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Post by minivan on Mar 1, 2008 21:53:10 GMT
there's no such thread yet in this forum? should we have one here? some1 was using the tier system to rank their headphones. rank the headphones u own or had own or had listened to extensively. here's my take: tier 1: w5000 tier 2: stax sr-sigma tier 3: k240 sextett tier 4: k241,k240df, k500, k701, w1000 tier 5: dt531, stax sr-001 tier 6: ksc75 tier 7: k340,hd497,k240m tier 8: ety er6i
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FauDrei
Been here a while!
Posts: 489
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Post by FauDrei on Mar 2, 2008 1:02:19 GMT
My shot:
1. W1000 2. K701 3. HD600 . . . 4. ER4S IEMs 5. SR80 6. DR150 7. KSC75 8. PX100 9. EX71 earbuds
...to be continued ;D
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Post by joelongwood on Mar 2, 2008 2:17:29 GMT
1. AKG K1000 2. Grado HP-1 3. Grado RS-1 4. Sony CD-3000 5. AKG K340
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 2, 2008 2:29:34 GMT
[glow=green,2,300]Yellow bear ratings[/glow]
AKG K-701 (100%) ATH W-1000 (96.17%) HD-600 (90.52%) K-501 (87.64%) HD-414 (87.61%) DR-150 (86.32%) SE-305 (79.47%) HD-200 (77.77%) PX-100 (69.41%) SR-225 (61.98%) PX-200 (60.71%)
Yellow bear says - listen at sensible volume levels children.... crank that bitch up to 11 on the dial.
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FritzS
Been here a while!
Sound of Blue Danube
Sound of Blue Danube
Posts: 1,364
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Post by FritzS on Mar 2, 2008 5:49:07 GMT
my sequence
Class 1 AKG K701 Sennheiser HD600 (less behind K701)
Class 2 AKG K271 Studio
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Post by dc on Mar 2, 2008 8:51:27 GMT
Tier 1: Stax SR-404, Stax SR-Lambda Pro Tier 2: AKG K701, Beyerdynamic DT880
small gap
Tier 3: AKG K240 Sextet, Beyerydnamic DT531 Tier 4: Audio Technica ATH-AD700, Stax SR-001MK2
small gap
Tier 5: AKG K501, AKG K340, Grado HF-1 Tier 6: Alessandro MS-1, Sennheiser HD580
biggish gap
Tier 7: Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro Tier 8: Sennheiser HD595 Tier 9: Koss KSC-75
of course this is all IMHO and YMMV
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Post by slwiser on Mar 2, 2008 11:32:24 GMT
Ranked and commented on in order of preference:
Ultrasone Edition 9-still own Ultrasone HFI-780- being recabled with Jena Labs 18g wire ATH-W5000, very good Ultrasone Proline 2500, very good ATH-W1000, I should revisit these having the Yamamoto HA-02 amp ATH-A900LTD, sold and very good ATH-ESW9, only fault is bass is muddy on heavy bass tracks. ETY-4P Beyer DT880-original purchase had Cardas cables. ATH-ANC7-great for ANC headphones-still own Grado SR-80, early partial introduction into the hobby. Beyer DT770P, several pair given away to family HD-495, my introduction into the world of this hobby, entry drug so to speak, still own Phillips XX895, cheap but they sound good for movies, still own. Ultrasone iCans, nice but just could not justify keeping them.
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Post by minivan on Mar 3, 2008 10:42:53 GMT
slwiser, i also have the hd495 as my first entry level headphone , still have that. i spent $179 aud on that phone in a retail store back 6-7 years ago, still remember the retailer was saying it's a very expensive for a headphone, at that time i thought she's right . i did not get into this hobby again until june last year, from then on it's going down hill
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Post by slwiser on Mar 3, 2008 16:31:00 GMT
slwiser, i also have the hd495 as my first entry level headphone , still have that. i spent $179 aud on that phone in a retail store back 6-7 years ago, still remember the retailer was saying it's a very expensive for a headphone, at that time i thought she's right . i did not get into this hobby again until june last year, from then on it's going down hill Back in 2001 Sennheiser apparently was attempting to get rid of old stock of HD495s so they had a web site drawing for these about once a month for a while. I won one of these. I got it for a great price didn't I. It is a very nice sounding headphone when amped. I consider the HD495 as an entry level drug for this hobby. About the same time I got myself a Grado SR-80 and the Headroom AirHead amp. I lived with these till about 2005 then I have gone wild. My thoughts today are that I am almost where I want to be with two Lavry DACs, two Yamamoto HA-02s and two very near sounding headphones in the Ultrasone Edition 9 and it's new little brother the HFI-780 which it off to be re-cabled using ALO Jenna 18g cable and a quarter inch plug. For a transportable setup I plan on using either my remaining ATH-ANC7 or the ALO-780 with my iMod and Auricap dock station using RCA to quarter input into my Xin Reference Beta amp.
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Mar 3, 2008 18:52:58 GMT
Hmmm.......depends on what I am listening to Tier-1 : Serious listening sessions for "amped" or very dynamic music it would be the RS-1 but for small scale acoustic I tend to my Stax/Realistic HP-100 'Stats Tier-2 : General banging around or just need a damn music break Alessandro MS-1 Tier-3 : Sealed cans for mixing/monitoring (I HATE sealed cans !) Full size-Sony V6 Portable/field work Sennheiser HD25-1 (thanks Mikester ) Tier-4 : Fast and light portable duty Koss Sportapro/Optimus Pro-25.Really nice small cans that are a bit fat and a tad bright making them great for movies also Tier-5 :Ultralight portable duty Sennheiser MX "something" (need to look at the number ) earbuds.amazing for how cheap they are with mine being beyond cheap because I got them from a sennheiser USA giveaway
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Post by merton on Mar 3, 2008 20:22:41 GMT
out of what i'ev owned 1) future sonic atrio :obig assed bloody godizilla gap of death and horror! 2) ms2/ultrasone dj-1 pro 3) etymotic er6i (they've NO bass!), and all those shit phones i've owned.
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cosmopragma
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vorsprung deutsch audio technic uber burgermeiester
Posts: 78
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Post by cosmopragma on Mar 4, 2008 14:32:06 GMT
In order of preference/enjoyment. My preference isn't necessarily always in line with technical merits.For instance the Stax SR-007 is clearly the technically best I've eher owned, but nevertheless I prefer the HE60 due to the tonal balance that suits my preferences better plus the Senns are way more comfortable.
Sennheiser HE60 Stax SR-007 (sold) Sony MDR-CD3000 Audio Technica ATH W-5000 Fitz-modded F5005 variety (sold) Beyerdynamic DT-880 (sold) Senn HD 600 balanced Senn HD 650 balanced (sold) Stax SR-X Mk III (lacks bass, but still .......) AKG K340 (modded) AKG K1000/Audiovalve RKV exclusively for hot and humid weather Denon AH-D2000 (sold) Grado RS-1 (sold) Grado SR-225 w/ flats Stax Lambda Pro Stax Lambda Nova Basic (sold) Stax SR-303 (broken) AKG K701 (sold) Audio Technica ATH-W2002 (on loan for a few weeks) AKG K240S (sold) Beyer DT 531 (sold) Koss KSC-75 Etymotics ER-4 P/S (sold) TakeT H2 (on loan for a few weeks) Sennheiser HD540 Gold Grado SR-325 Shure I can't even remember the name of the $800 crap (sold) Sony MDR-SA5000 (sold) Ultrasone Edition 9 (sold) Ultrasone Proline 2500 (sold) AKG K81 DJ (sticks like glue.I've sold it 4 times but the buyers alwas suddenly disappear or run out of money or don't have a bank account or realize that shipping costs to the other side of the world are unreasonable.Ebay sucks ....) Sennheiser MX-500 (into the trash can)
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insanitybeard
Been here a while!
My head feels like a frisby, like a football.....
Posts: 473
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Post by insanitybeard on Mar 4, 2008 23:56:37 GMT
Hmmmm, these lists make any list I could produce look quite feeble...... What's that you say Mike, only 11 on the dial? Jeez I think my days of listening must be numbered (he says after pounding out some tunes earlier with the volume round at about 2 0' clock!) Oops my mistake, maybe you meant 11 on the dial (when it only goes up to 10!)
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Post by minivan on Mar 5, 2008 8:01:31 GMT
the k340 is ranked very high among the high end headphone u have, this is a strange headphone , i read various impression about people saying how good they are and also impression about how strange they sound. i am the later case, i wonder what amp do u used to drive the headphone and what mod had u done to it? i tried some of mod people suggested , such as replace the elastic,pcb bypass, remove the cotton at back, all dont seem to work well except replacing the elastic giving me better fit therefore better bass. i had used various amp to drive it, graham slee solo, talisman t-35h,little dot mkv, all does not sound right to my ear, i will be trying to use my speaker amp to drive it In order of preference/enjoyment. My preference isn't necessarily always in line with technical merits.For instance the Stax SR-007 is clearly the technically best I've eher owned, but nevertheless I prefer the HE60 due to the tonal balance that suits my preferences better plus the Senns are way more comfortable. Sennheiser HE60 Stax SR-007 (sold) Sony MDR-CD3000 Audio Technica ATH W-5000 Fitz-modded F5005 variety (sold) Beyerdynamic DT-880 (sold) Senn HD 600 balanced Senn HD 650 balanced (sold) Stax SR-X Mk III (lacks bass, but still .......) AKG K340 (modded) AKG K1000/Audiovalve RKV exclusively for hot and humid weather Denon AH-D2000 (sold) Grado RS-1 (sold) Grado SR-225 w/ flats Stax Lambda Pro Stax Lambda Nova Basic (sold) Stax SR-303 (broken) AKG K701 (sold) Audio Technica ATH-W2002 (on loan for a few weeks) AKG K240S (sold) Beyer DT 531 (sold) Koss KSC-75 Etymotics ER-4 P/S (sold) TakeT H2 (on loan for a few weeks) Sennheiser HD540 Gold Grado SR-325 Shure I can't even remember the name of the $800 crap (sold) Sony MDR-SA5000 (sold) Ultrasone Edition 9 (sold) Ultrasone Proline 2500 (sold) AKG K81 DJ (sticks like glue.I've sold it 4 times but the buyers alwas suddenly disappear or run out of money or don't have a bank account or realize that shipping costs to the other side of the world are unreasonable.Ebay sucks ....) Sennheiser MX-500 (into the trash can)
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 5, 2008 17:55:38 GMT
In order of preference/enjoyment. My preference isn't necessarily always in line with technical merits.For instance the Stax SR-007 is clearly the technically best I've eher owned, but nevertheless I prefer the HE60 due to the tonal balance that suits my preferences better plus the Senns are way more comfortable. Sennheiser HE60 Stax SR-007 (sold) Sony MDR-CD3000 Audio Technica ATH W-5000 Fitz-modded F5005 variety (sold) Beyerdynamic DT-880 (sold) Senn HD 600 balanced Senn HD 650 balanced (sold) Stax SR-X Mk III (lacks bass, but still .......) AKG K340 (modded) AKG K1000/Audiovalve RKV exclusively for hot and humid weather Denon AH-D2000 (sold) Grado RS-1 (sold) Grado SR-225 w/ flats Stax Lambda Pro Stax Lambda Nova Basic (sold) Stax SR-303 (broken) AKG K701 (sold) Audio Technica ATH-W2002 (on loan for a few weeks) AKG K240S (sold) Beyer DT 531 (sold) Koss KSC-75 Etymotics ER-4 P/S (sold) TakeT H2 (on loan for a few weeks) Sennheiser HD540 Gold Grado SR-325 Shure I can't even remember the name of the $800 crap (sold) Sony MDR-SA5000 (sold) Ultrasone Edition 9 (sold) Ultrasone Proline 2500 (sold) AKG K81 DJ (sticks like glue.I've sold it 4 times but the buyers alwas suddenly disappear or run out of money or don't have a bank account or realize that shipping costs to the other side of the world are unreasonable.Ebay sucks ....) Sennheiser MX-500 (into the trash can) Jesus Cosmo and there was me thinking I had an obsession for headphones ;D
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toad
Been here a while!
I am the Super Toad, the Original Toad, the Whole Toad and nothing BUT the toad.... don't forget it!
Posts: 1,223
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Post by toad on Mar 7, 2008 19:47:39 GMT
I haven't got a large collection but here it is anyway. Sennheiser HD595 Amadana PE-117 Sennheiser PX-100 Cowon Stock earbuds ATH M40FS Sennheiser PMX-200 (could go up a notch or two as improving all the time with bedding in) Sennheiser MX500 Various cheap earbuds from sony panasonic etc.
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leo
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Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
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Post by leo on Mar 7, 2008 21:22:47 GMT
I've only got three pairs
Anyway for what its worth and to my ears
AKG K701 most accurate, fast ,wide soundstage , not bad bass for open backed, harder to drive and like to be played loud, sound changed quite dramatically over few weeks bed in (for the better).
AT A900, more bass, dead easy to drive, overall nice cans for the price, lacks the soundstage width of the K701's
Sen HD540 reference, these are ancient, 600ohm but still not a bad sound at all IMO, they are in desperate need of new pads
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rowuk
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Pain in the ass, ex-patriot yank living in the land of sauerkraut
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Post by rowuk on Mar 7, 2008 21:46:02 GMT
AKG701 (slightly compressed ear cushions for more bass) These REPRODUCE the sound of real musical instruments that I hear on stage DT770 (for location recording) NoiseBuster extreme (for flying) Panasonic RP-HJE50 earbuds (plugged into my Palm Treo when on the road)-you have to select the right cushions or they sound like s##t Koss Pro4AAA (no comments - except that the fluid filled cushions leaked over a very expensive suit and the stains could not be completely removed.......)
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Post by minivan on Mar 8, 2008 10:38:50 GMT
hey leo, that hd540 could worth lots of money, i put a wtb thread in headfi ,wanting to buy the hd540 gold reference edition, and some1 offer to sell me for $1600 ndz lol
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leo
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Team wtf is it?
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Post by leo on Mar 8, 2008 18:58:00 GMT
The ones I have are just reference, not the gold edition but they sound quite good to my ears for their age. A guy I used to work with gave them to me, it was these that got me into headphone amps, if it wasn't for him I doubt I'd have ever bothered with cans and just stuck with the speaker based system
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Post by merton on Mar 8, 2008 21:34:13 GMT
headphones have an advantage over speakers?
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leo
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Team wtf is it?
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Post by leo on Mar 8, 2008 22:16:30 GMT
headphones have an advantage over speakers? Regarding sound NO IMHO (others probably disagree) but they do offer advantages with convenience, price etc So far I would not ditch my speakers in favor of headphones, I'm happy with both
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 8, 2008 22:30:43 GMT
headphones have an advantage over speakers? Regarding sound NO IMHO (others probably disagree) but they do offer advantages with convenience, price etc So far I would not ditch my speakers in favor of headphones, I'm happy with both They can't be compared to speakers or even associated with speakers, headphones are a totally different way of gaining insight into the recording.... IMHO it takes MANY years to appreciate headphone listening but only minutes to appreciate loudspeaker listening..... I will explain what I mean as soon as I'm fit enough to operate a brain again.
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Nigel
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Post by Nigel on Mar 10, 2008 10:28:33 GMT
They can't be compared to speakers or even associated with speakers, headphones are a totally different way of gaining insight into the recording.... IMHO it takes MANY years to appreciate headphone listening but only minutes to appreciate loudspeaker listening..... I will explain what I mean as soon as I'm fit enough to operate a brain again. I'm looking forward to reading this one. If it was a case of loudspeakers or headphones, I'd take loudspeakers every time.
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Post by spiug31 on Mar 10, 2008 14:17:30 GMT
AKG K340 modded (apart form recabling) + reterminated (Xhadow XLR's)
Stock Koss ESP-950
AKG K340 unmodded Recabled + Balanced Proline 750 (with 1200+ hours)
Grado sr-80 Amadana pe-117 (from ebay)
stock Proline 750 Ksc-75
My rankings are preliminary as I've heard these only from portable amps, my H120 and my mini-dac but I expect my modded K340 to remain at the top once well amped.
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