Tuberoller
Divorced an Orpheus to keep his wife.
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2001
- Posts
- 4,941
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- 15
I have two recurring dreams that I have maybe twice a week.
One of my dreams is of me having hot,funky sex with Tyra Banks all night long and into the next day and the other is me listening to and enjoying some of the greatest headphones in the world. I got to live one of those dreams recently and I bet you guys can guess which one it was..... Tyra is still weak in the knees. BTW,I'm naked in both dream scenarios.
Thanks to a some very generous Head-fiers and manufacturers I had the opportunity to spend some high-quality time with the objects of my headphone lust. I had the Sony R-10,Grado HP1,Senn HD650-HD600,Grado RS1 and ATH L3000 "Leatherhead"(for only the last few days) for an in-home orgy. The past few weeks have been big fun and I have learned a lot about the passions people have for some of these phones. It takes some time to get adjusted to so many different phones and I spent ample time with each so that I could offer some solid impressions. I maintained my reference system through most of time with these phones but I also spent some time swapping amps and sources,in addition to the headphone comparisons.
Headphones:
Sony MDR-10 (thanks to Kieran)
Grado RS1
Grado HP1
Grado HP2
Senn HD600 w/Equinox cable(reference phones)
Senn HD650-used with stock and Equinox cables
Audio-Technica L3000 (Thanks to Jonnie)
Sources:
Teac Esoteric DV-50 Universal Player
MF A-324 Dac
Philips DVD963-SA
VPI Scout w/Lyra Titan Cart(thanks Angel for the cartridge)
VPI Extended Aries W/Grado reference
Ray Samuels audio XR-2 phono stage
Amplification:
Headroom Max w/Stepped attenuator(reference amp)
Meier Audio Prehead(LM version)
Meier Audio HA1 MKII
SinglePower Supra(Tungsol NOS tubes)
SinglePower PPX3(NOS RCA tubes)
Ray Samuels Audio XP-7
Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline II "Stealth"
Wheatfield HA2 (NOS tubes)
Cables:
Stefan Audioart Equinox on HD650-600
Moon Audio Silver Dragon Interconnect
Acoustic Zen WOW! Interconnect
I had the pleasure of spending a few weeks with the Music Fidelity Trivista Player but I was only able to audition it with the Senn and Grado phones so I can't offer complete comparisons using this source.
Sony R10-
This is it right? These are supposed by all to be the holy grail of the headphone audio world. I had a hard time disagreeing with that feeling until I got a wiff of the price. My wife laughed at me when I told her how much they cost. She asked "Is there $3500 in cash hidden somewhere in that screwin' case" , and she barked off, "You better not have paid for those" and the best yet, " Sleep on the couch until you send those back". It was a loooong month. I found these phones to be very source and amp dependant, so much so that I was never really certain I would be able to get the most from them. I kept wondering if I left some of the sonics of these phones "on the table" so to speak. My first listen came using my reference Headroom Max and the Teac as the source. I was immediately swooned by the soundstage that had earlier made me a fan of these phones at the various meets I had listened to them for brief periods. This a soundstage that defies the logic of what headphones can do. Headphones don't do soundstage, right? The R10 does and does it in a way that leaves you in awe it's capabilities. Only the Headroom Blockhead with the HD600 can surpass the R10's sense of effortless musical reproduction and depth of sonics. The R10 ain't perfect and the big flaw with them is a bass delivery that is hairy when the amp is not up to the task. Bass improves greatly with a great tube or solid-state amp but never really approaches anything I would call "believable" or accurate.I did get some very deep bass on the Headroom and Stealth amps but it never went as deep as I thought it should. The treble extension and detail is very good but not at the top of the dynamic headphone field. The light and airy treble seemed very polite and kinda glossed over some recordings that I know to be very detailed when I used the VPI Scout as a source.The treble improves a bit when using the Teac, but again, the R10 seems to approach the highest frequencies with a bit of caution. The R10 certainly have a sonic signature and could never be considered neutral by any objective listener but they do some things like no other phones and those things are what make the R10 a truly one-of-a-kind product in the world of audio. I would never use phones like the R10 as references because they would condition my ears and make me hate everything else. This is the type of headphone that makes you come around to the way it presents music and leaves you wondering if everything else is doing it right.
Grado HP1 and HP2
I have owned so many of these phones over the years,even before I was a headphone geek,that I lost count a while back. I currently own the HP2 and HP1 that I used for this comparison and I came in with an open mind and a fresh set of expectations. Next to the R10,these phones get the most attention around here and I think perhaps that attention might be well deserved. The HP1 and HP2 sound identical to my ears in every way and I feel that the only difference is the Phase switches that are present on the HP1. For this reason I primarily used the HP2 to conduct my impressions.
Now that I have great amps to use with the HP2 I feel that I can get the best that they have to offer. I listened first to the Max amp and Teac source and found the HP2 to have a very forward presentation. Vocals seemed much more prevelant and louder than on other phones and the Grados were clearly upsetting the balance of some recordings. I felt that the HP2 were misrepresenting vocals on a great deal of the music I auditioned .This seemed the case even with recordings I knew to have been recorded very well. I'll call this charateristic the "Hump" for the purpose of describing it for the remainder of my impressions. I found the Hump to be present on all the amps and most evident on the Max and Prehead,both amps featuring crossfeed. With the Crossfeed functions switched off the hump was lessened to a degree but was still very obvious. Tube amps like the Wheatfield seemed to have some trouble driving the HP 2 to loud volumes but sounded very good at the volumes I normally listen. With the Wheatfield the Hump seemed to balance out with a great bass performance that featured very accurate and deep notes. The Stealth drives the HP1 with conviction and this is the amp that sounded best with the HP2 by a large margin. Treble detail is why I think the HP2 has gained the legions of fans it enjoys.The high frequency extension and focus of the HP2 seems to have been voiced with tube amps in mind. It reproduces the high frequencies with great detail and very good accuracy but never loses track of where things are or allows the music to get away from it. I found the HP2 to be very colored but not in a completely bad way. The HP2 is another of those phones that requires you to take a leap of faith away from what you know to be accurate to enjoy them, but at least it's a small leap and you can return with your ears intact.The HP2 displays a very good similation of a soundstage but it is not close enough to the R10 or Blockhead/HD600 combo to call it a race. The fans of HP1000 have my respect but I still really don't get the whole cult thing. Mine are not for sale,so stop asking.
Grado RS1-
My wife really loves these and I loved them at one time myself. The lull in our relationship(that's me and the RS1) came when I first got the Max and sold off my RA-1 Headphone amp. I loaned the RS1 to someone and they were gone when I bought the Max. The "Thrill" went with the RA-1 and has yet to return. I once loved the deep bass and gorgous midrange detail. The RS1 wowed me with the best instrument seperation I had ever heard in any headphone but since the departure of the RA-1 the RS1 have suffered the loss. Only the Stealth seems to have any love for the RS1 and then only on those recordings that feature the complex musical passages that allow the RS1 to show off its multi-lingual skills. The RS1 are like a great dancer forced to perform a in a strip joint. I did these phones a great disservice by selling the RA1 but they found new life with my wife and her Fisher 400 system. Using the Fisher as an amp brings them to life in a special way but still they have had their wings clipped due to the nature of the Fisher's sonics(big bass and vintage sounding treble). With a modern solid state amp the Grados seem lost and offer only a glimpse of what they are capable of.
Senn HD600, HD650
The Senn HD600 and HD650 force you to make comparisons in ways that will inevitably compel you to choose between them. The detractors and defenders of these phones have engaged in epic battles debating the pros and cons of these phones and there remains a large contigent of those who hate them. The fact is,there are many,many more people who know the Senns to be great phones and even more who enjoy them with complete ignorance to how good or bad they might be. I am firmly planted in the latter camp,or maybe it's just that I don't care what anyone else thinks of them.
I have long used the HD600 as my refernce phones,veil and all. As much as I enjoy listening to other phones,I have found the HD600 to present a sound that most closely replicates that of a great pair of speakers. Say what you want,but the HD600 sounds like loudspeakers and I think that's why so many gravitate to the sonic signature of the HD580/600/650 line. When Senn introduced the HD650 they had a great opportunity to correct some problems(the stinkin' cable) and to offer some concessions to those among us who felt there was something missing. They failed miserably on both counts. Why on earth would Senn give us phones with nearly identical cosmetics,the same cable and almost indiscernable sonic differences? The HD650 is an off-the-paper miss by Sennheiser. These could have been great phones and they just screwed it up. Anyway,I made the effort to judge both phones on their own merits but was kinda lost.Read on.
In all the time I have used HD600 I have never felt they have reached the limits of what they are capable of. It seems that with each amp upgrade,cable swap or source change, they improve. You listen to them and think to yourself that the bass could'nt get any deeper,tighter or any more accurate,then you switch to an amp like the Blockhead and all your notions of what headphones can do are made false. You love them for the fantastic treble extension that never makes you regret listening to headphones and then you swap the cable and hear a thick blanket of wool lifted from what you thought was perfection. The breath of the midrange hints that there is something secret and inviting waiting for you around some mysterious corner and then you swap to a high-resolution source and hear the voice of the angel you knew all along to be around that corner waiting for you. The HD650 do these same things well but require you to change the cable,use your best amp and your very best source to hear any "improvements" that may or may not be present. There are some differences but they are subtle and hidden in the details of recordings that you know very well. There might be a drum brush that now sounds like a brush instead of the static you once heard. You might hear your favorite singer lick her lips between notes or you might notice that Pat Metheny uses a wooden pick. Or you might not hear a damn thing. I was hard pressed to define what I was hearing when I auditioned the HD650 and only amps like the Stealth and Max really showed me what was possible. In the end I was impressed with the 650 as a stand-alone product but not with the HD650 as an improvement over the HD600.
ATH- L3000 Leatherhead-
My Good friend, Jonnie "I'm not Japanese" Maka, has the coolest job in the world. He sells electronics right down the street from a MARINE CORPS base and has every gadget you can name. He sells stuff in that little shop that you can't find anywhere in the states and he speaks english better than some Americans. I don't know how much he enjoys what he does but when he calls me I get a reaction that is reminiscent of Pavlov's Dogs, I get a boner when I hear his name. His latest erection-inducing inticement is the AT L3000 "Leatherhead" phones. I only have them for this week and they have to return home to Okinawa but I'll romp in splendid nakedness while I have them. They look and smell so nice and are far more comfortable than the R10(which are not bad at all). Unfortunately that pretty face hides a somewhat shallow soul. I'm still tryin' to like these phones but I can't even get myself in the mood. I listen with every amp and all my sources and they still make me feel like I'm not getting My(or Jonnie's) money's worth. There is a suprising lack of detail and the whole two or three bottom octaves of bass seemed stuck together with thick,nasty glue. I would listen to these phones for about ten minutes ,switching phones and holding them in my hand admiring how nice they look. This was a tough audition. I know I gotta listen to them but it's so difficult to do. Nearly everybody has a Mother and I'm sure there are some folks out there who will love the L3000,but I ain't one of them.
Conclusions-
I think I'll stick with my HD600. If I had the coin,I'd do the R10 with a big smile on my face but like the Blockhead ,the required upgrades to your system needed to extract best performance leave you naked and cold when it comes time to do anything else. The HD650 are great phones but I would'nt buy them unless I did'nt already have the HD600. The Grado HP1 clearly don't deserve the cult following they enjoy but they are very good phones and will make some tin-eared nit-wit happy(that's a joke,shut up). The Grado RS1 need the Grado RA1 headphone amp to be truly happy. They were joined at birth and to seperate them is a crime. The Leatherheads really do seem like they have leather over the insides of the drivers instead of the outside. These phones were a big letdown and I'm glad I'm not writing the check for them.
I hope you gathered some small measure of enjoyment from what was a stinkin' blast for me. Thanks for reading....
BTW,I have a KGSS and Omega II on the way and I'll offer some solid impressions after I get them all lathered up
One of my dreams is of me having hot,funky sex with Tyra Banks all night long and into the next day and the other is me listening to and enjoying some of the greatest headphones in the world. I got to live one of those dreams recently and I bet you guys can guess which one it was..... Tyra is still weak in the knees. BTW,I'm naked in both dream scenarios.
Thanks to a some very generous Head-fiers and manufacturers I had the opportunity to spend some high-quality time with the objects of my headphone lust. I had the Sony R-10,Grado HP1,Senn HD650-HD600,Grado RS1 and ATH L3000 "Leatherhead"(for only the last few days) for an in-home orgy. The past few weeks have been big fun and I have learned a lot about the passions people have for some of these phones. It takes some time to get adjusted to so many different phones and I spent ample time with each so that I could offer some solid impressions. I maintained my reference system through most of time with these phones but I also spent some time swapping amps and sources,in addition to the headphone comparisons.
Headphones:
Sony MDR-10 (thanks to Kieran)
Grado RS1
Grado HP1
Grado HP2
Senn HD600 w/Equinox cable(reference phones)
Senn HD650-used with stock and Equinox cables
Audio-Technica L3000 (Thanks to Jonnie)
Sources:
Teac Esoteric DV-50 Universal Player
MF A-324 Dac
Philips DVD963-SA
VPI Scout w/Lyra Titan Cart(thanks Angel for the cartridge)
VPI Extended Aries W/Grado reference
Ray Samuels audio XR-2 phono stage
Amplification:
Headroom Max w/Stepped attenuator(reference amp)
Meier Audio Prehead(LM version)
Meier Audio HA1 MKII
SinglePower Supra(Tungsol NOS tubes)
SinglePower PPX3(NOS RCA tubes)
Ray Samuels Audio XP-7
Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline II "Stealth"
Wheatfield HA2 (NOS tubes)
Cables:
Stefan Audioart Equinox on HD650-600
Moon Audio Silver Dragon Interconnect
Acoustic Zen WOW! Interconnect
I had the pleasure of spending a few weeks with the Music Fidelity Trivista Player but I was only able to audition it with the Senn and Grado phones so I can't offer complete comparisons using this source.
Sony R10-
This is it right? These are supposed by all to be the holy grail of the headphone audio world. I had a hard time disagreeing with that feeling until I got a wiff of the price. My wife laughed at me when I told her how much they cost. She asked "Is there $3500 in cash hidden somewhere in that screwin' case" , and she barked off, "You better not have paid for those" and the best yet, " Sleep on the couch until you send those back". It was a loooong month. I found these phones to be very source and amp dependant, so much so that I was never really certain I would be able to get the most from them. I kept wondering if I left some of the sonics of these phones "on the table" so to speak. My first listen came using my reference Headroom Max and the Teac as the source. I was immediately swooned by the soundstage that had earlier made me a fan of these phones at the various meets I had listened to them for brief periods. This a soundstage that defies the logic of what headphones can do. Headphones don't do soundstage, right? The R10 does and does it in a way that leaves you in awe it's capabilities. Only the Headroom Blockhead with the HD600 can surpass the R10's sense of effortless musical reproduction and depth of sonics. The R10 ain't perfect and the big flaw with them is a bass delivery that is hairy when the amp is not up to the task. Bass improves greatly with a great tube or solid-state amp but never really approaches anything I would call "believable" or accurate.I did get some very deep bass on the Headroom and Stealth amps but it never went as deep as I thought it should. The treble extension and detail is very good but not at the top of the dynamic headphone field. The light and airy treble seemed very polite and kinda glossed over some recordings that I know to be very detailed when I used the VPI Scout as a source.The treble improves a bit when using the Teac, but again, the R10 seems to approach the highest frequencies with a bit of caution. The R10 certainly have a sonic signature and could never be considered neutral by any objective listener but they do some things like no other phones and those things are what make the R10 a truly one-of-a-kind product in the world of audio. I would never use phones like the R10 as references because they would condition my ears and make me hate everything else. This is the type of headphone that makes you come around to the way it presents music and leaves you wondering if everything else is doing it right.
Grado HP1 and HP2
I have owned so many of these phones over the years,even before I was a headphone geek,that I lost count a while back. I currently own the HP2 and HP1 that I used for this comparison and I came in with an open mind and a fresh set of expectations. Next to the R10,these phones get the most attention around here and I think perhaps that attention might be well deserved. The HP1 and HP2 sound identical to my ears in every way and I feel that the only difference is the Phase switches that are present on the HP1. For this reason I primarily used the HP2 to conduct my impressions.
Now that I have great amps to use with the HP2 I feel that I can get the best that they have to offer. I listened first to the Max amp and Teac source and found the HP2 to have a very forward presentation. Vocals seemed much more prevelant and louder than on other phones and the Grados were clearly upsetting the balance of some recordings. I felt that the HP2 were misrepresenting vocals on a great deal of the music I auditioned .This seemed the case even with recordings I knew to have been recorded very well. I'll call this charateristic the "Hump" for the purpose of describing it for the remainder of my impressions. I found the Hump to be present on all the amps and most evident on the Max and Prehead,both amps featuring crossfeed. With the Crossfeed functions switched off the hump was lessened to a degree but was still very obvious. Tube amps like the Wheatfield seemed to have some trouble driving the HP 2 to loud volumes but sounded very good at the volumes I normally listen. With the Wheatfield the Hump seemed to balance out with a great bass performance that featured very accurate and deep notes. The Stealth drives the HP1 with conviction and this is the amp that sounded best with the HP2 by a large margin. Treble detail is why I think the HP2 has gained the legions of fans it enjoys.The high frequency extension and focus of the HP2 seems to have been voiced with tube amps in mind. It reproduces the high frequencies with great detail and very good accuracy but never loses track of where things are or allows the music to get away from it. I found the HP2 to be very colored but not in a completely bad way. The HP2 is another of those phones that requires you to take a leap of faith away from what you know to be accurate to enjoy them, but at least it's a small leap and you can return with your ears intact.The HP2 displays a very good similation of a soundstage but it is not close enough to the R10 or Blockhead/HD600 combo to call it a race. The fans of HP1000 have my respect but I still really don't get the whole cult thing. Mine are not for sale,so stop asking.
Grado RS1-
My wife really loves these and I loved them at one time myself. The lull in our relationship(that's me and the RS1) came when I first got the Max and sold off my RA-1 Headphone amp. I loaned the RS1 to someone and they were gone when I bought the Max. The "Thrill" went with the RA-1 and has yet to return. I once loved the deep bass and gorgous midrange detail. The RS1 wowed me with the best instrument seperation I had ever heard in any headphone but since the departure of the RA-1 the RS1 have suffered the loss. Only the Stealth seems to have any love for the RS1 and then only on those recordings that feature the complex musical passages that allow the RS1 to show off its multi-lingual skills. The RS1 are like a great dancer forced to perform a in a strip joint. I did these phones a great disservice by selling the RA1 but they found new life with my wife and her Fisher 400 system. Using the Fisher as an amp brings them to life in a special way but still they have had their wings clipped due to the nature of the Fisher's sonics(big bass and vintage sounding treble). With a modern solid state amp the Grados seem lost and offer only a glimpse of what they are capable of.
Senn HD600, HD650
The Senn HD600 and HD650 force you to make comparisons in ways that will inevitably compel you to choose between them. The detractors and defenders of these phones have engaged in epic battles debating the pros and cons of these phones and there remains a large contigent of those who hate them. The fact is,there are many,many more people who know the Senns to be great phones and even more who enjoy them with complete ignorance to how good or bad they might be. I am firmly planted in the latter camp,or maybe it's just that I don't care what anyone else thinks of them.
I have long used the HD600 as my refernce phones,veil and all. As much as I enjoy listening to other phones,I have found the HD600 to present a sound that most closely replicates that of a great pair of speakers. Say what you want,but the HD600 sounds like loudspeakers and I think that's why so many gravitate to the sonic signature of the HD580/600/650 line. When Senn introduced the HD650 they had a great opportunity to correct some problems(the stinkin' cable) and to offer some concessions to those among us who felt there was something missing. They failed miserably on both counts. Why on earth would Senn give us phones with nearly identical cosmetics,the same cable and almost indiscernable sonic differences? The HD650 is an off-the-paper miss by Sennheiser. These could have been great phones and they just screwed it up. Anyway,I made the effort to judge both phones on their own merits but was kinda lost.Read on.
In all the time I have used HD600 I have never felt they have reached the limits of what they are capable of. It seems that with each amp upgrade,cable swap or source change, they improve. You listen to them and think to yourself that the bass could'nt get any deeper,tighter or any more accurate,then you switch to an amp like the Blockhead and all your notions of what headphones can do are made false. You love them for the fantastic treble extension that never makes you regret listening to headphones and then you swap the cable and hear a thick blanket of wool lifted from what you thought was perfection. The breath of the midrange hints that there is something secret and inviting waiting for you around some mysterious corner and then you swap to a high-resolution source and hear the voice of the angel you knew all along to be around that corner waiting for you. The HD650 do these same things well but require you to change the cable,use your best amp and your very best source to hear any "improvements" that may or may not be present. There are some differences but they are subtle and hidden in the details of recordings that you know very well. There might be a drum brush that now sounds like a brush instead of the static you once heard. You might hear your favorite singer lick her lips between notes or you might notice that Pat Metheny uses a wooden pick. Or you might not hear a damn thing. I was hard pressed to define what I was hearing when I auditioned the HD650 and only amps like the Stealth and Max really showed me what was possible. In the end I was impressed with the 650 as a stand-alone product but not with the HD650 as an improvement over the HD600.
ATH- L3000 Leatherhead-
My Good friend, Jonnie "I'm not Japanese" Maka, has the coolest job in the world. He sells electronics right down the street from a MARINE CORPS base and has every gadget you can name. He sells stuff in that little shop that you can't find anywhere in the states and he speaks english better than some Americans. I don't know how much he enjoys what he does but when he calls me I get a reaction that is reminiscent of Pavlov's Dogs, I get a boner when I hear his name. His latest erection-inducing inticement is the AT L3000 "Leatherhead" phones. I only have them for this week and they have to return home to Okinawa but I'll romp in splendid nakedness while I have them. They look and smell so nice and are far more comfortable than the R10(which are not bad at all). Unfortunately that pretty face hides a somewhat shallow soul. I'm still tryin' to like these phones but I can't even get myself in the mood. I listen with every amp and all my sources and they still make me feel like I'm not getting My(or Jonnie's) money's worth. There is a suprising lack of detail and the whole two or three bottom octaves of bass seemed stuck together with thick,nasty glue. I would listen to these phones for about ten minutes ,switching phones and holding them in my hand admiring how nice they look. This was a tough audition. I know I gotta listen to them but it's so difficult to do. Nearly everybody has a Mother and I'm sure there are some folks out there who will love the L3000,but I ain't one of them.
Conclusions-
I think I'll stick with my HD600. If I had the coin,I'd do the R10 with a big smile on my face but like the Blockhead ,the required upgrades to your system needed to extract best performance leave you naked and cold when it comes time to do anything else. The HD650 are great phones but I would'nt buy them unless I did'nt already have the HD600. The Grado HP1 clearly don't deserve the cult following they enjoy but they are very good phones and will make some tin-eared nit-wit happy(that's a joke,shut up). The Grado RS1 need the Grado RA1 headphone amp to be truly happy. They were joined at birth and to seperate them is a crime. The Leatherheads really do seem like they have leather over the insides of the drivers instead of the outside. These phones were a big letdown and I'm glad I'm not writing the check for them.
I hope you gathered some small measure of enjoyment from what was a stinkin' blast for me. Thanks for reading....
BTW,I have a KGSS and Omega II on the way and I'll offer some solid impressions after I get them all lathered up
