hard locked at 48khz. I only turn on one of the DAC when I’m using Roon.
(Edited)
TonyLeung
51
Jan 27, 2021
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FayneNope, not true, the quality of this R2R is just bad, copied design or not. Even a $99 DAC sounds, clearly better. Nothing they promised was true. No spacious soundstage, no analog feeling. Just a mudded low resolution sound. It started as a lie and ended as a lie on your desk. (Yes, I own one > _ <)
Fayne
2603
Jan 27, 2021
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TonyLeungFor sure, if you're running it through a nice solid state amp it really sucks. Pair it with the THX789 and you get to hear all the crap. Pops when bits end up in the wrong rung of the ladder and such. Paired with pure single-ended tube amp a lot of its flaws are hidden by the inherent distortion of the tube.
Amir really unloaded on it in his review, too, and rightly so. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/massdrop-airist-r2r-dac-review.9565/
At some point I will own a Gungir Multibit. As much as I drool over a Yggy2, I absolutely can't justify the price even if I was planning on pairing it with my Freya+ and Rag2.
postwarscars
1368
Jan 28, 2021
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ItsJustChaseWhat if I was able to tell when someone was making a joke?
Fayne
2603
Jan 28, 2021
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postwarscarsI liked the accessories more than the bloody cans. x_X
TonyLeung
51
Jan 29, 2021
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FayneHaha, I read the review you recommend. We both mentioned a $99 DAC, LOL. I really want to taste the old school hifi listening experience. Definitely I didn't read the review before buying. Actually I already own a RME dac, which was ultra accurate, but I listen sometimes to something moody or smooth-out relaxation music... I have the BLON-03 and it was the best* IEM I have, but it more by chance, than designed on purpose. the BLON-01 was just an normal sounding iem, which misses all the sound stage magic 03 had. Oh, btw I of course tried hooking up the R2R to my DarkVoice 336se with different tubes, but it didn't add or change anything they promised, that's why I was disappointed with this R2R dac. *Read my bio if you want to know my setup.
(Edited)
DepthCharge
75
Feb 8, 2021
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Dmac6419Sure, but you can EQ anything to make it sound good so long as it's just poorly tuned. These seem to have a lot of other issues than just bad tuning.
Fayne
2603
Feb 8, 2021
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Dmac6419That does look nice. When I initially got the cans I thought about pulling the headband and yoke assembly from one of my HiFiMan sets, but after listening to the BL-30 I decided I like all of my HiFiMan cans better than these abominations. Even the HE35x. They can just sit in the garbage can pile until I get really bored.
Dmac6419
194
Feb 8, 2021
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FaynePaid like $40 at Adorama for the headband,now they fit like they're supposed too.
Dmac6419
194
Feb 8, 2021
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Faynehifiman headband for v560v2
https://www.adorama.com/hmhb560.html
Wrong headband in image,it's the one in my picture.
TalonOneOne
10
Oct 6, 2021
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FayneBUT Did you dieeeeeeee? LOL (Kiddin')
Thanks for the heads up
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