Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
The Good - Gentle, U-shaped headphones. Smooth, detailed, and well balanced overall. Solid, punchy bass. Laid back midrange. Highs are clean and detailed. Great comfort (with sheepskin pads) and build quality. Sound is very clean without weird peaks/dips or unwanted resonance. Very easy to drive even from a portable device. Scales slightly with nicer gear. Sheepskin pads are very plush and cushioning. Low distortion. Prefered at lower listening volumes. Good isolation. The Meh - Only one cable. No storage box or travel case. Sheepskin pads don't fit in driver housing ring. Average soundstage. Can sound a bit congested and flat on busy, dense tracks. Midrange is sometimes bit too laid-back and could use a boost in the lower and upper mids. Could use more sub bass impact/rumble. More transportable than portable. The Ugly - Velour pads are quite stiff. Dome of driver rubs ears with velour pads. No mic cable. Cups prone to scratches and fingerprints. Not easy to source a balanced 4-pin mini XLR (TA4F) cable. No travel case. Sibilance on 'S' and 'T' sounds for some tracks. Cymbals can sometimes be "sizzly" and too forward in the mix. Upper midrange lacking a bit in presence. Wide peaks in upper highs can sometimes add too much sharpness and edge to vocals and certain instruments. Unforgiving of poorly recorded/mastered tracks. Build, Fit, & Finish Nice color and finish. Looks appealing with how the silver lettering pops off the brushed cups. They feel premium and have a nice weight to them. They're also quite sturdy and don't feel like a toy in your hands. Sliders click into place with good resistance. Cups pivot but have slight rotation at the hinge. The headband is rather flexible overall and contours nicely over your head. The few pieces of plastic present look to be of high quality as well, but is kept to a minimum. Headband has plenty of cushioning on the bottom from end-to-end. Hand-stitched on the top with ‘Beyerdynamic’ stamped in the leather. While the headphones are hefty, the weight is well distributed across your head. The clamp is average, maybe a bit more. They are rather snug fitting but never feel like your head is under a vice. Both pads are flat. The sheepskin pads are thick, plush, and soft. They are very comfortable and my preferred choice. My ears never felt suffocated or hot with them as they have tons of room. The velour pads are thinner and rolled, have a firmer foam, don’t isolate as well, and bring the drivers closer to your ears. For me and the velour pads, my ears rub on the dome that is at the center of the driver. This just distracted and annoyed me any time I tried to use them. The cups have a notched “fitting ring” for getting the pads on. The velour pads can fit in this ring but not the sheepskin. The material is thicker and longer so unless you can wedge the material in there, they will stretch and fit over the cups themselves. They are secure but it doesn’t look as clean. Sheepskin pads also work very well for those that wear glasses as they’re very supple and have some give due to the memory foam. The cable is nice and just thick enough. The mini xlr plugs into the headphone cup with a hefty click when it locks. Cable is a good length and comes with a 6.35mm TRS adapter. Did not detect any microphonics or cable noise. Cable is pliable enough and doesn’t really kink or get coiled up. Portability & Isolation These are rather large headphones. But, they are rather snug fitting so they don’t feel loose on your head when moving about. They pretty much stay firmly in place. This also helps with their isolation as with the sheepskin pads, they don’t let much sound in or out. This was nice as I got to enjoy a lower listening volume where I thought everything sounded more balanced overall. The velour pads do feel nice. However, they don’t isolate as well as the other pads and also let more sound in. It’s enough difference to be noticeable but even with the velour pads, I would say their isolation is still above average. Easy to drive from a mobile device due to the 32-ohm drivers. I can get them rather loud with some headroom left, even on my cellphone. Cable could be a foot shorter for mobile use but is a good length for home setups. Equipment Used At work, an iFi xDSD was used via USB into my laptop running Spotify. At home, a THX AAA 789 paired to an SMSL SU-8 (balanced interconnects) connected to my phone or laptop via USB running Spotify and ripped FLAC files. Listening Preferences My taste is pretty eclectic and all over the place, but this is a rough idea of what I listened to with the 177X: https://open.spotify.com/user/jaydunndiddit/playlist/6dhI64BEeqQIdFlcodklma? . Sound
Lows - Bass extends well. A nice boost over neutral to give the lows some good punch. Bass is tight, fast, and overall very clean. These are not bassy headphones. Some may find them lacking in impact and slam. More mid bass punchiness over sub-bass rumble. Lows don’t really bleed into the mids. No cup resonance or ringing. Kick drums and guitars have good body. Mids - Mids are good. Even and flat throughout for the most part so everything sounds clear and well balanced. For some tracks, upper midrange can lack a little presence. Highs - Treble sounds clear and balanced overall. Tuned north of neutral, but not overbearingly so. There is a slight sharpness to certain sounds, and vocals can sometimes sound a little edgy. Some sibilance is present on ‘S’ and ‘T’ sounds as well as cymbals, but I really only experienced this at slightly higher listening volumes. At lower volumes, highs have enough presence to be present without being overpowering. Soundstage & Imaging The soundstage size feels average. I don’t sense a lot of depth or height. The presentation is very intimate. Instruments and voices are clear and do have some relative sense of space. Tends to sound very inside your head. Imaging and placement of instruments is good within this smallish space. Some vocals and instruments can become lost on busier, dense tracks. Quick Comparisons All observations were done single ended with the THX 789/SU-8 on a gain of 1 having the volume controlled by the DAC. I used the same playlist for each session. I volume matched to the best of my ability and tried to keep pad type and material as consistent as possible. Fostex TR-X00 Ebony (TH900 sheepskin pads) - Slightly V-shaped. Bigger bass. More impact and energy due to boost in sub bass. Lows sound more textured. Soundstage is about the same, on the small side, boxy, and intimate. The TR-X00 image just as well as the 177X. The mids and upper mids are more recessed and lack presence. Treble can get hot and tends to get sibilant more often than the 177X do. Treble has a lot of energy but maybe a bit too much. The 177X sounds smooth and more balanced by comparison. Focal Elegia (Dekoni sheepskin pads) - Neutral/bright headphones. Sounds much more effortless. A more dynamic, technical listen. Upper mids more forward and present. Soundstage sounds a bit larger, like it wants to spill outside of your head. Stage is much more 3-Dimensional as I have a greater sense of depth and height. The sense of the room/venue and its acoustics comes off well. Bass is tighter, but lacks in quantity. Drums have more snap and guitars have more bite. Horns and other brass instruments sound more textured. More neutral overall in the lows and mids. 177X is a bit warmer and laid-back by comparison, lacking in some technicalities and presence. AudioQuest NightOwl (stock protein leather) - L-Shaped. Soundstage size is about the same size but is better defined and more 3-Dimensional. A better sense of height and bit of depth. Warmer and smoother overall. A more laid-back, chill listen. Not necessarily dark, but they do lack energy and presence. Lows lack impact although they are even and well extended. What bass is present, is very tight and doesn’t encroach on the mids. Highs are soft, and lack energy and edge by comparison. An easier listen but it doesn’t feel as technical or revealing. Vocals do sound full and smooth. The 177X is much more bright and lively by comparison. Technically, superior unless you prefer a smoother, more romantic listen. Campfire Cascade (stock sheepskin) - Kind of W-shaped. The bass cannon in the group. Extends well and has a healthy bass boost in the sub and mid region. Well textured, full, and tight. Some may find it too thick but gives notes and instruments a nice weight that makes the 177X seem thin by comparison. Tonally, they are very similar. The treble here, is present but tamed. No rough edges. Notes feel as if they have more air and space. Mids are a bit more forward overall, so they don’t get lost in busier tracks and helps to cut through all the bass. Smoother and more exciting overall. Otherwise, a colored, engaging, and fun listen. Will never be mistaken for being neutral. Soundstage is bigger and has a better representation of height and depth. I think they image better as the Cascade’s can keep up on busier tracks and exhibit a higher level of dynamics in general. The Cascade satisfies my inner basshead while still having some technicalities that round them out nicely. Highs cut through and have a good bit of air for such a bassy headphone. My welcomed, guilty pleasure. My ranking by preference Elegia > Cascade > 177X > TRX00 > Nightowl Value and Conclusion Overall, I really enjoy the 177X. They’re very comfortable and I can easily wear them an entire work day without complaint. They isolate well in a work environment, and don’t leak very much at all. At lower listening volumes, I really enjoy them. They’re somewhat laid back and balanced with a boost in the bass and treble. The midrange can lack presence on some tracks, but I only tend to notice if I’m listening critically as something just sounds “missing.” It doesn’t sound awful, just not as full and energetic as I prefer without being too forward. Vocals sound good if they’re not overly sharp and “hissy.” They otherwise have a nice body and are very smooth. For the cost, I think they compete well at this range. I think a travel case or a mic’d cable would have been nice as portable seems to be in mind for these, but those are minor nuisances. The 177X is a sturdy, well built headphone that sounds and feels premium. While it may be a bit overly enthusiastic and sharp sometimes, or become edgy at higher volumes, they offer an enjoyable and pretty well balanced listen and are quite comfortable for long listening sessions. I thought they performed well with rock, jazz, electronic, and acoustic music. Rating: 4/5 Edit: URL to playlist is working now.
- something, such as a movie, television program, or piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard."
For the story I was telling, I can't think of a better term that suited my own personal feelings when it comes to bass heavy headphones.- Massdrop x Beyerdynamic DT 177X Go
- Massdrop x MrSpeakers Ether CX
- Focal Elegia
- Neumann NDH 20
TBH, I am really leaning towards the Ether CX's or the Elegia's. I can get the Elegia's for a great price right now so that's a non-factor. These two are on my list because I love my Elex's but I also love my Quad ERA-1's. In truth, I might be every so slightly partial to the planars. I'm a little leery of the DT 177X Go frequency response graphs as I've had some issues with that type of response with some types of music. The Neumann's are said to be a neutral studio monitor which intrigues me because I've always been partial to headphones that don't editorialize on the performance & the production. Not crazy about the visually for outdoor use though. Any insight you can provide would be appreciated. FTR: This sight needs a DM function!!!