Chris53
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Post by Chris53 on Aug 19, 2015 18:18:10 GMT
Dale I've just bought a pair of Grado 325e headphones after reading yours and other opinions of them. How do they change after burn in. At the moment on some material they seem to have a slightly squashed in treble sound... or perhaps that's just because I am used to the AKG 702's
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2015 10:59:46 GMT
Burn in on the 325e will soften some of the sharp edges, after 50 hours or so, but won't change the treble a lot. What contributes to the squashed effect I think are one, the infamous 2 khz peak of about 6 db, and two, a similar-size peak around 7 khz. When you compensate with a lower volume the dynamics get compressed a bit. This sort of thing is common in all on-ear headphones I've used, to one degree or another, but the 325e's high end gives more useful hi-fi on average than most of the competition. I worked a long time on my 325e EQ curve, which serves as a reference measurement compared to the best of my headphones, and that's at my website under Photos/Audioforge Page 3. The EQ curve is just like an inverted freq. response curve.
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Chris53
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Post by Chris53 on Aug 20, 2015 18:47:32 GMT
That's interesting Dale. I hope the improved "sharp edges" might be enough of an improvement after the 50 hours or so. They are certainly very different to my AKG 702s and they do seem to have the Grado sound that I'm familiar with from my Grado 125s. I should do a closer comparison to both headphones but maybe I will wait the 50 hours or so.
Do you have any opinions about the "tape mod" (wrapping tape around the circumference of the pads) for Grado's that I've been reading about for supposedly taming those peaks and improving the bass response? I'm not so sure that the bass response is much of a problem though.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2015 4:54:58 GMT
I've gotten to the point of accepting the bass as pretty good given the size and price, but the slight treble roughness can be a problem with some material. John Grado makes it pretty clear that he voices these things for natural music sounds, which I interpret as acoustic, or big band/orchestras. I know a lot of Grado's customers play rock, but I don't try to follow any of that discussion. I'd be willing to investigate treble mods like I feature in my Shure 1440 review, but tape mods tend to mess with the soundstage, so I've avoided that....
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