Hey Martel, how are your Nano's going for you now? It's been a few months of use. I'm thinking of upgrading my Stealths to a Nano

 

So my brand new Nano's arrived in the mail today.
I sold my Ananda Stealth V3's earlier this week. So this isn't a direct comparison, just my thoughts from the first hour of using them. (i was using the stealths for a few months)

Early impressions are:
-The Nano is definitely better, but i thought they would be more betterer than the Stealth v3. I thought the gap would be larger. But they are better in every way and i'm satisfied.
-Nano feels more "compact", both in terms of sound and feel.
-Sound: It's punchier, and a bit narrower than the Stealth. I actually prefer the narrower stereo image of the Nano, it feels more realistic. I thought the Stealths were a little on the "unrealistically wide" side. I feel like the Nano makes more sense to me.
-Feel: The band strength is a bit tighter, so they hug your head tighter. I prefer this as i have a small head. The Stealths also felt a bit bigger in the hand than the Nano i think? But i can't be certain. The Nano is apparently a bit heavier, but i think the Stealths cups were maybe bigger??
-Nano is more high-res. I thought the Stealths were detailed, but these are even more detailed. It's not by much, but it's there. I can hear if an instrument was recorded with hiss. I can hear intersample pops and clicks in the audio that i didn't know was there before.
-I expected the Nano to be brighter based on other reviews. They seem pretty perfect to me. Maybe i've got ear damage.

 

Hey Martel, what do you think about Paul Third's take on Sonarworks?

He thinks it's hard to get good translation with Sonarworks cos their EQ correction makes the sound too dull, so he was overcompensating and making his mixes too bright.

I finally got around to setting up an EQ profile for my Nano's and holy shit, they sound absolutely amazing now. I had to go through and listen to all my favourite music again. I haven't heard sound quality this good.

Here's the EQ profile i'm currently using. It's based on otarory1990's profile, and i made some tweaks to taste. I tested with a bunch of reference tracks that i've known for years, and to me this feels accurate. The bass is anchored and it has a good amount of transient punch without being too much so. It's not as bright as the out-of-the-box sound signature is, but it's not completely neutered. And the mid-range hole is filled.

 

Hello , this seems to work well for me . I am twiddeling a bit with the Low shelf boost . Sometimes I think it is a bit too much ,might also be my HP amp. Those headphones need EQ for my taste but do sound great EQ ed . I tried Sonarworks with my HD650 s , I thought it did improve those.

 

I really like my UA gear but Martel check it out, dude you seem to have good ears so you deserve better than what the UA headphone amps are capable of giving you. If you haven't PLEASE look into using an external headphone amp. ESPECIALLY with Hifiman.

I switched from my Twin Duo's internal headphone amp to a Topping L30 II ($150 USD), it's an enormous difference. To an engineer's ear it will not be a subtle difference at all.

I'm not saying you gotta go for Topping, I'm sure there are plenty out there with good performance. But really the transients on the Apollo's internal amp are flat, slow, mushy and weird in comparison. The depth isn't there. The frequencies are even a little weird in comparison. I realized quickly how many wrong mix moves I was making because of the amp and it kinda pissed me off haha. I remember there was a tricky attack on a ride cymbal I was having trouble with, I heard it on the Topping and was like DAMN THAT'S WHAT THAT WAS? Like details I just could NOT hear on the internal amp. Then I finally got it right.

An external headphone amp doesn't cost that much and it can be a huge improvement, depending on what you end up with. Honestly I had no idea it would be like this, I thought the UA amp was fine. It's really not if you're making critical decisions. For casual listening, yeah totally, it's fine. But I'll never go back to mixing on the internal UA amp unless I have to for some reason. I use VSX btw.

 

My interfaces amp does have enough headroom for me but I am not sure if it is a clean signal . It is better than the other built in headphone amps I have but that is a Mackie board and a Hifi Yamaha Amp .A dedicated headphone amp is no 1 on my shopping list as soon as I can afford it . This is the only way to find out if I can still hear the difference ;-) . Might just try the one you suggested , pretty affordable

 

I'm convinced that folks become addicted to getting "something better" and then after the purchase they subjectively convince themselves they made a good choice spending all that money. I've been mixing on Senn HD600s and know them well. Coupled with Realphones I can achieve mixes that translate great. Also, I recently ordered a Topping L30 II (based on Paul Third youtube) but there was not enough diff between them and my Apollo Twin gen 1 outputs to justify the price. I sent them back. Happy to carry on with what I've got, and more money in my pocket for sandwiches.

 

That's great. I gave HD 600's a year or two and got nowhere with them, even with Sonarworks. They are crazy comfortable though.

As for you not feeling there was a big difference with the Topping, hey that's actually great for you. Keep doing your thing. In my case, the difference was huge and required no such self-convincing. The difference wasn't subtle, switching to the Topping truly did have a huge impact on how I was able to discern what needed work in my mixes.

In general I'm also not usually the type to always be buying gear to get the next best thing. I like gear but I prefer stability, it helps me get more done. Always goofing around with gear is way too distracting. Even with plugins. When I mix it's always the same stuff (I check out a lot from the sister site but that's more of a curiosity thing, and is almost unrelated to audio work).

 

Trust your gut, what others call "clarity" some call going deaf

 

Similar here .But Realphones ( at least the roomsimulation aspect and similar other roomsimulations) do not work for me at all .Only crossfeed. I was expecting to send back the Hifiman . But those give me a feeling " forgot to switch the speakers off . But why do they have a sub now " What is really strange for me is going back and forth . During the first seconds it is " no , I don`t like this !" and then brain already adapted