HD 280 Pro

🎧 High-end headphone listening afternoon at the best store in Spain: Studio 22 in Madrid. First, the disappointments: > FiiO FT3: Bad — compressed, like AirPods or worse! (€299 RRP) >Meze 109 Pro: Good and comfortable, but way too expensive for the level of detail they offer. Distorted bass. (€799 RRP) AND NOW, THE TOP 5 EXCELLENCE!!! 5️⃣ AUDEZE LCD-3: Dynamic and detailed, but far too heavy. (€2249 RRP) 4️⃣ Senn HD800S: Ultra-light and comfortable, huge soundstage, flat sound signature as you’d expect from Senn. (€1799 RRP) 🥉 Hifiman Arya Unveiled: The first planar magnetics that truly impressed me! Balanced, complete, playful. Fantastic. (€1599 RRP) 🥈 Focal Clear MG: Never disappoint; the magnesium drivers offer incredible precision, with the #1 bass performance of the day and detail across alllll frequencies. Supreme! (€1499 RRP) 🥇 Grado RS-2x: Grado have always been my favorites, and today I remembered why; soundstage, dynamics, and emotion like no others. Rediscovering the champions. (€649 RRP) 🎹 All powered by the amazing iFi xDSD Gryphon!! I honestly wasnt all that impressed with the RS2x until I heard them with the Gryphon. It gave them SR325e like energy while keeping everything else consistent and not sibilant. Amazing experience!!!!

New here, Hello! This week I received what I would call my first real set of headphones. I've been using gaming headsets for far longer than I'd like to admit. about 3 year's ago I switched over to my first set of iems and have been using iems ever since. In my opinion any iem I have used have been far superior to any gaming headset ive tried. My only gripe with iems is that with long gaming sessions they can start to irritate my ears a little. Not a huge complete and I understand breaks are needed. With that being said I started looking into open back headphones, something I've never experienced. After reading/watching many reviews i finally went with Sennheiser hd 490 pro. The main thing that stuck out in all the reviews was comfort. Boy do I agree with this. I can barely tell i have them on huge plus! I bought these with gaming in mind as thats what I mainly do in my free time at night and 90 percent of the time I'm sitting at my desk. I'm clearly not an audiophile nor will I likely never be but since this purchase I've been listening to more music than gaming! Maybe because I've never experienced open back before, or maybe all just my cheap headsets in the past but these sound fantastic to my ears. Gaming is fantastic as well. Hard to explain since of the lack of audiophile in me but there is just something I would call "airy" to me. Or I guess open? Not all just shoved down my eardrums. I've tried both pads several times and my taste is the mixing pads are far superior. For both music and gaming. The producer pads so feel more comfortable when you initially put them on but they are also make my ears warm pretty quick. The mixing pads are also very comfortable in my opinion and don't squeeze on your ears as tight which I like. I slightly eq them for music but leave them alone for gaming. I don't think (hope) I'm the type of person who will fall down the rabbit hole and need the next set of headphones. These sound pretty great to me! Im using an entry level dac/amp Fosi k5 pro which works great with the 490 pro for me. Any other dac/amps i should look into or waste of money right now? I know there easy to run as ive also used them with an old corsair dac i had laying around. I also just recieved my custom cable from Fog City Audio today. I think it looks fantastic and the quality is great. I received a shipping notification within about two hours after purchase and received it 2 days after purchase. All the way across the united states. I would highly suggest checking them out if you're are looking.

Hello headphone enjoyers! I recently picked up a pair of MDR-MV1s as I was looking for a warmer headphone. I will have a review of the LCD-2C that I tried to fill the void with in my collection and to put it nicely they were not what I wanted really at all. Enter the MV1. I know this headphone doesn’t have the “warmest” sound as it has a very colored treble but the very strange bass and incredible mids make this headphone feel warmer than its FR. ***HD 490 Pro: (6/10)*** I have given my thoughts on this headphone before and I have overall really enjoyed it. It’s neutral and does many things well. I people call it an 800s lite, but I don’t know if I agree as much as its staging to me doesn’t feel super wide. I find this headphone is very good for mixing and critical listening of most music, but for listening to tracks I find it “boring” and vocally I find it very thin. It’s great for movies and my go to for gaming, but not so much for listening to songs I enjoy. **Bass:** These headphone have a very well done bass that extends much better than something like the HD 600. It’s not offensive and isn’t super amazing either, but it does the job. **Mids:** The mids are these are not the best. They are definitely thin and do not stack up well with the HD 600. They’re passable, but compared to the challenger here… not even close. **Treble:** Theyre decent in the treble. They’re not too offensive and not super colored. I find them to be detailed enough to feel neutral and not warm leaning. ***MDR-MV1 (9.5/10)*** This headphone blows me away. Somehow, they’re beating the 490 in comfort, which I did not know would be possible as the 490 was my daily driver and most comfortable headphone in my collection. These have taken that title away firmly. The ear cups as well. Unreal. These are definitely a different flavor of headphone as they’re V-shaped, but still pretty decent at mixing. I would still take the 490 for music creation as they feel more versatile for all types of music. I would worry about thinning out the bass if I used the MV1 imo. **Bass:** Fantastic. There’s not much more to be said. They’re so punchy and clean while also feeling like they need zero EQ to liven them up. Rare for a bass to work this well for me and be this fun out of the box. **Mids:** The mids are these star of the show. They’re so linear and clean. The lack of dip in the upper and lower mids that many headphone do makes these sound incredibly full and intimate. This headphone doesn’t feel very “open” to me, but the staging feels fairly wide still. Quite an interesting feeling. **Treble** These are a bright boy. They have many many colorations that work very well for me as an Arya Organic enjoyer, but I would definitely understand finding them fatiguing here. The very interesting thing is that these work extremely well at low volumes. The detail and punch don’t feel lost and the coals are as good as ever when playing these in the lower volume ranges. I kept these around 45 on my FiiO K11 and would go all the way down to 30 and still really enjoy them. I don’t think I am a very loud listener either, but definitely a note. **Conclusion** As the click-bait title suggests, the MV1 is a no brainer imo. If you want a headphone that can kind of do anything and is near an Organic lite even but less intense and more comfortable, get the damn MV1. I’ll put my ratings below of every headphone I’ve tried for comparison. **Ft1 (8/10)** **Ft1 Pro (5/10)** **Arya Organic (8.5/10)** **LCD-2C (6/10)** **HD 480 Pro (9/10)** **HD 620s (4/10)** **Bathys (3/10)** **Strada (5/10)** **Empyrean 2 (10/10)** **105 AER (6/10)**

Hey everyone! I recently upgraded my whole PC setup (thankfully before the whole ram crisis) and i had been meaning to get a Hi-Fi headset and a DAC/Amp. So i’m fairly new to the Hi-Fi world and after researching i picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD 490 Pro Plus headphones along with a FiiO K13 R2R DAC/Amp. I mainly want to use this setup for gaming, movies, and some casual music listening, but I’m not totally sure about the best way to set everything up or what settings to use. My main priority is getting the best soundstage and precise imaging for FPS and other competitive games. If anyone here has experience with either of these, I’d really appreciate some guidance. Specifically: • Best settings on the FiiO K13 for gaming (imaging and soundstage) & movies (filters, gain level, output mode, etc.) • Recommended EQ (if any) for the HD 490 Pro Plus • Whether I should run the K13 in NOS vs. OS mode • General advice for getting the best performance out of this combo.

I'm not a headphone collector or anything. I've had my standards since my teenage years, first headphones were the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro, they survived for 10 years. Good sound, good for gaming, later on I fell into producing music like most audiophiles did in their teenage years, got myself a 2.1 studio setup, everything. Lately I invested some money into the Hifiman XS, they broke (Oh suprise), and now I went for the Sennheiser HD 490 Pro. They were good, once again. Soft, like air on my head almost, and even fit my big head. Connected them to my Presonus Studio 24C, but only as a transition phase, because I only wanna keep it for my microphone. Yes, I sold most of my studio equipment. I'm done with "producing", I grew out of this fun, but stale hobby of mine. So only the headphone + mic were connected to it, while I now run a simple Edifier MR5 stereo setup for daily use (straight connected to the PC), be it movies, music, nothing fancy, but good enough allrounder. Today, my FiiO K11 arrived. I wanted this so I can quickly switch from headphones to speakers with 2 quick clicks on the button, and it also looks cleaner and better than the Presonus Studio 24C, which now only exists for my mic input, hidden away. Also connected my MR5s to the K11, because why not. Anything's better than mainboard input. So clean. And the audio quality now, how LOUD these headphones can get WITHOUT distortion - Fucking crazy, seriously. Way too loud though, nothing I enjoy. But something lacked. The 490 Pro feel flat. Slightly boosted maybe, but still flat. I felt thrown back into my "producing" era with my studio monitors, things did sound clean, but just too clean. Bass? Almost non existent on these. But the bass is CLEAR. That's true. I just don't feel it. I wanted more of a HiFi experience, I got tired of everything being flat and sterile. So I randomly fell into a reddit thread where someone recommended to use an EQ. I actually did read that very often, lots of people use an EQ with their headphones. I just never went for it, because I just thought things will sound messed up then, as it would just disturb the finished profile of whatever headphones you're using. But.. I went for it. Peace or whatever it's called. Simple EQing is nothing out the ordinary for me, so I set up a profile. **And.. holy fucking shit**. What the HELL did I miss here? This is WORLDS OF DIFFERENCE NOW. Nothing is messed up, hell no, god damn my 490 Pro sound like the gates to heaven now. The bass is crisp, I feel it in my bones, everything is crisp, clear, and so much, seriously so so much better now. This seriously feels like I went from $5 temu headphones to Sennheiser, even though both examples are the same Sennheisers. I just threw on some Tame Impala, and god damn it's so good. I closed my eyes and felt like I was floating right through the stage, live. Use an EQ. Seriously. I'm a bitch when it's about distortion or things sounding off. Nothing here sounds off. This opened a whole new world to me.