I've been using them for sometime and I think they're underrated closed back. I bought these at $350 but with custom taxes and shipping to get these to India I ended up paying $473.

After I started listening to them I thought these would benefit from a balanced cable so I paid another $85 to get a balanced cable. Actually running them balanced makes them sound better, there is a significant amount of increase in clarity and you get more, better and controlled bass, midrange gets more forwarded and vocals sound clearer. With balanced connection it's usually better seperation and dynamics but this headphone requires balanced to absolutely sound their best.

The general sound signature is very warm but also natural, these stay away from bright treble very smooth and soft in that area, great for longer listening periods. It's a v shape tuning so you are not going to do analytical listening, these don't have full bodied sound that you get with something that has more midrange. These are just fun and they're super fun to listen to.

The bass is prominent and a highlight of this headphone, the bass will rumble very hard and if you keep making them louder they'll literally shake on your head, it extends into deep sub bass levels. Treble never crosses the line of being sharp while being very detailed very clean and clear.

As you can tell by looking at the picture these are huge, they have massive cups so the soundstage also sounds huge and very wide and holographic too, I'd say depth could be even better but sounds come from everywhere.

These can produce a lot of details without being analytical I haven't heard anything at this price so I do not know if these are technically as good as other hifiman line up at this price but I'm sure these are very competent.

The build quality is good although they could've made using wooden cups instead of plastic, the pads are soft and comfortable.

So yeah I'd say at this price point even after paying taxes and paying extra for a balanced cable I'd say these are worth it just for pure enjoyment listening they can make everything sound great. They can make Spotify sound like you're listening to flac and a youtube video sound like Dolby Atmos they're absurdly fun you'll never get bored even after hours and hours of continuous listening. I'm sorry if this is too long I just want to be thorough.

Very detailed write up thanks 🙏 .

I for one thank you for the use of paragraphs, commas/periods, and capital letters. You don't see that much around here.

As for the headphones, they're ugly. Lol

Yup, these are bass cannons. I'd say at the 370 USD price point, they're a competitive option if you're looking for maximum bass headphones and you don't mind the hilarious ergonomics. The bass extends deep, it hits hard, and there's a lot of it. I recently heard a Fostex TH-900mk2 Sapphire Blue with ZMF pads, and I think the R9 does bass better. The Fostex had a lot of bass, but it lacked impact and sounded "slow" or "soft", like being whacked by a plush pillow.

I generally agree with your treble assessment, though I wouldn't call it "V-shaped" given that it doesn't have the treble elevation that I would consider to be V-shaped. It has enough treble to avoid being dark sounding though, so it's generally done well. The bass is very prominent, and everything else is fine. This combo allows the bass to take center stage, without making the bass muddy. It's also extremely comfortable.

Beautiful cans!

Unless I had a bad copy I personally thought these sounded harrible. Weird W shaped FR and just off sounding, dynamics were compressed, good bass, weird semi veiled and closed off mid range and a sharp treble at least that's how my ears perceived them lol. Glad you like them tho, to each there own.

I've been saying this for years, black with dark red looks stunning. It didn't master if it's on headphones, on cars, or whatever.

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Do you have any other headphones that you can compare them against?

I've heard that type of hifiman headband is extremely uncomfortable, is it true?