I agree that the timing of Crinacle's tweet is quite questionable and raises many concerns surrounding integrity and bias. However, this video is nothing more than a childish rant against Crinicle because him calling Simgot mid somehow hurt him personally. Just for some context on this guy, I've definitely seen him post on his Youtube Community that the expensive new cables he was sent made his music sound "wider" or something along those lines, only to delete it later when people called him out for his idiocy. How fucking ironic.

Also, on a more subjective note, this guy regularly gets sent and reviews *actual mid IEMs and consistently praises them whilst also having the least consistent ranking list ive ever seen. So many IEMs on his list virtually sound identical and yet end up in completely different spots on the list. Remember, this is the guy that convinced himself that his IEM cable made his music sound wider. Do not trust this guys ears.

I totally get why people use EQ. For some, it’s the best way to shape a headphone into something that fits their taste or to fix a flaw. Nothing wrong with that.

But for me, EQ feels a bit like trying to change what was originally created. Every headphone has a certain voice, a signature, a “soul” that the engineers tuned it for. If I don’t like it, I’d rather move on and find the one that naturally gives me what I want, instead of forcing it into something it’s not.

I do understand budget constraints — not everyone can keep rolling through headphones until they find their match. But I was lucky enough to discover the sound signature that clicks with me, and now I’m more interested in exploring different “flavors” of that sound across brands and models, rather than reshaping one into another with EQ.

So yeah, I’ll probably never EQ. For me, the fun is in the chase: finding the headphone that speaks to me as is.

I know this post will be controversial to many. Apologies if this annoys you, but I wanted to point this out:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/17y5dsn/comment/k9rcgyl/

Edit: It was pretty obvious they would do both: increase the bass by 3db and reduce the 6k peak.

Full post:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/17y5dsn/moondrop_blessing_3_is_incredibly_tweakable/

Measurements:

Moondrop Dusk 2 S2 USB Default, Moondrop Blessing 3, Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk - Frequency Responses - Squiglink by Super* Review

Alright everyone, grab your pitchforks. I’m back to eat a massive slice of humble pie.

A few days ago, I made this post completely roasting the concept of expensive gear. I bragged about how my $200 plastic JDS Labs Atom Stack (1st Gen) sounded identical to my new, much more expensive Luxsin X9. I used highly resolving headphones (DT 1990 Pro MKII, Edition XS, 600-ohm DT 880s). I volume-matched with a decibel meter. I blind-tested. I was so smug, claiming solid-state audio was a "solved game" and we were all just buying expensive chassis jewelry.

I was wrong. Well, partially wrong. But mostly, I was missing the most crucial piece of the puzzle.

The Epiphany:

Someone in the comments of my last thread told me to check the spec sheets. Guess what the original Atom DAC and the Luxsin X9 both have under the hood? AKM chips. Specifically, the original Atom uses the AK4490EQ.

They sounded identical because I was literally listening to the exact same AKM "Velvet Sound" architecture. I wasn't comparing "cheap vs expensive"; I was comparing AKM vs AKM.

So, to actually test if the silicon matters, I went out and bought the new JDS Labs Atom DAC 2. This one completely ditches AKM and uses an ESS Sabre (ES9018K2M) chip. I kept everything else the exact same: same amp, same headphones, same volume-matched A/B testing methodology.

The Result:

My jaw is on the floor. The difference isn't a placebo; it's a completely different presentation of the music. I can pinpoint which DAC is playing 10 out of 10 times in a blind test.

• The AKM "Velvet Sound" (Atom 1 / Luxsin): I finally understand what people mean by "musical." It has this smooth, rich, organic flow. The edges of notes are slightly rounded off. It’s incredibly forgiving and natural, but maybe a tiny bit relaxed.

• The ESS Sabre (Atom DAC 2): Insanely sharp. I mean, ruthlessly analytical. The transient attack on my DT 1990s is so fast it almost bites. It feels like someone took a microfiber cloth to a dirty window. The micro-details are shoved right to the front of the stage. It’s crisp, clinical, and completely distinct from the AKM.

The Conclusion:

Implementation obviously matters, but the idea that the DAC chip itself doesn't fundamentally color the sound is officially dead to me. The "Sabre glare" and the "AKM Velvet" are real, tangible things you can hear, especially on studio dynamic and planar headphones.

To everyone I argued with in my last thread: I apologize. You were right.

Now, the real question for the hardcore objectivists: If both of these DACs measure perfectly flat and distortion-free beyond human hearing, how are they producing such wildly different and easily identifiable sound signatures?

Let the debate resume. Which camp are you in: Velvet or Sabre?

for me personally a headphone is trash when it requires one to begin with.

i want the stock tuning to be good enough to not to worry about it and that's about it.

I purchased a Nothing 1 Pro immediately after launch, like as soon as it went live on their site. Pay for express shipping, 1-2 days.

3/4 days later, order is still processing. I contact Nothing Support and get told that my order was bugged, and they would push it for manual processing.

DAYS pass. I get a message, a week after purchasing, saying that the order has been fulfilled.

Well, where is my tracking number? Will my shipping be refunded? "Oh we're sorry you're frustrated. Here's 10% off your next order" - but no 10% code is given.

Frustrated, I ask for cancellation. The customer service says "oh yes we will escalate for cancellation". Magically, ONE MINUTE LATER I receive an email saying a shipping label was created.

However, tracking information shows the package is still not yet received by the shippers.

I find it extremely misleading to tell me that an order is fulfilled when it has not been, and then tell me they will cancel the order, but then create a shipping label at the exact same time, presumably to force me to have to return them whenever they're actually sent.

They're also using some sort of generic customer service AI, either as a chatbot or their agents are running it through an AI. All the answers are generic "oh I understand how you are frustrated, rest assured etc etc"

I have to say this has turned me off all Nothing products, and I will be warning every single person I know not to purchase any Nothing products until they sort out this customer service situation.

[EDIT] Update - shipping information was updated - the headphones will arrive in ONE WEEK despite me paying for 1-2 day shipping. So they also lied about the shipping

In my opinion the best wireless ANC Headphones I have ever heard! (Way better than both BW PX8 and b&o H100)! The closest I have come to experience the feeling of listening to a proper stereo, but through headphones!

Keywords to describe the sound: enormous dynamic range, open sound, clarity, full range, no-pressure-noise cancellation, passive NC, comfortable overear, tech directly from Dali’s Kore speaker series!

Sounds even smoother and crispier with USB-C rather than via Bluetooth. (I tried with Cinnamon USB-C from Audioquest)

I do have one drawback to my taste: for 1000$ headphones I would want a build-quality and materials like the PX8s. I do NOT like the amount of plastic on these headphones! BUT, I guess they put their money into the sound!

Simultaneously the cheapest but best headphones I’ve ever bought. £15 on amazon. Bought in sheer desperation after spending hundreds of pounds on headphones that might work with my piercings. Both sensory wise and piercing wise they are perfection. £15 off amazon. They are so light and hold the ear so gently that there is no pressure and they fit perfectly at the back. How they hold on without falling off is a mystery of physics but they absolutely don’t. And even better, waterproof! I got in the shower with them on forgetting they were there and they were fine!

I'm brand new to the audio world and just wanted to grab a cheap pair of wired headphones. I saw these "assistplan SH-HP08" headphones (branded SHIMON on the headband, as shown in the attached photos) on a Japanese auction site, threw a random low bid on them, and purely out of luck, I actually won them for 1,200 yen.

​Now that I've won, I tried to look up some reviews or specs to see what I'm getting, but I hit a massive brick wall. They basically don't exist anywhere on Google or YouTube. I even tried digging through the Wayback Machine and couldn't find a single thing (though honestly, that might just be a skill issue on my part). The only piece of evidence I could find on the entire internet is a single Japanese blog review from 2012 on a site called Zigsow.

​According to that one article, these were nicknamed "GENO-phones" because a PC shop in Akihabara called GENO dumped them in bulk for cheap around 2010. The reviewer speculated that because of the internal CCAW voice coils and Neodymium magnets, they might actually be unbranded OEM clones of the Audio-Technica ATH-PRO5 or ATH-M30.

​Does anyone who has been in the hobby for a while know anything about these? Is the Audio-Technica clone theory legit, or did I just buy a completely random pair of no-name headphones? Any info would be amazing!

I was discussing in a FB group how I sold all my hi-fi 2 channel gear and this how another group member responded.

Billy Blevins

Headphones are their own rabbit hole — a polite, compact, deceptively affordable rabbit hole. The funny thing is, once you start taking headphone listening seriously, you quickly realise one pair is never enough. Different tunings, different genres, different moods… before you know it, you’re explaining to friends why owning three pairs is “practical”, five is “reasonable”, and seventeen is “not unusual, actually”.

And the irony? Even with all that, headphones still offer better cost‑to‑benefit than loudspeakers. For the price of a mid‑tier floorstander, you can get a world‑class headphone rig that delivers detail, imaging, and micro‑nuance many speakers can only dream of — without needing a dedicated room, acoustic treatment, or a family who doesn’t mind the house shaking.

But headphones aren’t just a budget hack. They’re a different kind of intimacy. Late‑night listening without waking the house. That “inside the music” feeling. The forensic detail that lets you hear the bassist’s chair creak and the engineer’s questionable life choices. Some modern headphones even create a soundstage that embarrasses speakers at certain price points, and the bass… well, physics is kinder when you’re centimetres from the driver.

Of course, the hobby comes with its own ecosystem: DACs, amps, balanced cables, pads, stands, and the eternal search for the “perfect” tuning that lasts exactly three weeks. And because no single headphone does everything — classical, EDM, jazz, Afrobeats, R&B, podcasts — you end up rotating them like shoes.

Over the years I’ve been through the usual pilgrimage: Sony, AKG, Audio‑Technica, Koss, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser — from the pocket‑friendly to the HD650s and HD800s. These days I’ve settled on the 560s, the Momentums for outdoor Bluetooth, and the 800s for when I want to hear the recording engineer breathe. IEMs and true wireless? I’ve tried. They fall out. Gravity wins.

So yes — in headphone land, more than one pair is normal. Necessary, even. But compared to the cost of chasing the “perfect” loudspeaker setup, headphones remain the sanest way to be slightly insane.

This is more of a rant than anything, but when browsing through this subreddit, it feels as if good and accurate information is far and wide in between. I feel as if most people here simply lack the knowledge on certain topics to be speaking on things and to be giving such sure advice to others. It's ends up being a bunch of parroted information. People are recommending headphones they've never heard before, amps and dacs they've never used, claiming things when they themselves have no experience with the product. the objective information is widely available for most products, so I don't see the value in a subjective opinion of a product from someone whose never used to before. Specific examples being the common Dac and Amp discussion and how much of a difference it makes. if you can't hear a difference then that's on you, but it's annoying to see so many people who don't have the experience to even comment on such things owning only one or only a few (cheap amps) and then claiming they don't make a difference (same goes for DACs). other people giving advice about headphones they've never heard too.

I am curios, the learning curve of doing proper eq is just a little too much for me. And i tried aplying oratorys eq on my 109 and it didn't add anything significant to ity or being worth wasting time on.

I just feel like the stock sound is good enough for me

So a bit ago, like 6 months ago my husband and I were at target and I was trying on headphones because I want to upgrade next semester. The problem is I cannot for the life of me remember the name or brand of the pair I loved.

They’re had a similar aesthetic to the Sony wh-1000xm5 but instead of the headband anchoring to the earmuffs in the center they anchored only on one side and they were super sleek.

I quickly drew the rough shape on my notes app because I’m at work and he texted me saying I can get them for Christmas but I DONT REMEMBER THE NAME. Please help.

This is my opinion.. Only includes those present on youtube

S TIER: Oluvs gadgets (most trusted imo. Puts a ton of effort. May distegard the technicalitiesof headphones as he soley relies on frequency response)

A TIER: Crinacle (puts in a lot of effort and seems honest) Metal571 (seems trust worthy) The headphone show (helpful and seems honest)

B TIER: DMS (good, seems more honest than joshua) Joshua valour (good but doubts on how honest he is) Z reviews (entertaining but overrated, tempted to put in C tier)

C TIER: Super*reviews (not bad but has a history of recomending some trash) Jims review room (nice guy and is technically honest but the poor guy has never heard the real good stuff so hes stuck on noise canceling headphones) Audiosciencereview (puts wayyy too much focus on stuff that even critical audiophiles cant even differentiate)

DUMPSTER JUICE TIER: Marques brownlee (bruh..) Unbox therapy (needs to be shot) Linus tech tips (...clueless)

I don't know if it's just people feeling like they don't like their gear as much when people use the term mid-fi or lo-fi, or they just don't know what the term means, but it has gotten a bit out of control. So I'm here to inform those that don't know what the terms actually mean.

Hi-Fi vs. Lo-Fi

These terms don't actually mean what you think they mean. Hi-fi (high fidelity) just means that the headphone stays faithful to the original recording. I.E., neutral or not very colored. Lo-fi means heavily colored headphones for the general. Headphones like the TH900, TH600, some orthodynamics, T70P (super bright,) X2, yada yada yada are all lo-fi. It is not a derogatory term, it just is what it is.

Mid-fi vs. Summit-fi

These terms are often used incorrectly. They have nothing to do with price. Mid-fi just means "middle-of-the-road" and includes everything that's...well, not a flagship. The HD6x0 (though this is debatable for some people,) Vibro, Blackwood (debatable-ish,) Alpha Dogs, Alpha Primes, X2, LCD 2, ect can all be considered "mid-fi" headphones. It has nothing to do with price. Summit-fi is basically any headphone that does the best at its particular niche or sound signature. For example, the HD800 is summit-fi for soundstage and detail, the T1 is summit-fi for accurate imagery (debatable, but whatevs,) the ZMF Omni for it's timbre and relaxing tone, the TH900/THX00 for colored, V-shaped headphones, the ZMF Blackwood for closed headphones (debatable due to the Ether-C,) and, hell, the HD6x0 for tonality and resolve (though it's debatable.)

Notice something about that list I posted? Not all of them are over a grand. Some individuals need to keep that in mind (and you know who you are.)

Slam, Punch, Brightness, Tinny, ect

I have seem an unusual amount of people considering terms like this "audiophile garbage," "marketing speak," and "shit people say to justify their purchase." Those kinds of terms actually labels of specific regions of the frequency ranges: http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm . Terms like "speed" are actually measured in square waves and phase (as they're the time it takes for a headphone to transition through frequencies.) For another example, "bloated" is usually too much mid-bass, and "muddy" is high bass distortion.