Just thought I would add my 1-week impression of the Mysphere 3.2 to see how they hold up in 2023. I am using the standard frames for the Mysphere 3.2 Honestly, with everything I own and tried in meets/shows, the Mysphere is still one of the more interesting headphones at least in design. I really like its magnetic frames and the way you change its cushions. I didn’t look into how it works, but this seems like the most futuristic headphone I ever held. I haven’t read anything of people rolling the frames from 3.1 to 3.2 in the same headband. But if you can roll frames, that is a game changer. For example, if LB-acoustics makes the Mysphere 3.3, I wonder if they can sell just the frames so their previous customers can upgrade without paying for the whole package. That is just me thinking out loud, don’t know if you can do that, but that would be sweet. I think the magnetic frame is a cool design and I haven’t seen any other headphones do that. There are hundreds of headphones out there that I am probably not aware of, so there might be some out there.
In terms of comfort, I have no issues with the Mysphere 3.2. I do feel a little dumb putting it on every time. Takes a while to get a position I like. There will be some weird comfort with the frames touching a part of my ear, but that feeling will slowly go away as time goes on. After about maybe 10 - 20 minutes, the Mysphere headphone feel like they disappeared from my head, and the only thing that makes me notice their existence is the wire hanging down my neck. I do not feel any form of headache or discomfort as some people feel. Also saw someone posted in the headfi forum that their head is uneven and they have to unevenly slide the frames. I did the same and found a better position with uneven frames vs. getting them to the same level on each side. My left frame is a little higher than my right frame.
Stock cables are cheeks. I thought you guys were exaggerating that the stock cable sucks. In my mind, I am thinking of course thousands of dollar cables are going to sound better than the stock cable. I tried the stock cables and thought, “oh, this is fine”. Then I saw someone posted saying that the Mysphere cable was the TRRS balance cable, which is the same cable I use for my Onkyo A800. So I switched the stock cable with my Onkyo A800 ribbon cables and the results were night and day. Everything just sounded a whole lot better, the most obvious improvement was resolution. I never had a headphone that had a huge amount of improvement in just changing cables that didn’t cost over $700. Either the Mypshere is more sensitive to the headphone cables compared to other headphones.
Now let’s talk about sound. 1st impression, these headphones were magical in the mids and the vocals sounded amazing.
The bass sounded weird to me and there is some clipping, but only in certain tracks and volumes. For the picky tracks, I had to set the volume to medium to low volume without the bass sounding distorted to me, but again only for certain tracks. It’s honestly more picky with modern pop music vs. pop music from the 80s. I could still listen to modern pop music, just got to set the volume median - low, again very specific on which tracks I have to do this to, mainly tracks with extreme synthesized bass. I feel like I can listen to Daryl Hall & John Oates and Michael Jackson tracks in high volume without the bass sounding weird or distorted. Coming from a person that really enjoys the Sennheiser HD600 and HD580 Jubilee, the bass sounds good and the mid-bass is punchy. I think I got a jumpscare on my first listen with the Mysphere 3.2. I forgot which song I was listening to, but I did a test song with classical and switched to pop. Then on the same level with no expectation of bass, because a lot of people said this headphone had no bass, the mid-bass punches me almost out of my seat. It’s not the hardest punch I felt, but the Mysphere hits pretty hard. I knew the Mysphere had bass, but I thought with only the Viva Tube amp. The Mysphere got a good bass punch with the Allnic HPA-5000XL as well. I am used to headphones that make bass really stand out like the Onkyo A800. When listening to “Dove - Cymande”, compared to my usual Onkyo A800, the bass guitar was on the weaker side meaning that it doesn’t particularly stand out in the music. It was more in the background as the bassline should be. In the track “Isn’t It Romantic - Bill Evans Trio Live” you can really hear the bass being plucked and really hearing the vibration in the air echo.
My favorite sound from the Mysphere 3.2 has to be many of the acoustic instruments and female vocals in modern recording. I agree with many people when they say the Mysphere really shines with organic music and live music. One thing I really like about the Mysphere 3.2 vs a lot of headphones I tried in the past (including my ownership of the Caldera and D8000 Pro LE which is in the similar Retail Price Range of $4-5K as the Mysphere 3.2) is that the Mysphere on my particular setup, have this magical way to remove equipments from the music. What I mean by this is that you can kind of tell the quality of a person’s mic with a good headphone. With the Mysphere, there is no equipment, it is just you and the artist. In a good recording, it really sounds to me like there is no barrier between me and the artist. Before, I had the mindset that there would always be a barrier and nothing would be close to real life. I used to think you would always hear the artist through a filter of their equipment. That is why I particularly don’t like listening to classical orchestra or acoustic music unless it’s live or through speakers (because I like the soundstage). With the Mysphere, it shatters my expectations of what I used to think about headphones and gives me the ultimate immersive experience that I thought wasn’t possible. With the electric guitar and bass, that is a different story but that is also why I specifically said my favorite sound from the Mysphere is acoustic instruments and female vocals. There were some recordings where I thought, dang the piano sounds flat. But switched to another recording and the piano sounded great. That is why I also specified modern recordings because I feel like most modern recordings of acoustic performances are really good. There are some good old recordings, but you will have an easier time looking through the newer recordings to get this no-barrier experience. I am also hesitant to say every acoustic instrument sounds realistic as it is heavily dependent on how well it’s recorded. An example in one of the classical recordings, the church bells sounded light and didn’t have enough weight in its sound to sound real to me. Same with some piano recordings where I wish there was more weight in some of the notes, but there is some piano recording where it sounds very satisfying.
Soundstage, with the Allnic HPA-5000XL, I agree with a lot of MON said in his Mysphere article where there is a little exaggeration of the distance between each performer and that the soundstage is holographic. I want to add there is a lot of depth in the soundstage as well. I am not sure if that is thanks to the Evo B4B 21 or the Supratek Preamp adding depth to this soundstage, but I will give credit to both honestly lol. I think both of these pieces of equipment vastly increased the depth of my soundstage and I could hear the sound echos with a great amount of height. To me, it feels like I am more immersive with the performers where I am in the center of the music and everything is being played around me. That was probably one of the most fun I had listening to music and the stage feels so vast and big to me. This is truly an alternative option to escape reality, don’t know if this is the healthier choice lol.
I tried different amps and DAC. The other amp I used was my NitSCH x Schiit Magni Piety and my Cayin N7. People said on multiple forums that the Mysphere is picky on source, but I honestly don’t get that impression with these 2 equipment. I think the Mysphere played nicely with the Magni Piety and Cayin N7. Not as impressive as the Allnic HPA-5000XL, but I still got a good amount of resolution and soundstage from both devices. I use high gain on both devices and I did have to crank the volume to almost max. I think 70-80% on the Magni Piety and 95% on the Cayin N7 because I like to play loud. To avoid some pop music bass distortion, I play around 70% on the Cayin N7. The biggest difference besides everything sounding worse comparing the Magni Piety amp/Cayin N7 DAC to the Allnic HPA-5000XL is that it sounds a little drier and lifeless compared to the Allnic, particularly in vocals. I think it’s because I have the Supratek 45 preamp hooked up to my Allnic amp and that does wonders for vocals. The Supratek 45 preamp imo makes vocals more organic and gives a more realistic presentation of vocals to my setup, at least that is how I feel. I have the 6SN7 option to make it sound more neutral, but never really care about trying it out as I really like 45 tubes. But overall, it played pretty well enough for the price range of the NitSCH x Schiit Magni Piety and Cayin N7.
Did a little A/B comparison with the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee and the Mysphere 3.2. The Sennheiser HD580 is more forward in the vocals while the Mysphere is not recessed like the Sennheiser HD250 Linear 1, but vocals seem right in the middle where it is not exaggerated to the front but is where it should be. Mysphere 3.2 obviously blew everything else in the waters, it wasn’t a competition lol. Resolution, bass, a more immersive experience where the Mysphere dispels barriers between me and the artist. I will still say the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee is the GOAT cause Sennheiser has brought so many smiles in my memories I got to give them credit somehow. Didn’t really A/B with the Raal SR1A because its not fair since I am using the Mysphere with the Allnic HPA-5000XL and the Raal with the Vidar 2. One thing I do like about Raal is that the music I like to listen to on the Raal is the opposite of what I would listen to on the Mysphere. I have a guilty music genre I really like to listen to and that is Vocoloid. The Vocaloid genre kinda evolved to more than just the Vocaloid and more about the producers. Songs like “Odo - Ado”, “Hibikaze - Reol”, “DIAMANTE - IA (Sho Fujiwara)”, " デーモンロード (Demon Lord) - Kanaria", and etc etc.
I think that is it for the 1-week impression. My chain is ROON Rock - Intel NUC 7i7 > EMM Labs NS1 > [AES] Mojo Audio Mystique EVO B4B 21 > Custom 45/6SN7 Tube Only Supratek Cabernet DHT > [RCA] Allnic HPA-5000XL > Mysphere 3.2 with Onkyo A800 ribbon cables.
TLDR:
Pro:
- Very emotional headphone
- Extremely good with the acoustic guitar
- Sounds like the equipment disappeared and listening to the instrument/vocals raw
- Immersive soundstage
- Truly shines with acoustic music and huge orchestras.
- Psychological rock music like “Voodoo Child (slight return) - Jimi Hendrix” and “2000 Light Years from Home - The Rolling Stone” is a trip with the Mysphere 3.2 and Allnic HPA-5000XL with my preamp/dac combo because of the good instrumental separation and soundstage maaaaan! Some rock songs are really good too like “Abraxas album - Santana” especially with how they open the album up with “Singing Winds, Crying Beasts” which is really magical.
Con:
- Synthesize bass sound distorted to me in a loud volume. Got to lower the volume on my setup.
- Get some clipping/rattle when playing the big bass drums at a really loud volume i.e classical music, but that is a lot of headphones tbh. It’s just I’m used to that with my current bass-heavy headphones.
- Very picky on how well the music is recorded/produced in order to sound amazing. Way more picky on the recording vs. any other headphones I have experience with.
The next step for me, since I got a decent cable, is to probably try the bass cushion. Hesitant about buying the bass cushion as some people say it’s very similar to standard frames if you have the frames all out. I have my frames probably 2/3 out. I like the standard cushion, but there is some recording where I wish there was more weight on some notes. Maybe bass cushions will help me get there, but it’s $500, so I got to think about this one. Not really in a rush so maybe in 4 months.
