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Post by dalethorn on Aug 1, 2012 2:53:21 GMT
A very prolific reviewer at the Computer Audiophile site gave me a hot tip on the Pioneer SE-MJ591, a DJ or on-the-go headphone that's normally $300 but was reduced just recently to $205 USD. So I bought it. Worst purchase I ever made. The highs are so bad that after a treble boost the brass crescendos on the Jimmy Smith Basin Street Blues FLAC from HDTracks still sounded like they were a million miles away. They sound terrific on the ATH M50 and all my other headphones played flat (no boost). The rest of the range wasn't a lot better. It sounded like a toy headphone you'd buy at Kmart for $15. How Pioneer can justify having sold those for $300 is a real mystery.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 3:34:25 GMT
A very prolific reviewer at the Computer Audiophile site gave me a hot tip on the Pioneer SE-MJ591, a DJ or on-the-go headphone that's normally $300 but was reduced just recently to $205 USD. So I bought it. Worst purchase I ever made. The highs are so bad that after a treble boost the brass crescendos on the Jimmy Smith Basin Street Blues FLAC from HDTracks still sounded like they were a million miles away. They sound terrific on the ATH M50 and all my other headphones played flat (no boost). The rest of the range wasn't a lot better. It sounded like a toy headphone you'd buy at Kmart for $15. How Pioneer can justify having sold those for $300 is a real mystery. Dale Just out of curiosity, who was the prolific C.A. reviewer ? P.M. me if you don't want to make it public. Regards Alex
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Post by dalethorn on Aug 1, 2012 13:50:53 GMT
A very prolific reviewer at the Computer Audiophile site gave me a hot tip on the Pioneer SE-MJ591, a DJ or on-the-go headphone that's normally $300 but was reduced just recently to $205 USD. So I bought it. Worst purchase I ever made. The highs are so bad that after a treble boost the brass crescendos on the Jimmy Smith Basin Street Blues FLAC from HDTracks still sounded like they were a million miles away. They sound terrific on the ATH M50 and all my other headphones played flat (no boost). The rest of the range wasn't a lot better. It sounded like a toy headphone you'd buy at Kmart for $15. How Pioneer can justify having sold those for $300 is a real mystery. Dale Just out of curiosity, who was the prolific C.A. reviewer ? P.M. me if you don't want to make it public. Regards Alex I think in this case it's perhaps a good lesson in recommendations. I posted a reply today there noting my experience. HiFiGuy528 does a lot of quickie reviews, apparently and according to some statements he's made because he gets free samples from manufacturers and so does a quick unboxing on youtube and adds a few comments at CA and AudioKarma. Recently at AudioKarma we (mostly he and I) had a very heated debate about Monster and Beats, with my contention being that since they don't market to high fidelity, they should not be misrepresented as viable alternatives to high fidelity headphones, either directly or by omission of the key information about their audio performance. So with that in mind, he recommended the Pioneer, which has such severely rolled-off highs that even a high-frequency boost could not bring the horns on a hirez Jimmy Smith recording into the room. It was beyond bad, and I assume it was a gag, and not a funny one at that. It will be interesting to see if there are any replies. On a somewhat related note, I had a discussion with a forum mod at AudioKarma about reviews that actually amount to free ads. The way it works is, the reviewer gets a lot of free samples and then does an unboxing video plus a few brief comments on the forum. Alternatively, the reviewer buys some of those items, does the quickie reviews, then returns them back to where they were purchased from. So hopefully the forum mods are watching for this sort of thing, but I can't say at this point whether that applies to any particular person or not. I only mentioned HiFiGuy528 in relation to the Pioneer SE-MJ591, and whether or how he can justify his recommendation based on what he knows.
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funk1969
250+
Some things are so easily overlooked...
Posts: 481
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Post by funk1969 on Aug 2, 2012 10:00:17 GMT
I don't take him serious. Besides his preference for DJ-oriented headphones in daily use is known right? Then you should know that he prefers the less accurate sound...
His videos are good, whatever he says take it with a 'pot' of salt.
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Post by dalethorn on Aug 2, 2012 13:52:00 GMT
I don't take him serious. Besides his preference for DJ-oriented headphones in daily use is known right? Then you should know that he prefers the less accurate sound... His videos are good, whatever he says take it with a 'pot' of salt. He tried to pass off his recommendation as personal preference, but when you look at the very heated discussion we had on Beats etc. at AudioKarma (some posts were removed as abusive), and then he "recommended" the Pioneer, I made it clear to the people at CA that his recommendation was either a very expensive gag or complete incompetence (based on his knowing my attitude about hi-fi from the very contentious discussion just a couple of days prior to that). It gets more interesting. The review-a-day has slowed down considerably there as well. I had a PM discussion with a mod about the free advertising thing there at AudioKarma, so maybe that made a difference. It doesn't bother me that someone gets a lot of free sample audio gear if they do real reviews on it. But doing features only on free gear is free advertising, usually a no-no. Then we got into the purchased gear and the quickie "feature" reviews. I mentioned in the PM's that someone who does these purchases for quickie feature reviews, then returns the purchased items for credit, is still doing basically the same thing as mfr-sponsored free advertising, only worse because it's a very bad example to set for a forum, to tell people to just buy all the gear you want to test out and then return it for credit. A buyer should at least have the intent to keep the purchased gear if it's satisfactory, but when you start counting the purchases it sure doesn't look like any ordinary person would buy such a large quantity of mid-fi gear. Myself, I've done quite a few reviews, but it's slowed to a stop because I'm over budget, and I don't return items for credit unless something went wrong, not my fault.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2012 21:21:40 GMT
It gets very expensive, Dale. I've slowed down with gear as well tbh. You just end up with a pile of gear that mostly doesn't get used and you end up just giving it away.
For me, over the past few years, I've come to realise the importance of combining a well matched amp with a headphone. Although many don't seem to hear the effect of an amp except for loudness, I find that it's the combination that sounds good and not just the headphone.
For example, I find my modded V8 and DT990 to be a fantastic combination. Really incredibly good.
The Sunrise and the K601 or K550.
The Neco Mosfet and the HD600, HD650 or HD250
Would you believe - a Zigis Cmoy driving the K601 - brilliant!!
For me, it's the combo that does it.
Have you had a go with K701 and AT ad700 headphones yet? I had serious problems with the K701 for a long time. I found the Panda amp to work well with it but was hard pushed to find anything else that delivered a sound that I could live with. It seems to improve with 120 ohms out from the amp.
I didn't mind the Audio Technica at all. Pleasant but lacking real deep bass.
I try to work with combos rather than just headphones - that way, the source isn't as important when doing reviews if you can detect what basic sound quality is delivered by the amp/headphone end. ie; a good strong bass led sound will give the same from an ipod as well as a Naim CD player since the impedance matching/handshaking is going on between the amp and headphone but for higher quality source material, the combo really makes or breaks it for me.
I also get worried that many use reviews as their guide to getting their next buy and I do get concerned that others may not have the same tastes as me in sound and get misled into spending a lot of money. I kind of have a guilty conscience and realise that I'm quite lucky to be in a position to try the stuff.
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Post by dalethorn on Aug 3, 2012 1:17:42 GMT
No, Ian - haven't fired up those two headphones yet. I hope this month I'll order some new pads and then get to work. But I concur on the amps. While I've always thought the speaker or headphone makes a far bigger difference, the amp (if well matched) adds qualities that the headphone/speaker can't duplicate by itself. Many people have tried to describe those things, but you never really know until you've done the listening yourself. I can't say even now that I get the perfect synergy when I sit down with a given amp and headphone, but I find it within a few minutes or switch to another setup, and then all the buzzwords I've read start to click-- "Yeah, now that's really smooth, and that guitar sounds real..."
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Post by dalethorn on Aug 3, 2012 3:46:10 GMT
Stereophile just printed a mini-review of this Pioneer SE-MJ591 in the September issue, by Sam Tellig. It was favorable, and even claimed that "The treble is sweet." My sample had essentially no treble, even with a treble boost, so either Pioneer's sample-to-sample QC is bad, or Tellig is .... (I can't even imagine)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2012 8:29:45 GMT
Stereophile just printed a mini-review of this Pioneer SE-MJ591 in the September issue, by Sam Tellig. It was favorable, and even claimed that "The treble is sweet." My sample had essentially no treble, even with a treble boost, so either Pioneer's sample-to-sample QC is bad, or Tellig is .... (I can't even imagine) I don't get those reviews. If the guy does a less than satisfactory job on the review, then his cred goes for the future and who would want a pair for free in any case? I do find it odd how they don't notice something that is really as blatant as a heavily rolled off treble. The same thing happened with the 'Fanny Wang' headphones. (Pardon my French!!) There seems to be a craze at the moment for these dull headphones with heavy bass. Dr Dre started it all up I guess and the Wangs were a kind of copy although I think they are better than the Dre's personally. Stronger in the mids. What amazes me is how kids were literally jumping over each others' backs yesterday when I visited a hi fi shop to get at the Dr Dres. Sadly, next to them were some rather more sensible Sennheisers which were totally ignored at just about half the price. No wonder they all love low bit rate MP3 downloads - the hedphones do a good job of masking the horrible sound!!!
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funk1969
250+
Some things are so easily overlooked...
Posts: 481
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Post by funk1969 on Aug 3, 2012 19:36:44 GMT
Yup...
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Post by beagle on Nov 2, 2012 21:59:39 GMT
A very prolific reviewer at the Computer Audiophile site gave me a hot tip on the Pioneer SE-MJ591, a DJ or on-the-go headphone that's normally $300 but was reduced just recently to $205 USD. So I bought it. Worst purchase I ever made. The highs are so bad that after a treble boost the brass crescendos on the Jimmy Smith Basin Street Blues FLAC from HDTracks still sounded like they were a million miles away. They sound terrific on the ATH M50 and all my other headphones played flat (no boost). The rest of the range wasn't a lot better. It sounded like a toy headphone you'd buy at Kmart for $15. How Pioneer can justify having sold those for $300 is a real mystery. You or the headphones must be defective. Perhaps both.
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