Ordered on aliexpress on 11.11 for $148 after coupons. It said 21 days, but they showed up 3 days later, so I guess they had a box of these in the US already. I also ordered a Fiio K11 dongle that should be here next week for listening to these and IEMs on my phone.

If you have these headphones, let me know what you think!

I wanted to try open backs. It was between these, Sundara, Sen 6XX, and ATH-R70x. Ultimately the price + positive reviews made the decision. Sundara was very temping at \~100. I chose these after seeing that most reviewers favor them over the Sundara. (I know reviewers aren't always the most trustworthy!). As much as I love AT products, the R70x are over $300.

Headphones I own - ATH-M30, ATH-M50X, Bose QC-45, Kiwi Cadenza, kz zs10

**First impressions**: nice packaging and case. Build seems fine. They are heavier and a bit larger overall than the M50X, which I understand is normal for planars. The headband is not well padded. I have a small-medium head, and it's maxed to the smallest setting. I thought reviewers were being picky about the headband, but yeah the headband is not comfortable. I'm a bit disappointed that I will need to buy something to improve this, I'm not really a modder. The earpads are fine. I don't like the stiff textured cable it came with, it's scratchy and very audible through the cans. I added a piece of heat shrink to the medal connector to reduce the noise of it on my desk. Any recommendations to improve these QoL issues are welcome.

**First listen:** Source - Tidal > UA audio interface. They sound great.

Bear in mind, my headphone experience is limited, and I don't really look at charts. I am a music producer and have listened to plenty of high-end systems. I am not a gamer, so I can't speak to their performance here (I notice 90% of posts here are asking about gaming).

Here are my thoughts after listening to some music I am familiar with that is produced well. Some jazz, some modern Indie, some IDM, a couple of my own tracks. They sound really, very nice. For $150, hell yeah.

I need time to get used to the sound signature. Totally different profile than the M50x of course, which is what I was looking for. More spacious, a bit more of a hollowed out midrange, but airy and crisp and excellent detail. The area that I can fault on some sources is the 500-700k range - which becomes cluttered and resonant. This might be what reviews refer to as shouty, but it could very well be my source, since the UA Volt headphone amp isn't great.

I'm looking forward to listening more tonight when it's quiet.

First open backs - Fiio FT1 Pro