I purchased a pair of the "Open-Box" DMS Omega's. The shipping was free, and it got to my location in a reasonable time and required a signature for security, which was a nice touch as I was able to directly pick it up from my local post office. After getting some listening in, I certainly am not disappointed; my impressions are essentially exactly what Doug was shooting for. In my eyes, they sound like a more "clear, detailed, and wider" Sennheiser 600 series style sound, with excellent body and detail retrieval. UPDATE: I still am loving the bass extension these have and tje vibrant and presence of the low end generally, it's reserved but seems to pop out and really fun moments and provides nothing but warmth, I imagine these would warm up exponentially out of a tube amp. Pads are pretty stiff but comfortable and provides a great seal, hoping they break in sooner than later.
Now for some things i wasn't expecting, which, only speaking out of honesty here, brought the experience down for me.
1) The headphones were definitely "open-box" as my pair S#0215 must have been a return or something. Given that these open-box sets have been returned to Headphones.com, I was anticipating some of Doug's revisions to have been added to my pair, such as the Aluminum Driver covers and the swivel stops. Considering the project is now over, and I presumed that the site would by now readily have these spare parts available, given that all of Doug's updates on the project suggested that future pair's which in my eyes would include pairs returned and sold again later, would have these improvements as Doug intended. My pair did not. I reached out to the support team, who got back to me lightning fast, but to my slight disappointment, advised that yes, the parts are in fact available, but they would be asking me to pay for them individually and pay for shipping. That kind dropped my hopes a little. I will be purchasing those parts and installing them myself, but disappointed that the team wouldn't have simply updated the pair up to Doug's "Current Standards" UPDATE: Properly communicating your purchasing experience pays off when people care about how you receive their products, I had noted in my original review of The Project Omega's that my pair had arrived dirty, to keep it short, the team reached out and offered to provide the parts free of charge due to the condition my open-box pair arrived in (head flakes/dandruff on the pads, etc.). This moment of courtesy and humility from the team really warmed my heart and showed me they really care. This moved me enough that I requested right away to have permission to edit my review to be able to encapsulate my entire buying experience beginning to end, which they kindly obliged as well with a link the same day I asked to edit. Although I did hold off on editing my review until I received the added parts.
2) This somewhat ties into my first point but I found this to be more "deflating" than anything else, I pulled the set out of the box, the original note from Doug still included inside (no worries, the notes came slightly damaged and folded but its just a pieceof paper, nothing to lose our head over), but the headphones themselves HADNT BEEN CLEANED, someone elses head dust and flakes ALL OVER the pads of my "New to me" $800+ headphones, I would have assumed a well-respected merchant such as Headphones.com would have taken the presumed returned cans back out of their box to ensure nothing had been broke or tampered with, and if they in fact did that, why not just take the time to wipe the cans off so they are prestine again? Seems like a small gripe, but as a consumer who just spent more $ than I ever have before on a set of cans, I was simply hoping for a more illustrious experience when receiving them. UPDATE: The team has been so incredible, kind, courteous, and patient through my entire buying experience enough that when the spare/added parts were shipped out a little late, I didn't even care as they had insisted on sending the parts and paying for shipping for them, I know this as well is a small gesture and I almost felt bad when they reached out to offer them but overall, I think it was a very kind decision made by their community team and I applaude them for it and have happily changed my review from 4 stars to 5.
TLDR; excellent headphones, proud to support DMS and his team, but initally disappointed with my "Open-Box" experience for sure. In the end, the Headphones.com team made this whole experience for me and i will happily continue to come back and support their organization.
