In the top headphone market another product the Americans should be proud of is the Shure SRH-1840.
Having owned several high end offerings (T1, HD800, LCD2) the phone I enjoy the most is the Shure.
I find that listening through these I am singing along or tapping my toes, etc. They really get you involved in the music. The clarity of vocals and guitars for example is a great help. They have a lively “propulsive” quality which captures the pace and energy in music.
I don’t claim that frequency response graphs tell the whole story but if you compare the published graphs of many other favoured ‘phones with the SRH 1840, the Shure has the flattest frequency response from 30 to 3,000Hz, extending into the all-important midrange better than HiFiman, Audeze and Sennheiser HD800 for example.
My system to drive these has evolved to an Arcam D33 dac and my trusty Borbely all FET class-A amp. Sources are mainly lossless flac files of my CDs and CD player as transport. The musical results are simply enjoyable, all sorts of music comes alive.
Incidentally the Borbely amp is pretty wonderful but quite rare, Erno Borbely has retired now but his circuits are still out there and completed Borbely amps are made in the USA by Les Bordelon : http://www.lbaudiosystems.com.
I recently embarked on the quest for an electrostatic system and am building a KGSShv to power a Stax SR-507. I look forward to listening to this new system. Which will get the most time on my head?
Having owned several high end offerings (T1, HD800, LCD2) the phone I enjoy the most is the Shure.
I find that listening through these I am singing along or tapping my toes, etc. They really get you involved in the music. The clarity of vocals and guitars for example is a great help. They have a lively “propulsive” quality which captures the pace and energy in music.
I don’t claim that frequency response graphs tell the whole story but if you compare the published graphs of many other favoured ‘phones with the SRH 1840, the Shure has the flattest frequency response from 30 to 3,000Hz, extending into the all-important midrange better than HiFiman, Audeze and Sennheiser HD800 for example.
My system to drive these has evolved to an Arcam D33 dac and my trusty Borbely all FET class-A amp. Sources are mainly lossless flac files of my CDs and CD player as transport. The musical results are simply enjoyable, all sorts of music comes alive.
Incidentally the Borbely amp is pretty wonderful but quite rare, Erno Borbely has retired now but his circuits are still out there and completed Borbely amps are made in the USA by Les Bordelon : http://www.lbaudiosystems.com.
I recently embarked on the quest for an electrostatic system and am building a KGSShv to power a Stax SR-507. I look forward to listening to this new system. Which will get the most time on my head?