MrSpeakers ETHER C

I can't imagine this being an April Fool's Day joke, would be kind of a dick move. It's not like he's reviewing Skullcandy Crushers or something. I heard the Ether C at the Nashville meet about 6 months ago and I thought it sounded really great - nice planar bass, linear FR with some sweetness, fairly detailed with good soundstage. Dan was running it from an Yggdrasil -> Liquid Crimson so that may have helped a lot. But I was surprised when I saw that it had such a bad reputation over here, to the point of the Ether C practically being a punchline. What others were describing (overly thin, weird mids, etc) didn't jive with my impressions. I figured maybe due to manufacturing variation or silent revisions, the pair I heard was simply different from what others were hearing.

The comfort on these is just ridiculous, to the point where I'd make some concessions sound-wise as a trade off. I'm still curious about these but $1500 is just more than I want to spend on headphones. If they go on major sale or I can find one used at a good price I might pick them up.

 

Like I said on Page #1, the Ether C is one of the better closed backs out there. I just don't think it's "that" great. @Hands and others have already outlined a few of its critical flaws which may or may not be dealbreaking for certain individuals depending on your D&D disposition.

 

I'd be all about trying another headphone from Mr Speakers but this is just out of the price range for me. I liked the Mad Dogs ok and thought the Alpha Dogs were awesome. Both had the fatal flaw of just being too heavy over time for me though. Just made the whole thing unworkable.

I'd like to see Dan develop a decently priced headphone. He's been trending in the wrong direction for awhile now and I'm just not all that big on the idea of spending flagship money on a closed can in the first place.

That said I'd love to hear them to get a feel for where he's going with custom designs.

 

Heh, Purrin. I think you'll find that Spock quote is originally from Sherlock Holmes (ancestor? subtle humour).

 

This is where to know me will have you understand I don't give a shit what day it is...except Friday night, so I need to get this posted so I have the weekend to myself. Moto GP from Argentina on Sunday!

 

@Tyll Hertsens Who are you rooting for this season?

 

The American rider....duh.

 

Rossi. I want the old dude to get the 10 like he should have last season.

 

I think a lot of the bullshit was regrettable last season, I too wish to see Rossi surpass Agostini before retiring, but I'm just not sure he can do it. I'm really conflicted because I think both Marquez and Lorenzo are incredible riders.

 

Should be a good season.

 

I wonder why he bothered with Nitinol, other than the cool name/selling feature. Yeah it's cool stuff (I started my master's on it, but switched fields because my advisor was a disaster), but not really that applicable to headphones when simple steel works just as well.

 

wow! this is interesting, I was first looking at the ether c as an endgame headphone for me but then got heavily turned off when I saw what you guys had to say about it. But then it seems as if it's really not that bad as I thought it was going to be. well, well I'll have to hear one myself to judge. At least now I have an aim. Thanks Tyll for review!

 

I would like him to get another title this season too.

 

You never really know how much headphones change in the beginning of their life cycle. If I had to buy a headphone these days I'd wait for a year before buying a new model. First production runs might have kink here and there; those bugs may show up sonically. I have know idea if this might be true of the Ether C, but I know of cases where it is.

 

Tyll (or any one else who heard both Ethers), what differences did you find between the open and closed Ethers? Is the assumed smaller soundstage of the Ether C worth it if I don't need isolation? I've read that the C seems to have more of a slight U shaped signature compared to the open version but I've never heard either headphone before.