My New Sennheiser HD600 (vs Goldring DR150)

Hello, hello... How are you guys? Sorry for the long interval between my posts, but my work life is getting into my blogging life. Pardon. So, here I am, wanting to post about my new Sennheiser HD600. Okay, maybe not so new, as I buy it as B-Stock, but well, its still new for me. Not bored yet? Well, read on!

I was happy with my Goldring DR150. For the price I paid, I got this wonderfully smooth and dark sound, with good sound-stage and positioning. It was easy to drive too; my FiiO E10 is more than enough to drive it. But I was growing unhappy, mainly because the grain on the sound, and plastic-y timbre which more and more apparent as I used to the sound.

So, I’m saving for an upgrade, and then after searching and asking on head-fi.org, my choice fall to either Sennheiser HD600 or HD650. But the price is really high here in Indonesia, much more than in the Europe or US. I was going to search for another, cheaper headphone but my good friend, who was completing his doctorate degree (damn, I'm so jealous!), said he was going home to Indonesia for 2 month, and offered to hand carry things for me. Yay! God bless you, my friend!

My HD600 is a B-Stock. FYI, B-Stock also known as Open-Box, so when I open the box and saw how it was in completely pristine condition, I knew I'm very lucky guy. It's practically new!
I'm not going to write a full review of this headphone. Mainly because this headphone is a classic and there were so many review out there about HD600, I don't have anything left to add. So I guess I'll just write an impression versus my DR150.

HD600 comes with this nice box, very handy to store the headphone when not in use, but rather troublesome to store because its big size. The headphone itself is slimmer than DR150, and the build quality is much better. DR150 looks like a plastic toy compared to HD600. The grill is much more open, you could see the internal driver from outside the grill. It's heavier too, and the clamp, oh dear God, the CLAMP! It's practically head-crusher. After very, very carefully bending the metal headband, the clamp is tolerable, although still quite tight. DR150 sit feather light in comparison, although the velour is not as comfortable.

People said HD600 as warm, dull headphone, but I found them quite neutral, even little bit leaning on brighter side. Yes, it's brighter than DR150, which has this dark sound to it. The treble on HD600 is fuller, smoother with no nasty peak. The bass isn't as big or as hard hitting as Dr150, but still punchy, more detailed and well controlled. Then the mid, oh dear God... So beautiful, detailed, and natural, my Dr150 sounded so mushy and plastic-y in comparison. But, I wish HD600 little bit darker. Just little bit, not as dark as my DR150. Maybe changing the tube (or valve) on my Aune T1 could remedy it?! (I'm NOT going to spill some 450 bucks for HD650!)

Ok, now, the not so good parts. First, as I said before, the clamp is quite tight. And it not exactly light headphone either. The impedance is quite high, 300 Ohm which need some amplifier to sound best. My FiiO E10 could drive it loud, but the sound is not as good as my Aune T1 which much more powerful. And the sound still has some grain in it, not so much as DR150, but its there. I guess the aging driver showing its weakness. Oh, and as I said before, I wish the sound little bit darker.

So that's my impression of my new HD600. I keep going back to it, especially when I listen to acoustic and vocal songs. The sound is so smooth and organic, and natural (I really can't stress this enough). For 250* Euro I paid, it was no regret.

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*note: HD600 usually priced closer to 300 Euro, or 400 USD.

Review: Christina Aguilera - Lotus (updated)

Hello there! How are you? Have you listened to Mrs. Aguilera newest album yet? No? Then maybe you will find this review pretty old-school.

The cover is quite interesting: the naked Mrs. Aguilera rising from a lotus blossom. Don't worry, the interesting parts are hidden, so it's still quite safe. The pinkish color used is bit departure from Christina Aguilera image of sexy, mature diva. It's just so girly, like the cover you will find on some girl-band from Japan or Korea.

The Album Cover.

I have the Lotus Deluxe Version which contained 17 tracks below:

1. Lotus Intro
2. Army of Me
3. Red Hot Kinda Love
4. Make the World Move (feat. CeeLo Green)
5. Your Body
6. Let There Be Love
7. Sing for Me
8. Blank Page
9. Cease Fire
10. Around the World
11. Circles
12. Best of Me
13. Just a Fool (with Blake Shelton)
14. Light Up the Sky
15. Empty Words
16. Shut Up
17. Your Body (Martin Garrix Remix)

This albums is quite diverse in music style, although generally still dance oriented. I loved the marching drum touch on Cease Fire, Around the World and Best of Me (sometimes I found myself humming the chorus baby cease fire, fire, fire, while walking like an idiot. Yes, it's that infectious).
Throw in Christina's vocal of gymnastic, and you got powerful, energetic, toe tapping album. Although personally I feel Mrs. Aguilera sounded bit strained on some songs, but then, that screaming-like, powerful soprano IS Christina brand-style.

The lyrics is quite standards, you know, for a dance pop albums. You got some interesting lyrics now and then (Use my name as your claim to fame / Got my smell of success on your breath on Circle), but others are the usual stuff. I felt this album lyrics is mainly about how she got herself up and strong after some big break-up. Pardon my ignorance, but I really didn't interested on the artist life, all I interested is their musics.

Not all the songs are dance oriented song with bass pounding, however. There are some track's which quite a keeper. I personally like Sing for Me and Blank Page. Just a Fool is quite likeable actually, if not for how it sounded like a battle contest between Christina Aguilera vs. Blake Shelton. Please Mrs. Aguilera, Mr. Shelton, this is not a battle round of the Voice, play nice!!! Speaking about Blake Shelton, I just always thinking his name spelled backward, Shelton Blake sounded just so much more nicer!!! LOL.
Some grippe: the bonus tracks Light Up the Sky sounded like something out of Ryan Tedder's song book while Empty Words sounded just like the one you got from Leona Lewis old album Echo. Why not include more different tracks?

The production isn't that great, with my DR150 (which is quite detailed), I can hear how the instruments got smashed together: no separation, air, soundstage. The bass is mainly on mid-bass area, with big boomy sound to boot. The treble too, get too piercing sometimes, I need toning down about 3-5db on frequencies of 5 kHz and up on my foobar2000 equalizer. I hate doing equalizer, but this album won't listenable for long time if I don't do that.
On busy tracks, Christina vocals is going laid back, thankfully, reducing the fatigue immensely. On the simpler tracks however, you could hear how glorious Christina Aguilera vocal technique is. Pity she didn't includes more of those kind of songs.
Update: the production is really awful, opening a track on audacity, I can see how the track clipped. The compression is really high!

Verdict? Quite easy, if you like Christina Aguilera, you just had to listen to this album. For dance oriented song, maybe you better go to Rihanna albums. This album is a mix-and-match kind of album. Not quite dance-pop (although most of the songs of dance-pop flavored), but not quite balad-pop either. The result is an album which not too mainstream, but also have it's own flavors.

Review: dbE Acoustics HP30 Fullsized headphone

It was started when a post started on our local audiophile forum about a loaner program for locally branded headphone. Without wasting times I signed myself in, and fortunately chosen. Now, after several weeks listening and comparing to my other headphone, I would like to give my though about it.

The Package.
dbE HP30 headphone comes with a big cardboard box. You could see from the photo I took how it compared to my Goldring DR150 box I apologize, it seems the photo is missing... will update with new photos. Photo added. The box itself looked nice. Opening it, I found another box which contain the headphone. The inside box is nice and sturdy, but I don't like how the outer cardboard felt, it's felt flimsy.

Open the inside box, and you will find the headphone nestled on cloth covered hollow. It also include a 6.3mm adapter jack and an extension cable, and some papers of course. Overall packages is quite nice, the cloth covered headphone placement help creating expensive impression. I just wish the outer cardboard is as good as inside box. Or ditch the outer box entirely, and print the label and what-not directly to the inside box surface.

The Build.
The headphone holder is made from machined aluminum with brushed finish. It's an open headphone, and you can see the metal mesh with a metal plate printed with the company name. The headphone back is made from some hard plastic, half painted silver inline with the silver holder and metal mesh, while the other half is black.


On top, the headband is covered with a smooth pleather (or what I guess is). It has some padding on it, which felt nice on my head. Maybe the material used didn't had that expensive feeling, especially the material holding the two side of pleather together (and the one hold the velvet pad), but for the price I think it's good enough.

I really like the velvet pad used on dbE HP30, it soft and very, very nice on my skin. It actually smoother and denser than the velvet pad used on my Goldring DR150. The cup is wide and deep, my quite large ears had no problem going inside at all.

At first I though this headphone would press my head like a gripping machine, but when I bend the headband a little bit to place it on my head, I quite surprised how easily it bend. And it the clamp is very nice, not too strong, and not too weak. It just... right. My DR150 had stronger grip than HP30. This headphone bit heavy, on the same scale as my DR150, I think. Wearing my AudioTechnica SJ33 after HP30 or DR150 is like wearing nothing at all, because it's so light, and the clamping force is even lighter than HP30.

Overall, dbE HP30 looked and felt nice. Maybe some would say it looked similar to another headphone from Germany brand, but I had no idea how similar since I don't have the mentioned headphone on hand for comparison. HP30 did look expensive, though.

The Sound.
This headphone is a loaner from dbE Acoustics, so it already burned in. How does it sounded? I think its a neutral one. Comparing it to my AudioTechnica SJ33 and Goldring DR150, dbE HP30 placed right on the middle, maybe little bit on SJ33 side. So middle ground leaning to bright side I think.

While I said leaning on bright side, the treble isn't that bright. My SJ33 is brighter than HP30. The treble is smooth, well extended, with some roll off on highest frequencies. Nothing too glaring, but not too roll of like my DR150 either. Very polite. The treble is pretty nimble, better than my DR150 I think. But then maybe that because DR150 treble is rolled off earlier than HP30. Listening to HP30 after DR150 is like going to a room with lot of open windows and light after a dark, damp and warm sauna room. The treble is just free, airy, and nimble.

Vocal is brighter than my DR150, bit on lean side. But not bright like my SJ33 does. Really, it just like on middle ground between SJ33 and DR150, with HP30 located bit on SJ33 side. Vocals has this airy sound, much more than my DR150. On some vocals (especially on high female vocals), this contribute to nice, and airy vocals, but on heavier vocals (like baritone males, contralto females), this take away those nice chest sound. The King's Singers baritone part on 'Scarborough Fair' sounded leaner, and brighter than on my DR150, which has dark, meaty sound on it. On the other side, HP30 render light vocals of Celtic Woman sopranos better: airier, and nimbler.

Bass is leaner than both my DR150 and SJ33. HP30 sub-bass is pretty rolled off, while the mid-bass is quite polite. Punchy, but nothing like my DR150. My SJ33 has much more sub-bass than HP30. Bass on HP30 is tad looser too. Comparatively, mid-bass HP30 is tad leaner than SJ33. The detail is quite good, almost as good as SJ33 but nothing compared to DR150 (which understandable, seeing the price bracket). HP30 mid-bass is quite good actually, it can hold it's own compared to SJ33 which marketed as portable DJ headphone.

HP30 has a forward presentation, which combined with the airy sound, make vocals quite nice. Guitars sounded crisp, although not as meaty or thick as DR150 but, crispier. The bite is not on SJ33 level though, since SJ33 has this peaky treble which help give more bite to guitars. Strings also had more bite and air to it, compared to DR150, just as flute had. Listening to same song with flute and strings on it, it's like DR150 took dark and mournful side while HP30 take on keening and airy side. SJ33 take cut-your-skin approach.

For musical genre, I think HP30 very good at acoustic with not too many instrument on it. The separation is pretty good, little bit better than my SJ33 because HP30 has more depth to it sound. The depth isn't that detail however, compared to my DR150, but for the price I think it's pretty good. As I said before, SJ33 place all instrument on same distance. HP30 had more 3D sound than my SJ33, but positioning is quite vague, again compared to my DR150 which priced much higher, but much better than my SJ33 which place almost everything left and right.

Heavy metal, speed metal, trash, and those fast paced metals are no go. HP30 relaxed sound just didn't render those speed correctly. But for slow rock, acoustic rock, or folk-rock I think HP30 manage alright.
Fast club song, vocals club song also no go. The sub-bass just isn't enough. Amr Diab 'Maak Bartaah' from his last album 'Banadeek Taala' sounded so lean, the bass just isn't satisfying. At all. For this kind of musics (club, dance and metals), I think my SJ33 is much better choice. Faster pace, satisfying bass (and sub-bass), forward vocals, and more treble to convey the energy.

Classical piece is alright, if you don't mind how HP30 presented all the instruments forwarder than the usual. If you think DR150 turn classical piece into rock concert, HP30 will turn classical piece into LIVE rock concert. It's too forward for instrumental classical piece I think. For this price range, I still think Superlux HD668B as the best headphone for instrumental classical musics.

HP30 is quite forgiving for badly recorded musics and or low quality musics, just like my SJ33. It's quite musical, listening to HP30 you won't focus on individual sound, but to the music itself. Not like HD668B which dissect music so every flaw apparent.


The Verdict.
dbE Acoustics first full-sized headphone HP30 is a nice headphone. The packaging and build looks very expensive. Open design allowing open and airy sound, forward vocals, punchy bass (although rather lean on sub-bass), and moderate to slow pace make it great headphone for pop, jazz, slow musics, vocals, and acoustics. But if you want headphone for fast paced music, or deep, meaty, satisfying bass, you better look else where.

Recommended, if your music taste is right.


PS: it's priced about IDR400.000,00 if I'm not wrong. I use a FiiO E10 DAC on my review.
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Thank you for dbE Acoustics for supplying the loaner unit. It's very nice experience!!!

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Review: Goldring DR150 FullSized Headphone

It's been several weeks since I got my Goldring DR150 from Jaben. Now it's time to write a review about it. Actually, you can found my first impression on a fully burned DR150 on Jaben here, but I don't fell right if not wrote a full review of it.

The Package.
Goldring DR150 come in cardboard box with transparent window so you could see the headphone itself. The chosen colors, the letters, and the design are very attractive. It reflect the above USD100 price tag of it. Inside are the headphone it self, 3m detachable silver plated 99.999% oxygen free copper cable (or so it said on the package), golden plated 3.5mm to 6.3mm plug adapter, and Jaben pins. Ops, the Jaben pin isn't included by default. Sorry, my bad.

The Build.
The headphone made from plastic with metal mesh on the back. The pad is from velour, and so do the pad on the headband. It's much heavier than my AudioTechnica SJ33, but still lighter than Shure SRH440 (again, read my previous impression). The plastic is okay, though Shure SRH440 got better build: sturdier, nicer to touch, but heavier. Maybe it's because DR150 is for more home use, while SRH440 is for studio use, so it had to able to stand some rough handling. However, I think DR150 build is good enough for someone careless like me.

I could see some ripple on headband plastics, so the build is not as  good as Shure, which really good. The finishing touch too, could be better. There are some edge which could be smoother, etc.
The headphone look is okay. It look little ugly at first sight, but it has grown on me and now I think it look quite nice. From color perspective, I liked DR100 gray-black color combination much more than DR150 gray-silver. The silver accent on the rim of the metal mesh look nicer on gray-black combination than on gray-silver.

The detachable cable is nice. I don't know if the 99.999% oxygen free claim is true, so no comment on it. It has this rubbery finish which very pleasant to touch. It snap into 3.5mm jack on left side of the headphone quite strongly, so you don't have to fear it detached easily when pulled accidentally. Those detachable cable also mean it's easy to find cable replacement if the bundled one break, or mod the sound by using different cable materials (if you believe or could hear the differences).

The headphone itself is quite comfortable, the grip is rather hard on the first, but it lessened over the time. The headband is adjustable with several clicks which lock the headband on place. The velour pads is definitely comfortable and felt nice to touch.

The Sound.
This is my first open backed headphone so I quite surprised by how the sound-stage and positioning (layering) rendered. It's much better than my SJ33, which closed backed. Of course, price-wise, SJ33 is cheaper, but DR150 is simply at another level compared to it. DR150 sound-stage is wide, with very good separation and layer rendering. Listening to SJ33 after DR150, I could easily hear how SJ33 sound-stage is wide but flat, all instrument just placed at same level, while DR150 render the position beautifully. The dept is just very good on DR150.

The high is smooth, with enough sparkle to make it shine, but not bright. Definitely not bright. For comparison, listening to DR150 after SRH440, DR150 sounded like there is a veil over the sound. Cymbal is pretty crisp, although not as bright as SRH440, or MS1i. None of those sibilance, though, so it's easy on ears. Listening to DR150 after SRH440, it felt like going into a large and warm sauna room after a closed room with air cooler. MS1i, on the other side, felt like an open room with lot of air flow.
DR150 smooth and natural treble make my SJ33 sounded steely, cold and with lot of peak. DR150 also had some air to the sound which made my SJ33 sounded boxed. Not as airy as Alessandro MS1i, but enough to give breath on vocals and instruments. It's really refreshing after listening to SJ33

The mid is smooth and warm, with neutral presentation. It's neither forward nor laid back, actually it's quite versatile, when the recording is forward, the DR150 will sounded forward and vice versa. The vocal is luscious, and very, very nice. SJ33 sounded dry compared to DR150.
Male and female vocals rendered equally good. It's doesn't matter what kind vocals I threw at it, DR150 render them both good, Scotty McCreery low voice is as good as Andrea Bochelli tenor. High female vocal, like Sarah Brightman soprano is rendered beautifully, just like Amy Winehouse sultry contralto voice is.

The bass is thick, meaty and warm. It has bigger bass, both in quantity and quality than my SJ33. The bass is so detailed, SJ33 sounded like one big blob of bass. The mid bass is pretty good, detailed and punchy. None of the bass bleed to mid. I think DR150 bass is mostly on mid-bass though, while SJ33 had lot of sub bass. Tone down 200-100Hz (via equalizer), and the bass will loose lot of it punch.

Detail and micro-detail, Goldring DR150 absolutely murder my AudioTechnica SJ33. It's really no contest. I just can ear all those tiny sound, like when a player put down something or turn a page, or how the guitar string twanged against the wood board, how the singer open her mouth before singing, how the piano keys make those little click sound when they pressed... It's mesmerizing.
Goldring DR150 is pretty unforgiving, I can easily hear how bad is Glee record or how 128kbps mp3's sounded much like Lady GaGa second album (yup, it's that bad). Garbage in garbage out. On the other side, SJ33 is much more FUN, especially with mainstream music and or bad recorded music like GaGa, Madonna, Glee, Katy Perry etc.

Isolation is none at all, since it's open headphone. DR150 also leak sound from the grill/mesh on the back, although not very bad. The metal mesh on the back is actually lined with a piece of cloth inside, so you can't see the driver from outside like you do Sennheiser HD600/HD650 or Shure new SRH1440. I'm wondering how would DR150 sounded if I remove the cloth covering the mesh, will I get more airy sound? Will the sound-stage and layering increase? Hm... intriguing. I had to try that sometime in the future.

A bit nitpick, sometimes I felt the sound is not as coherent than, say MS1i or SRH440. It's like there is something which resonating along with the driver causing the sound, like, breaking or diffused or something. Is this the plastic color described by Heafonia review of DR150?! I don't know. It's not that bad, though, since this only apparent when I listening very closely. When I just sit and enjoying the music, I didn't notice it. My SJ33 also exhibit the same problem, at much bigger scale.

The Verdict.
For the price (about USD100-130) I think Godlring DR150 is a very good headphone. The sound definitely is, although I wish the build quality could bit better. It has this dark and luscious sound, meaty bass with punch and some nice treble sparkle on top. If the sound is a food, I say Goldring DR150 is a cake made from dark chocolate, filled with crunchy milk chocolates goodness and sprinkle of vanilla on top. Warm from the oven. Hmmm yummy!
Recommended.

Rant #3: Jaben Jakarta

Last Saturday I'm turned 25 years old, so I though I will go and treat myself a nice new full-sized headphone. Jaben got this birthday special offer, so I'm going to use that. Jaben Jakarta is located at Senayan Trade Center, very easy for me to reach just about 30 minutes by public bus (not counting traffic jam). I got to Jaben Jakarta store at 6.30 PM, give or take.

Jaben Jakarta store is rather small, but very cozy. They welcomed me warmly, and after I told them that I was looking for open full-sized headphone, they offer me to listen to some of their demo headphones. I tried an Alessandro MS1i. I rather excited because this is my first time listening to Alessandro, my one-time experience with Grado SR60i didn't impress me much, I found SR60i too bright for me. So gingerly, I put the MS1i, dial the volume pot on my FiiO E10 to zero, play a song and carefully set the volume up. Boy, how I supprised.

MS1i didn't sounded like what I remember SR60i back then. The treble is crystal clear, the vocal is forward and the bass is punchy. Both male and female vocals are so airy and so free that listening to my Audio-Technica SJ33 I felt boxed. Guitar sounded so crisp, and the vocal is forward, just how I liked it.
The sound-stage (or head-stage if you like) is way bigger than the SR60i on my memory. I don't know the pad they used, but it's different to the one SR60i has. Comfortable enough, the headphone just sit on my head. But I don't like how the pad touched my ears. It got rather itchy after several songs lol.

Next I asked for another open headphone to listen to and they gave me Goldring DR150. So, this is the headphone called poor-man's Sennheiser HD650, I thought. I put it on my head, put some song to play, and Holy Sh*t!!! I never knew Fatoumata Diawara's Kanou has those nice bass! And her vocals...so nice!!! Not as airy as MS1i, but with enough breath to it. Compared to MS1i, DR150 is less airy, but also less sibilant. DR150 bass also way bigger than MS1i bass. DR150 made MS1i sounded thin. Not that MS1i is bad, but generally I prefer darker sound-signature myself. I like my male vocals a touch of dark and heavy, and my female vocal to be as clean as possible. Looking from other side, MS1i vocals is sounded much more effortless, while DR150 is rather heavy.

It's a mantra to audiophile and music lovers crowd that before you buy an equipment, try as much as possible to listen other equipments, so I asked for another headphone. Jaben folk told me that the other headphone on my price range that they have are closed back, but I told them I don't mind, so they gave me Shure 440 to listen. OMG! Such high-class customer service!!! Really love Jaben....

How Shure 440 sounded? As a closed back, it doesn't has nice air or breath than Goldring and Alessandro has, but Shure has this nice clear vocal. Vocal is forwarder than MS1i (really, what pad they put on those MS1i?) and very, very clear. I can hear Adele breath when she sang Someone Like You, Live at The Royal Albert Hall. But the sound-stage isn't as nice as neither MS1i nor DR150. Both MS1i and DR150 got better layering, and better 3 dimensional space. The bass is rather weak, tad weaker than MS1i, but much clearer. I think that because of less mid-bass. And also very clean, making DR150 sounded like it had a veil on it.

So, after trading and comparing one to another, I put my choice on Goldring DR150. I want a headphone with good sound-stage and layering, and smoother sound, both are things that my Audio-Technica SJ33 lack. Not that my Audio-Technica bad, actually it's very good and very fun to listen to. I just want more refined sound, and more comfortable for home listening.

Because it's my birthday, Jaben give me some discount. Actually they as me to choose: price discount or gift (it's an Sony Jienna IEM and Jaben headphone stand), but I choose price discount. Why? because those money could go to Brainwavz HM5 when they came here fufufufufufu......

 For you who want to buy or try a nice set of headphone, go to Jaben. They are very friendly, and very warm, and they let you try almost all headphones and amplifiers that they had. They got some very nice offering (like birthday specials, bundle specials), even starting bundle special (they let you pay 60% first, then the 40% twice on two month schedule), and sometime a lucky draw (where they give out a headphone or IEM to a lucky guest).
They even offering me to try the Shure 1440, the newest Shure open headphone (which very expensive), and I had to swallow my saliva and politely reject the offer. After paying my headphone, I rather hurriedly haul my ass out before they offers me another scary headphone to try on. No, my wallet can't suffer those price.

All my rant above actually just an impression, because I only listen them for some time, and don't treat them as a review. I only write my review if I can get my paw on those headphone long enough, maybe several weeks. Right now I'm burning my new Goldring DR150, and I plan to write a review on them after they got enough time to settle to their sound. Thanks for reading this rant of me, lets meet again on the next post!