This thread is quite shouty.

There’s a difference between being expensive or even pointless vs being snake oil.

People call audio gear like this snake oil, but I don’t think that’s quite right. When you walk into a Best Buy and they try to sell you a $200 HDMI cable with your TV, that’s snake oil. They’re selling it to average Joes who don’t know any better and think they have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on the cable to get good picture quality for the TV they just bought.

With something like Abyss/JPS cables, those are not being marketed to normal people. No one is getting ‘fooled’ by them. Those are products that are sold to people who are well acquainted with the high end audio world and are already spending many thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars on gear. And their argument is that it may improve the sound quality by maybe 2%. Is it bullshit? Probably. I have no reason to believe an expensive cable like that will do absolutely anything for the sound. But my point is that no one is being gaslit or bamboozled. It’s people who are already spending insane amounts of money, who think maybe they can squeeze out that last teeny tiny bit of performance with a super expensive cable.

If someone wants to spend their money on that, let them. But a $200 cable from Best Buy is FAR more egregious than a $3000 cable from JPS. The former is an attempt to fool you; the latter is just hardcore enthusiasts blowing their money on a hobby they love. That’s their choice. If they want to waste money on something that won’t change the sound, that’s completely up to them.

Basically, just because something is expensive and pointless doesn’t mean it’s a scam. I could go out and buy a $10,000 bottle of Scotch. Will it taste any better than a $150 bottle? No. But that doesn’t mean it’s a scam. If I choose to waste my money on that, that’s on me.

It’s funny, I’ve noticed that people who bash Abyss are generally those who have never listened to them, whereas those who have listened almost universally praise them.

I’ve never heard an Abyss product nor do I ever see myself spending that kind of money on any headphone, but I do find it interesting to see the disparity in opinion between those who have actually tried the products vs those who haven’t. The anti-Abyss thing really does seem to be a bandwagon.

Here.

Those are my ratings of my 17 headphones/IEMs, arranged by chronological purchase order.

• Most impressive sound: Focal Elegia
• Most enjoyable sound: Grado Hemp
• Overall favourite headphone: Senn 6XX
• If I had to keep only one: AirPods Pro 2 (due to all the convenience factors)

Out of curiosity, did one of them say Made In Austria?

AKG moved production from Austria to China a while back. I believe the K702 changed both in terms of the earpads and the headband changed from having ‘bumps’ to just being a piece of leather. And the price dropped around that time, as well.

All of the headphone prices there are really low. They’re far lower than anything I see here in Canada.

I’m curious, when you heard the Elegia, how did you find they compared to the Clear?

Apparently Focal’s original goal with the Elegia was to try to create a closed back Clear, but while people seem to like the Elegia, I get the impression it’s fairly different from the Clear.

I haven’t personally heard them, but I’ve been doing a ton of research on that very question lately.

The impression I’ve gotten from all the reviews I’ve read and YouTube videos I’ve watched (including sound comparisons) seems to come down to this:

The Celestee is more balanced and well-rounded, but the Elegia is more interesting and more exciting.

If you just want one all-purpose headphone, the Celestee is a better bet. But if you already have a headphone collection and want something interesting and exciting to add, the Elegia is a better option. It’s more polarizing, in that some people absolutely love it, while others feel it has some strangeness in the upper bass and mids (which can be fixed via EQ and/or a pad swap).

Basically, the Elegia is a more interesting headphone, whereas the Celestee is a safer option that’s more of a crowdpleaser, but may come across as a bit boring to some.

I should stress that that’s not my personal opinion, as I haven’t heard either, but I’ve done hours and hours of research over the last few days, leading me to place an order for the Elegia earlier today.

Between this, the Elegia for $299 at Adorama, and the Clear OG for $839 at headphones.com, it seems like there have been some good deals on Focal lately.

Does Sennheiser have a single planar in their lineup?

That’s gotta be something they’re working on, doesn’t it?

Perhaps we’ll see a planar-based HD 900 at some point?

Who knows. Their plans are especially ambiguous ever since they were acquired. We have no idea what the audiophile ambitions are now that they’re owned by a hearing aid company.

> Sound is good but I‘m not blown away

I think this is a pretty typical response.

What you may find interesting is in 5 years from now after you’ve purchased many more expensive headphones, you’ll still find yourself frequently reaching for the 6XX.

I’ve made this comparison before, but the 6XX are like the Honda Civic of the audiophile world. There’s nothing flashy or exotic about them, but they’re just a really good product. They sound good, they’re well built, they’re deceptively comfortable, and they’re reliable and enjoyable.

You can find headphones with more detail and deeper bass and more exotic build materials and much wider soundstages. And yet even audiophiles with virtually unlimited budgets tend to love the 600/650/6XX and keep one in their collection.

Driving a Corvette and a Ferrari and a Bugatti can be a ton of fun. But sometimes you just want a Honda Civic in your driveway.

$5700!?

That’s in Susvara territory. Good luck.

Edit: I just saw this sentence:

> An optional XLR cable (the HXC-SC020) which doesn’t come bundled in will meanwhile set you back a hefty $900 / £749 / AU$1350.

lol.

I love the AirPods Max as a product.

Here’s a brief review I wrote elsewhere:

——————

Apple AirPods Max: These are both overrated and underrated at the same time. On one hand, you have non-audiophiles who may believe these are some of the best sounding headphones around, due to their price tag and the fact that Apple makes them. But then on the other hand, you have people people trying to write them off as merely a gimmick from a consumer tech company. Both of those views are wrong. Can you find better sounding headphones for $550? Absolutely. If your one and only concern is sound quality, there are better options out there. But these are absolutely audiophile grade headphones. They sound excellent. The sub-bass is the real star. It’s powerful and very present without feeling bloated. The bass is good, the mids and highs are decent, and the soundstage is pretty good for a closed back. I find the instrument separation is quite good and the dynamics are excellent, although the detail retrieval is merely okay. The best way I can describe it is that in a multilayered track, you can hear every note, but some of those notes may not have the kind of texture you’d hope for in this price range. The way I’d put it is that the detail is good but the microdetail is merely okay.

Of course, that entire description is missing half the puzzle. Aside from sounding good, the APM are wireless, they’re fantastically built, they have the best noise cancellation and transparency modes in the industry, they’re comfortable, and they have all sorts of other great features like ear detection, auto-switching, spatial audio and so on, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. So if you think about these as a $550 audiophile headphone, there are better options out there. But if you think of these as a $300 audiophile headphone with $250 in awesome and highly useful smart features and convenience factors, these things are incredible. I highly recommend them to anyone in the Apple ecosystem who has the budget.

——————

Of the ~13 or so mid-fi headphones I own, the AirPods Max are easily in the top 5 for sound quality. For example, I’d put them ahead of my M50, SR60, and A900, but behind my 6XX, Grado Hemp, and K702.

And in terms of actual usage, the AirPods Max might spend more time on my head than any other headphone I own. Convenience really matters. 7.5/10 sound with great convenience factors beats 8.5/10 sound without.

I just received a K702 this week and I’m playing it off my L30 gen 1 (post-recall) and using a Xonar sound card as my DAC.

So far, I’m loving it. I was going to post my own mini-review, but I’m liking this sound a lot. Perhaps it’s sharper than the headphones I usually use (Senn 6XX, Grado Hemp, AirPods Max, Denon D750, the Koss lot, and a few others), but I don’t find them too sharp or harsh at all. They’re very detailed with an impressive soundstage. I’m really enjoying the K702.

I just played that on my phone and my cats freaked out.