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Austrian Audio Hi-X15 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-16 17:25:34
Edited:
2021-10-16 17:25:58
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

I recorded a video of this hyped brand, which I don't quite understand.

You will hear the X15 unequalized and equalized, and also compared to the AKG K361 with both playing unequalized.

I also compared the equalized X15 against the Q30 with user EQ and when hearing the recording afterwards to my surprise I somehow prefer the equalized X15...

 I tweaked the settings for the Q30 a little bit to get an even flatter response, you can find the screenshot of the current setting used in the video attached.

Files

Austrian Audio Hi-X15 - professional closedback headphone from Vienna

Comments

lopger

Great video, thanks. What is the name of the bluetooth receiver you are using? (the one clipped to your shirt).

jose reyna

Will you be reviewing the new Soundcore liberty 3 pro?

Roge

Danke für das Update, sind die Q30 wieder 5% besser

D. Oeltermann

Nice video, thanks for the quick comparison. Whenever you might try to build your own headphones, please bring out a bluetooth version also. I would buy one definetely…. ;-)

oluvsgadgets

It’s in works but actually not that easy it you don’t have the right contacts. Most companies do not really care about sound quality at all and only have the sales and profit in mind. I still cannot explain why some headphones need to cost 4000€. What’s so different to some coating 400€ while sounding better? I really think that it’s just because people would also pay 8000€, if there was some new “flagship” at this price all other companies will release their answers all of a sudden with exactly the same price some weeks later. For me it was a mystery why the Utopia has to cost 4000 while the Elex just 700

oluvsgadgets

Don’t think so, if they don’t send me one I simply don’t want to waste my money again. Anker didn’t respond to 4 of my emails I sent them regarding the issues of the Boost. I simply don’t think they are interested in me reviewing them and I am not that interested either.

Stanislav Baranec

It can’t justify full 4000 eur price tag, but overall this Utopia series is using very expensive and manufacturing demanding material Berillium. Say, I’m using their polyglass series speaker installation in my car, and I also heard playing installation of their Utopia Be setup in similar car, and while definitely the difference was hearable, it was not worth to me of the price difference (250 eur vs 2000 eur). But the guy who has had it in his car was winning all the competition for Car HIFi with this setup, so for him the investment probably had some price/value rationality 😉 The same will be probably with these headphones, it doesn’t make much sense to pay the price for most people, but if money is not a limiting factor to get the very best materials and engineering possible, what the brand can offer, while still not being some snake oil which they are trying to sell you (as is often the case with many other super expensive products), it’s not me who will blame them for this. Maybe if I know actual manufacturing costs for it, and also disposal costs - many people don’t realize that as the Berillium material is a poison, it has to be sent back to Focal to be recycled or disposed (or whatever they do with it), which also is not cheap process…. but I’m just rambling here already… in short, if we don’t know what is their actual revenue compared to the price tag, I wouldn’t rather make any certain judgements 💁🙂

davide pollak

is it me or the 1st track is SLOWER than usual?

Richard Hriech

Have you experienced unit variations for the Q30's? I've seen that some has gone though your hands, I would think you tried at least a couple of them. Your settings sound nice and comfortable on mine, but still a bit... unusual? Unfortunately I don't have the means to measure them myself.

Richard Hriech

Oh that’s too bad. :( I’ll never know if I’m listening to a flat-ish response with your EQ or it’s just as off on my headphones as the factory settings.

oluvsgadgets

Over ear headphones are even less predictable than IEMs and the result will vary a lot between different ears, even my own ear will measure a headphone differently with different ear canal “state”. I am not even talking about the differences the concha will produce. Therefore I think only an IEM can offer a constant response between different users if the sound is optimised for the individual ear canal resonance

Richard Hriech

What makes it more complicated is that modern earphones try to automatize the whole thing. You can hear for example when AdaptiveEQ kicks in on the new AirPods after half a sec of starting the song. There’s also HeadID on newer Soundcore earphones doing something similar. At least with older tech, all the reviewer sites measured something similar, so you could EQ it with an amount of certainty. Now this is going away. Looking at Airpods 3 frequency responses on different sites, it’s like they measured 2 completely different set of buds. I can’t even EQ them myself because in some songs the treble is so high it’s hurting, in others it sounds flat as a pancake.

Sturmflut

hey oluv, thanks for the update on your q30 eq settings. much appreciated! could you post the actual numbers at each frequency? it's really hard to apply the settings based on the screenshots. i even think the rendering (aspect ratio) of the equalizer is different on each devices. i interpret the numbers like this: -6 | +6 | +2 | +2 | +1 | +3 | 0 | -2 is that correct?