Very impressed with the overall sound, comfort, and performance of these phones.
Now to make it clear I am no headphone nut, that being said every headphone I have had or listened to so far has left me hankering to listen to my speakers instead.
I use big two way 15 inch H/E horn speakers. Which are tight very fast, they go deep with great bass detail, have an open transparent detailed mid range with crystal clear extended tops. They are extremely dynamic and give a live type musical presentation.
I took a chance on these phones and it has paid off in more ways than I could ask for.
What can else can I say, they had my foot tapping, are very comfortable, are much more open and clear in the mid's compared to my HD 598's which sound confused and compressed on comparison. The bass is quicker and tighter, the tops sound about the same to me.
The sound stage is very deep and wide for headphones, they sound more like open backs than closed.
They might not be the ultimate in top end sparkle, but when they seem to do everything else so well, are absolutely no fatiguing also considering the fact they cost me the same as my pair of 518's cost +-, (they are just so much better than the 518's.) The 598's cost me a good 2 grand more than these and they have always left me hankering to listen to my speakers. Do not want to listen to the 598's any more
The ADL H118's have taken the hankering to listen to my speakers away. I zoned out for hours with these on, I am defiantly going back for more of the same later this evening.
Only con I can observe is that they have the dreaded, to me at least, upper bass, lower mid bass bump. In this case I am able to live with it, it is not that pounced. Guess silly money would have to be spent on a headphone set up that does not suffer from this self same malady I have yet to hear one that does not. So many speakers have this condition; it is IMO there to make up for lack of efficiency and to get them to have a bit of bass wellie at low volume. Something most people would not notice until they hear a speaker that does not do that. Like a Vandersteen or a good Electrostatic for example.
There is one demo pair left at the silly bargain price for its performance of R2,500.
https://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,66574.0.html
Nice detachable cable a very nice case and a very good gold plated 6.3 mm to 3.5 mm adapter the best I have seen so far.
Equipment:
Modified Jolida JD 100 CDP
Modded Rega Planar 2, Goldring 1042 cartridge.
Audio Research SP16 Pre-Amp
Tidied up Meng Mini 6P1P-EB power amp. All Russian valves, completely re-soldered, better resistors, improved Coupling Caps, hard wired volume control, cleaned up P/C boards, 6.3 mm headphone plug.
Sennheiser HD 598, HD 518 HD 202.
Now to make it clear I am no headphone nut, that being said every headphone I have had or listened to so far has left me hankering to listen to my speakers instead.
I use big two way 15 inch H/E horn speakers. Which are tight very fast, they go deep with great bass detail, have an open transparent detailed mid range with crystal clear extended tops. They are extremely dynamic and give a live type musical presentation.
I took a chance on these phones and it has paid off in more ways than I could ask for.
What can else can I say, they had my foot tapping, are very comfortable, are much more open and clear in the mid's compared to my HD 598's which sound confused and compressed on comparison. The bass is quicker and tighter, the tops sound about the same to me.
The sound stage is very deep and wide for headphones, they sound more like open backs than closed.
They might not be the ultimate in top end sparkle, but when they seem to do everything else so well, are absolutely no fatiguing also considering the fact they cost me the same as my pair of 518's cost +-, (they are just so much better than the 518's.) The 598's cost me a good 2 grand more than these and they have always left me hankering to listen to my speakers. Do not want to listen to the 598's any more
The ADL H118's have taken the hankering to listen to my speakers away. I zoned out for hours with these on, I am defiantly going back for more of the same later this evening.
Only con I can observe is that they have the dreaded, to me at least, upper bass, lower mid bass bump. In this case I am able to live with it, it is not that pounced. Guess silly money would have to be spent on a headphone set up that does not suffer from this self same malady I have yet to hear one that does not. So many speakers have this condition; it is IMO there to make up for lack of efficiency and to get them to have a bit of bass wellie at low volume. Something most people would not notice until they hear a speaker that does not do that. Like a Vandersteen or a good Electrostatic for example.
There is one demo pair left at the silly bargain price for its performance of R2,500.
https://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,66574.0.html
Nice detachable cable a very nice case and a very good gold plated 6.3 mm to 3.5 mm adapter the best I have seen so far.
Equipment:
Modified Jolida JD 100 CDP
Modded Rega Planar 2, Goldring 1042 cartridge.
Audio Research SP16 Pre-Amp
Tidied up Meng Mini 6P1P-EB power amp. All Russian valves, completely re-soldered, better resistors, improved Coupling Caps, hard wired volume control, cleaned up P/C boards, 6.3 mm headphone plug.
Sennheiser HD 598, HD 518 HD 202.
