ifcowscouldfly

Did a deal with Gary recently and he was great to deal with. 👍

Hey mate Sorry I haven't hear the DT770 so I can't really make a comparison. They definitely have all round better sound quality wise than the QC35 and WH1000XM3, and that becomes clearer the more I listen to it.

Damnit, why do you tempt me like this?!?

My pleasure! I would probably recommend them overall and have decided to keep mine. They won't come close to replacing a good set of open-back wired headphones, but they outperform all the other portable, closed-back, wireless options available and wireless is so convenient for being out and about.

Further information: For sale is a pair of Edifier R1280DB speakers, in black. You can connect via RCA, optical, coaxial or Bluetooth. The power cable is hardwired in, but the speaker's come with speaker cable to connect the left and right speakers, and a remote control. I no longer have the box it came in. The speaker's work fine (remote control is trash mind you), but I bought them earlier this year to see if I wanted to dip my toe into the world of speakers, which I do and have since upgraded. Pick up in Chatswood only. Photos: PLEASE READ If you are advertising multiple items, you must post one bulk price only, or post seperate ads for each item If you include any reference to pricing whatsoever in this section (excluding RRP), your ad will not be approved If you don't include photographs of the actual item being sold, your ad will not be approved

Sold pending confirmation of receipt of funds. Thanks all!

Further information: For sale is a Schiit Magni Heresy and Modi 3 stack. This is probably the best value stack available at the moment and one that is universally recommended. The Heresy measures extremely well and provides loads of power, and the Modi 3 is an excellent DAC. The stack works perfectly and is in excellent condition (as you'd expect for something that just sits on your desk). Note: No micro-USB cable is included, but you should have plenty of those lying around. You'll also have to use your own RCA cables of course. I'm looking to the Magni Heresy and Modi 3 as one stack, and prefer local pickup. Photos: PLEASE READ If you are advertising multiple items, you must post one bulk price only, or post seperate ads for each item If you include any reference to pricing whatsoever in this section (excluding RRP), your ad will not be approved If you don't include photographs of the actual item being sold, your ad will not be approved

PM sent (as you know 🙂).

Geez, if I didn't already have an Arya, I would be all over this. Good luck with your sale!

I received by Pandas today after a month of production delays and 25 days in transit and my first impressions are…. they are ok… They were hyped up to be competitive with true high-end headphones (one reviewer said that it was the best closed back headphones under USD $1,500) and they are not that good. Don't expect that level of performance. What they do is provide better sound quality than other pairs of wireless closed-back headphones in that price range that I've heard, and so should be considered if you are looking for a pair of travel/commuting headphones that supplement your main sound system. Sound Caveat: This is just one person's opinion. I am not an audiophile that has tried a million different headphones. I have no special training or knowledge that gives my opinion any greater weight than anyone else's. In fairness, I probably headphones that are a bit brighter. To my ear, the Pandas are quite a warm and dark pair of headphones, and have a slightly V-shaped frequency response (nothing too extreme though). The bass is quite clean and has decent extension. The highs are smooth, but lack any sort of sparkle and air. The headphones have decent amounts of detail and are reasonably quick for wireless headphones. When compared to the Sony WH-1000XM3s that I had previously (and sold in early June in the anticipation that I would receive my pandas at the end of June…), the Pandas are basically better in every respect on sound quality. However, put them against a good pair of open back headphones with a decent DAC and amp (in my case, I'm comparing them to the Hifiman Arya and Topping D90/A90 on my desk), and the Pandas basically turn into mud. The Aryas have so much more speed, detail, sparkle, air in the treble, natural timbre, controlled and tight bass, separation of instruments, sound stage etc. You name it, the Aryas are significantly better at it. Comparing them side by side, the Pandas sound dull and veiled in comparison. Is that a fair comparison given the limitations of the Arya (e.g. its much more expensive, has no sound isolation at all, requires a good DAC and amp, has to be babied more)? Not in the slightest, but the Pandas were heavily hyped up earlier in the year by various youtubers and tech/audio websites and I don't think they quite live up to the hype. They aren't high-end hifi in a transportable wireless format that people were claiming them to be. They are a good pair of wireless, closed back headphones, that sound better than all the other closed back wireless options in their price range (i.e. don't compare them to a Focal Stellia, ZMF Verite Closed etc with a Bluetooth receiver). Perhaps another way to think about the sound quality is this: I might be making very unflattering comparisons between the Pandas and the Aryas, but I would never even think to compare the WH-1000XM3 to a headphone like the Aryas. Electronics The headphones get REALLY loud. I probably don't even use them at one-third of their maximum volume. They also have a surprisingly good noise floor. Coming from the WH-1000XM3s, I was expecting a bit more noise but they are extremely quiet. I haven't gone out of my way to test Bluetooth range etc, but they work fine for my purposes (i.e. being in the same room or next room). I also used the headphone microphone on a conference call this evening and my voice came through loud and clear. No issues with mic sound quality. Additionally, this is more of an Android issue than the Pandas, but I wish Android had more precise volume controls. Its really easy to turn the Pandas too loud, when you only want to tweak the levels a bit. When connected to a PC for a long video conference, the Pandas turned themselves off partway through a few times. This was not a pleasant surprise. I'll probably raise this with Drop to see if they have come across this issue before and whether it can be fixed. Comfort I'm pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the Pandas are. When I first felt the headband, I thought they would be quite uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. However, there is a good amount of clamp force that avoids too much pressure on the top of my head. Further, the pads are very soft and comfy. They aren't quite as comfortable as my old WH-1000XM3s and nowhere near as comfortable as the Aryas, but I can wear them for hours and not feel uncomfortable. If the next version has additional padding on the headband, I think it would take the comfort up there with the best of them. Isolation I'm very pleasantly surprised with how much noise the Pandas block out for headphones without active noise cancelling. Its quite incredible. Build I didn't notice any issues with the build. They don't scream super durable build quality like a Sennheiser HD660S, but they don't feel fragile at all. I do wish we could fold the headphones though. It would make it just a bit easier to transport. Conclusion The Pandas do the job they are supposed to do. Providing decent audio quality in a very convenient wireless form factor for on-the-go situations. They have better sound quality than the WH-1000XM3s that I used to have and fit the role of travel headphones well, even without ANC. That said, when I'm at home at my desk, there is no reason at all why I would use the Pandas over the Aryas. A good open-back desk setup brings a level of quality that the Pandas can't come close to reaching. If you're after a high-end hifi setup, you'll have to look somewhere else. If I'm being honest, I'm considering selling the Pandas to fund a mid/high-tier IEM (e.g. Andromedas or Moondrop S8) to try to get to that higher level of sound quality. The only thing holding me back is the (admittedly extremely convenient factor) of the Pandas being wireless. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether IEMs would give me what I'm after?

Item: KEF LS50 Wireless Speakers Price Range: ~$1,900 Negotiable depending on condition Item Condition: New or Used Extra Info: I'm located in Sydney and prefer to deal in person (though if you're a longstanding member interstate, happy to hear from you). Slight preference for white, but I'm not overly fussed about colours. Please don't forget to report your post as FOUND when possible. (You can now delete this text).

My Topping D90 and A90 stack arrived in the post today! You might have seen my previous post where I upgraded from a Sennheiser HD660S to a Hifiman Arya, and noticed a Schiit Magni Heresy / Modi 3 stack in the background. Well here is Part 2 (hopefully also the final part) of that upgrade process! I went into the amp and DAC shopping process with the view that all solid state amps should sound about the same and that DAC quality was a load of crap after a certain point. That said, I wanted something that looked really cool on my desk and was a bit curious if I would hear the slightest bit of difference vs no difference at all. The Heresy and Modi 3 have excellent subjective and measurements based reviews and so I really wasn't expecting even a moderate difference, and only if I listened very very closely. So I turned the Topping stack on and plugged in my Arya (single ended) thinking I'd listen for a bit then laugh at audiophiles and their pricey products (that look incredibly sexy though), and... Confession time... it turns out that I was the one that was full of **** (or Schiit as the case may be). The sound is much, much clearer, much more detailed, altogether fuller sound particularly in the mids, smoother, punchier bass, and bigger sound stage. It's just altogether much more musical and enjoyable to listen to. I honestly can't believe how big a difference it made to the sound quality. Whilst it wasn't as big as moving from the HD660S to the Arya, it's not that far off. To put this in perspective, for me, the improvement was more easily noticeable and more quickly noticed than going from the Ananda to the Arya in A-B testing. Bear in mind, I'm definitely not an audiophile so please take my opinion with a massive grain of salt. I also didn't blind A-B test them so this could all be confirmation bias (yes, even though I thought it wouldn't make a difference, it can still be confirmation bias). I suspect there has to be a fair amount of confirmation bias here as I'm upgrading from a good solid state stack, so there shouldn't be as big a difference as I'm experiencing. Take this as just another anecdote in the litany of opinions on audio gear. Finally, looks-wise they are clearly killer. That's why I bought them and they don't disappoint in that regard. That black aluminium look!

I ended up ordering a Topping A90 and D90 today. Staying at home is clearly not healthy for my bank balance... @xr1st1anos is the Loki hardware EQ and if so, how does it compare with software EQ? Might look at it to play around with.

I picked up a Hifiman Arya yesterday from Minidisc, upgrading from a Sennheiser HD660S. In the lead up to buying the Arya, I brought my HD660S in and demoed it side by side with the Hifiman Ananda, Focal Clear and the Arya, and picked the Arya. The Ananda was pretty close to the Arya, but the Arya was ultimately a bit clearer and smoother. The Clear felt like an entirely different beast and I can see myself wanting to add a Focal one day in the far off future (perhaps a Utopia or a Stellia?), budget allowing. At the moment, I have it booked up to a Schiit Modi 3/Magni Heresy stack and it sounds excellent. I was thinking of upgrading the stack to a Drop THX 789 and a Schiit Modius, but after hearing the headphones on my own gear, I decided to hold on to the Schiit stack for the moment. I'm no audiophile so take my comments on sound with a massive grain of salt. To me, the Aryas are open, airy, detailed, fast and have surprisingly good bass extension (but not impact/punch) to my (untrained) ears. The treble is very sweet and just sparkles. That said, the mids are not as sweet as the Sennheiser and I can definitely now see why people have multiple headphones in their collection. While the Arya has many advantages over the HD660S, there are a certain things the Sennheiser does that the Arya (nor the Clear) don't do as well. The Arya in no way makes the HD660S redundant. I'm selling the Sennheisers, but maybe I'll try to replace them down the road with some ZMFs... It's such a dangerous road! Appearance wise, the Aryas look more stupid/outlandish than the HD660S which look like a model of an architectural concept. Also, it annoys me that the Arya's cables are about a third of the length compared to the HD660S and the unboxing experience is not as nice. I would be very interested in your thoughts on whether upgrading my amp to a 789 or 887 while still using single ended would make a noticeable difference to sound quality (noting that the Heresy has more power for single ended). Or alternatively, whether I would notice any difference upgrading my DAC.

Picked up an open box Arya from Minidisc yesterday, so HD660S is back on the market. That said, after listening to both at home, I can definitely see a case for owning pairs! Cheers