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Attractive looking and comfortable to wear but has issues and don't bring Mixcubes sound
As a happy owner of Avantone Mixcube I bought these headphones as I thought they give me the same mid-range focused sound, a kind of magnification glass over mid-range area.
The headphones look stylish and while they are big and they are very comfortable to wear for a long period. The headphones equipped with two cords: short one and long one. The cords have mini jacks on both ends and have a wrench on one side to tie them to headphones to avoid disconnection. The cords are very thin and when I stepped twice on the longer cord on the first day of usage, I damaged it. Therefore, I have to use shorter one now, which is actually too short to be used in any reasonable situation.
Now about the sound. I think it is due to their too low impedance, but these headphones sound different in each headphone amplifier I connected them into! I had the worst sound in hi-fi amplifiers, probably because they are usually optimized for high impedance headphones. I had average results with headphones outputs of different multichannel audio interfaces. Well, they sounded somehow but the sound was not good enough to use them for mixing, there was too much high-end roll-off and too few clarity. The best sound I had was when I plugged them into iPad and MacBook. Therefore, they sound good when plugged in consumer devices.
The headphones are able to reproduce very low frequencies, which is impressive. Nevertheless, they have very limited dynamic range especially for low end. The sound starts compressing first and then you have audible distortions.
The headphones have a switch, which allows changing mode to mid-range focused or to mono. I did not find much usage of mono switch (while I switch monitors to mono very often). It seems the mid-range focus mode changes the headphones impedance and this mode sounds different in each headphone amplifier too. The sound varies from unusable to very subtle differences from normal mode. But I was not able to reproduce original Avantone Mixcubes sound with any headphone amplifier I tried them with.
Finally, I use these headphones when play a guitar late night. They are comfortable to wear and their high-frequency roll-off and limited dynamic range suit good for the guitar sound.
The headphones look stylish and while they are big and they are very comfortable to wear for a long period. The headphones equipped with two cords: short one and long one. The cords have mini jacks on both ends and have a wrench on one side to tie them to headphones to avoid disconnection. The cords are very thin and when I stepped twice on the longer cord on the first day of usage, I damaged it. Therefore, I have to use shorter one now, which is actually too short to be used in any reasonable situation.
Now about the sound. I think it is due to their too low impedance, but these headphones sound different in each headphone amplifier I connected them into! I had the worst sound in hi-fi amplifiers, probably because they are usually optimized for high impedance headphones. I had average results with headphones outputs of different multichannel audio interfaces. Well, they sounded somehow but the sound was not good enough to use them for mixing, there was too much high-end roll-off and too few clarity. The best sound I had was when I plugged them into iPad and MacBook. Therefore, they sound good when plugged in consumer devices.
The headphones are able to reproduce very low frequencies, which is impressive. Nevertheless, they have very limited dynamic range especially for low end. The sound starts compressing first and then you have audible distortions.
The headphones have a switch, which allows changing mode to mid-range focused or to mono. I did not find much usage of mono switch (while I switch monitors to mono very often). It seems the mid-range focus mode changes the headphones impedance and this mode sounds different in each headphone amplifier too. The sound varies from unusable to very subtle differences from normal mode. But I was not able to reproduce original Avantone Mixcubes sound with any headphone amplifier I tried them with.
Finally, I use these headphones when play a guitar late night. They are comfortable to wear and their high-frequency roll-off and limited dynamic range suit good for the guitar sound.
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I don't know how you are supposed to mix in these things
Sound, Pros:
- very detailed highs, some songs feel less "smudgy" on high frequencies;
- audible and deep bass.
Sound, Cons:
- mids seem to dented;
- there is very noticeable "hump" in around 100HZ which causes music to hum.
Comfort, Pros:
- large cups covering ears entirely, pretty good seal thus good isolation;
- comfortably thick headband cushion;
- manageable pressure comparing to my previous headphones (Beyer DT-770 Pro), which were squashing my head like vices until I loosened the headband.
Comfort, Cons:
- comparing to my previous headphones, these are kind of small, pushing the rails all the way through and they still barely fit on my head.
Build quality, is good. Material selection is good. But it doesn't scream "STURDY" like with Beyers.
Having two pairs for swappable cables is very nice.
Having the ability to switch to mono is very nice.
"Cubes" switch on the other hand is questionable: the difference between the normal stereo mode and the "cubes" mode is so subtle that it will probably fail the blind test. I suppose it is a marketing gimmick.
At the time of writing mixes done with these come out bass-deficient.
If I had tested them live before buying, I would probably not consider buying them.
- very detailed highs, some songs feel less "smudgy" on high frequencies;
- audible and deep bass.
Sound, Cons:
- mids seem to dented;
- there is very noticeable "hump" in around 100HZ which causes music to hum.
Comfort, Pros:
- large cups covering ears entirely, pretty good seal thus good isolation;
- comfortably thick headband cushion;
- manageable pressure comparing to my previous headphones (Beyer DT-770 Pro), which were squashing my head like vices until I loosened the headband.
Comfort, Cons:
- comparing to my previous headphones, these are kind of small, pushing the rails all the way through and they still barely fit on my head.
Build quality, is good. Material selection is good. But it doesn't scream "STURDY" like with Beyers.
Having two pairs for swappable cables is very nice.
Having the ability to switch to mono is very nice.
"Cubes" switch on the other hand is questionable: the difference between the normal stereo mode and the "cubes" mode is so subtle that it will probably fail the blind test. I suppose it is a marketing gimmick.
At the time of writing mixes done with these come out bass-deficient.
If I had tested them live before buying, I would probably not consider buying them.
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