Mr. Speakers ETHER Flow Headphone(?) Upgrade(?)

YouTube link?

 

Recursive acronym FTW!

 

Umm, $349 - $499 for the upgrade. Better be good.

 

flowing blood

like a period

 

But it's always the most fun right after... or something like that.

 

Better than being stuck with the older model and no cash for a new flow....It's an option I can just afford...

 

The 349 puts you right at the price (even slightly below) of a new Flow, all said and done. It's a reasonable price from that perspective. Let's just hope it's a reasonable upgrade in sound quality. At this point, and it actually pains me to do it, but I think I'm going to upgrade. If nothing else, the 349 should just about pay for itself if I decide to sell. But hopefully this can at least hold me over until November when the Ebony X00s arrive.

 

Doesn't hurt to sign up for a spot in line while you wait for Tyll to do his review.

 

Sadly the 349 price does not include the new pads.. Dan has said they are different leather, I would assume that new pads = a change in sound... You could go with the 349 + 90 for new pads but then you might as well go for the full upgrade at 499 :/

I guess if I am going to do the full I might want to rethink if I was the C vs the open flow as that is an option at that price.

 

While the new pads are very nice, I didn't find that they changed the sound much, if any. It's a nice thick Italian leather with good build quality. But I couldn't tell any sonic differences between it and stock.

 

Pads shmads. 349 it is.

I'd do the conversion to open in a heartbeat though, if I didn't require a closed headphone that is...

 

There is a demo of the "Flows" in Torrance CA tomorrow. Hope to do an A/B comparison with my broken in Ether Cs to see if the upgrade is worth it to me. If I understand the differences in upgrades, the $350 is for sonic improvements, but the $500 is sonic improvements with the cosmetic, case, and pad upgrades. I am a bit suspect of that idea since pads and cups can change sound characteristics. We shall see.

 

Pads can definitely change the sound, in this case it seems as though that might not be the case.. I guess I have some things to consider... Might still go with the simple $350 upgrade, that is if I can get on the list next week.

 

Auditioned a pair of this today.

As an ex-owner of Ether 1.1 the Open Flow is indeed a good improved model. Much less veiled, more bass quality and quantity, result in faster transient speed overall. Soundstage sounds pretty much the same with apparent sound from Left and Right but not from Center, this is the only issue bothers me. Ether Flow fixed pretty much things I dislike previously such as muddiness & light bass. If the Flow was the first Ether they come out with the original pricing then I may have kept the headphone already. However I noticed that imaging is still lack of depth. Ever since I acquired a Stax I learned stage imagination and it opens a new world to me, therefore a new requirement for me to buy headphone. Next I hope the Elear can meet my expectation!

 

I have to disagree here. This headphone, in the original version, never had any quality of "veiled." Sound stage is not the same at all, but nicely improved. Enjoy your Stax though.

 

I think there won't be much change to the external driver dimensions unless someone has a picture with the pads off. So there may be the some scope to play with the finished Sig of the flow. I saw Maxx asking this for doing the Felt Mods to level the driver.
I am not sure what if any, will change with the Italian leather but the Audeze microsuede still feel fantastic and sound nice...

We shall see... I hope the Linear does for those who don't. .. Tyll's now keeping people on the fence...

 

The veiled sound is quite a subjective matter similar to the case of HD650. I too did not notice that occurs on Ether 1.1 until I swapped a Stax L700 & HD800 next to it in a shop. It can be veiled or no but the muddiness is certainly there..although the overall sound signature is still bright. My personal listening experience though may not apply to others.

Not sure if the soundstage of Flow is broader, I can be wrong since the 1.1 already pretty wide with great sense from Left & Right channel. But still lacks of sound from Center, Front and Back..or Depth.

 

The upgrade path allows someone to keep the red color.

There are used flows on the forums for 1150 that can save you the full price.

I like red better. I may go that route.

 

Did a quick A/B(Ether C only) and I did notice a difference in the signature. The bass was enhanced to my liking and did come across as more balanced. So I do feel there is an improvement. To put things into perspective, my favorite set of cans I have herd are still the LCD-Xs. The new leather did feel a bit weightier, but did not detract from the comfort. I spent the rest of the time auditioning the Source AV's fleet of headphones. Had fun.