Good to note. Cause I swear to fuck like half my friends group has completely different ears than the other half (and its not even split by age or something). 1/2 love mini and arya, the other half find mini small and arya boring as hell unless you tube the shit out of it (btw, Arya + phantasy ii is very very solid).
Oh yah, I don’t expect portable stuff to slam planars at all, I just feel like utualy you can tell “this wants to slam but doesn’t have the juice” and d8kp havent given me that feeling. If broadway will give me a solid idea that works since I’m currious about it anyways.
Tbf, I want the sloppy puppy kiss that is argon mk3 slam, but I’m fairly sure that is directly results of removing any and all control over the driver in the bass so I dont expect to get that. If I could get 1 tier above the slam of R on jot a I would be pretty happy. Anything above that woukd just be gravy.
Sounds good to me. Tbh the raal realy did blow me away even several underpowered. I’m kind of expecting to leave canjam socal with a circumaural (assuming the demo goes well) if I’m honest, so a propper comparison would ve nice.
Sounds good. I’ll wait to hear on the f8 then and in the mean time throw the j2 on my “if a great deal falls in your lap” list
I listen exceptionally quiet (standard listening level is ~55dB peaks) and my office is dead silent (they even got us all quiet click mice and keyboards) so it tends to be fine. Raal may be an issue and utopia were an issue but other than that you can’t hear it the next closest desk.
Tbh I’ve not heard any cans with good timbre and a tonality anything more exaggerated than just slughtly tilted one way or another so I assumed the tonality was what caused the timbre issue. Tbh, as I’ve known for a while, this realy just us something I need to get out and try. Just a shame I have no way to demo any of these
But realy, all engr are in 1 building and the plant is next door. Average sound level in production is probabaly mid 70dbs. In my office is like an abechoic chamber 90% of the day. No rules or shame for talking either. People just egebraly have shit to do
I bet dacs play a big role in that imo. Also yes I’m not a fan of the arya on the mini that much, but I also would disagree with the phatlab + arya personally
I’d agree, but it can slam pretty hard if it wants to
Try an he6 + a tighter speaker amp, but if that’s the case then I think the susvara would offer plenty even on an amp that doesn’t emphasize slam
It is pretty impressive, although personally for me that wow factor did not remain with extended listening
Gotcha
So timbre lies more in the time domain imo, where tonality is more like raw fr. Like I’d agree the raal has great timbre but I’d say it has poor tonality imo. Same with the mass kobo for example, great timbre, but meh tonality
So @Draaly I personally like the mysphere more than the raal for a few reasons:
More realistic presentation/more immersive stage + blacker background
Better midrange texture
More organic timbre in the midrange
More refined tonality
More realistic transient response
Better macrodynamics and more convincing presentation of dynamics
Better tonal density
More impact in the midrange and low end
These are really what push it over the bar for me over the raal, but the raal does have some distinct advantages over the mysphere. Strengths of the raal over the mysphere
More resolution in the bass and treble (but I personally feel that the mysphere equals midrange resolution
Better speed and separation
Better texture in bass and treble (but mysphere as better midrange texture)
Much more control and tightness (except in the midrange)
More grandiose presentation
More microdynamic
Better extension
To touch on stage and presentation, mysphere more accurately recreates the way a pair of nearfield monitors would present to me and also lays out different aspects in a way that feels more how it would be done in life, where with the raal, I think that it presents more like a big panel speaker which does give you a more grand and wall of sound presentation, but it lacks natural space and that’s also not how an actual stage in front of you would be laid out
When it comes to texture, I do think the sr1a takes the cake in the bass and the treble, but the midrange feels more nuanced and tangible on the myspheres, but again that’s only in the midrange and that advantage disappears when you deviate from the middle of the spectrum
The timbre thing is interesting, while the raal better recreates timbre to the recording, the mysphere imo has more convincing timbre to life in the midrange but the raal is doing it better in the low end and treble, but it might be in presentation of timbre or something, but the mysphere to me sounds more convincing and liquid when it comes to lower, center, and upper midrange
The tonality thing is more preference, but to me the mysphere’s neutral-natural but slightly mid centric signature better suits more organic music and offers more convincing balance than the raal, which does have a damn flat studio neutral bright signature, but it’s not one I’d say is as convincing, but I do think the raal’s tonality better suits both inorganic music and studio work (and also potentially classical)
Transient response is an arguable one. I do think the raal offers more precision to the recording and the chain in this regard, but to me it goes a bit too far with it’s attack and decay to the point it where it doesn’t sound as organic as an actual instrument, so it feels exaggerated, basically too precise to a flaw (although this is more observable in the midrange and bass, I think it’s transient response is most organic in the treble and better than the mysphere in that area)
When it comes to macrodynamics, I do think the raal just lacks there, it can’t make those bigger swings sound natural and feels limited, where the mysphere to me can handle those with more ease and realism (but again the raal can pull off those more minute changes with ease)
The tonal density thing is fairly apparent to me with the raal, it’s pretty thin and it’s weighting is hard to get to a level where it feels appropriate, the mysphere more accurately weights instruments and can adjust it’s weight more to the recording
On that note, to me the mysphere does a better job at disappearing and adapting to the recording, moreso than the raal does. But this one will strongly depend on the person
Impact wise, neither really hit all that hard, but the mysphere can deliver a more actual punch than the raal can from my experiences
But to sum it up, anything that happens in the midrange, I honestly feel that the mysphere either equals or outperforms the raal in assuming equal level source gear chains and synergy, and also I personally feel the mysphere offers a more true to life experience where the raal delivers a more true to recording one (but the raal is more impressive when you go for treble or lower bass). Both are equally valid approaches and which one people gravitate to is preference, both are solid and will impress if they are given adequate source gear imo. Scaling wise both can really go high if you let them, although to me the mysphere is more picky on synergy imo (especially the 3.1) where the raal can impress more on less impressive source gear than the mysphere could
I do know my take is a bit going against the grain, but I’m just reporting what I’m hearing lol
Ima just respond to the first part before I read the comparo
Possibly, but they all use a range of dacs and I used hugo2, p6p, sp1k, honey h1, and microbl as dacs into mini, 281, mk2, and mha150 all to no avail of fixing the issue i had with it so I kinda feel like I at least gave tjem a solid shot. Tbh my main complaint with arya is that I feel they lack any and all emotion. They are very very technicaly proficient. Easily the most technicaly proficient i have heard in that price range even. That just didn’t ever make me enjoy my music. As for the p2 + arya disagreement, that’s fair. I was looking to cross a very very low bar and it made me enjoy them at a.slight loss of dynamics and speed so I liked it. Best I heard tjem was probably wa22 but that was a very brief listen (litteralt 3 songs). But over all yah, they just didn’t make me enjoy music. Only other can ive had that with was the x00 PH which I also found boring (thiugh at that time I didn’t have much source gear to play with)
Consider me intrigued then. If I can get slam and a well controlled trbble on the d8kp it may make a solid hold over point for a bit while I recoupe from this car that is trying to make me go broke.
I will be trying a 4-screw at can jam in a month or so! Pretty stoked about trying that one tbh. Owner is bringing an mogwai SE and I think someone else is bringing a restored hk770
Hm… ok. I am well aware timbre is hyper time domain focused i just kinda felt there had to be certain tonality to get there tbh. Plus, with the mk example, I feel like its a pretty standard tonality + some trebble (kinda view it as a slight bright tilt) but I also don’t like talking about source tonality in the same way I discuss transducer tonality tbh
Gotcha, although from memory most of those are fairly more intimate DACs which I think the mini needs a dac with both a more spacious stage, a bit more of a macro focus (or at least balanced/enough of one), and something to give more body and sweetness
I would agree. That’s personally tend to suggest people to find a used hek v2 for a similar price for actually having emotion and organicness, with at least similar or trading blows with the Arya from a technical perspective on midrange to entry high end amps, and later on scale farther than the Arya imo
Perfect perfect
I think they can be separated, but you do need both to get an organic and realistic experience imo
@Draaly@M0N
I recently got the mysphere 3.2 and running on the sagra → formula s + powerman.
For several months I have had the raal sr1a (off of the jot r) which is one of my all time favorite headphones due to an openness and presentation that no typical headphone can reproduce while also having a high level of detail, resolution, instrument separation. Although the bass is lacking when compared to something like the susvara not to mention the 1266tc, the presentation is the reason why the sr1a was worthwhile to include in my collection. Even the very spacious and open 1266tc sounded like a headphone in comparison. The sr1a was the only headphone that images the music in the world around me rather than taking me to another place (1266tc) or putting me in my own bubble (utopia). (hope that analogy made some sense)
I need to take some more time to compare more and let my impressions settle, but currently I am finding that the mysphere does everything I liked about the sr1a but more (this may partly be because the jot r is not the same level as the formula s). The mysphere has a bigger stage (more width, a ton more depth) while also sounding just as open as the raal. Furthermore, the mysphere has better tuning, never harsh to me, whereas the sr1a is brighter can be harsher. Also, I find the staging and presentation of the mysphere to be not only wider and deeper, but also more natural and organic. Both suffer from weak low end. I’m guessing the people that prefer the sr1a do so for differences in speed, resolution, instrument separation, etc but I have yet to notice a big enough difference for it to matter to me so far. As of right now, the mysphere is making the sr1a obsolete for me. Currently my top three (not sure in what order) and maybe the three headphones I will keep long term are the 1266tc, susvara, and mysphere. Will update if I start to notice the weakness of the mysphere and my impressions change.
EDIT: impressions are done with the bass frames (not standard) for the mysphere
cool. that was my next question. Mind if I ask what frames you use @M0N and how exactly yall tend to angle them?
TBH It is seeming like mysphere vs raal is coming down to a pretty simple thing if I’m understanding correctly. Its just a simple “do you want organic with mid focus or inorganic with trebble/bass speed focus”. Am I kind of characterizing that correctly? TBH, from my demo (ignoring staging), the raal actually reminded me a lot of LCD-R tbh. Fantastic timbre, a bit bright, a focus on driver speed, and detail right up in your face like it or not. I wonder if me liking the more unnatural presentation of the LCD-R (over, say, the D8kp on p2 or 428 which I find to be a bit more natural) means I may lean towards the raal with my preference. That said, an evem more expansive stage does sound quite appealing as well. hm… I wonder if I can figure out a way to demo myphere at all to actually understand myself.
@sa11297 out of curiosity, any desire to try raal on higher end amps? I realize you may not exactly have something comparable laying around if you arent into 2ch, but I am curious if the staging specificaly is something the jot is holding back
EDIT: btw, do either of these image behind you well (like for gaming)? I am currently planning out a 5.1 system for my sim rig (used exclusively for location tracking of other cars, its literally the worst environment I can think of for a room with monitors surrounding me on 3 sides. Maybe I could blunt the cost of one of the two if I dont need to get a speaker setup for the rig (fwiw, no headphone I have owned as of yet has been even close to a 4-5 speaker system specificaly setup for racing in terms of letting me know where tf people are behind me)
all the rest of them are intimate for sure, but I was under the impression that h2 was suppose to be a bit more on the spacious side tbh (alone with the qutest). Not gunna lie, that impression combined with me not finding the h2 significantly more spacious than the p6p (on LO at least) has had me kinda ignoring dacs for a bit now.
out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on hekv1? Ill be getting a chance to try those at can jam as well so im currious how they stack up to v2 and se. Ive heard they are the most tonaly balanced but thats kinda all I know about them.
That would make sense. Mind if I ask for a can with goo timbre but a bit more of a jacked up tonality? Just kind of a curiosity on my end
Bass frames, angled pretty far out but it depends on how I feel
I guess it could be boiled down to that yes
Would agree with you, although while the r doesn’t offer the same level of technical ability, I could draw the comparisons, I also think the r slightly corrects tonal density in comparison, and better bass impact too
Possibly
It is from my experience, but a better amp will improve depth and placement accuracy with potentially a bit better width, but personally I still don’t find it organic as the mysphere even if you give it a better amp than the jot, it’s presentation will remain the same
The mysphere will do this better and imo would offer you more rear spatial recreation, the raals tend to be more locked in front of you stage wise from my experience. But this is from a music perspective not gaming so idk
I would disagree, I’ve always found the Hugo and the qutest to offer great depth, but lack real width and size. I’ve always found them on the more intimate side of things compared to other offerings
Uh from memory the v1 and v2 are close, but the v2 is a bit more refined, but it was more durability and build changes rather than sound between the two iirc
Fair. My raal demo was a while ago so I dont rmeber them too perfectly
Oh, yah. I more of just meant stage size in general not realy overall presentation.
Hm. Ok. That may be worth a shot the but idk for certain yet tbh. Kind of a big jump on something hard to sell if it doesn’t work out for that.
Oh, very interesting (mostly cause I had the same impressions and just assume dac stage change was minimal tbh). Any reqs for just a larger sounding dac (that isn’t massive in terms of physical size) say in the 1kish range? (If i have to go higher that’s fine but all im realy after is hearing stage size here not looking for a keeper) Would a bf2 possibly give me an idea of a bigger sound than what I have on hand (ignoring everything else) since I already have one on the way? Anything that sounds super grandiose? Even better if it happens to be portable
Fair. So v1 should at least give me a solid idea of whats up from the sounds of it.
Still never heard those. Think ima bug a buddy of mine to toss me those, sundara, and 600s fot a bit since I’ve never heard any of them.
For gaming it’s going to really depend on an engine, I personally wouldn’t really buy mysphere if gaming was a main focus anyways, because I’d be concerned about how they deal with sound engines
Try a bf2 or perhaps a holo cyan, see what you think there imo
Would indeed be pretty different lol, although lower tier than the dap dacs you have atm
Now thats what I like to hear! Already got the req on the way. But yah, I got this to play with tbh cause someone in zs telegram was offloading cheap. Figured it would be a pretty solidly different sound than anything else I have.
Thats fair. The program i use does have a 2 speaker engine thats pretty solid so that may work, but the 4-5 speaker engine is just better from demos I’ve had. Tbh, the best though is the valve index speaker things. Those give super super accurate positing data fot gaming which is why u thiught an open baffel like raal or myphere my work double duty pretty well. But yah, ultimately something I just need to try out tbh
Edit: anything grandiose and portable if we ignore pricing? Lpgt maybe? Iirc lp6 is wider than p6p but still not massive
I had heard about that, hopefully that’s pretty great
In terms of dac wise really no, the lpgt ti is wide for staging for actual use, but it doesn’t translate line out from memory so it’s not that impressive line out just as a dac, can’t comment on the 6. dx200 max? Not really sure
Yes I did know that! Though with an entierky new topology I’m waiting for reviews. That said, tbh, right now I just want something to play with not something to keep so used is more apealing anyways
I bought mine with the bass frames. I keep the frames pretty much all the way out most of the time, very rarely do I fold them in, and when I do it’s never all the way, with the frames only slightly touching my ears.
Wow, this was a seriously amazing post - ridiculously in depth. Definitely made me very interested to eventually get a 1266 though because it sounds like near perfect match for the genres and sound that I aim for… Probably have a ways to go before I can afford a pair + proper gear to support them though
Thanks, at least this one is more concise than my dac comparison lol
You never know, at the moment you have a v200 + 1321 correct (how are you liking that btw?), If you swapped later on to something like a v281 (which used traditionally tend to go for around 1.5k ish) and bumped the dac up later on to a 2541 or 1541, I do think finding a used 1266 phi (just the phi) for around 2.5k ish could be feasible, and that source gear would get your foot in the door. That’s still a lot though lol, but much cheaper than the bar of entry for a phi tc imo
