Cans - Blue Ella

[Tarekith]

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

Honestly I think it's just the trend of modern music and speaker systems to be more midrange focused lately. I know the open back LCDs are known for being a bit darker, so I don't think it's just a planar side effect. Maybe I'm wrong though, this is my first experience with this type of headphone too.

[H20nly]

Good point. It will be interesting after getting used to them with the passage of time to switch back to a tried and true classic pair

[H20nly]

So... chiming back in here in case anyone is still interested...

After a couple of weeks of having these, the comfort and sound still make me quite happy. The reason I decided to post is about the battery... The planar magnet needing power is a bit of a drag.

It seems as thought the battery is draining while they are idle. It might be a support issue and I'll probably dig in to that at some point, in case I just got unlucky...

I am not a fan of finding out the headphones need a charge when I reach for them. They charge really fast, but the battery is sill new... so actual mileage may vary - and diminish.

As much as I like these, I might go ahead and purchase a traditional set of cans that don't rely on a micro-USB cable at any point in their life. When inspiration strikes or during a recording session, the last thing I want is a set of cans that need me to wait for them to eat. When I'm mixing, waiting 10 minutes to charge them up and/or using a charging cable (too) isn't that big a deal, I can always just use my monitors in the interim... But during recording sessions, it's a show stopper. I'll probably still reach for these first... but I'm about 1 more of those moments from ordering a set of plan B (AT-M50 or Beyer Dynamics)

[Tarekith]

That's a bummer about the battery, not something you'd normally have to think about.

Sorry dude.

[H20nly]

It’s not been too bad or show stopping at any level… yet. Worth considering for anyone thinking of going this route with cans.

@Tarekith - what about your new ones? Do they have to be charged?

[Tarekith]

Nope standard cans here, just plug and play. Though they do need a bit of power to get them to really express the low end all the way, so not something you'd want to use with a relatively decent headphone amp or sound card with decently powered headphone outs.

[H20nly]

So, it's worth posting for anyone looking at these headphones in the future. I had managed to turn the internal amp on the headphones On. The knob is really small and the font is white on silver and smaller than my aging eyes can currently deal with. You can put the small/white text in the cons column, but since I turned the knob to Off, shortly after my last post in this thread, I have not had a battery issue whatsoever. They're in a passive state and do not draw power.

So that said, they are ready on the fly for any recording session I throw at them and the sound and comfort is still amazing. They also do not bleed audio at reasonable volume and have been working great for vocal recording sessions.

Buuuuut... I ordered a pair of Sennheiser HD 650 for mixing
closed back vs. open back ¯\_(ツ)_/¯