Now I know why I often feelt like I disagreed with you, when in reality it wasn't the case. It's because of the terms that you use. You see, what I got from your first phrase, is that both the PS1k and the e, have a harsh sounding treble, and a mid bass hump, but the e's treble, and mid bass hump, but the effect is less obvious with the e, than it is with the old PS1k.
I would say that the e have less mid bass presence, wich gives them a more balanced sound, and the e's treble is also more polite, wich makes them more forgiving wich can be a very good thing, with brighter recordings.
I have also noticed that we listen to different kinds of music, I like pretty much every style of music, exept, Rap, Hip Hop, Metal, and Hard Rock, so this might explain our different opinions.
Also, I'm sure that I'm not telling you anythig that you don't already know, when I say that younger people are more ''sensitive'' to high frequencys, I don't know your age, but I'm 94, so I'm probably less ,sensitive than you are in the higher register. Also the fact that I wear an hearing aid must surely be another factor to consider.
Tell the truth M.H, did I had you going there for a second? Seriously though, I'm 49, and I don't have and hearing aid.
Like I've said before, even though you prefer the e, and I prefer the old ones, we pretty much agree on everyting, it's just that we don't use the same terms, to decribe basically the same thing.
The thing is once you've used a term like ''harsh'' to describe the sound of the flagship model, once you get to the SR325, you're pretty much left with terms like, ''ice pick in the ear''.
I hope that you be offended by my post, because, like I've said, we agree on pretty much everything regarding the PS1k, and the PS1ke, we simply use different words to describe what we hear.
So, no hard feelings, buddy