@joch Yep, I find the beryllium timbre unnatural. I kinda feel it always overshoots transients and masks some fine detail while doing so. I owned OG Utopias for a while, as well as ZMF Verite C's, never really got either of them to sound natural to my ears.
@zonto i had Raal SR-1a's for a long time, but I was never completely enamored with them - I found them always a bit dry sounding. Tried a bunch of different amps as well. Been rocking with Sennheiser HD800S' for a while now and they tick most of the boxes I find important. But occasionally I find the treble too hot. Perhaps the perfect headphones do not exist?
A while ago I was using my Utopias with the HeadAmp Gilmore Lite and then the Mjolnir Pure Bipolar and those amps made the Utopias sound like you describe above, but the DSHA-3F solves those problems to my ears.
Thanks for sharing, @Collusion. I have yet to find the synergy I want with Utopia, with the limitation of course that I can't fit and don't like the look of the large EC or DNA tube amps. I'm starting to think that the Yggdrasil Analog 2 may be the culprit, so may try the MIB variant soon to see. Tempted to just move to HD800S as well and get a Mjolnir 3.
@zonto trying a different DAC might give you insight.... maybe something with a warmer/darker midrange? I had a chance to home demo the newer 2022 Utopias as well a while back. They were somewhat dialed back in the treble, but the timbral issues persisted from my POV. Even a darker/more romantic amplifier like the Raal HSA-1b didn't make me love them. Switching back to HD800S' was always a relief.
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