Looks interesting…is this his first ground up build?
Yes it is. Been in development for three years. Planar headphones with a custom double sided driver. They’re actually very very good for their price (~2K). Very impressed so far on the sound front. I would’ve loved to see a more premium material for the cups but from speaking to Ryan he prioritized sound quality above everything with comfort and price following
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What are you powering them with?
Based on their sensitivity rating they seem like a bear to drive(?)…IDK though
AIC10 drives them easily but yes they are already known to be amp picky. They require plenty current but once you have it they will sound good. Different problem from Susvara or Utopia.
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Posting this in here because I can’t find an Aurorus thread…
A/Bing the Clear OG and Borealis and finding the Borealis to be a tier above the Clear OG (stock pads/cables) on MZ 2 + Amber 3: better bass/treble extension, staging, imaging, detail retrieval, attack/decay. Clear’s treble not as refined/sometimes sligthly harsh, slightly congested in comparison as well. Borealis is more dynamic. It almost makes the Clear sound muddy.
Comparing them both b/c the sound signature is similar-ish and both are DD and roughly the same price category, so one of them has to go and it’s going to be the Clear.
vs the Diana v2: Borealis is a more intense listen, there’s some forwardness in the mids that I haven’t figured out how to get a hold on yet, can get grating with badly mastered stuff or higher volume or dynamic spikes (Coltrane’s sax in Track #1 of Love Supreme album), a better fitting amp would probably help here, need to be really careful with volume with this one, I suspect it also has to do with the strong dynamic character that reminds me of bookshelf speakers that are placed too close and get fatiguing very quick for my ears (a pet peeve of mine).
Diana v2’s upper mids/treble sound a bit less forward, violins a bit too muted, soundstage smaller than Borealis. Mellower music = Diana, upbeat/faster (Mozart) = Borealis, both on equal playing field when it comes to detail on this setup.
The Borealis had a few quirks like inverted polarity (easy fix so didn’t send it to Aurorus) and was more expensive b/c there are no used options in EU vs the Clear OG, but it paid off in the end.
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Interesting read, thanks for including the music you noticed things on, that’s a detail I always appreciate. The general rule is if you don’t find a thread for a manufacturer you are welcome to set one up for them 
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Follow up on Tungsten as I go back to my Susvara:
- It is a very fun first headphone
- If I wanted to build a chain focused around one headphone and be price conscious I’d go with it before Susvara (or Utopia depending on my priorities), mostly because I know how hard it is to maximize Susvara. That said, I don’t have the context to how Tungsten sounds on lower priced chains so it’s purely guessing really and trusting others that I spoke to.
- Overall it is a much less refined sound (bass isn’t tight enough, treble rolled) and build quality (sturdy and comfortable but cheap materials). It doesn’t feel like a TOTL option.
- I don’t think anyone really chasing the summit would consider this their first option which is similar to what I think of D8KP LE but am aware this is also about preferences and what you think the top of head-fi really is or should be.
- I can see why many people love it, I also love it for what it is. Amazing to have this quality in the $2K new price range.
- It’s not different enough or special enough to be a flavor secondary option for me. Two biggest things going for it are bass performance (mainly impact and “size”) and price-to-performance. The former I have no problem with Susvara on my chain and the latter I don’t really care about these days.
- one more thing about the bass - it’s trying too much to be speakers like, which to me ends up being a miss.
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Is it better built than sus?
What do you mean by that, out of curiosity?
I never had a real problem with Sus build tbh. Yeah it’s not Final or Abyss but I like it. I do also think it’s more comfortable than Tungsten but mostly because of the pads (Tungsten using ZMF pads for stock).
Speakers bass is impactful and big because of the nature of having a room and not the tiny space between your ears. You can’t fake the physical impact but you can try and play around with positioning of bass compared to everything else and I think going for a more bloomy diffused bass instead of tightly controlled also pushes towards that. For me personally it ended up being a miss more than something I enjoyed. 1266 TC did that better. I hope that makes sense.
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Do you know what revision of the drivers that set has?
I’ll look it up but whatever the final production double sided version should be
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Ok, saw Z say something about revision 9.0 and supposedly 9.2 is coming? Wasn’t sure.
9.2 is the single sided production version and 10.1 is the double sided production one which is what I have here.
Confirmed with Ryan the manufacturer that I’m listening to the final production version.
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That makes sense. 
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On paper it’s harder to drive than the Susvara by a fair margin, though the increased impedance might make it a better match for traditional headphone amps, so you might want to try it on something reasonably priced before recommending it as a “price conscious” option.
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I’ve heard multiple people say it works with oor, mj3, some soncoz entry speaker amps, gsx mini to name a few
It needs a lot of current, from those same people - even a topping 70 works well with it. The most budget option I heard people try with it is the piety.
It’s still price conscious because it’s $2K and gets you very close to TOTL performance for usually half the price of the top contenders. With that saved money you can also replace part of your chain if you need to.
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Very general question
Are Spirit Torino headphones worthwhile? What do any of them sound like?
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Watched this an hour ago.
Super Leggera seems like a good bet, not harsh in the treble area, but upper mids might be a bit elevated.
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Is there a difference between fostex th900 drivers and denon d9200?
People seem to think that they are different. Are the th900 LTD usually seen as a better sounding headphone than the d9200?
The only thing I found is d9200 is more linear stock, and I dont know how it would vary with lawton cups compared to th900 which everyone praise
Will a HP need burn in again if left unused for long? Giving the lcd24 time and the stage is shifted to the right like the first time I got it.