Moron audiophile who bought an RHA CL2 picks a fight with reviewers for calling his $900 ear-rape earbuds dog shit in an unrelated forum thread; cope ensues

115  2019-06-24 by dongas420

m#Background:

The CL2 is the latest in-ear monitor (IEM), made with planar magnetic technology and priced at $899, by RHA, a company whose previous products have received such glowing accolades as:

Ear-piercing treble makes it hard to listen to.

So much treble to the point where nothing sounds correct. Like raining metal balls on a tin roof.

But how does the CL2 sound? Here are excerpts from a recent review from the well-respected Antdroid:

abnormal rise in the upper mids [...] unnaturally high and harsh [...] timbre off [...] sound veiled and compressed and, again, unnatural

While the ME1 has some unevenness in sound and is darker and richer than my typical preference, that was much more coherent than the CL2. [...] The CL2’s overall package is quite handsome though.

The main character:

Kitechaser is the local Stockholm buyer’s syndrome sufferer in Head-Fi’s official CL2 thread. His initial impressions are negative, but he endures in the face of internal misgivings:

Right out of the box, the Cl2 had no bass. 30 mins in Tupac went from sounding anemic, to having a serious kick.

So these definitely need burn in. The sound is maturing by the hour. Burn in is real folks.

He eventually deludes himself into believing that he has not made a purchasing mistake:

30 hours in, the bass has literally come alive.

I call it quantum IEM. The bass is a mysterious creature, one track it will be some of the most luscious bone rattling bass, and another it will be conspicuously absent, and only shows up in little tantalizing pieces. Took me a few days to realize what was going on.

He buys new cables and burns those in, too, in an effort to make the CL2 not suck:

I left the copper cable playing for the last 48 hours. Soundstage and transparency went up to Spc cable levels. I dont know how or why, but when I got the cable, the cl2 sounded congested and muddy, but that is no longer the case.

Both the spending and denial levels escalate:

The IEM gets better with use. The 89db sound pressure rating is low, 30% lower than average. Tip rolling is a must. Wide bore. Copper cable really helps with timbre and any harshness.

I am not justifying my purchase. I have already spent 350 dollars to get the right cables and tips. And will be getting Sony WM1Z to pair with this. No one else that has this iem, thinks I am crazy for wanting to do that. Does that sound like someone who is justifying their purchase?

The CL2 is so bad that it made him delete portions of his own music library:

The CL2 made me delete a alot of poorly mastered albums out of my library.

No it doesn't fix tracks that have been poorly mastered or compressed. They improve, but never really fixed. I fixed them by pressing, DELETE. No Brickwalled music for me on the CL2.

But nope, not the CL2’s fault. He despises treble ear rape. Therefore, these are perfectly neutral and good:

I dont think these are "bright" at all for whatever its worth, its accurate and transparent, and not exaggerated to emphasize the highs. I hate weak unsupported artificial treble spikes, I would have returned these day 1 if that was the case.

The CL2 is the best money I have ever spent, and I would buy this again a New York minute :)

Anyone who claims the CL2 is terrible must be haters, of course:

would you like to poll the owners of the CL2 who think vocals sound like they are coming through a blanket?? The ego you reviewers have is astounding, never can admit a mistake. All of us tried telling you months ago, burn in and copper cables address every issue you had with the CL2.

The people giving this iem 3 - 3.5 stars, are reviewing the bundled cables and their source, not the iem.

These reviewers owe @RHA Team an apology for sabotaging one of the best iems to come out in years. 4 years of ground breaking R&D, untold amounts of sweat and tears nearly wasted because of reviewer hubris.

I am sure this is how picasso felt when he died penniless on the streets. The curators just knew better. I hope this is just a head-fi thing, and they are making up for lost sales elsewhere.

The conflict:

This slapfight begins in the thread for the Tin Hifi P1, another planar magnetic in-ear that is also painful to listen to. Kitechaser takes his first swipe against the reviewing menace here:

So dudes are reviewing these (and other) iems with brickwalled Rhianna music (out of cell phones probably). Lol

Explains a lot actually. Hahaha

And people still take them seriously :)

And gets told by Antdroid:

Hi Mr KiteChaser, again. If you actually read my review, you would have seen that I tested on dedicated desktop amplification with plenty of power, as well as two or three dedicated audio players, as well as a couple phone adapters.

And why I tested Rhianna? Because i was asked to and SHE IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR ARTISTS ON THE PLANET... so you may expect people to actually listen to her music with these on. I also listened to various other artist from other genres too to give a full-fledged fair and unbiased review.

I'm not sure why I even have to explain myself to you anymore. I shouldn't. Becoming a waste of my time.

The salt really starts flowing on Page 4. It’s Rihanna’s fault that her music sounds terrible on the CL2, that screeching banshee!

My comment wasn't really directed towards you. As far as Rhianna goes, if I played a track of a screaming harpie on good transparent gear, I would expect the screaming harpie to sound like...well...a screaming harpie. I wouldn't blame the gear.

My test tracks are all DSD/High res tracks, Mozart, Wagner, John Williams, Clapton, Vaughn, Barber, Krall etc etc etc. Any 20 dollar skull candy iem is tuned to play Rhianna competently enough, I thought audiophiles would have demanded more from their gear. Different strokes for different folks, I guess :)

This whining attracts the attention of Crinacle, the resident Ph.D. in listening to earphones really hard:

I assume it was supposed to be directed at me then, in which case you should man up and stop beating around the bush.

If you read the conversation I had with @antdroid, I told him to focus on sibilant consonants and used a 15 second snippet of a Rihanna track ("Don't Stop the Music", 2:52 to be exact) as a simple example as it was a very mainstream pop track that could be found everywhere.

But here's the thing, you obviously never read that conversation, or even bothered to clarify what exactly happened. You just jumped in gung-ho ready for a fight against an enemy that doesn't exist. Going so far as to reach and assume that I test gear with brickwalled music is odd and shows a level of almost-obsession with my activities that's just... sad.

I still test all my gear out of the iFi iDSD Micro Black Label, by the way. Power beyond any mainstream DAP and rivals most desktop amplifiers. I doubt I'm underpowering anything.

“Leave Britney the CL2 alone!” 😭:

The fact that this iem plays bad recordings badly, is a caveat, not a disqualifier. And in my book, and I know plenty of others feel the same way, it is in fact a major plus.

Can we ever get reviews of what an iem does really well, instead of what it does with stuff like Rihanna?? That would a change of pace and a breath of fresh air for once.

Crinacle asks Kitechaser to try reading his fucking posts:

It was a 15-second example that I mentioned to ONE PERSON in a PRIVATE CONVERSATION. Please, I beg you, read my posts fully.

Having been told repeatedly, Kitechaser finally reverts to post-purchase rationalization mode:

I agree, depends on the gear though. It all comes down to tuning, an iem that plays brickwalled music well, will not play other genres to their truest potential. Some iems, even top-of-the-line ones, can be jack of all trades, but will never be masters of any.

Some of the playback with the genres I mentioned earlier, the CL2 is jaw dropping, I mean stunning. But feed it eminem, and his voice and snares are annoying if not painful. The 2pac albums eminem mastered are also brickwalled. You hear it plain as day.

112 comments

Drama posting as a whole rots your brain, the sub is easily one of the most transphobic subreddits filled with Enlightened centrists and alt-light trolls, the mod team is a bunch of weirdo nominally left succdems who post on Stupidpol about how they're the bastion of left thought.

One of them made a post about how they used to be a SJW but alienated all their friends and family and now decries idpol, when in reality they're probably just insufferable to be around

Snapshots:

  1. Moron audiophile who bought an RHA ... - archive.org, archive.today, removeddit.com

  2. official CL2 thread - archive.org, archive.today

  3. thread for the Tin Hifi P1 - archive.org, archive.today

  4. here - archive.org, archive.today

  5. Page 4 - archive.org, archive.today

I am just a simple bot, *not** a moderator of this subreddit* | bot subreddit | contact the maintainers

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Outlines:

  1. official CL2 thread - Outline

  2. thread for the Tin Hifi P1 - Outline

  3. here - Outline

  4. Page 4 - Outline

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great post!

I thank you for your blessing, O Great Saruh.

Wasn't u/trappysaruh a mod recently?

Dude needs to just get some Tin T2's I picked up a pair for 25 bucks online, they sound awesome and don't cost an arm an a leg.

How comes your comment is greyed out?

idk

Crazy stuff

Artisanal grade drama posting right here 😂😂😂

My loins ache for the day double-blind hifi studies become possible.

But feed it eminem, and his voice and snares are annoying if not painful.

This I can identify with. The pen scratch on Stan literally hurts on my setup.

Audiophiles are like foodies or winos. They have no expertise at all, but love to try the nicest and fanciest stuff and then gloatingly tell everyone around them that their food/wine/sound quality is shit.

These people all need Jesus

My friends 1000$ headphones sound the same as my 200$ senheissers lmao

Your $200 senheisers sound worse than my $50 creative aurvana live!, I guarantee this.

Your $50 creative shitcans sound worse than $15 xiaomis. I guarantee this.

And you are wrong.

Why haven't you cooked up any ccolonization of the Americas was the greatest wealth distribution in history" tier bait recently?

☺️

I, too, draw the line once the conversation veers into pro-xiaomi territory. It's just offensive at that point.

Your $15 Xiaomis sound worse than my $8 Sony MH755. I guarantee this.

I actually bought the Tin T2 pros off of some recommendations from redditors and honestly I hated them and had to return them. The treble was skullpiercing

You were supposed to get the original T2. It’s called the Pro because it’s difficult for people to listen to.

Your $8 Sony MH755 sounds worse than my $1.50 cup tied to shoe string

Your chinacrap sounds worse than my 2 solo cups attached to a string.

Your 20 cent homemade earphones sound like garbage compared to my free God given headphones, my ears.

Nothing sounds worse than everyone irl.

Yeah, diminishing returns are very real. Once you reach the $100 mark most people are lying when they tell you they can tell the difference.

$100

ok earlet

If you can tell the difference then I know you don't go to shows, so I feel bad for you but also look down my nose at you.

Imagine buying headphones for more than 100 they aren't Beats or AirPods

My B&Os look better than Beats or AirPods.

Imagine imaginin trying to imagine imagination

Lmao imagine buying beats for any reason other than the fact that beats were cool 5 years ago 😂😂😂

Beats were never "cool".

Imagine actually taking a comment saying only buy Beats on an audiophile thread seriously

that aren't Beats

brandlet detected

First, it depends what kind of setup you were listening to both of them on, and second just because they are $1000 doesn't mean people buy them because they are BETTER than $200 sennheissers. More often than not, you spend a different amount for a different type of sound. I doubt they sound the same, not saying his are "better" but I'm sure they sound different. Also let's not forget Sennheisser makes the most expensive headphones on the planet (look up the orpheus) and their flagship and most revered set the HD800's are over $1000 new.

Holy fuck you audiophile nerd, pretty much no shit

To me that doesnt have flaacs and doesnt care they legit sound the same. Maybe the 1000$ has better bass but the few songs i compared em too sounded the same

Now if i worked in the audio industry i could maybe see a difference but for a joe schmo like me they are fine in the 200$ range

Woah relax, was just trying to teach you something. And no, without a doubt I can gaurantee you do both those headphones sound the same or even similar. Which are the two? I've probably heard them.

Lol U mad nerd

Very mad

And by the way, every Joe schmoe who's ever compared my headphones can find the difference between them immediately, even my parents with diminished hearing, I suggest going to an ENT if every headphone you listen to sounds the same. And I don't even understand the sentence "to me that doesn't have flacs and they sound the same". What does that even mean, I can't decipher it.

This is bait lol

Cope

What does that even mean, I'm not hip with the young kids lingo these days I guess.

Audophiles are fucking stupid. You can get the best possible sound for $100-$300. Anything beyond that level of quality is virtually imperceptible unless you convince yourself you're hearing shit that's not actually present. I bet my $100 studio monitors wipe the floor with this kid's $600 carbon-fiber semen-coated-cable nano-magnet nonsense.

Still though, lmao @ the reviewer for ever using Rhianna. Rhianna and, in fact, all pop artists, should just die.

I'm gonna go with "based" for your first paragraph and then "based" on your second

I mean... are you sure? The best possible for just $300?

It's not exclusively about 'detail', either. People have preferences for different sounds, and different setups to achieve them - plenty of which you won't find for sub $300...

Those people are dumb lol gotem.

But yeah, even studio monitors with an audio interface/desk-amp + full acoustic treatment of an average-sized room isn't $300. More like $250. The only reason to spend more than $300 on your system is if you're using a PA system to play to a large crowd. My music making/general listening setup is probably worth $200 right now since I haven't treated my room yet, my DJing setup is worth close to/more than $1,000.

The best possible sound for 100-300? Ok let's not kid ourselves. There are plenty of diminishing returns once you get past about $1000 and then more often or not it's taste, but if you can find me a set of cans more detailed than HD800's for $1-300 I'd LOVE to hear what they are, I'll buy 2 of them.

What do you even mean "detailed"? Can you put that in technical terms?

Attack, transients and decay, 'resolve', dynamics, distortion, soundstage, imaging etc.

​

Take even just something like dynamics, the difference between the loudest and quietest sounds in a track - like the physical sound of someone's fingers on the string of a guitar before it's plucked. That's a huge part of finding detail and making things sound real, and something that great headphones can deliver in a way completely unlike lesser ones.

Dynamics are about the only thing you mentioned that actually make even a lick of sense to talk about in this context, lol. Even then, you can hear small details very well in $100-$300 pairs of headphones. These aren't Skull Candies we're talking about. Virtually anything you're going to get out of a pair of headphones above $300 is going to be nothing more than a placebo. Not to mention it all depends on what's even in the mix. For most music, the only time you're going to hear different stuff with an extremely high-quality pair of headphones and even an average pair of headphones is when it's live recordings.

That is simply not the case. My HD800's I've had have much more detail than any other headphone I've tried under it. Hell I've had more expensive headphones sound less detailed. Again that doesn't make one better or worse, and you can definitely find detailed headphones under $500, but more often then not many of the higher end headphones will have more detail, and it's also dependent on the source material you use.

Sure, so resolution is probably a better term then detail. Just like a high resolution picture you can soon in on, in headphones with fantastic detail, small sounds you probably have not noticed will become much more apparent, like hearing the artists take a small breath in the microphone, as well as instruments sounding more lifelike and "true".

EQ can't make a driver do things it wasn't designed to do like retrieve a metric ton of detail or alter the soundstage, and 'DJing headphones' are extremely unlikely to have the technicalities to present music in the same way as a very high end pair of open backed headphones, or god forbid electrostats - the simple fact of being closed would inflect the sound with reflections from inside the earcup.

It is true, though, that speakers do have an innate advantage. Most of the time people go for headphones is for private and critical listening, though, because they effectively create a room for your head and limit the number of variables down to 'sources', rather than everything else.

Everyone always talks about "detail", what is detail? Can you put it in technical terms? Not to mention that there are open-backed headphones designed for DJing too, if that's your gripe.

DJ headphones, no matter how "flat responsed" the manufacturer may say, usually are very, well...not flat. Most of the time they will have a bloated muddy bass, and weak midranges. And he is using technical terms that are used by professionals.

Ah yes, professional sound engineers always talk about "detail" lmao.

And yeah, when you buy your fucking "DJ headphones" at Walmart of course they sound like shit.

I've been listening to and collecting higher end headphones for over 12 years, I have owned some of the very worst, and some of the very best with many in between. Please tell me more about how I have no idea what I'm talking about. You are the one who thinks EQ can make all headphones sound the same. You don't understand the technical terms that Xareh mentioned, and have no experience, so you attack the other person saying they have no idea.

Ah yes technical terms like "detail" lol. Good for you buddy, you've wasted a lot of money on headphones. I hope you're proud.

So, my first response to you was that resolution would be a better term vs detail, but you glossed over that. You are just playing semantics. And it isn't a waste, I use them every single day and get lots of pleasure out of my current rotation, so yes I am pretty proud of the collection I curated. Enjoy your "flat frequency response" DJ headphones, I'll remember that one haha

Oh yeah when was that? Pretty sure that was a different conversation.

Yeah so that is a different conversation and you're just coming back for no reason to try and defend your overpriced soup cans, lmao.

I literally replied directly to you....how dense can you be? And soup cans?? Is this your first reddit account by the way or did your other one have to be banned because of the edge? Just curious.

You're not Xareh dipshit lmao, talk about fucking dense whoa. Imagine following reddit rules too lmao what the fuck man.

Yeah that was in response to our conversation. Then you came back hours later to go through the loop again when I replied to Xareh. Bruh.

I replied one hour later directly to you, since you have only been a redditor for 13 days I can see how it can be confusing and you couldn't tell I replied to you. Enjoy your stay!

This comment chain originated on Xareh, not sure what you're so confused about. We had our own comment chain over on the other over there.

My first post was about detail. You replied directly to me asking to use a technical term. I replied straight back to you, as well as Xareh. There, have a good day.

...this is a bad troll, I give up.

You didn't get notified about that comment but still came back anyway

Watcha doin breh

He's not an audiophile, he's a feckin moron. He's an audiophile wannabe. Audiophiles listen to whatever music they like.

Real audiophiles don't call themselves audiophiles and don't spend $1,000 on headphones, because people with actual knowledge of the technical aspect of sound/music know that $1,000 headphones are marketing horse shit.

Audiophiles claim to love music so much but haven't gone to any shows because if they did, their hearing would no longer be able to tell $2000 headphones from $80 Sony's.

MDR7506 master race?

Earplugs you moron

Whoa! What are you doing bringing logic in here? C'mon man...

So tldr, that guy bought headphones(?) For 1000$ and they suck?

Of course not. That would be too reasonable for someone living in hi-fi land.

He spent that much money on earphones and they suck.

Oh, then its okay.

Looks like something I could buy for $10

Tbh, if people start actually buying $1000 earphones on the reg I'm going to go from neolib to socialist revolutionary because at that point bourgeois decadence has gone too far.

This is deep in fart sniffer territory, we are a ways off from it being mainstream to have no idea how to handle money.

we are a ways off from it being mainstream to have no idea how to handle money.

Great post, thanks for quoting out the important bits because there was a lot of shit to go through in there. Also the OP of the original CL2 thread was coping pretty hard too tbh.

Also the guy is a complete idiot. He could've easily just sold them and cut his losses, instead he spent MORE, all of that because he was too much of a pussy to admit he made a bad purchase, and even changed the music he listens to, to cope with all of it. Beautiful.

Imagine caring this much about music. This is some serious mayo shit.

Serial /r/news poster attempts to form a coherent opinion

Keep yourself safe friendo.

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Tru

I didnt kys post jannie daddie

I can literally still see the comment, you mong.

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This is the kind of cuckery that happens when you base your whole identity around the things you consume

i am sure this is how picasso felt when he died penniless on the streets

Picasso died a millionaire regarded by the vast majority of art critics as one of the most brilliant artists of the 20th century.

I honestly thought things like in-ear monitors were for people who are like professionally playing music, not some fat slob listening to the star wars or harry potter soundtrack for the 8000th time

I got a pair of IEMs and a blue tooth adapter for 45 total, much cheaper and they blow airpods etc out of the water.

I got sick of wearing cans when I

I got sick of wearing cans when I

Met Candlejack?

Realized they collect a ton of sweat and can start to stink and the better audio wasn't worth it.

euros with no air conditioning lmao

But I am a burger.

The CL2 is the best money I have ever spent, and I would buy this again a New York minute :)

TIL inanimate objects can give people Stockholm syndrome.

Imagine spending over a grand to listen to Tupac and Rihanna

This cunt should just admit they're trying to buy their way in to appearing deeper than they are and fuck off

So this guys pent $900 on ear buds and then went and spent another $350 on wires to try and make them sound better?
Fuck that dumb motherfucker. He deserves to listen to shit.

I get that there's a difference between a decent set of earbuds and the $8 skull candy ones at Walmart, but can they possibly be $890 better?

Holy shit.

picasso felt when he died penniless on the streets.

What in the world.

These people are crazy. Now I understand why those companies don't go out of business.

Training for a career in audio, this shit is gold. Very good drama post

People who believe in "burn in" periods for speakers/headphones are possibly more retarded than flat-earthers.

I am not an audio fag, but a dslr fag.

I have no idea if he is just a pretentious dick or actually right. In reviews about mid range dslrs or lenses, there is always noobs who are just too stupid to realize how gear works. Like they buy a wide aperture F1.2 lens and complain that they often get blurry images in their 1 star Amazon reviews.

Some people are just retarded.

There are shades of truth behind his claims. Yes, the resistance that a cable or output source adds to the circuit can make an earphone sound more or less peaky. Yes, ear tips can affect the treble response of an earphone. Headphones emphasizing the upper frequencies to expose extra detail in exchange for making harsh recordings sound harsher isn’t necessarily bad by any means, either, even if it isn’t mainstream-friendly—the HD800S is solid proof of that.

Of course, he’s yet another head-fi nitwit who doesn’t understand the principles behind anything he’s doing. Thus, he doesn’t realize that planar magnetics are totally unaffected by cable or source resistance, nor is he aware that swapping ear tips generally does not affect the sound below 6 kHz and therefore can do nothing whatsoever about the gargantuan, rock-hard, sodomizing boner that is the CL2’s lower treble.

He is like an oenophile who bemoans the commoners’ inability to savor the mouth-watering tartness of rat piss and asserts that the pungent aroma of ammonia will go away as long as it’s been aged under the appropriate conditions. He’s aping the expert tasters who state that some fine wines need proper preparation and an experienced palate to be fully appreciated, but rodent urine isn’t fine wine.