These headphones require a STRONG NECK - Moondrop VENUS

[@GK_Squid]

$50 says he takes this home and we see it end up being found in an extreme tech upgrade 10 years down the road

[@batt3ryac1d]

Easiest bet ever I bet you they're in his house already.

[@instablaster.]

He has to take them home otherwise he will get evicted because of loud home theater especially because of the subwoofer 😂

[@vadosegalaxy1597]

It’s not extreme tech upgrade now it’s ultimate tech upgrade now

[@SyntheticFuture]

​@@vadosegalaxy1597 in 10 years it might be the people's republic of Canada's upgrade. Who knows 😅😂

[@GK_Squid]

@@vadosegalaxy1597 shoot you right haha. I left that comment while walking around a grocery store lmao

[@lionkrupke7342]

7:07 that's how electrostatic drivers work not planars. Planar magnetics work like this: the diaphram has windings on it that are like the coil in a dynamic driver. If a current is applied to it it induces a magnetic field which is attracted or repelled by the magnets on each side and because of that the diaphram starts to move and make sound. I hope that helps.

[@Skylancer727]

Well electrostatic and planar function on a very similar property. The only difference is that electrostatics use a thin membrane and usually conductors at higher voltage. Otherwise they're very similar. Ribbon speakers also function on the same property with the diaphragm being waved for "added surface area"; though personally the only ribbon I think truly adds surface area is Air Motion Transformers as the ribbon actually moves like an accordion instead of a normal speaker.

[@jamiepritchard8179]

​@@Skylancer727 I wouldn't say electrostatics and planars are very similar, they have some similarities but more differences. Both planars and electrostatics have flat diaphragms, other than that the way that which the diaphragm is moved is completely different. Electrostatics use static electricity, quite literally like those van de graph generators, then use electro magnets to vibrate the diaphragm. Whereas planars use conductors on the surface of the diaphragm then use the motor effect(generated by the moving current through the conductors)to move the diaphragm.

[@RAHelllord]

@@jamiepritchard8179 Both versions still boil down to having a diaphragm wiggle around by itself while sandwiched between two non-moving grills. The electromagnetic way to get the wiggles happening is from different phenomena but the end result of sheet-of-plastic-making-noises is practically identical.

[@jamiepritchard8179]

@@RAHelllord I agree! but the original dude said that they function on a similar property. But for headphones the differences in how the diaphragm is wiggled makes them sound different, and not too mention that electrostatics require a specialised power supply! I think that might be a consideration if you were looking to buy the headphones in the video for mobile use

[@your_average_cultured_dude]

@@jamiepritchard8179 van der graaf*

[@amentia]

Okay, this beginning was kinda crap... they actually go down to 20Hz on the frequency response quite well (2:30); 18Ω of impedance is actually below average, but that is not a good way to measure how easy they are to drive alone, since you need to also consider the sensitivity (2:40)

[@nickthaskater]

Sensitivity *

[@amentia]

@@nickthaskater thx! :)

[@Glaxes]

Agreed, I wish they actually got someone who is actually good when it comes to audio. As these are short videos with first impressions these videos may be the only review someone will watch, any mistake made could make a real difference whether someone will buy the product or not.

[@JoFreddieRevDr]

You get the impression he has no idea what he is talking about, and may not be the best person to review audio products?

[@ttr_coco]

Yeah soon as he started talking it became obvious he was reading off a poorly researched script, also that graph is absolutely terrible. Idk who's in charge of their measurements rig but they need to get the act together fast before Crin makes a "why LTT Labs measurements so strange" video

[@jctai100]

Great to see the efforts of the new lab finally coming to fruition and we get to see 'normalized' results in the audiophile world. I really like how the graphs were presented with breakdown of what constitutes 'presence' vs 'brilliance' Good job!

[@RyTrapp0]

I'm excited for when this whole shebang is fully up and running - I can't wait to hear the audiophile critics of LTT's testing lmao

[@Dicloneus66]

@@RyTrapp0 As a former musician, I tend to select audio gear like how musicians select instruments. If this testing is going to be the future, I'd love to see people testing instruments to the same degree. For example, electronic guitars and their peripherals can easily be compared to the audio hobby.

[@leeasy7112]

@@RyTrapp0 No they won't touch too deep into the snake oil world, for all those companies would pay huge money or lawsuits threats to shut LTT up.

[@stefan514]

I think it was actually a little disappointing that they only compared it to a single competitor. I am sure they have several competitors at lmg and measuring them isn't really a big thing when you have the necessary setup standing around 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@jctai100]

@@stefan514 I'll give them slack as they're still setting up standardized protocols and staffing. Maybe they're trying to be the next ISO9001 or something, plus an organization needs to make money and that doesn't happen with hugely long videos.

[@improvisedradio]

18Ohms should be able to run just fine from any device. The sensitivity however can change how well they can be driven. I understand this is the chill channel but would like to see a bit more understanding of driving headphones. Otherwise very enjoyable! Wish I could try these out as I love planar magnetic headphones and speakers.

[@teqai]

Had to rewind and check if I heard correctly at that point as well :)

[@Garrettdx1988]

Right, I was kinda taken back when he said 18 wasn't that easy to drive

[@dyermaker4731]

Thank you for saying this

[@United_Kangaroo1992]

For context it's worth mentioning that apple buds are 40 ohms

[@KontrolStyle]

Not enough youtubers talk about how sensitivity can make people complain it's too quiet. cheers

[@yeahthatsright33]

I absolutely LOVE the fact that you guys can include proper frequency response graphs now. This just changed the quality of your guys reviews so so much!!!! Keep it up and please keep doing more of these headphone reviews! Please do the Monoprice Monolith M1070 and M1570! Absolutely nobody is really talking about those two headphones despite how massively popular their M1060 was.

[@mrsushi1192]

ill save you some time and just tell you that they arent great. M1060 was popular, but wasnt great either. Massive ringing at 6khz and awful timbre.

[@TheZaibs]

Up with this comment!

[@tylerkwiatkowski7767]

Love how he explained how different genres of music sounded on the headphones. Helps a lot as for a consumer that wants to enjoy their own music

[@imwithyou38]

i dont currently have the money to buy any crazy iem or head phones so i spent the 80 whgen i had it to get the aria's. the things i noticed with them is that rock music doesnt sound that great on them as they kinda blur the layers as the instruments are on top of each other which these iems is the thing they are probably the weakest at but thankfully i dont listen to a lot of rock anymore outside like linkin park. these iems are def very good for things like edm genres or hip hop...i dont really listen to other genres so i cant say how they are for other types. my best friend is a dj and a iem/headphone hoarder so ive got to hear some of the best possible sound stage for like deep house, i dont remmber what the headphones were called but there cost more than 1000 dollars and then he had it hooked up to a bulb amp which he literally bought 30-40 different bulbs if not more to get it exactly how he likes it which is extremely layered sounding as his ear can hear it(there are people whos ears cant actually distinguish the layers of a widely layered song) i listened to a track that i loved and just came out.....i heard the song once and i was in such awww that it literally ruined the song for me because it was perfect. one day i wanna be able to afford that kind of audio equipment as it really makes the music cause a trance like state due to how layers for things in certain types of edm music that it causes you to sink into the music more than normal.

[@vianhoho19]

14:17 what you should've been looking at are the Edition XS instead of the Sundara. They're IIRC $499 and sound-wise, they directly compete against the Venus. I honestly need to try the XS again because it's been so long but the Venus is legit for a brand's first planar headphone 👌🏼

[@WSlopeAggie]

To be honest, I haven't noticed much of a difference between Sundara and Edition XS. Not enough to get me to spend an extra $200.

[@JesseArt]

I'm happy to see planar magnetic headphones becoming more present on the average consumer market. For me, they always seemed like unobtanium until recently. That said, as a budget-minded individual, I'm not sure what to try first. Drop and HIFIMAN have several entry level headphones, the HE-X4 at $129, HE4XX at $189 and the HE5XX at $229 (USD), listed on their website. Could you guys possibly do a video comparison on the most affordable entry level planar magnetic headphones? The HE-X4 may seem like a bargain, but is it worth it to just save for a bit longer and get the HE4XX? What sets the HE4XX apart from the HE5XX? Is it worth the extra price premium?

[@harisonpunian3689]

He x4 is the best value of all of them, hifimans lower end product lineup is really strange and they're all fairly equivalent with different headbands

[@rustyshakelford1466]

I would not try the lower-end stuff besides T50rp and variants/mods; he400i and the like are just ok. If you can't afford the $500 or so for an edition XS I would try a planar IEM, something like an s12 or Zetian Wu would be only $100-150 and they sound amazing.

[@swordofdamoclesv285]

if you want a great entry planar, the HFM Sundara is a great place to start. If youre willing to spend a little more you can also get a Edition XS

[@jakeharms1386]

I adore my HE400i pair that I got about 5 years ago (has the old headband style) if their quality is still similar I’d recommend for sure

[@lain2236ad]

Pro tip, the x4 and 4xx practically share the same driver and enclosure. Find whichever 400 series from them and get it (technically the 400se is the best though it doesn't matter) The 5xx is worse

[@chrisk3127]

wasn't expecting a review on this, love that you mentioned strings IMO Planars do strings so much more naturally than dynamics but on the other hand I find dynamics to do things like drums more naturally

[@teqwar4600]

You miss-spelled "grift"

[@nachot6592]

The reason Sony, audio Technica and Sennheiser do not build stuff completely from metals is the weight. They have known for decades and this is precisely the main issue the Airpods max have. It looks fancy, but necks use muscles to maintain the posture in the end.

[@Lead_Foot]

Planar magnetic drivers themselves are rather heavy with all the rows of permanent magnets. Dan Clark Audio gets around it by using carbon fiber and titanium for everything else.

[@tbunreall]

Ya, but these are for listening at home. By the time they'd start to feel heavy you'd probably be done using them anyway

[@nickthaskater]

And then you end up with creaky plastic joints. My Sundara is more than comfortable enough for extended sessions despite the metal build.

[@RyTrapp0]

It really just depends, if you aren't going to have these on all day, that's a compromise we can make. It obviously makes sense that professional studio aimed phones are going to be more considerate of this.

[@simonrockstream]

you guys are delusional and have obviously never had a pair of well-built headphones on your head before. cmon guys.

[@Jacob-hl6sn]

It is good to see you guys measuring headphones and comparing them to the harman target curve.

[@RaphaelTsang]

I was very tempted to pick up a pair of these when I was in Hong Kong a couple months ago, but the stores that carried it were just a bit far away from where I was staying...they were selling for around $450 USD, which seemed like a much more reasonable pricepoint for these, maybe I'll pick up a pair the next time I fly back to HK :)

[@chestnutrice9855]

450 is a steal goddamn

[@RyTrapp0]

That's a REEAALLY well built headphone at $450! $600 is... fine... but $450 would be killer for these.

[@Digger-Nick]

No headset is worth $450 🤣

[@icarusix8750]

@@Digger-Nick To each their own (Also, headphone, not really a headset. no mic.)

[@Digger-Nick]

@@icarusix8750 Oh no mic? Even worse LOL

[@Gobeman]

Hoping to see (if you somehow manage to get one) a review on the Audeze Maxwell. As its finally shipping around the world finally. Overall a pretty decent wireless headset with 80 hours of battery. for some odd 300 usd

[@patchstep]

The ability to be able to respond to higher frequencies will probably reduce any “aliasing”-like analog artifacts at higher sample rates (that we use to get better anti-aliasing)

[@sidesaladaudio]

Love the labs and more audio science focus when it comes to headphone reviews (still super jealous of having the 5128. I want to experiment with one so bad), but there are errors and in some cases misleading information that you may want to iron out as you guys progress in audio reviews. Overall though, keep it up!

[@Fc-Construct]

It's definitely not an easy job for sure when it comes to reviewing headphones/IEMs. There's so much market competition, historical context, and technical explanation that needs to go into a really good review. Job gets harder if you don't have someone on the team who knows enough to help proofread, or is just going straight into the camera like Adam here. Curious to see how they develop more audio reviews in the future if they're going to continue being one-off Short Circuits like this or if there will be a more standardized series + learning video to come.

[@DarkBloodyFoxy]

Crinacle should be proud of how audio reviews on LMG have changed

[@theofficialczex1708]

This presenter makes a number of mistakes.

[@DarkBloodyFoxy]

@Carl Gunderson yes but they have improved a lot

[@RashidTak]

A minor correction. 18 Ohm is by itself, very low impedence. For reference, HD600 has an impedence of 300 ohm. And most off the shelf earphones/headphones have an impedence of atleast 32 ohm. So in a vacuum, higher impedence means more power needed to drive properly. But how difficult a headphone is to drive depends on impedence as well as sensitivity. So a high impedence low sensitivity headphone will be very difficult to drive. Anything below 100dB/mW is considered to be difficult to drive. Basically 18 Ohm and 100db/mW is a pretty easy headphone to drive and the headphone jack of most modern laptops should provide enough power to run it.

[@fahmieoracle]

Great review, I really like that you do subjective review first and mention the songs that you played, then go to objective review. This is a great start for the headphone review.

[@aquaventus]

Considering it is very simple to remove the drivers from the band, you could consider 3d printing your own parts and just slot in the drivers, if you really wanted to reduce the weight that is. Gives a lot of room for customization too. Considering this is from Moondrop, they will probably release a cheaper plasticky non-planar model later this year but with almost the same tunings.

[@MyouKyuubi]

no, it means that the headphones push out 6Hz to 80kHz, but that the signal from your PC is limited to 20Hz to 20kHz (Hence EFFECTIVE range), as most games, and music artists don't typically add noises to their music that exceed 20 kHz, etc... And though you can't necessarily HEAR below 20Hz, you can still FEEL below 20Hz in the form of a sense of "air pressure", which can be used artistically in music sometimes, and entertainment, to add a sense of rumble, or to simulate certain effects.

[@vivago727]

Awesome Video/First Impression/"Review". Thank you for this differentiated view, the frequency curves you mentioned, the other options that are out there etc. Keep it up. That's the content i'm here for

[@MayankJairaj]

3:37 "yo its a Tesla logo" Adam knew!

[@Nubcake500]

Loved the graphs for this video. As a non audio crazy person they helped a lot to understand what's being said!

[@sayacee5813]

lmao at the tesla logo, such foreshadowing

[@stalememe3305]

high-volume bass has always been a pet peeve of mine so these new lab results will be great for finding a pair of headphones that fit that niche, thank you!

[@lucidnonsense942]

You'll take my AKG's from my cold dead hands... I learned to mix on them, every studio uses them as the baseline... Whenever I put other cans on, i always keep asking myself - but what did the sound engineer meant to make them sound like and 9/10 they had some AKG 2xx on. Because clients nick headphones and those are cheap enough not to bankrupt you while sounding like your studio monitors.

[@Cahtah]

Thank you for actually giving us a reference audio track to come to at home!

[@Alepap.]

2:32 No what they mean is that it does 6hz to 80khz but the human ear can hear from 20hz to 20khz

[@mst4001]

yoooo moondrop!!!! i m glad comment session s almost full of ppl who knows abt audiophile things well. sometimes there r just ppl dont know anything about these and start criticizing like they know abt these even b4 they were born.

[@EdwardElric6464]

18 Ohm is super low BTW. Moondrop Aria IEMs are 32 Ohm but have 113db sensitivity. Planar magnetic sensitivity is typically low which is what makes them hard to drive but 100db is fine actually. Most Hifiman headphone are in the low to mid 90s are more demanding. My Philips audio SHP 9600s are 32 Ohm & 100db but they're dynamic drivers. 32 Ohm is like the standard for low impedance anything lower is even easier to drive. For instance the 32 Ohm Beyrdynamic DT 770 is the lowest impedance version of that headphone and most people while tell you even the 80 Ohm version will run out of almost anything maybe even a phone, partly because of the high sensitivity. The more DB per watt and the lower the Ohms the easier to drive.

[@jeevana.6391]

I don't think Sennheiser's lack of IEMs was because of a challenge, but rather trying to focus on better selling items. Their IE80s were famous, and the 800s were a good followup minus the attached cable. The IE600 and IE900 have both reviewed very well and are current models.

[@gunter901]

I thought exactly the same.

[@sujimayne]

This guy shouldn't be reviewing anything, he was so wrong in almost everything he said throughout the video.

[@WSlopeAggie]

@@sujimayne I found myself extremely annoyed. You can tell from his facial expressions and eyes darting around that this is not his natural spot and it's like 50/50 bad script and him just making shit up.

[@KopfdesRiesen]

Pretty sure they all reviewed pretty good but aren’t like killer iems for their pricepoint and sony is only using mmcx. Id pass on Sony iems i wasn’t happy with my X3NPs

[@Skiptrac3]

*Sigh* I hate that he said "18 ohms is kinda hard to drive". This has NO context and is factually false information. The Moondrop Venus are rated at 18 Ohms, 100dBa/mW Sensitivity. You have 2 factors to how "Easy" it is to drive a Headphone. Resistance and Sensitivity. The lower your Resistance (Ohms) the easier it is to drive. The Higher your Sensitivity (dBa/mW) the easier it is to drive. At 100dBa/mW it takes 1mW of power to output 100dB of sound, and at 18 Ohms, that's REALLY easy. And, 100dB of sound is VERY loud. For context, a pair of Apple Earpods is rated at 32Ohms, 104dBa/mW. So, in a way, it's EASIER to drive the Venus than it is OG Earpods. Please @ShortCircuit team, next time you do a Wired headphone or IEM review, please keep this in mind.

[@KontrolStyle]

Loving all the knowers coming in and sharing cheers

[@pokelij]

What he said was 18 ohms isn't the easiest to drive, which is correct because if you have a source, such as like a dx3 pro or something with tubes, that has a high Output Impedance it wouldn't pair well. In addition most headphone amps are voltage source so technically the higher the impedance a headphone is given the same sensitivity, the easier it is to drive

[@RyTrapp0]

"This has NO context" Because you LITERALLY took it out of context by excluding the rest of what he said..........

[@SaveMeAzathoth]

You misread the sensitivity btw. It’s 100dB/V not dB/mW, which plugging into a headphone power calculator spits out 56mW to get 100dB; 1 mW gets you 80dB. But for a real world comparison, my experience running these is that for reasonable listening levels these basically run fine with the volume set to the same level as I would for a pair of HD6XX. So while there are *some* amplification requirements, they aren’t especially hard to meet.

[@eddie2000ad]

I find a variety of scatman john songs an extremely good benchmark for testing headphones, huge variety and range in frequencies through his discography and a lot of nice little details easily missed on not so good sound systems, also was not expecting the gojira pick too, i trust his opinion on headphones purely on the music choice alone lol

[@LostHope...]

man i want a set of moondrops so bad

[@plompudu2529]

if you want any kind of moondrops you should check out the Moondrop Quarks DSP IEM. (For only ~20€ !!) They have thanks to the DSP/ in build EQ a basically perfect sound if you like the Harman-Taget (aka what the average Human likes). The only disadvantage is slight background noise in silent scenes but that's no problem when listening to music^^

[@grdprojekt]

2:40 "impedance 18 ohm, which isn't the easiest to drive" What? That's like IEM territory ffs. 32 ohm headphones are common for the low to mid range market. Even the $5000 Meze Empyrian & Elite which are also planar magnetic are 32 ohm, and they're easy to drive out of a laptop, phones. 18 ohm + 100dB sensitivity should be one of the easiest thing to drive.

[@strobo3737]

Great to see some Chi-fi from you guys, I hope to see more of it in the future, even something within the budget area

[@scienceyoshi3037]

I love seeing all these headphone reviews, but I would love to see a review for something like the Astro A40s just to see how a "more affordable" headphone compares to something like the Sennheisers.

[@sovic20]

I have planar-magnetics HiFiMAN HE400i for more than 5 years and I'm very happy with them. Only thing is that I had to buy a new headband (the plastic part on one earcup broke) and replace earpads. I went for Mrspeakers Alpha pads and the bass is much much better. The build of these Moondrop's Venus looks very good

[@PaulTheFox1988]

18ohm impedance is really really low for over ear headphones, a normal value for impedance for gaming headsets for reference is 32ohm and my DT770 pro's are 80ohm, high impedance would be 250ohm+

[@WSlopeAggie]

18ohm is pretty standard for a planar though. They're notoriously low impedance, extremely high sensitivity. Hence why low-end amps struggle with them.

[@PaulTheFox1988]

@@WSlopeAggie high sensitivity implies easy to drive no? Highly sensitive means that it reacts more strongly to weak signals, unless I'm completely wrong? I'd be happy for someone to correct me if I am. I was kind of frustrated by his blanket statement of 18ohm being high, and it is if you're used to speakers or earbuds, but not headphones. It's what you meant though (regardless of language used) that planar magnetic headphones need high power to drive them due to their sensitivity, and impedance is just 1 measure of a speakers ability to be driven loud. :)

[@WSlopeAggie]

@@PaulTheFox1988 My bad, I did mean lower sensitivity, yeah

[@PaulTheFox1988]

@@WSlopeAggie no worries, I was questioning myself cause I wasn't entirely sure either lol

[@thegrizzler534]

You could say that those headphones are ... Moondroppable

[@murisio]

the only complain i have regarding moondrop is the quality of their cables, except for the ssr/ssp and the 3.5mm jack cable looks quite similar to the moondrop aria... it probably will be problematic

[@h.m.chuang0224]

@Carl Gunderson IDK, like everything else you use?

[@murisio]

@Carl Gunderson the quality in general is amazing they just have this small caveat

[@johnnyk3917]

I’d love a tech quickie video on how to understand and read the graphs used in videos

[@pmatous]

Not gonna lie, the way they look like with all of those sharp angles, edges, cheese graters and screws makes them a no-go in my book, it seems more like a result of rough blacksmithing rather than precise engineering. (Maybe I'm just not a target audience.)

[@signalshiz]

I love wood headphones, those usually cost a lot for nice looking open backs with good sound. I don't like all that metal also.

[@TJWhiteStar]

Getting some serious Dr Who Cyberman vibes with how these look. 😂

[@andresgallego5727]

The 5XX are also a great option, probably a little less sophisticated in some areas compared to the Sundaras, but they do most of the work the Sundaras do for a 100$ less, the real difference to me is the QC and materials, Sundaras are made of metal and have the new kind of headband, meanwhile the 5xx cups are made of plastic and they have the now ancient og Hifiman headband with some adjustments.

[@ConnorHammond]

8:00 I gotta disagree. Planar magnetics WILL change your life if they're your taste. Their harmonic distortion recreation (great for stringed instruments) and smooth, natural sub-bass sounds so pleasing to me.

[@WSlopeAggie]

Gotta agree here. The only dynamics I've listened to that effectively reach planar level are the Sennheiser HD6xx and 58x series. That's it.

[@WhyitJellyDonut]

With Senhiesers newest release of the 660s2 they would be the most direct competition in terms of price at least

[@MyouKyuubi]

The Sundara is good enough for me. :] It's got the perfect price, immersive sound profile, treble centric (without being fatiguing, obviously), and therefore, great for gaming, as it images almost as well as an HD 800 S, etc... It's the perfect planar headphone for a gamer that enjoys music and isn't filthy rich.

[@Mandragara]

One thing about planars is that they are much easier to iteratively design and tune compared to dynamic drivers. So smaller companies can afford to 'play' with their designs more, leading to a more varied product landscape

[@mr.guillotine1312]

Really good information and breakdown. Labs is paying off for sure. I could never even dream of spending this much on headphones...I'm usually stuck looking for sales on MPows lol, so this is not in my budget.

[@imwithyou38]

what kind of muysic do u listen to? if you listen to things like edm genres or hip hop i would highly suggest the moon drop auras at 80 dollars but if you are a big rock fan i wouldnt recommend them as the the instruments are on the same layer it struggles to pick it up cleanly

[@mr.guillotine1312]

@@imwithyou38 I listen to primarily rap, but with some rock tossed in there. Honestly, my cheap MPows have been pretty decent for the most part. I'm sure I could find much better, but since I paid like $12 for these, I can't complain too much since they do handle most things at least "decently"...not great at any one thing, but nothing is really bad either.

[@WSlopeAggie]

Not good information, actually. He was quite off on a lot of stuff.

[@MarioLuigi0404]

I got the Void personally. Super happy with it.

[@bobbyhinner3225]

These look beautiful. I have a pretty wide head and don't like heavy headphones because my ears are sensitive, but I'd love to try them.

[@Mussyo18]

I suggest you also include the Harman curve as a separate line, it is what most other things are measured by and what we generally measure against and aim for. Would it be possible to include both yours and the Harman curve?

[@ShaneT5S]

I’m glad the HiFiMAN Sundara were brought up, because yeah, they’re half the price of these, but they still sound amazing

[@tastypavo8845]

You guys should really do reviews of older headphones and classics headphones, i would watch all of them!

[@OzWizard.]

With the Drivers being removable, you could make your own stap or holder and design your own headphones!

[@flikflak24]

Love planar magnetic Already own 3 planar's and I like them over my hd800s ( I own 2 in ear planar 1 in ear dynamic 1 over ear planar and one over ear dynamic )

[@imwithyou38]

hd800s are imposters and not worth the price, real hd800's is my dream headphone but i will never be able to afford that kind of thing. ive listened to a lot of expensive head phones due to my best friend is a dj and a music equipment hoarder as he has at least 4-5 headphones in the 800-1000+ range. i dont remember which headphones that were but i remember him saying they are aorund 1000(he bought them used for 600 i think) but those with the bulb amp and how it was set up was as perfect as it could be for heavily layered edm music. i was in complete awe when listening to a certian deep house track and it ended up literally ruining the song for me because i dont have anything near that to be able to get that kind of sound. i just have the aria's and for what i could afford im happy with them, i dont listen to rock music much which is the arias biggestr weakness is closely layered things like instruments dont come as clear as they would on anything ive ever owned but since i listen to mostly hip hop and edm genres they are pretty good considering they are 80 dollars

[@flikflak24]

@@imwithyou38 i bought mine brand new in a audio store for 1520 ( got friday discount cause it was right before closing and the guy wanted to go home xD ) btw they where/is fully authorized sennheiser sellers

[@ernestryles]

Sennheiser has MULTIPLE good IEMs. Like quite a few lol both wired and TWS.

[@mr.bennett108]

I have a set of vintage Audeze LCD-2's and I can say that Planar Magnetics are dope, and these look a LOT like my OGs. Only thing about ribbon headphones is that they require a bunch of power to drive, so you can't really just dump them into your phone and call it good, they need a pretty good amp to get the best out of them. Same with my Planar speakers (I have some Magnepan 1.7i's). Super inefficient and need a ton of wattage to drive them.

[@Garrettdx1988]

ShortCircuit finally doing ChiFi? I'm here for it Edit: what'd he say about 18 Ohms not being that easy to drive?

[@giancarloraphaeldeguzman8613]

What doee ChiFi mean?

[@randomname00001]

​@@giancarloraphaeldeguzman8613it's a play on hifi. This is a Chinese brand thus the naming of chifi

[@dyermaker4731]

@@giancarloraphaeldeguzman8613 Chinese hifi

[@Garrettdx1988]

​​@@giancarloraphaeldeguzman8613 Chinese Hifi. Companies like Moondrop, Fiio, Tripowin, KZ, Truthear, etc have been coming out with killer audio equipment and in the last year that particular market has gotten insanely competitive. It's been an exciting time for us audio nerds

[@KontrolStyle]

early in comments "18Ohms should be able to run just fine from any device. The sensitivity however can change how well they can be driven." They didn't talk about how they were driven though, but as you see he did use dac/amp in the video -- but if you're spending $600 on headphones you probably have some kind of dac/amp (right?) cheers.

[@kylerclarke2689]

Saying that Sennheiser only has one good IEM is insane. Their entire new IE refresh has been pretty well received

[@AarPlays]

I can't wait to see labs actually do the frequency response graph and to see if it actually stands out or if that was an eq'ed curve

[@BingsBuddery]

Very well presented and explained... I found the frequency analysis particularly interesting and would love to see this kind of analysis done to find the ultimate budget headphone, both for gaming, and for audiophile music listening.

[@sidesaladaudio]

Koss KSC75. Pretty much the audiophile hidden gem for $19

[@RichardBreen]

I think that it would make sense to plot the difference vs the target, rather than putting both the headphone response and the target on the same graph. Otherwise, great info.

[@xBris]

Adam is a really underappreciated host. Great video!

[@The4valanche]

Is he? I have a hard time following him. He gives the vibe of "oh we're filming? I didn't know about that. Let me just play along. He keeps touching himself throughout the video absentmindedly. He has his hands and the product in front of his face all the time, so I don't even see him while he's trying to talk to me. Feels weird. I like the dude, he just needs to get some experience, and lean into 'presenting' a tiny bit. Rn it feels like I'm his dad and have startled him in his room with something he's trying to explain to me.

[@Paz_Soldan]

Listening to him talk about this was fascinating. Beyond the headphones.

[@lucca10000]

I really think you guys should unbox the headphones Audeze Maxwell A planar magnetic wireless gamer headphone that seems like everyone is praising it a lot and saying that the only flaw is the heat and weight

[@SeraphimKnight]

I've heard a lot of good things about moondrop so honestly I'm tempted to drop the dosh for these.

[@AdamHansen95]

@10:29 , i looked at the song Aja by Steely Dan, can confirm it is a triangle

[@NCPhotography]

Thanks for the freedom unit conversion!

[@Zer0sVoid]

Can't wait for Moondrop to make a more affordable version of this.

[@Armathius76]

When you do the comparing graphs... could you use more distinct colors? I am color blind and really had a hard time differntiating the 2 colors... don't really need to have such close colors when their is only 2 tests.

[@CressNess]

As much as I like my Kato, I've had a few years and am still in pristine condition. If I wanted open back planers I go for Hifiman as they have been known for planar and moondrop is just getting into err and Kato are there 3rd gen dynamic driver so they more then likely improve there planer over ears over time.

[@KeyringHardhat]

The dinging arrows were certainly a choice, good video other than that ❤

[@annebokma4637]

Yups not giving up my hifiman Deva pro 😊 can't go without the versatility of bt or usb of analog in one planar headphone

[@jamesorrell7462]

Worth noting that ohms don't really mean much in terms of how easy they are to drive. Planars are generally super low inpedence. For context, Earpods are 37ohms. You want to look at sensitivity. 82.55 dB/mW SPL is hard to drive. I highly doubt an Apple dongle would be able to drive these, especially the Apple dongles in the EU market.

[@Frigobar_Ranamelonico]

I would love to see you try the Hifiman arya stealth, personally from my experience are my favourite magnetic planar HP that I have ever tried.

[@Eleven5Five]

If I am not mistaken, isn't 18 Ohms really low? Like the Apple default earbuds are higher than that. When Adam says that might be hard to drive, did he mean 180 Ohms? I used HD58X's on my iPhone using the dongle which is 150 Ohms and it worked fine. There was zero headroom, but it worked.

[@kennyvaas1336]

Impedance is hardly relevant. Sensitivity matters way more. 18 ohm or 600 ohm says little about the power needed.

[@WSlopeAggie]

@@kennyvaas1336 All impedance tells you is what you should opt for to ensure you get an amp that'll fit.

[@stevek662]

hifiman does a pretty good job in this price range. the v6? whatever it was. i had them. they broke after 2-3 years of daily use. i was sad. did not replace because there is quite a bit of familiarization to headphones and having something good will sound fine and having something great will sound good, over time. basically, great headphones will amaze you at the start and then become normal and then become average. i mean, unless they are much more expensive than any of these sets.

[@kylestewart4444]

I’ve never actually tried a pair of open back headphones. I love the idea of them but practically speaking, I’m not sure they make a ton of sense for me. For being out in public, I don’t really want the sounds of the outside world to bleed so heavily into whatever I’m listening to. I also don’t really want everyone around me to have to hear what I’m listening to as it leaks through my headphones. If I’m at home and sound leaking out isn’t an issue, I’m typically just using my speakers. If I’m at home and my wife is asleep but I’m in the other room playing a game or just listening to music, I’m typically trying to keep things very quiet, such that I won’t wake her up. So closed backs allow me to use as much volume as I want without disturbing her. Basically, if sound is no problem, I stick to my speakers. If sound is a concern, I use headphones which isolate the sound to my ears alone. Using a pair of open back headphones is basically no different from using a small set of loudspeakers. I still definitely want to get a high end pair of open backs because I’m sure the listening experience in a quiet room must be awesome. They just don’t seem like to most practical purchase. But that’s never stopped me before.

[@sidesaladaudio]

I think the presenter may be a bit more familiar with loudspeakers specs, which would explain some of the comments regarding the headphone specs. They are quite different and even produce sound in a different manner as well. So a lot of information could be remedied by diving into headphone audio theory rather than relying on speakers knowledge

[@Joullele9]

I noticed that as well. 18ohms is extremely low for a full sized headphone. He also didn't mention the sensitivity spec. I have 2 pairs that get almost the same kind of loudness with similar power even though the other one is 250ohm headphone and the other 38ohm. They have very different sensitivities and my phone can't drive them loud enough with the apple usb-c dongle.

[@laurineder9939]

I know they are launched for a while now, but can you maby check out the Sennheiser momentum 4?

[@colinedits9892]

For reference 18 ohms is quite easy to run on iPhone. EarPods are 40 and I’ve comfortably run 100 ohm iems using it

[@UnKnown1631]

Is that some Code Lyoko background music ? It's the same melody at least 👀

[@stalkholm5227]

If you want to try planar magnetics, and you want a bit more bass, look up the Hifiman HE-4XX, those things are gold. (Make sure you get the 2020 version, not the 2018 version.)

[@KTT94]

Had a pair for awhile and they had zero sub bass. What it did have was a lot of slam which kinda fools you into thinking that it had bass. Bass starts to take a massive dip after 50 hz (-10 dp at 10 hz).

[@stalkholm5227]

@@KTT94 Really? I mean, I agree with you about "slam," I think; I would say that I felt the bass in my rib cage, the sound traveled, but I'm not sure I agree with you about the sub bass. ...unfortunately my HE-4XX currently resides in a grocery bag, in pieces, because it was made back when HiFi-Man had absolutely no QC, so I can't check. I liked mine, but I can't contest your experience.

[@lordseppenstein2559]

Thank you... finally someone talking abaout Metal when it comes to headphones!

[@engineer9975]

Thanks for the peanut butter reference. I was sitting in the office, and my peanut butter jar was on my desk. These are Heavy.

[@thejackal007]

Adam (and other hosts at LMG), can you start including info on how comfortable headphones might be for someone that wears glasses? These headphones look great to me but if the cup fits too tightly, then it might press too much on the part of the glasses the cup covers and that might make it uncomfortable enough to make someone who wears glasses all day to skip them.

[@SaveMeAzathoth]

fyi, the clamp force on these is pretty light. If you have thick frames you might actually worry more about whether the glasses are preventing the pads from sealing properly rather than about the headphones pressing the glasses into your head.

[@thejackal007]

@@SaveMeAzathoth A fair point as well. It's a bit of a balancing act finding headphones that tick all the right boxes.

[@Badonicus]

Should have had Anthony review, he has the neck of a redwood

[@jhguitarfreak2172]

I'd love to see a pair of Sony MDR-7506s and Sony WF-1000XM4s ran through your guys' testing rig. Just so I could have a frame of reference. I've been using 7506s for *years*, decades even, as my go to for gold standard studio monitors. I use the XM4s for casual stuff but on occasion I have used them to master a few things. Would be cool to see their comparison so I could EQ the XM4s to sound more like the 7506s, even though I know there's only so much you can do with an EQ.

[@AnimotionTheRock]

"18 Ohms isn't the easiest thing to drive" ...That's one of the lowest impedance level you can have in a headphone. the iphone earbuds are 18 ohms.

[@RemitheDreamfox]

Also I do highly recommend the Sundara headphones

[@beliveinurself]

Love seeing the FR. But... please review some gaming kit. Crin, Resolve, Oratory and more cover the audiophile stuff ad nauseum. Meanwhile, who knows that the EPOS H6 Pro FR looks like. A headphone which probably outsells most of the audiophile stuff 10 to 1!

[@bastien-]

You guys always show graphs and talk about numbered specs & EQs to represent sounds. But those are meaningless for the majority of people who don't already know what they represent. Instead, you should provide examples of what those different number ranges represent. Show us where an acoustic guitar lands on the graph/EQ, or vocals, or drums, etc. When you say "At such-and-such khz...", show us what real world sounds actually happen there.

[@rinkyouma2320]

I have the Moondrop Chu. It's awesome for the price!

[@IKEACherryChair]

cant believe linus is letting you show us your venus 😳

[@Formedras]

3:21 That means Quality Control inspector #5 approved of it. But be careful... Inspector #5 let Bender Bending Rodriguez through even though he was built without his backup system.

[@FinneasJedidiah]

That's a ride cymbal that you're hearing in Aja by Steely Dan

[@Diijkstra]

Damn this is a very good review. given he's an audiophile also (from AMD Ultimate Tech Upgrade) More audio stuff please!