Vinyl & Audiophile

I have been hunting for headphones to add to my collection. And I came across Sonos Ace, plenty on reviewers saying they don’t sound as good as they look.

Whats up with the audio quality? How do they sound? Do they actually sound bad? Or is it just a reviewer pov(If someone owns them)

A week passed since I've gotten my pair of Edition XVs, and, to be honest, I'm clearly not getting the hype about these. They're just good, but not exceptional all around, like some of the reviewers claim.

First thing that stands out is the bright-ish tint that these headphones have. A good chunk of my library sounds straight up sharp and sibilant, while being overall warm in terms of timbre on Edition XV, and this just throws me off. And don't get me wrong, they sound sublime on certain recordings, but, out of nowhere, you hit that 'screechy' one, and you just want to take the headphones off. I don't know, whether it was a strategical decision or not, but this is definitely a downside to the headphone.

Second thing is they're usually inoffensive and chill, but they're also inoffensive and chill, and this shows whenever you wear a brighter headphone (like ATH-R50x). I always found myself comparing between the two, wearing my R50x, and forgetting about XV completely. It basically feels like a breath of fresh air after the sound that XV presents. Some would even call the XV dull, but I'd rather say inoffensive - in a good and a bad way.

The only thing that makes me think about keeping these headphones is its' bass to lower mids response, which is like perfect. The bass on this headphone is extremely good and refined, though I miss the midbass punch the dynamic drivers usually make an emphasis on. With a bass shelf XV is basically the best open-back I've heard in terms of bass - period, which makes you wonder - maybe keep it and EQ the treble to something like raw diffuse field (which I usually prefer)...

Anyway, what is your experience with Edition XV if you have/had/heard one? Do you also find it having a dark-bright identity crisis, or is it just warm all across the range on your head? And what headphone would you potentially take over the Edition XV in the same or lower price range?

I’ve had very good results with my inexpensive vevor. Quite a few of my inherited albums were stored in a garage with a leaky roof. So, I have quite a few that have mold visible on the vinyl. I used to hand scrub the mold with a microfiber cloth and soapy water. It got them playable, but not great and it was a lot of time consuming work. Now I just give them a quick wipe with 25% iso, scrubbing a little more on visible mold, then sonicate for 25 minutes. I’ve done 8 moldy records and got 7 of them playable with minimal effort. The one that didn’t work out had signs of rough handling and I didn’t expect much. Some even had paper sleeve material melted and married to the grooves. Two of the successful rescued disks have a little more noise than I like. While they’re playable and enjoyable, I’ve set them aside for a 2nd dip (once I have two more recovered mold monkeys so I can run a full batch of four).

For normal records, not moldy, I’m running distilled water and 15 drops of Tergikleen, 15 minutes at 30 degrees C. 4 records per run. I just let them air dry overnight. Results are amazing. The only water spots I’ve seen were on the glossy dead wax, where they are very easy to spot.

For my rinsing process, I use a Zep spray bottle with distilled water. I go around the record once, turn it 180 degrees and rinse again. Then I flip it over and repeat on the other side.

I’m planning to modify my rinsing process. Do as above, then flip back to the first side I rinse and give it another lap. Then flip it again and do another lap on the other side.

It might be overkill, but the amount of distilled water used in my rinse process is not expensive. Especially not expensive compared to replacing an album.

Highly recommended for anyone with more than a few hundred records (vevor or other brand). I have a couple thousand. Running the USC just when I have time on the weekends is producing more cleaned records than I can listen to in a week.

Of course once cleaned, you want to place them in inner sleeves that don’t generate static electricity or scratch the disks. I’m using Hudson HiFi brand. Good quality and not too expensive.

Edit: added rinse process.

Edit edit: IMHO the vevor rotisserie motor runs way too fast. I run the rotisserie motor at around 3 VDC to get around 1 RPM. A cheap variable output transformer/power supply from amazon does the trick.

I currently listen to both Analog (Vinyl) and digital (Streaming). I have a decent sounding system but I'm always looking for new avenues. I've heard from people that blu-ray audio can sound fantastic. I know there are limited stock, but I plan to get some sample rips of Blu-ray audio and test them through my roon. Anybody gone all in on blu-ray audio? if so, do you use a player or do you rip them and play through a Dac? (I'm using 2 channel only, so video, atmos or surround wont come into play)