Headphones

OK, I admit it. I have never been true "audiophile." Gnawed around the edges of it, and left rat turds (posts on these forums I guess). Rodent fixation ... sorry. But I do like consider and try new ("to me") stuff. If you can get by the gag reflex that many audio-fools have about EQ being the work of Satan, here is a question: Do you use, or have you tried, some form of active EQ with your headphones? Being the recent owner of a pair of Stax Lambda (two pair actually)...I ran across this thread (url if interested): http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial This for me was the ideal audio project because (A) it off…

A few years ago JMoney Audio was going to produce HE90 headband/earpads in leather but it never came to fruition. Has anyone ever produced these in leather, or does anyone have a source for Sennheiser originals; specifically headband pad? When I checked a couple years ago Sennheiser no longer had these available and it seems JMoney gave up on the project. Sorry if this sounds silly but I've been out of the loop for a while, so any info is appreciated. Gary

I'm looking for a pair of closed headphone for myself and a friend, and we'll be using them for classical music, with decent amplification. Not looking for IEM's (I have Ety's). I've heard various AT closed cans and they just don't work for my ears with this music, so I'm not considering them. I've also heard the Ultrasone ProLine 750, which also didn't work, but I haven't heard the other ultrasones. That leaves things like the Senn. 280, Beyer 250, Beyer 770 (I suspect I will find it strident), AKG K271 (the graph seems to have basically no bass), AKG K81DJ, and the Ultrasones I haven't heard (HeadRoom rate the Hi-Fi 700 and ProLine 650's highly, and in general I'v…

I am a fairly new owner of Stax (about two months) and am very happy with my Lambda Pro. I also have a plain Lambda but haven't used it much yet. As some of you may know, I have been doing some renovations on the Pros, such as making DIY leather ear pads (really, just covering the stock earpads) with leather. This worked quite well. I am turning my attention to other things. Both pairs of headphones arrived without the dust covers. I've found some threads here that debate what material, or whether to even use them. Another fair target for my "upgrade everything possible to leather" has been the headband. I did this, but the results were quite disappointing. …

I'm relatively new here, but have been doing a lot of research over the past several days or so on the listening experience for my PC. I'm planning on buying the Sound Blaster Z card and am looking for a great pair of cans to round out my experience. My budget is $200 and under, and I will primarily use them for gaming, but I'd also like to listen to music as well from time to time. I do some FPS gaming but it's mostly Star Wars: Old Republic- or Neverwinter-type games. Soundstage, imaging and bass are particularly important to me. Imaging for obvious reasons, gotta know where shots are coming from, soundstage I think goes along with this, and bass because I love good exp…

Hello there! I felt like sharing some of my experiences on how the D5000 changed as time went by. Now, I was never a believer of burn-in. I tend to be extremely pragmatic in nature - I only believe in something once I see it happen. I never noticed any burn-in over the year I wore the HD280 and the Porta Pro. These are the headphones I own other than the D5000: An apple earbuds, the Koss PortaPro and the HD-280. I have not owned but have listened to the HD-650s and ATH-50s. Before buying the D5000 I read a lot about the comments. I was frustrated with how bass-anemic the HD280 was and while I loved the PortaPro, I was curious to see how a more expensive pair…

Was wondering if anyone had experience with either? I'm getting my rs1's recabled with silver dragon. I had this cable on senns way back when and liked them alot. Was wondering if anyone had experience with a setup like this. Going to be using them with my extreme platinum, and microdac. Mostly was motivated to do this since i like how my silver cabled hf1's sounded, and i know this cable is probably alot nicer then the headphile one (or atleast similar). I tend to like how my rs1's sound alot more recently, and thought it would be a step in a better direction (and fun atleast).

I received my MS2i's on Saturday and got some flats today. I really like these cans. My first Grado's, I had shied away from them not for any specific reason but just because my interests were elsewhere. Boy, was that a mistake. I've listened to Grado's at meets, but at home in my own rig is the only way to go. Listening with the bowls for the last week, I was enjoying them, but they've tended to sound bright on a lot of things. But other things just clicked so well. The California Guitar Trio cd's were astounding with the bowls. So musically engaging it's hard to describe. Now, with the flats these things have become bass and midrange monsters. And I like that too.…

Pictures taken by Alex: http://apuresound.com/images/cables/v3/rs1/ This is set #2 of RS-1s for me, the are serial number 3279. I am really looking forward to comparing them with my serial number-less stock cable RS-1. I've the cans on my head as we speak; I've listened to the standard Genesis track, some Johnny Griffin, and now trey band on vinyl, and all impressions are positive. Its possible the cans are brighter then the older RS-1, as is popularly alleged, but I'll need to do a direct comparison before I can officially claim that (old RS-1 is away getting retermed). But honestly it seems the midrange is a bit richer, and the soundstage a tad deeper; there is ze…

I'm having trouble with intermittent signal loss due to problem at strain relief/cable entry. If I hold the cable near the strain relief and twist it, I can get the signal back, so naturally I'm guessing that something is loose. The problem is that I have no idea how to take the strain relief apart, let alone any experience with a soldering iron to fix it. Does anyone have a suggestion on where to get this fixed? I've noticed that Yama's is not the best place to go, and besides this pair is beyond its Japanese-only warranty period. I'm cool with a whole recable or something like that, but I don't see any examples of work done on any of the small-time headphone cabling sho…

Well I do. This is a lower serial # pair which I got for recable. After recabling them I spent some time doing tests on the stock cable and I must say Sony really screwed up here. 0.9ohm for the channels and 0.6ohm on ground. The ground is a shield running through covering a PVC covered wire. Looking at the wire itself since the insulation is clear allows me to see the stock wire is all oxidized! So in short. Cheap thin wire pulled in through tubing and then sleeved with black material. Good job Sony on such a nice high end headphone. Here is an after picture: More pictures here: http://apuresound.com/images/cables/v3/r10/ Say what you will, but I am disa…

These look to be full of suck. Frends

So my mom really likes the K1000, but someone told her -- and I agree -- that she'd probably have better luck with closed headphones (she's essentially deaf -- but it's not attenuated deafness, it's more like tinnitus deafness -- high noise-floor and distortion that gets accentuated by bass notes). So, criteria are: closed, clean, airy, bass-light (I know, K1000's aren't bass-light, but she doesn't have anything special in the way of ampage...and it's still a criteria). Any suggestions? I'm thinking Sony MDR-V6...? At low volumes, it would seem bass-light, since the treble is so high in proportion. EDIT: Most of this has been superceded here.

Hey y'all, I wonder if you can help me out with a question. I love the way my Beyer DT990s (2005, 250 ohm) sound, especially for acoustic music. I find them a bit fatiguing when I listen to metal though, and I suspect this is due to their (according to my ears) somewhat enhanced sparkle in the treble region. My present amp is just the headphone out in my NAD av receiver - nothing fancy, but many people seem to like the headphone outs from NAD. For a source, I use either the NAD T534 multiplayer or the Playstation 1. So, what do I need - proper amplification or a different headphone? Or different source? I am kind of new at this hobby, and have not been able t…

Hello all. First post on this great site... I just got an Apogee Duet that I'll be connecting to my Macbook Pro. Right now, all I have is the MBP, Duet, & a pair of AudioEngine A5's (powered speakers). I got powered speakers because I wanted to avoid having to buy an amp (for now--I'll upgrade speaker system & maybe get an amp months down the road). Let's assume that I do not want to add any additional hardware: what headphones can be driven by the Duet's headphone amp ( & sound "good" in the process)? Can I get, say, Sennheiser HD600 (or 650) & be o.k. w/ how the Duet amp drives them? For example, I've read somewhere else that cans like Grados (not …

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=256972

Got a package today:

Hi y'all, Having a bit of a conundrum with my Stax SR-007 Mk1 (S/N 71169) electrostatic earspeaker. As reported in another HC thread of mine (decided to start a new one here because this was getting quite off-topic there), the right driver's inner dust cover somehow got torn and hence some pretty serious mold damage took place inside. As a result, a rather severe channel imbalance ensued. Opening up the driver for cleaning and assessing the extent of the damage revealed that the diaphragm coating got affected. After having a look at the Japanese Stax repair page (with the help of Google Translate), I learned that Any international inquiry regarding servi…

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2171543#post2171543

I've just recieved a pair of lightly modded (bass heavy) K340's in the post today and after 7+ hours with the sound still improving I am wondering how long yours usually take to warm-up and in particular whether getting them modded by headphile shortens this time ? As these continue to play they are becoming better balanced, much more detailed and far more responsive to the music. It's becoming quite addictive to listen to The K340's have had the 'screen mod' done and I've added some dampening to the outside rear face of the cups but are otherwise as stock. I am driving them from the 1/4" of apogee mini-dac, all components in my signal chain are past 600+ of bur…

Just curious. Please no flaming...I'm new. I was wondering if anyone had seen or heard of fake/knockoff Monster Miles Davis Tribute earphones. I did a search and there doesn't appear to be a lot of talk or forum posts about it. Anyone else know? Thanks, J.

Hello there, My old headphones (Gamecom Plantronics 367) just broke after about a year of usage and they vere amazing considering the price (25£ with postage), but now I need some new ones. I have a budget of about 100£ in total, since I'm a student so money is hard to come by (I'm gonna have to go without lunch for about a month to afford this, but it's worth it.. I haven't had music in months) So my question is, what should I get? Here are my priorities in order: #1 sound quality. If I can get some with better sound than the Gamecom ones I had, I will be in heaven. #2 durability. I really want them to not.. you know.. break easily. I bring my headphones with me at…

Hi Guys, I'm antonyfirst. Since before end 2006 my Headfi account didn't even exist, I'll probably change my name to Tony. A friend of mine is deciding wether to balance his L3000 or not. Knowing how much better the Sennhesiser HD600 and HD650 become in balanced mode, I am very curious about what improvements can benefit the L3000. Let me know, and let's hope Headfi will get back in a good shape. Tony

I got really tempted when the Focal Utopia and Elear price reduction was announced a week or so ago. I finally pulled the trigger and bought a pair of Elear after coming across the free headphone stand deal at headphones.com (their customer service is first rate so far by the way). Unfortunately my orders of headphone plugs and wire have not arrived so I am stuck with the 4m long, singe-ended Focal standard issue cable at the moment. My Dynalo is not cased yet so I had to make do with my DIYZONE Iris OTL headphone amp.