Cans - Blue Ella

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H20nly
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Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Fri Dec 24, 2021 10:54 pm

I’ve been using Beyer Dynamic DT 770 to record vocals (comfy) and Audio Technica M50 (good response) for mixing for years. Both sets are getting pretty old (about 10 years) and starting to have various flaws… Vinyl coming off of padding, a little static in the cord, static in a speaker if volume is too high, etc.

I figure it is time to buy a new set, so I hit up my Sweetwater rep… He recommended Blue Ella planar headphones. Anyone have experience to share about these?

It’s a toss up between those and Beyer Dynamic 770 X Pro for me… but a straight up replacement for either of my old sets would work too - and save me some loot. Thoughts are appreciated… Thanks in advance

Edit: studio use only, mix/record, no traveling
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by Tarekith » Sat Dec 25, 2021 1:05 am

Going to be buying some new cans too shortly, so subscribing as those Ellas look interesting.

I was eyeing the Audeze LCD-XC myself.
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Sat Dec 25, 2021 7:38 am

Thanks for the bump.

Sweet water rep loves the Blue Ellas. He typically steers me right. I started looking at reviews in various spots, but most folks were blathering on about audio quality from an audiophile/gamer/everyday listening perspective. How well they work with an iPod/iPhone or for Call of Duty is irrelevant for my goals. The few reviews I read where someone was coming at it from a music production angle were using Sony or Sennheiser cans prior. The reviews were good, but I was hoping to find a closer direct comparison to what I know. Figured I could get a more reliable .02 here

I’ll check those Audeze out. If you’re interested, then at least I’m in the right lane. Mastering is more aligned with my goals. I love my old cans… but, they’re old af
LoopStationZebra wrote:it's like a hipster commie pinko manifesto. Rambling. Angry. Nearly divorced from all reality; yet strangely compelling with a ring of truth.

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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by v00d00ppl » Sat Dec 25, 2021 3:22 pm

I just got the DT 770 Pro X. I run it on two setups.

Setup 1: mixing, mastering, EQ surgery. I use a little labs monitor mastering grade headphone amp. I can pick up a lot of nuances in ambient mics in superior drummer 3. I can also notice the .5dB cut / boost in EQ frequencies well.

Setup 2: edrumming with my Roland TD50x. There’s a headphone amp also built in this module. These sets of cans capture my ghost hits better and also the ambient mics.
Also if I drum for an hour straight the velour keeps me cool.

Let me know if you got the Blue headphones and what you think.
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by [jur] » Sun Dec 26, 2021 2:19 pm

But, do you want to learn a new pair of headphones?
If you like and feel confident with your old ones, why not replacing them with fresh ones?
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Sun Jan 02, 2022 1:38 am

That’s a fair question… But a flat response is the goal right? If my old headphones or the new ones add enough nuances that swapping them out would require a lot of acclimating to, then one of the sets in question isn’t helping me mix - they’re coloring the audio

I guess that’s the essence of my OP. Will the Blue cans be better to mix with??
LoopStationZebra wrote:it's like a hipster commie pinko manifesto. Rambling. Angry. Nearly divorced from all reality; yet strangely compelling with a ring of truth.

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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Sun Jan 02, 2022 1:56 am

v00d00ppl wrote:
Sat Dec 25, 2021 3:22 pm
I just got the DT 770 Pro X. I run it on two setups.

Setup 1: mixing, mastering, EQ surgery. I use a little labs monitor mastering grade headphone amp. I can pick up a lot of nuances in ambient mics in superior drummer 3. I can also notice the .5dB cut / boost in EQ frequencies well.

Setup 2: edrumming with my Roland TD50x. There’s a headphone amp also built in this module. These sets of cans capture my ghost hits better and also the ambient mics.
Also if I drum for an hour straight the velour keeps me cool.

Let me know if you got the Blue headphones and what you think.
I love how comfy the Beyer Dynamics are. Unfortunately, mine have some static in one ear, so I only use them to record vocals. It doesn’t kick in until they’re too loud for that, but here and there while jumping around to different parts while mixing it shows up and also any time I crank the volume.

I did order the Blue Ellas…. Hopefully they’ll sound as great as the rep suggested.
I’ll let you know what I think…
LoopStationZebra wrote:it's like a hipster commie pinko manifesto. Rambling. Angry. Nearly divorced from all reality; yet strangely compelling with a ring of truth.

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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by Tarekith » Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:47 am

I ordered the LCD-XC's and will report back as well :)
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by Shift Gorden » Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:38 pm

Looking forward to the first impressions!

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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:56 am

Ok… So first impressions of the Blue Ella cans…

The first thing I noticed while unboxing them was the [detachable] cable was coated with braided nylon. Neither my Beyer Dynamics or my Audio Technica had a detachable cable and they certainly weren’t covered with braided nylon. So this was a plus right out the box.

They come with a second cord, with the same nylon coating, that has controls that can be used to play/pause music and adjust volume. It could be that if you plug them directly into a Mac or PC onboard sound card that you could use or assign the play/pause button in Live… I didn’t bother testing that though because I will be plugging them into an Apogee Duet and cannot fathom those controls working across all the various inputs involved.

The headphones are heavy. They weigh at least twice as much as my Audio Technica ATH-M50. Having said that, they have a really cool, really easy system for adjusting them. You can do it while they are on your head, no problem. It is smooth and fluid but not loose or sloppy. The weight distribution is really good and compensates for the weight in hand nicely. The padding is beefy and legit. Overall they are not as comfortable as the Beyer Dynamics, but I am not sure anything is. The ear cups are ear shaped and more roomy than the Audio Technica M50… and for this reason more comfortable. Even with the extra weight, I feel as though I can wear them longer than the AT headphones. Again, the weight is balanced quite well by the (“smart”) head band and without the ear cups bearing down on my ears over time, the way the AT cans do. I believe I could get away with wearing them longer… certainly as long. The weight is much more noticeable in-hand than on-head. I have not worn them for an extremely long session, but for my needs the comfort is decent and, at least at this point, nothing to complain about… Time may tell a different story.

These headphones have an amp. This worried me a little since I want them for mixing and an amp, at least in my mind, implies they might be bass heavy - I’ll get to sound later. The amp and planar magnets essentially mean that the headphones have to be charged. This isn’t a plus, but it makes sense and they supposedly have 12 hours of listening time. There is a setting to turn it off, but the volume takes a big hit and dips quite a bit. There is a setting (On) for standard mixing/listening. There is a setting (On+) for more juice - this is for iPod/iPhone type listening and I don’t care about this and didn’t bother exploring it for fear of coloration of the audio - it seems to add a little bass which makes sense in the portable music player space. These settings are set by a knob - that knob is a ring around the headphone cable input on the typical left ear piece . It’s easy to find and easy to adjust… it’s notched and you can tell without issue that you turned it - even if audio is turned off at the DAW. The smartest thing they did here was design them to turn off when you take them off. So if you set them down or hang them around your neck (as long as the ear pads are touching), the power to the amp/drivers is off - when the tension is returned from placing them on your noggin (or spreading them apart), the power turns back on. I noticed no negative lag time in this - they’re on when they’re on (your head). 
On your neck, you can turn them off, but it requires pulling down on the cups a little (neck size and body type might affect this)… This has the negative result of changing the adjustment of them… but this is almost completely neutralized by the fact that they are SO EASY to adjust.

There are lights on the side of the ear cups to let you know they are on, but those lights are not bright or annoying and simply soft white. These lights also act as indicators to let you know if they are charging and/or if the battery is getting low - they pulse while charging or when it’s time to think about charging. The light is solid when they are charged and/or on.

Without getting into sound yet, the coolest thing about them is the way they sit. The have arm bars that come off the headband and reach to the center of the speaker. Those bars are bent in such a way that they act as a kind of elbow that the cans can lean back and rest on. They take up less room when you take them off and they’re in a good position to pick up and put on quickly without being sloppily laid out the way headphones typically are - where the cord somehow mysteriously manages to get tangled across them. I suppose this also makes them less of an eyesore for OCD significant others or owners too. Something about it makes sense to me and I really appreciate this feature. If there is a negative to it, it might be in some way related to using them for DJ-ing… but these don’t seem like a good fit for that anyway - at least not compared to other tried and true models in that scope. In essence, these aren’t headphones for tossing off or to the side while you dig - like Sony MDR series would be. They sit up and are ready to be put back on when they’re not on your neck/head.

Now, the sound… I cannot find my headphone input splitter, the Duet only has one jack, so A/B testing was a little less smooth than I would have liked because of unplugging/plugging and replacing the headphones took longer than I would like - especially with 3 sets of cans. I used a track I’m currently working on and I’m very familiar with at the moment. The first thing I noticed was how difficult it was to tell much of difference between them all. This is a good thing though… too much of a jump would be a negative. After lots of back and forth, I finally noticed the biggest difference was in one particular kick drum. The Blue Ella didn’t have as much boom in that drum… the response seemed more natural - I could hear the drum, not the bass… but this wasn’t negative at all. The more I compared the more I realized that I was hearing it properly. The only thing that was really immediately noticeable in this testing is that the Ellas are actually just a smidge quieter than both the Beyer Dynamics and the ATH-M50s… to a point. When I started cranking up the volume the Ellas were ready to take on more and more. The only thing that stopped me from being able to stay at max volume for long was that the highs started to get harsh. Just like with the bass though, this didn’t sound like a flaw in the headphones at all. It seemed much more believable that this was a flaw in the drum sample I used for the track - in other words, I need to EQ the highs. This is exactly the kind of thing we turn to cans to learn/hear while we mix. To be clear, they’re keepers. I felt like they are more true to the mix than the other 2 sets.

TL;DR
Sound is excellent and not colored.
Headphones are heavy in hand, but the adjustments are simple and effective and distribute the weight nicely.

Closest thing to real con, for my workflow, I can come up with at the moment… they’re not great for hanging around the neck. If you go from head to neck to head and back quickly, not a big deal. If you plan on hanging them around your neck for an extended period they are a little bulky… but you can pull forward on them and the problem evaporates. You have to adjust them when you put them back on though… BUT this is so easy to do - extra easy. I feel like it’s worth mentioning and expounding on again because it’s different than what I (and probably most people reading this) would be used to. It’s too soon to say for sure, but I get the sense that this might not be a pro or con so much as an adjustment (figuratively and literally)… It’s just different.

My music partner is coming over tomorrow for a recording session. So I will use these in that scenario for several hours and might change my opinions… If I do, I’ll report back. Currently, no regrets.
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Sun Jan 09, 2022 6:42 am

I like them even more after the recording session today. We used them while tracking the guitar riffs. My partner was taken aback.
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by Tarekith » Sun Jan 09, 2022 4:06 pm

Thanks for the write up! My LCD-XCs arrived yesterday, but I realized I forgot to order the correct cable for them! In the middle of a big move, lots going on, doh! I will say the LCDs are not as heavy as I was expecting based on the reviews.
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Thu Jan 27, 2022 2:13 am

@Tarekith - have you had a chance to put some miles on them yet??
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by Tarekith » Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:49 pm

Yes, though not as many as I had hoped by now. General thoughts:

- The weight is not as bad as I expected based on the reviews I read. They're definitely not light, but they distribute the weight well and haven't bothered me on longer listening sessions. Ear pads are nice and comfy too, though there's not a ton of clamping force so not something you'd want to walk around in or try to use while laying down.

- Despite being only 20ohms, they need about 2V to drive them properly. They sound really nice connected directly to my 2021 M1 MBP, but once I use a proper headphone amp they really have more impact. Low end has more presence, they just sound a bit fuller.

- Details baby, details. Since these are planar headphones, the details and transients they deliver is unlike anything I've heard before. Even compared to my mastering monitors, they are so sharp and precise listening to albums I know inside and out revealed I did not know them inside and out :)

- Sort of related to the above point, they can almost be TOO sharp around 2-4kHz at louder volumes. I think this is more me being used to how my SE846's sound and less a fault of the LCD-XCs. They're just voiced in a more modern style where the mids are a bit more upfront than I'm used to. As a result I actual EQ these a bit with my RME UFX+, using broad EQ curves to reduce 1dB around 3kHz and give me a small 1dB boost below 120Hz. Again, they have tons of sub bass, but my SE846's are known for being very bass forward while still being accurate, so that's just what I'm used to.

All in all I'm really happy with these, they work better than I thought they would and are well worth the price. Already done some mastering work on them for fun, and comparing the results to my mastering monitors there was nothing I would have approached differently.
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Re: Cans - Blue Ella

Post by H20nly » Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:11 pm

Tarekith wrote:
Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:49 pm
they can almost be TOO sharp around 2-4kHz at louder volumes
this is the same thing I experience with the Ellas. I wonder if this is more a planar accuracy quality than anything else - sort of a 'what you've been missing' type trait


Glad you're digging them.
If you'd have told me back in the 00's that I'd drop this kind of loot on a pair of headphones, I'd have laughed in your face. Having said that, no regrets on my purchase - none.

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