As many of you may know, I'm an avid fan of headphones. They have something which is incredibly hard to achieve with the conventional room filling transducers we refer to as "loudspeakers" and as of such, are the only true way - in my opinion - to listen to music, unless your budget can be compared to Bill Gate's last cheque he signed.
As an ex-owner of Grado's GS1000s, I thought it would be interesting to compare my new headphone system to them. The previous Grados were used on my Arcam A32's headphone socket and my new Sennheisers on the Project HeadBox.
Using the classic reviewers phrase of "initial impressions showed that..." cannot be used here, for I nearly had a heart attack when I first put them on! The Sennheisers coupled to the headphone amplifier literally shocked me into submission! Miles Davis' "So What" from the ledgendary album "A Kind of Blue" was not as I have ever heard it before: It was (and forgive the simile) like lifting a veil from over my ears! Many people claim that true hi-fi isn't very musical, or solid-state can't convey emotion like valve power and a "warm" sound...that's because they havn't heard these headphones. You can tell you are listening to the real deal! Kate Bush's Cloudbusting from the remastered album "Hounds of Love" was when I real scared myself listening to these headphones. In a dark room with your undivided attention on the music, I could hear the exact position of her mouth and the emphasis of the tongue on each word. It was, put simply, awe-inspiring! I must say that I presumed hearing so much detail and pure accuracy of the recording would be quite uninspiring and reveal the music to be boring and lifeless, but it is not so! Forget "reference quality", this combonation of pure, music making joy is an extention of your ears; it transports you to the studio; it transports you to the artist's true intentions; it is "hi-fi".
But how does it compare the the Grado GS1000s? Well, in my opinion, the sound of these Sennhesiers is far ahead of the aptly named Grados with their £1000 price tag! The sound of the Grados will appeal to many: They have a "warm" sound and, from the outset, seem to represent instruments very truthfully, but when you actually "delve-deep" into a recording and try and decipher the emotions of the the composer, the producer and the artist, the Sennhesier/Project combonation wins hands-down!
Faults? Okay, the Project has a bit of a dodgey volume pot on mine; the right channel cuts in and out when it's turned and maybe the Sennheisers aren't the world's most comfortable transducers, but the sheer excellence of the accuracy and hence the music so willingly portrayed by the Sennheiser/Project combonation is sheer joy to any music lover from Glenn Miller to Paul Okenfold.
In essence, perfection has been achieved and my intense passion for headphones, and music, will never fade.
As an ex-owner of Grado's GS1000s, I thought it would be interesting to compare my new headphone system to them. The previous Grados were used on my Arcam A32's headphone socket and my new Sennheisers on the Project HeadBox.
Using the classic reviewers phrase of "initial impressions showed that..." cannot be used here, for I nearly had a heart attack when I first put them on! The Sennheisers coupled to the headphone amplifier literally shocked me into submission! Miles Davis' "So What" from the ledgendary album "A Kind of Blue" was not as I have ever heard it before: It was (and forgive the simile) like lifting a veil from over my ears! Many people claim that true hi-fi isn't very musical, or solid-state can't convey emotion like valve power and a "warm" sound...that's because they havn't heard these headphones. You can tell you are listening to the real deal! Kate Bush's Cloudbusting from the remastered album "Hounds of Love" was when I real scared myself listening to these headphones. In a dark room with your undivided attention on the music, I could hear the exact position of her mouth and the emphasis of the tongue on each word. It was, put simply, awe-inspiring! I must say that I presumed hearing so much detail and pure accuracy of the recording would be quite uninspiring and reveal the music to be boring and lifeless, but it is not so! Forget "reference quality", this combonation of pure, music making joy is an extention of your ears; it transports you to the studio; it transports you to the artist's true intentions; it is "hi-fi".
But how does it compare the the Grado GS1000s? Well, in my opinion, the sound of these Sennhesiers is far ahead of the aptly named Grados with their £1000 price tag! The sound of the Grados will appeal to many: They have a "warm" sound and, from the outset, seem to represent instruments very truthfully, but when you actually "delve-deep" into a recording and try and decipher the emotions of the the composer, the producer and the artist, the Sennhesier/Project combonation wins hands-down!
Faults? Okay, the Project has a bit of a dodgey volume pot on mine; the right channel cuts in and out when it's turned and maybe the Sennheisers aren't the world's most comfortable transducers, but the sheer excellence of the accuracy and hence the music so willingly portrayed by the Sennheiser/Project combonation is sheer joy to any music lover from Glenn Miller to Paul Okenfold.
In essence, perfection has been achieved and my intense passion for headphones, and music, will never fade.
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