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Sonic Subversions

No sooner do I brag about my little stack of Schiit then it breaks.

One night, for reasons unknown, the wall wart power supply for the Magni amp/pre-amp died. I speculate that as it shuffled off to the electrical afterlife, it sent a spike through the system. This didn't damage the Magni and it may be a coincidence, but I had left my Zeus headphones plugged in and they were dead, probably murdered in their sleep.

The result was me exploring warranties and how well each manufacturer responded. First, the great one, Schiit. Sent them proof of purchase (via Amazon, silly me) and voila, within days I had a replacement wall wart. The Magni still works like a charm, and my stack of Schiit is back in businss.

Second, the nightmare. I purchased my Zeus headphones via Amazon, but it wasn't Amazon making the sale or even a sale that was "fulfilled by Amazon." Instead, it was the HiFiGo store. Out of China. Lesson learned, pay attention to what "store" you're buying something from.

They made the quite reasonable request that I ship the dead headphones back to them. Upon receipt of a valid tracking number, they would send me a replacement set along with a new, balanced cable. Nice.

Only it was going to cost around $160 to ship the things to China.

There are a lot of things I like about the Zeus headphones and I'll happily recommend them (from a US retailer). Where they excel is sound stage. It truly feels as though you are in a concert hall, and you can tell where each and every instrument is. They're lovely, but I'm not willing to spend the money shipping them halfway around the world.

Another store has popped up on Amazon offering the Zeus. The cost is higher but it's all via Amazon, so if you buy one that way you probably won't have my warranty headaches. And this isn't meant to be a complaint about HiFiGo. It's just the limits of what I'm willing to spend.

Instead, the Zeus have been replaced by a set of Sennheiser HD-6XX. These are apparently a staple in the industry and I thought I'd give them a go. Buying them new was only slightly more expensive than sending the dead Zeus back to China.

The HD-6XX don't offer anywhere near the sound stage the Zeus did. In all other respects they're the better headphones. HarmonicDyne puts a lot of money in its case, cable, as well as the metal and wood finish of the Zeus; the HD-6XX is largely plastic. Sennheiser put all its money into how well the HD-6XX produces sound.

Mine are still breaking in and seem to improve with each use. This includes clamping force; they are not as out-of-the-box comfortable as the Zeus. While I don't get a concert hall experience listening to John Williams' Finale, from The Empire Strikes Back, it feels as though Joni Mitchell is singing just to me as I listen to Free Man in Paris or Same Situation. What I would call more technical tracks, like Ludwig Goransson's entire soundtrack for Tenet, are amazing.

Someday I might buy another pair of the Zeus headphones because I really love the concert hall sensation; they were also fantastic for playing Hitman and other games. Meanwhile, I'm happy with HD-6XX. Despite feeling cheaper (e.g., plastic rather than metal and wood), they sound fantastic. My next experiment will involve replacing the Magni with a Schiit Vali tube amp/pre-amp.

Once it's available in black.

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