Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Tell us about your headphones and how you use them

He now has these which I picked up for 25 bucks at xmas. He likes them.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07ZCN36TP/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_i_QotMEbC02AW39

Mojo .... clicked on your link and had a quick look around on the wireless scene ... wow things have changed. The market is full of cheap wireless active noise canceling headphones. I'm sure the jackless iPhones are pushing this market.

My experience over the years on buying no-name headphones and buds is that I often got what I paid for ... sometimes in sound quality but always in build quality. Most of the cheap no-names fell apart after a few months use.

That said there are a few companies I trust to put out a decent product for the money. Anker is one of them. Originally I found this company as a reliable source of inexpensive multi-chargers and lighting cables (most cheap lighting cables have fake chips in them which bypass the some of the cables charging circuitry/protections and can damage your iPhone).

The sound core earbuds above are from them and it seams they are now producing a pair of wireless headphones (currently $69us/$80ca for Q20 actives, $40us/$66ca for the Q10 non-active). Think I'll set a trigger ... if the actives fall below $45us, I may pickup a pair to try out.

He uses the phones I posted in wired mode. Apparently wireless works very well too but of course it drains batteries faster.

My NAD VISO50 arrived. Really nice. Over ear. Closed back, passive noise cancelling. 32 ohms. 40mm driver. Playing nicely on my iPhone , no outboard DAC yet. Really clean clear and precise. No boom. These are my first sort of quality headphones. Very impressed. I’ve always enjoyed headphones but the quality I’m hearing is really beautiful.

I’ve got a pair of on ear Sony’s xb’s too. I’m a self admitted bass head. Love the boom. Billie idols voice is in the room with me right now. Just fantastic. I’ll have to try them on my receiver output at some point. Glad I bought these.

Well my trigger went off a few weeks ago on the Q20 @ $39.99USD.

These guy claim a battery life of 17 hours and I can attest that I’ve used them for many hours on Netflix over the past few weeks without recharging. Comfort was good although they suffer from making you sweat if you wear them too long. Think everyone has experienced pleather earcups...

Soundwise, the bass is heavy and bit muddy, the mids are ok, the highs are a dull ... not anything to write home about. The noise cancelation was reasonable. Mowing the lawn the low mids and below disappeared. One could still hear the mower upper register reassessed in the back ground. With the last Sony NC’s I tried one could only hear clicking (of the values?) when canceling was on (although those headphones, if I remember correctly, had worse sound then these and a big fail at $300).

Considering your getting wireless set of over the ear, closed backed, noise cancelling headphones for $40 ... I can’t complain. Comparing these to the sound core buds ... the buds are definitely better both in bass and highs. Given the choice I’d go with the buds. That said, I kind of like using these when watching Netflix or podcasts etc ... not sure why

Have you guys done any of the ChiFi In ear monitors yet.

They're awesome Got my self a pair of KZ ZSX 6 driver IEMs Holy crap so much detail. Though it's a 2 tweeter design so after a couple hours gets a little fatiguing. For detail Junkies totally recommend. Just keep lower volumes.

Another one I got this week is the Blon 03. Right now they're the top rec. from all reviewers for under 50 U.S. Supposed to be comparable to 2k IEMs. So far after a couple days they kick the snot out of My broken 1more triple drivers they replaced.

Another Item I decided to try Is A Soditer usb C DAC dongle Headphone adapter for my phone. {Highest res.} version. Using it with Tidal it's totally a massive improvement to the headphone jack on my phone. Details, Sound stage, Noise floor are so much better. Didn't think it would be so good super happy I got it.

If you had to choose just one , which would you go with?

BLON or the zsx6?

I’ve never tried iem but keen to give it a go at low cost.

I’ve just gotten into closed back over ear. Loving it. Figured I’d give iems a go too.

The Blon is much easier to listen to for longer periods. If I had been lucky enough to pick the Blon first it would probably be my only pair. {For a while at least}

Very good detail, well balanced on the warmer side. Reviewers claim can be bloated at times. I haven't experienced any bloated bass at all.

The KZ is crazy good for Micro detail highs are really revealing. So much so that it hurts, at any more than about half volume level on my phone.


The IEM selections have so many different qualities it's tricky. Being more Pro Audio based the different flavors make sense. One Mixer/Musician needs Micro details and the other Balanced.

Thanks Brendo. I love researching stuff but some things I don’t have time or motivation for. Plus I just wanna give em go. I’m more into my over ears. So this is a good easy start with low commitment. Appreciate it. BLON it is.

In typical fashion, ive dragged my feet and no IEMS yet but had this to share for those if interested.....

I've been using my headphoes a lot lately, ( remote working from home more these days at times..) always someone around the house these days and no one is interested in hearing my music on the m60's! They don't understand.

I recently signed up for Tidal to co-incide with the arrival of my Axiom Transformer. The DAC in the Transformer makes a HUGE difference as does the higher quality files of Tidal. I had some uncertainty as to how much a difference the higher res and quality DAC would make but it's very tangible . On the headphones ( NAD VISO 50 ) things are incredibly clear and well defined and just really smooth. I've had a few head spinner moments ( 4 specifically ) when I thought something made a noise behind me over my right shoulder and I spun around only to laugh because it was the song i was listening too. Maybe this is a normal occurence for folks but it surprised me for sure!

I bought my kids some Marantz MPH-1 headphones on line from Visions, $28, clearance. Can't beat that! they sound super good! Not as good as my NADs but for $28 they are a steal.

Another project is too try to reduce the white noise i can hear most times, mostly when listening from my laptop and not DAC thru the transformer. Just using onboard laptop DAC thru Tidal. I'm thinking an outboard DAC to travel with or use with laptop would be good... like a Dragon Fly Black or Red, anybody have experience with those? They get good reviews at least.