Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
General question: Does anyone remember how they were going to handle the serializing? I seem to remember that the first 500 orders were guaranteed a number below 600. I was within the first 50 orders, spamming the refresh when they went live, and I have #1306. I can't find any reference to this promise now. Just wondering if I remembered that correctly.
First sound impressions: Like several others have said that they do sound super dark and congested at first listen. Although they do seem to be clearing up a bit as I listen to them. I'm sure burning in will help some. I'm also betting they will liven up with some good power. My e10k is all I have at the moment but if my MKIIIs were any indication they come alive with my IFI iCAN SE. I might update this in the future with later impressions if I remember. Lol.
10/11/17 Edit: Ignore my ramblings about the serial number, I remembered that was the HE4XX I was thinking of.
After putting in some good time and trying them on my other main amps I have some more reliable impressions. These are still dark but not nearly as dark and congested as when I first tried them. They remind me a little of my old AKG 240S but with more bass. The bass does bleed into the mids a bit which is the one aspect of the sound that I'm not a big fan off. I will play around with some EQ later and see if I can tame the effect.
The T-X0 is VERY amp picky. It sounded bad on my e10k (congested, bloated, super dark sound), better on my iCAN SE (much more detailed with some really nice textures on things like guitars and vocals but bass wasn't that well controlled) but they sound pretty good on my Magni v1 (good bass control and extension and much better treble response but at the expense of some of the texture).
The biggest thing they have going for them is that lovely texture, especially with high dynamic range string instruments. Nasty Letter by Otis Taylor is a good example. Adele sounds great and so does the piano version of Sia's Chandelier. These headphones are super intolerant of poor recordings and anything that has an excessive "buzzcut" effect (think Metallica's Death Magnetic album).
Also, if anyone is not liking the sound, these are famous for being mod-able. These have a much cleaner sound than my modded MKIII so I'm probably going to avoid modding them, if I can, since I'm not very good at it. But I'm sure the sound can be tweaked with some light modding if these aren't to your taste. I am going to try and tighten the headband slider by putting a piece of rubber band in the slider. Not being able to move my head without them getting larger is rather annoying.
im not complaining. ;)
Amp pairing makes a HUGE difference with these phones and not just power. The T-X0 sounded bad on my e10k (congested, bloated, super dark sound), better on my iCAN SE (much more detailed with some really nice textures on things like guitars and vocals but bass wasn't that well controlled) but they sound pretty good on my Magni v1 (good bass control and extension and much better treble response but at the expense of some of the texture).
But, with that being said, these will never be good for treble or neutralheads, it's just not how they are designed. I've never heard HD 580s or SR60s but I know they are both open, dynamic headphones which makes it a slightly unfair comparison.
As far as soundstage goes, planars have a much smaller soundstage than dynamics and the T-50RP line is even smaller than that because it's closer to being a closed headphone than open. Planars excel at speed and texture, not soundstage. The T-X0 also really loves dynamic range. Rock, metal, and other genres that have that "buzzcut" compression they struggle with. They do really well with solo instruments, vocals, and some electronic music (Jazz, soundtracks, blues, etc.). Nasty Letter by Otis Taylor has some of that lovely texture I was talking about.
Bottom line is this. If you don't like them, you don't like them. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, I just think should give them a fair shot before writing them off completely. My suggestion is that after burning them in for at least 10 hours, use them exclusively for a few days and see if your opinion changes. If not, I'm sure there is someone on eBay or Head-Fi that would be happy to take them off of your hands.
Amps - Jotunheim and LD MKIII