MrSpeakers ETHER C

Umm yeah credibility lost

 

Normally I am disinclined to go along with your adolescent-tier dickishness but you are absolutely spot on here. The ether has some of the worst bass I've heard in a pricey headphone period.

 

Wow dude, my adolescent dickish ego thanks you

 

that is just a blatantly "incorrect" (lol) opinion. Unless he's listening to the hd800 out of a mp3 player there is no way.

The ether has some of the weakest bass slam I've ever "heard"

 

I disagree, that post he made screams head-fi Mr speakers either impressions thread. I like the SNR on this forum and not discrediting posts like that i feel decreases it.

I see your point though, some might say to just ignore it but dat ain't how I roll ya know?

 

I presume the even frequency response of the 600s & 650s is what keeps them appealing to so many. I hear that too when I listen to my old 600s. But then I'm met with the veil, at which point I cannot hear further into a mix. EQ tweaks anywhere in the spectrum get lost in the veil. I find them appropriate for $300, and no more. If the Ether C really is even more imprecise, ouch. If the bass is as one note as Hands claims, I'd expect to see it in measurements. There should be a weird peak with associated distortion. Hopefully we'll see soon.

 

First of all, I have no credibility here so it would be hard to loose it. You sound like one of the guys on HF who says that the hd800 is just bright and analytical...never having heard it from a good amp and dac. People hear something one time from a meet on one amp and feel that they are an expert.

In fairness, I also though that both the hd800 and Ether had properties of sounding thin until I got them home, on my own gear and listening to my own music. The hd800 with the right amp has tretmendous bass extension, but not as much slam as I'd like. Nothing like the he6 on my au-717 with speaker taps...now that will kick you in the balls and not apologize.

But, to my ears and using my gear, the bass on the Ether extends just as much as the hd800 but also has better slam. It's not a mild difference.

I'm not sure what purpose your comments were meant for. Possibly to make you feel better about yourself and your conclusions about the Ether? Incite me into an argument? Maybe when I was an adolescent, I would have fell for the troll bait.

I appreciate that some people hear things differently from me. And that it's okay for my opinion to not be supported by others. And lastly if we have a difference of opinion I have no need to be a dick about our differences of opinion. So relax dude, Life's short. Enjoy the music...

 

My go to amp for hd800 is ECP L2. But I do use a speaker amp with the 800 also...fully restored Fisher 500c. It's a speaker amp from the 60's...one of the best amps I've ever had the pleasure to own ever.

 

I suspect if Ether and Ether C are type of headphones similar to HE6, I mean in terms of power hungry...
Although it is low impedance with a rather high sensitivity among planars, perhaps it still needs a lot of power to really make the bass not that dull.
I heard people saying that the best performance of HE1K is from that driven by the speaker amps otherwise the bass will not come out, although HE1K "should be" much more sensitive than HE6.

 

I had a chance to listen to the Ether C yesterday at the Head-Fi meet in CT and had basically the same reaction as Hans. In fact, when I first put them on I had my biggest WTF moment since demoing the EL-8 closed (where I repeatedly checked the connectors to make sure it was functioning properly as I couldn't believe the (poor) quality of sound coming from them).

By way of quick background, I have never owned any of Mr. Speakers cans, but between head-fi meets and audio shows have probably demoed most if not all iterations of his cans. I generally like his headphones and never purchased the Mad Dogs or Alpha Dogs because I am not into closed cans (so keep that fact in mind I suppose). I really love the look and design of the Ether open and think it sounds really good. I object to the price, but then again everything in this hobby is costing too much of late IMO. But I think those cans are really good.

Yesterday I wandered over to Dan's table and another head-fi'er (and Ether open owner) was listening to the Ether C. After he finished he was gushing about them. So, I was excited to give them a try. The Ether C was plugged into a Woo tube amp, the model of which I cannot recall. (I will see if someone on HF posted pics where I can figure out the setup). Dan always has a great music selection and lots of pop and rock and not necessarily limited to audiophile-approved stuff. I always appreciate that. I was able to find a number of pop and rock tracks that I am very familiar with. When I listened I was like WTF. Sound was extremely thin and I would call it brittle. Very light in bass. Hollow sounding overall. Just didn't sound right. I kept thinking this must be a setup issue. I debated whether I should ask Dan outright if this is how they are supposed to sound (which I did not want to do in front of others) or just make a polite comment and leave. The Woo amp seemed to have a number of settings, perhaps gain settings so I asked Dan about the tube setup. He asked why and I tried to politely say that the Ether C was a little brighter than I expected. He told me he was over the whole "dark" sound and was trying to go for a less dark, but not bright, sounding headphone.I think that would be a fair description of the Ether open (not bright, but not dark); however, what I heard was very bright and thin sounding. Anyway, I politely left it at that but decided to go back later in case Dan made any adjustments or the amp warmed up or something.

I went back to the table an hour later; Dan had told me to come back when his server (which he claimed sounded awesome) was up and running. When I came back he was changing a pair of the tubes on the Woo amp (I think there were two pairs of different tubes in the amp). He said that Jack Woo had used some new tubes that Dan was unfamiliar with and that Dan thought were too bright and further were new and thus not burned in. He finished putting in the new tubes, let them warm up and then gave them a listen. When he was satisfied he let me listen. Less bad than earlier but still bright and hollow to me, just not as bad as before. It still felt as if the music had no body to it. I said that I liked these tubes better. Dan then told me about his surprise for the meet, which is that he had new inserts, designed for the Ether C only, that allowed a person to tune the Ether C and make it more or less bassy. The pair I had already had one insert in it. He asked if I wanted him to add the dark insert in addition to the white one in there. I said sure. After the adjustment, the cans finally sounded acceptable to me. Not great, but listenable.

Even after those adjustments I thought the Omni destroyed the Ether C and for about $500 less. The Omni is a bit bassy but overall very well done and if I was in the market for a good closed can with a $1,000 budget those would be the ones I would purchase based on cans I had heard to date.

Tastes vary so much and people have different subject reactions. So, the final version of the Ether C setup (with the "fixed" tubes and the insert tweaks) at the meet, I could see people liking even though I did not care for them. But I am absolutely befuddled that anyone could have enjoyed the first setup I heard, yet I know some people did.

PS. Listened to the Ether open on his Schiit stack (mjolnir 2 and Gungnir Multibit) and those sounded great. Heard them on some other setups as well and they played nice with everything and sounded good throughout.

 

I listened to the Ether C from the same setup yesterday. I agree with the impressions above. I only listened for about 10 minutes, because the sound really wasn't pleasing (thin and hollow, but somehow congested at the same time). They lacked coherence in a basic way that I can't quite describe. I heard them in the morning, which must have been before the tube swap, but I don't feel it could have been a tube or amp issue.

I'm new to this community and don't want to trash anything (especially someone running a small business). Dan seems like a nice enough guy. There were a couple people who really liked the Ether C. So I'll just strongly suggest that people considering them hear them before purchasing.

I own an Omni, but I don't think the Omni and Ether C are really competitors. The Omnis are semi open, have wood cups, are bulkier, heavier, etc. The two headphones have radically different sound signatures. When I'm in the mood for something a little weightier than an HD 600, I reach for the Omnis. They are very pleasant, and slightly warm, but still have good detail and project a nice image.

I heard the Ethers yesterday, as well. They are a much better headphone than the Ether C. Very comfortable and attractive. I see why people like them, even though they are not quite my taste (a hair bright/thin - I would rather have an HD600, or if I was craving more detail, an HD800). I was a little surprised Tyll loved them as much as he did, given his apparent preference for a warmer sound signature. I suppose there aren't many great choices between the HD6x0 and HE1000, especially for those who find the HD800 fatiguing.

 

From my NY meet impressions thread, with EC 2A3 MK IV & Lampi Lite 7 or Yggdrasil

 

Sorry to keep harping on about isolation, but could you tell me how the isolation between the Omni and Ether C compare. I'm about to buy my end game closed pair and I'm trying to decide between Omni, Blackwood and Ether-Cs.

 

So Dan is apparently going to bundle a tuning kit with new Ether-Cs (Also sending to those who already have it). It's two pieces of felt that can reduce the treble by 1db and 3db respectively. Could actually improve the tonal balance by bringing out the bass and mid range relative to the treble.