RMD = recommend me do. Last year I decided to go all 'head fi' and got a Aune valve headphone amp/DAC as well as a pair of Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro for around £150. I had read all of the reviews and saw that the Beyers had an adjustable bass port. I like bass heavy headphones as I used to be into car audio and developed a taste for rumbling bass then. However, all was not good. When the headphones came I noticed that when being put on the left 'arm' would click and make a loud pop. Obviously they did not fall apart so I could have put up with that if not for one thing, the headphones themselves were buggered from day one. If played at 'Audiophile' sort of sound levels they were fine. However, turn them up and add any bass whatsoever and the left driver would start farting and flapping. Usually I would put this down to clipping or distortion but the right driver did not follow suit. Any way, long story short I sent them back to Amazon after about seven months and they are out of stock so have refunded me around £130 or so. So now I am thinking, is it worth making the jump to something better? I have been looking at these, which come with rave reviews. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/... headphones&qid=1453915485&ref_=sr_1_6&sr=8-6 But in this price bracket I have absolutely no idea what I am looking at aside from the obvious Amazon reviews. Any suggestions my lovely people? help would be appreciated ! Cheers ! V-T
Well, if you want closed headphones the PM-3 are definitely nice from what I've read. Fancy some wood? Grab the Fostex TH-X00 on Massdrop at the moment. But you have to be quick, only 114 left! I am currently trying to find a reason to buy them for myself other than 'WAAAAANT"... but I already have too many headphones. If you're a basshead the old Denon cans are amazing but not easy to find. And if you'd be willing to go for open cans instead... well, there's a whole world of great-sounding 'phones available.
Being the inquisitive type i thought I'd do some reading, I'm no audiophile but i came across this post on head-fi.org that compares the Oppo PM-3 with three other headphones (HiFiMan HE-400i, Bowers & Wilkins P7, and V-Moda M-100) that are in similar price/quality brackets, hopefully it will help.
I can't have open cans fella, it drives my lady wild. You need to be more specific though. What is Massdrop? where can I locate the headphones? how much are they? Having looked at another set of Fostex costing a grand you have me slightly worried Yeah that's pretty much my findings too. I do have some other sets lined up (went through Amazon last night) so I need to do some more reading now. They are - Beyerdynamic T90 Shure SRH1640 Grado RS2E (only they are open back so could be ruled out on that alone) Audio Technica ATHW1000X Edit. I checked out those Fostex and whilst they sound too good to be true I really don't want to wait until May to get them. It would also mean that I have to hold onto a chunk of cash to pay the import duties when they arrive because I never get away with it, and god only knows what happens if they don't work. Thanks though I appreciate that I'm just not feeling very brave at the moment
Right, so it is looking like the T90s are going to be crossed off of my list for 1. being open back (I didn't realise) and 2. Being £80 cheaper on Richer Sounds and typically, the closest store is 50 miles away and I don't drive. I can't pay £80 extra for something I could get cheaper. It makes my tight ass alarm go off ! So they're off the list. I still haven't discounted the Grados though because quality comes before anything else. I have ordered a set of closed back on ear headphones I could use whilst my lady is in the room.
Yeah, they're all gone now. I was dithering on the "Yes/no" as well, esp since I own the old Denon line and the TH600. Sigh...it was so pretty. Maybe next drop. I can personally vouch for the Audio-Technica W1000X as a very good headphone and I've heard good things about the PM3 as well, though I've not had the chance to try them in person.
If you have the chance to listen to the PM3 beforehand, please do. I recently had a listening session with Sennheiser's new HD800S, Audeze's full line-up except for the LCD-4, AudioQuest's NightHawk, Stax 'phones up to the glorious SR-009 and a few more. What I heard surprised me, both positively (HD800S) and negatively (Audeze EL-8). Sometimes what you read about them just doesn't work for you personally. What I'm trying to say is this: spending that much money on headphones, personal taste is way more important than technicalities and specs. Try before you buy is rarely as essential as in personal audio. I've never heard the Aune you have but I've read good things about it. I am just not sure about it driving something like 300 Ohm headphones all that well. I would recommend to read up on that. If you need more sources, there are a few out there (way more than that short list): head-fi.org innerfidelity.com superbestaudiofriends.org But, again, nothing beats trying the headphones out yourself.
Sadly there isn't anywhere for me to try any out. I live in a tiny town with barely any shops and I don't drive. Plus, if I am honest, I would not feel comfortable about listening to headphones in a store as it's not home.. I would need a few hours with them at least. I always buy from Amazon who have a fantastic returns policy, so I think it's just a matter of finding out which would suit me best with my music taste (and now amplifier, good thinking !) and just order them and if I really don't like them send them back. I'm not a typical 'head fi' sort of person who goes through 50 sets of headphones in a quest to try and find the best, I just want a decent set of cans that I can listen to all day. And I mean, all day. I live in a sandwich flat sandwiched between two other flats and whilst my downstairs neighbours are generally very quiet we have an elephant living upstairs with heavy feet and wooden floors. As such it's better that I just use headphones instead of trying to drown him out with the cinema system (which would be easy, but rather more belligerent). The amp/DAC I have is great but I've heard many people saying that to make it even better you can perform a valve swap for another valve. It's not terribly expensive either, it just takes away a little of the harshness of the valve at higher volumes. I really must get onto that as tbh until you posted I had forgotten all about it. I'm not sure about ohms. I was with speakers but now you've thrown my head into questions so I checked a few reviews and none of them mention what ohm the headphones are :S I will need to dig deeper into the specs to find that out, but I guess it's not like car audio where lower = harder to drive? or is it? Most of the reviews I have read have either been on head fi or What?hifi.
Well a deal came up on the Grado RS2E so I pulled the trigger on those. I know they are open back, but the reviews were fantastic and I got them far cheaper than the RRP of £499. So in reality they were actually out of budget for me. So yeah, with any luck they should be with me soon
Great headphones! Enjoy them! And please let us know what you think about them. I do like the Grado sound myself (I own the iGrado and SR125i + I bought my girlfriend the GS1000i for her birthday in 2014), so I am sure you made the right choice.
They're going to take some getting used to, that's for sure. For the past couple of weeks I had resorted to using my replica Beats Pro and I knew that it would be a mistake to use those again. They're so bass heavy they make your head vibrate. However, the set I ordered as a stand in took forever (sod's law I just collected them from the PO) so I really had no choice. And it was a mistake, because Grado are not exactly what you would call bass heavy cans. They're about as far removed from that as possible, so at first they sounded very harsh and weak. However I kind of knew that I would need to re-train my ears after polluting them like that so after a marathon session using them yesterday (ouch my poor ears, they're not the most comfortable either !) I am now immensely happy with them. Tracks like Passenger - Let her go and Ed Sheeran - Thinking out loud are just absolutely phenomenal with the Grados. It's funny because whilst the Grados have pretty much hardly any sub bass (you can hear it but you can't feel it at all) their mid and upper bass levels are incredible, so whilst voice driven tracks that fit into this spectrum sound better than anything else I have heard before I am going to have to resort back to my Beats (or use the newly arrived Musical Fidelity which are apparently good for bass but little else) if I want my bass kicks. Hip Hop and any really beat driven music on the Grados make them sound like they are crying for their life. But yes I am very pleased with them. They give tracks like Camilla Kerslake's How do I keep from singing? a whole new meaning. They are experiences, rather than just sound. Edit 02/02/16 - See I knew I would have to train my ears after poisoning them. I am now listening to Billie Holiday's Stars fell on Alabama and can really hear the bass throbbing away.
Glad to hear you like them. From my experience Grado headphones really begin to shine with guitars, especially acoustic ones. But then again, I also loved James Blake with them! If you want bass (and now that you actually have time to wait a bit) grab the Fostex which are back on Massdrop. From almost everything I read they are an absolute bargain.
You won't really be able to properly judge the new cans until you have given them plenty of running-in time, 50 to 100 hours or so. Then you will really start to hear what they can do.
I've done some reading on wearing in headphones and I can only agree with the logical people out there. IE if a set of headphones needed wearing in that badly then they would be worn in before sale. They need to meet a set of standards and frequencies and if that changed then surely they would change with it? Personally (and I am not having a dig) I think it's more that you learn to hear with headphones and you train your ears. This is why I truly believed that going back to using my replica Beats Pro headphones that I would pick up bad habits. Bass to me is like sugar. I find it addictive and end up wanting more and more, so switching from something like that back to something far more innocent and pure was difficult at first. I also thought the Grados were a little harsh at first. I would actually whince when a symbol was smashed on during a live performance and it took a while to get used to that. I have toned them down in the high end a tiny bit by using an EQ. I have increased the bass levels slightly to add some warmth that I feel they were missing. This is probably down to the fact that I am using a valve based amplifier that is quite harsh if you are not careful. I have also switched the amplifier and disabled any gains and any switches that increase the amplification. At points my mind wanders back and I start to crave that thumping mind numbing bass. I still whince at times as my ears get used to the natural sound stage of the Grados. However the rewards are immense. When listening to a live performance on FLAC (I have quite a few ranging from Passenger to Gavin Degraw) you can easily get lost in it. If you close your eyes and open your mind it's like you are there, listening to them perform exclusively for you. And it's moments like that that you begin to grasp the sheer magic of Grados. I must also admit that when I opened the bubble wrap and looked at the presentation I was underwhelmed. They come in what people describe as a "pizza box". Mine weren't quite that bad but the packing is very crude and basic. I then took out a pair of headphones that at first I was nervous to handle. They feel so light, almost unnaturally so, and rather flimsy. But they're not. They are light due to the materials used in making them but are very well put together. The cables seem too thick at first too and are a bit of a pain to organise when the headphones are on the stand I have. I am beginning to appreciate them a lot more now. At points I was just going to return them because I did not see the craftsmanship that has gone into making them. Sure, parts of them are a little crude but at no point are they bad quality. My Musical Fidelity MF100 are sitting below me on the floor as I type this unopened. I want to fully adjust to the Grados before ending up with a bad habit again.
The 1920's era pads are the only reason I don't own a pair of grados. They sound fantastic, but bloody heck they hurt.
Fixed ! I mentioned in another thread (and possibly this one) that I'd ordered a replacement set of pads due to one being rather out of shape. Grado packed them with the jack under the left cup and it left a dent in there that didn't want to seem go go away. So I ordered a set of what I can only describe as "Big girl's knickers" and they arrived today. Fitted they look ridiculous. And I can only imagine I look like a complete belm wearing them but they work ! they actually work ! they have lifted the middles of the headphones away from my ears by a tiny amount, but just so that I no longer feel them touching me anywhere apart from round the outer edge. I don't think I would want to use them in summer like this because they are kinda cozy but they actually work ! well chuffed I got them here and I would imagine they pretty much fit any Grados. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201431241299?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT Most crucially I have noticed no difference in the sound at all. I heard some people saying (on other forums) how they affected the sound etc etc but then I remember some one piping up and saying that the original ones pi$$ sound any way so there was no difference. No loss of bass whatsoever and the musical score in the new game The Town Of Light sounds incredible through them
