yeah they also make your iems sound way worse (have utsw5). I went to the Fiio stall at canjam and their iems sounded awful…

Explore iems with strong sound signatures. Explore basshead iems too.

Less and less these days, because true wireless have gotten so good. You can pickup Airpod Pro 2 (lightning) models for like 150ish on ebay used and they take the fight to most wired iems in that price range anyway

Copium.

Like you say the HD6XX hype is annoying, and its basically because they’re cheap. Same with the endless love of chifi, ‘forget Andromeda just get Blessing…’

etc etc.

It’s weird because in other areas we all admit more expensive = better, an rtx 4090 delivers a better gaming experience than a 4070. A 4k OLED TV delivers a better viewing experience than a plain 1080p LED TV.

But for some reason pervasive in audio, and on this forum in particular, is a staunch affront to the notion that more expensive headphones, or sources, are gasp, better! It’s strange as I’ve only seen this in audio. I can only surmise it’s copium to the highest degree.

I got these and gotta say I think the Elegia is way better overall for the 200-250ish it goes for atm

Exactly the same here. Did you see the DMS vid?

It really left a strange impression on me. Its one of those cases in the hobby where one headphone is clearly better, technically and tonally, there just isn’t any contest. Either dms was carried by the hype wave to such a degree that he lost objectivity or there is a more worrying reason. I think its the former, but now I take his comments with a big grain of salt personally.

DMS made a video about focal bathys hyping the tits off it and saying its better than his radiance.

As a radiance owner i am severely dissapointed ro say upon buying bathys this was total baloney.

Im not suggesting reviewers are being dodgy, but i do think they get super hyped about companies they partner with or have affiliate links with. Headphones.com is a partner for Focal for instance, making video factory tours and selling things like Clear Og which others have discontinued.

Headphones.com also consistently place focals headphoned very very highly…

Just get used to the sound signature. They are technically better IEMs and on par with something like an Aria (according to Headphones.com etc)

I agree.

I have HD6XX. The mid range is really nice. But the presentation is so narrow and intimate there is really no wow factor with this headphone.

A Focal Elegia, priced similarly, will wow far more imo, with much greater detail and soundstage, but a less Harman tuned FR.

This sub is garbage, tbh. Just demo demo demo, forget what people say and listen.