Good. Requires some proper EQ-ing to truly shine, but good.
I received mine yesterday and immediately switched out the stock pads for the Dekoni Elite Hybrids, followed by setting my EQ by @Daniel_Lagoe in this review section. A/B-ing with and without EQ, songs in every genre opened up, instantly became so much more enjoyable. After EQ-ing, sounds come out clear and beautiful, bass strong, vocals clear. Prior to EQ, the tuning was just simply not enjoyable.
This headset has amazing hardware, but truly requires proper EQ to shine.
Soundstage is wide and beautiful and as per Daniel_Lagoe's recommendation, Dreams of Arrakis from the Dune soundtrack actually managed elicited a sense of fear in me. Closing my eyes, i felt like i was transported back into the IMAX theatre where i first saw the movie. It was quite the experience.
Playing R6 with a soundstage this wide, i was able to pinpoint where my enemies were way more clearly than before on a Fidelio X2HR. It definitely deserves being in the 8-- series of Sennheiser headphones.
It indeed sounds horrible and not worth the $1100 stock out of the box, but EQ-ing is definitely worth the hassle and i'd still recommend buying the HD8xx with an aftermarket balanced cable for amazing value.
Again, shoutout to @Daniel_Lagoe for the amazing recommended EQ settings. I really really enjoyed the headphones after.
DAC/Amp combo: Schiit Modius + Magnius.
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Also, 444 is as unlucky as a number you can get as an asian person. It do be like that sometimes.
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And just to piss some of yall off, a janky headphone stand made from the dac/amp combo:
JakeCWThing is, your ears, his ears, and Oluv’s ears are all different and will physically act as unique EQ filters.
I recently started consulting for grell audio as community manager (currently still Sennheiser community manager too on Head-Fi), and I learned about Sonarworks “SoundID” app. This is similar to something Sennheiser had in their CapTune app a few years back: sound ID creates a personalized, parametric EQ based on a quiz you answer while listening to your headphones and music, and by the end of the quiz it generates a personalized EQ setting. The TWS/1 is able to store the personalized EQ inside the Bluetooth earpieces so the profile is used with any source, but at least the app is free and you can see and hear the difference with any headphone; you should try it!
https://www.sonarworks.com/soundid