Austrian Audio Hi-X55

Puur gekocht voor mixen. Was op zoek naar een analytische neutrale hoofdtelefoon met wijde sound stage. Het sublaag ligt wel wat op de achtergrond. Mids komen meer naar voren en zijn heel gedefinieerd. De X65 schijnt het sublaag beter weer te geven, dus die heb ik nu ook besteld (ook al is die volgens zeggen iets anders dan de X55). Redenen voor aanschaf: Definitie, neutraal, sound stage, voldoende ruimte voor de oren in de schelp. Lekker muziekje mee luisteren? Nee. Daar gebruik ik mijn Sony MDR-7509 (non-HD) voor.

Pro's:
Very comfortable
detachable cable
folds up nicely
feels high quality
clarity in the high-mids
makes a bad mix sound bad

Cons:
Makes a good mix sound bad
huge frequency bumb in the high mids
uneven/strange soundstage
a far less expensive headphone can give you a more accurate mix
the sound is not representative of the actual mix and recording.

First impression:
The Hi-X55’s are MUCH more comfortable than my Sennheiser HD-25’s. Very nice.
I’ll be using these for tracking in my home studio so I need to be able to move around, have little or no bleed, and have an honest sound reference. I need to trust them while getting sounds.
I Like that they have a long cable. Great for tracking.
I like that the cable jack is on the left. My rack is on the left. Perfect. They are lightweight. Nice.

Sound: My first impression is that vocals on songs that I know well are unnaturally boosted. More than I’ve heard before in a headphone. Also the sound stage is noticeably narrow. More like a triangle right in front of my face rather than a full left to right stereo image.

I plug into my RME Fireface UFX and listen to “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes” recorded by John Brion with Beck singing. A well recorded, super clean song with all the components of a good reference track.
I’ve listened to this track as a reference, over the years on multiple speakers, in high end studios, in venues, in my car, on my Audeze LCD-X headphones, My Neumann speakers, my Auratone speakers, and my pair of Sennheiser HD-25 tracking phones. I know how this song sounds in the world.

With the Hi-X55 headphones the song sounds “different” I suddenly hear the acoustic guitar sounds like plastic, the vocal harmonies seem to over-power the main vocal in the chours. I hear things I’ve never heard before in the song, it’s true, but the sound signature is “wrong”.
The song does not sound this way anywhere else except in the Hi-X55. That, in my opinion, is bad. On all other reference devices listed above, the ears focus on certain parts of the mix in the same way. The song makes sense. With the Hi-X55’s it’s a different tilt, a different intention, a different feel, another angle. It just sounds “off”. Hard to explain, but what I want most is the truth so I can apply that to finding sounds that are honest while I’m recording or listening back to a song.
My first impression is I can’t do that with the Hi-X55 headphones.
I bought these because in multiple reviews they were called “flat” and “neutral” sounding heaphones. I can 100% tell you right now these are NOT FLAT headphones. There is a easily noticable bump in the high-mid frequencies around the area of the voice, snare, etc.
When I apply some eq in “Total Mix” things start to sound better. That’s a good sign, but if I have to eq them to get them to sound right why not buy a much less expensive set of headhones?
I would say they are not usable as mixing headphones because their peculiar sound signature is not representative of the true sound of the song.
I put them up against the Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro 80 Ohm The Beyer sounds better and is a more accurate reference headphone. The Beyer is a little less comfortable, has about the same amount of bleed, has the same size cable on the same side (non-detachable) and is half the price of the Hi-X55. Goodbye Austrian Audio, Hello Beyer!