Headphones

My last rig was a CIA VDA-1/VAC-1, SP Extreme, and RS-1s. I sold it all last year, so I've been away from headphones for a little while. I now have a balanced B22 on the way from thrice and a minidac USB from grawk in a week, but I haven't been able to decide on headphones. All the nice headphones I've owned are Grados. MS-1, HF-1, and RS-1. I am pretty happy with the Grado sound, and really like the RS-1s, but I found they gave me low level tinnitus really easily. I'll probably eventually get a pair, but I'd like to try something different this time. I've been seriously considering HD650s, but opinions of them vary so much it's hard to tell anything. I don't have t…

Just in the past week, there got to be more than seven or eight thread devoted to the Ed.9 and how special they are. When I had Mulveling's Ed. 9 (he now sold them) for three week they sounded very good over all for rocks but I found them unnatural due to their recessed midrange and the whole "S-Logic" presentation for other genres. If you are a rock and heavy metals fan, they are quite good, but for everything else they are not even as good as the Senn HD-650 w/ my Zu cable. I found the Ed.9's to be way over emphasis on bass and lack refinement in many areas in comparison to the L3000 and W2002 that I have on hand. What's your take on them? I'm quite curious. My impressi…

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/auc.pl?accstwek&1209431625 Pretty cool looking box they had made for these. Would have been a nice touch if John had done the same for the PS-1's.

Well after one to many "nice warnings" about what i want my Dj to do at my place it seems i need to give him a night off to let him know whats up. i have done this dj crap for a few years strait so i am confident in which i can easily do the job, then again we are talking about someone playing off his imac from itunes most of his paid time.. My gear of choice is going to be the Numark idj2 mostly cause i have somuch music already done in lossless on my ipod now (thanks to Benchmark for proving the capabilities of a computer setup). of course i am converting all my lossless files into 128 mp3s cause the idj2 does not play lossless and plus the 128's are going to be used…

These models currently interest me for a future purchase, especially the MS-Pro. If anyone has anything to say about these, input is appreciated. Bonus points if you reference the HD580/600, K501, or MS-2.

http://www.geocities.jp/mister_terch/zakki05aging124.html Like the guy who did these tests, I have no clue what to make of this. Kind of neat looking at all the waves though. The KH-K1000 is a Kenwood headphone, by the way.

Hi guys, Where i am living i don't have many opportunities to test headphones and equipment. So i have to blind shot with what i am ordering. I am listening to Jazz/Indie/Soul/Alternative Rock/Electronica/Female vocalist etc. And I want to use my FLAC collection via my laptop. Please recommend me a full setup for an about 800$ (second hand is OK, but i am in Europe). I don't care much for the mobility and if is upgradeable will be great. Thanks in advance.

OK, need your help. It's one or the other. Pairing with ZD and meridian 508.24. Which one should you go with? For me, Hp1000 is the good ole familiar girl I always knew would be there, apparently will still take me back after all the times I've ditched her, and since its familiar territory I know how she will work and know that we will go very well together. L3000, flirted with her a couple of times before, have always been impressed, never been around her long enough to really know who she is as a person though. Starting a relationship with her would be fun, different from the typical girls I usually mess around with, but the uncertainty of how we will gel together…

I think I like my HF-1 much better with flats. That's all I have to say about that.

I finally sold my Proline 750 and I'm currently looking at MS-2i. My question is, how well does MS-2i scale? because I'll be upgrading my source(840c) in few months, and I'll be getting a balanced amp(probably a CK2III) few months later after my source upgrade. Does it worth balancing?? I'm also considering are K501/K601, are there anything I should be looking at as well? Thanks for your comments~

http://www.akg.com/personal/powerslave,id,15,nodeid,15,_language,EN.html Looks like they've refreshed their studio line of headphones. My first "big boy" headphones was the K271 S. I still have a soft spot for it. Might be interesting to hear the new K 272 HD. As far as closed headphones go, the K271 S was pretty darn good for the $150-200 price tag.

Are these any good? I figured it'd be good to get at least something approximating the real story on these by asking fellow head-casers. Thanks for any help you can offer in advance

This is really getting out of hand. http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/k701s-here-294171/ <-- Check Post #10 I think K701s need almost 700 hours to be fully burned in...I'm at around 800 hours and it's a huge change of soundstage + impact + smoothness + detail compared to 200 hours or so... Some said they need more like 1200 hrs for it to be fully burned in - I can see why, it just keeps improving and improving. I just need to improve my source from iAudio X5L 30G FLAC (shudder).

Followed both topics where these headphones are trashed. So given that, what would be a good pair of portable (as in not massive sized), reasonably isolating bass emphasised phones around that same price range? The only other phone I've stumbled upon that fits into that category is the ATH-ESW9s and they don't supposedly isolate well, and cost a fortune. The MS2s/325is are said to be more balanced but still with loads of bass, yet they're not closed either and have an even more narrow soundstage than the Denons or Ultrasones supposedly ... ^^ (this is all based on hear-say of course ... )

Hi everyone. This is a long shot but maybe someone will be able to steer me in the right direction. I'm trying to make (or buy) a retrofit that lets me connect my David Clark (general aviation style) headset to our helicopter which accepts a military helmet. The jack on the helicopter is a 5 pole U-385/U (TJ-105 or M641/22-01) socket. It accepts a U-384/U (TP-105, M642/14-01) plug. The headset has a PJ-055B headphone plug and a PJ-068 mic plug. Pictures of those plugs can be found here: http://www.flyingshop.com/acrobat/Connectors.pdf. I haven't been able to dig up any information on what the helicopter outputs, but the David clark H10-20 specifications are readil…

It appears the new FOTM has been selected over there; I know slwiser likes them and a few reviews say they are close to the Edition 9s. I know HC hates Ultrasones, but is the Edition 9 just plain terrible, or is it acceptable at the HFI-780 price tag?

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 …

My sister and her husband is going to USA in a few days and it seems about time to spend some more on headphones I currently use a Beyer DT880 most of the time, and around here I seems to be of the few that are satisifed with them. However for certain records I would like a more upfront headphone, and from what I picked up Grados will fit the bill. An additional bonus is that Grado are silly expensive here, more than $500 for SR-225, so if I don't like them I should be able to sell them easily. Pricewise SR 125, SR 225 or SR325i seems like suitable phones. A few questions: What are "normal" shop prices in USA? Are they generally easy to come by (e.g. New Yo…

I have been trying to score a pair of HD580's recently and have noticed that for the prices I have been receiving I can almost get a pair of HD600's. I found one pair for 210 with a Audigon rating of 8/10 and another pair for 250 with same rating plus a Red Clou cable upgrade. the plan is to occasionaly use them with Headamp AE2 and mainly at home with Onkyo reciever for movies late night. I have an older Sony DVD player. When I bought this player, I researced it pretty heavily and bought it because it was pretty highly regarde for it's SACD\dc playback. The future plan is to upgrade to Bluray and then take Sony player and run it through a home amp (for example Gilmore Li…

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360035741768&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123 $175 for malfunctioning K500's. What the hell.

How would I go about getting Sony replacement pads? I've got a MDR-F1 that looks like it's on its last legs.

What's considered a good price for these? I've seen them going for upwards of $300 and I've found some for about $150. Is that a decent price?

So I received my K1000's. Unfortunately the headband is a bit saggy. Does anyone here know how to re-tension this headband? I can either increase the tension on the headband or surgically lower my ears. I think I would prefer the first. Renato

Ok, I know this is probably a "personal preference" type thing, but I am looking to buy my first real pair of headphones sometime soon. I have always used IEMs and am currently using se530's, which I love, it is just too hard to keep taking them and back out everytime someone at work (or at home) comes over to talk about something. I don't have a budget, but I'd probably try to stay in the 200$ or below range. I'll be using iPod->portaphile/pico or macbook pro->pico as a source. I listen to a huge range of music, but love live music and want to feel like I am on stage with them So.. to my question.. what are the differences in sound between the grado sr60/80/…

I had those HP-2 recabled 80's you gave me woodied, rescreened and added wood rod stoppers. I now have flat pads on them too. Man they sound good! Thanks again .... the 80 has been one of my alltime best gifts!