wualta
Orthodynamic Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2004
- Posts
- 4,596
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- 146
A crowd of two so far, but yes, the Sennheiser HD-201 cheapie closed 'phone is a hit. Buy.com had 'em cheap, and many of you recommended them, so I said: Why Not.
My workplace has slowly evolved to the point where we are now faced with the happy problem of where to put all our little amps and USB audio adapters and how to rock out with 'phones whilst at terminal and at the same time not disturb the slumber of colleagues. A prematurely awakened government zombie is a dangerous thing.
We've tried Grado SR80s and they're surprisingly well-suited to an office environment, though at concert/orgy levels one's taste in music becomes public knowledge. Recently, we've tried the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700, but it scares people. It's interesting to see how social context utterly changes the aesthetic denotation of a headphone. People come across a supervisor wearing AD700s and immediately think he's suffered some sort of neuro-dental-occipital accident. I think it's partly the size, but mostly the spooky wire frame arches on top. Once they spot the insect-mandibular skull clamps, they start to back away. Good sound, though.
Anyway, we're going to try the HD-201. We have high hopes. To the layman, they "read" as headphones.
The only closed 'phone I've ever owned was a Sharpe 660 back when I was doing field recordings and a highly-isolating 'phone was mandatory. I hated 'em, but they isolated so well that if you put them on with no sound coming out, it was like suddenly going deaf-- very disturbing.
The Sennheisers are not in that league, but the tradeoff is that they sound very good indeed. A little hollow, and no really deep, deep bass, but quite pleasant, much more so than any of the old closed 'phones of the '70s. And a real bargain, at least when someone has a deal going.
So yes, curse you, Head-Fi, but also thank you, Head-Fi!
My workplace has slowly evolved to the point where we are now faced with the happy problem of where to put all our little amps and USB audio adapters and how to rock out with 'phones whilst at terminal and at the same time not disturb the slumber of colleagues. A prematurely awakened government zombie is a dangerous thing.
We've tried Grado SR80s and they're surprisingly well-suited to an office environment, though at concert/orgy levels one's taste in music becomes public knowledge. Recently, we've tried the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700, but it scares people. It's interesting to see how social context utterly changes the aesthetic denotation of a headphone. People come across a supervisor wearing AD700s and immediately think he's suffered some sort of neuro-dental-occipital accident. I think it's partly the size, but mostly the spooky wire frame arches on top. Once they spot the insect-mandibular skull clamps, they start to back away. Good sound, though.
Anyway, we're going to try the HD-201. We have high hopes. To the layman, they "read" as headphones.
The only closed 'phone I've ever owned was a Sharpe 660 back when I was doing field recordings and a highly-isolating 'phone was mandatory. I hated 'em, but they isolated so well that if you put them on with no sound coming out, it was like suddenly going deaf-- very disturbing.
The Sennheisers are not in that league, but the tradeoff is that they sound very good indeed. A little hollow, and no really deep, deep bass, but quite pleasant, much more so than any of the old closed 'phones of the '70s. And a real bargain, at least when someone has a deal going.
So yes, curse you, Head-Fi, but also thank you, Head-Fi!
