Comments on Profile Post by netforce

Biggest trend? Spatial Audio/Atmos/Sony 360 Reality Audio/Immersive Audio/etc is in and its hot hot hot. Everyone in post production side of things seems to have products with multi channel in mind. Genelec showing off their big bois while playing Atmos, Apogee Symphony Mk II doing all forms of multi channel stuff. Senn has Dear Reality to mix in VR and Audeze added headtracking to Maxwell

Talking to folks, they say if there is anything that pays their bills, its immersive audio. Only issue seems to be there are a million and one different options and standards being pushed. Wouldn't be surprised if this year we see an increase in consumer products supporting things like Atmos.

UE finally after all these years has universals again... But they range from mediocre to bad. UE150 single DD $199, bad with bad resolution, pretty tinny sounding. UE250 2 BA $299, alright with a v-shaped signature, outclassed by other IEMs in the market. UE350 3 BA $399, balanced tuning though mediocre overall. Small profile and decent isolation, that is only good takeaways really

Layfic Tone Indusltrial-ist Wired, wired powered off Mass Kobo 429/ADI-2. Wired sounded pretty good from what I could tell given the drummer hammering away behind me and the PA speakers blaring. Wired is $1300 and sound was fine, build with its carbon fiber was nice but bit of plastic elsewhere so little mixed build wise. Alright isolation/comfort, interesting headphone. Wireless was prototype, needs lot of work

Sennheiser HD 490 Pro, star of the show and main reason I went to NAMM, rumored HD 650 Killer? Not really the 650 killer but comparable in lot of ways. Comfort upgrade and few pad options on the higher end one. Driver seems to be "new" and not a 600 series but shares the HD 560S/400 Pro similarities. Though it did sound better than the latter

Friend did ask me if I could talk to Gunnar Dirks, Senn Product Manager. They had a press release and some squigs: https://t.ly/8NMoO Friend asked if I can confirm if they were compensated to DF HRTF measured by B&K which he said yes! HD 490 Pro in his mind is a product made for the pro-market from beginning to end.

Asked since it comes up online, is this a replacement/competitor to the 600 series. He said he didn't really know how to answer that as he viewed the 490 Pro as its own product in its specific niche for pro use. Whereas the 600 was to him, an audiophile product that had caught on with pro market.

Austrian Audio FullScore One and Composer. FullScore One is so interesting weird and different, Class B amp and has the TTT button. Was too loud around for me to really hear a difference with TTT on/off. Composer was surprisingly solid, probably best way to describe it tonally was that it reminded of the Arya Organic but dynamic. Bright but wasn't overbearing, I might take a little bit of edge off in EQ

imersiv had a pretty interesting new product with the D1. 28 bit DAC that in their own words hit -170dB dynamic range and linearity. Will be honest and admit a bunch of the explanation was going over my head vs my buddy who understood things a bit better. Interesting at least and curious how or who will license the tech

Chord Alto Pro, new headphone amp from Chord. Features tech from their Ultima series amps scaled down for headphones. 4 HP out, speaker taps on rear for 50W and 1U rack mount size. Price is around $3k when converted to USD. Was a solid sounding amp that is unfortunately not available for us to sell, Chord sells Pro stuff direct so not available through dealers. Though maybe a consumer ver one day

Please make a thread, this is interesting stuff that ought not be buried. Was curious about the new 490s, thanks!

Would love to have theatre like experience with my headphone for movies. I wish them all d best.