I currently listen to music with my Grado SR60's headphones.
Before this, I was using Sennheiser HD202's which was bought from amazon for less then £15, before that the Sony MDR-V300's and even before that, your standard Ipod earphones.
Before buying the Grado's however, I did alot of research online searching for a decent pair of PC speakers to replace a pair of Phillip's which died on me which up untill now I thought were good sounding. I was somehow directed to the WhatHiFi website and being shown the Acoustic Energy Aego M. As I kept researching, I realised that these were rated 5 stars when they initially released before falling down to 3 stars over the years. One step up from the Aego's were the Audioengine A2's, in What HiFi tradtion, they too used to be 5 stars before dropping to 4. According to What HiFI, the best PC speakers you could get for your money were the Lars and Ivan BK21.
My one and only older brother's birthday was coming soon so I decided to buy him a little present since he had issues with his current Creative I-Trigue 3300 speakers. I found them for a steal, £86 when they normally should sell for £130. Little did I knew that I was ordering the Lars and Ivans Bobo passive speakers and not the complete setup with the amplifier, but not to worry, I bought a £60 Sonic Impact T-amp 2 after finding out. After further research, I discovered that the speakers were rated 8 Ohm, the amp 6W @ 8 Ohm,0.1% THD+N, 10W @ 8 Ohm, 10% THD+N, oh shizzle, that means he won't get decent listening volumes without massive levels of distortion, ok well technically on paper it should sound bad but that wasn't the case however.
In my opinion, the pair still sound exceptionally well even for my standards, maybe it's because of the synergy, but this is even after hearing Hifi equipment worth thousands of pounds.
I am not promoting these products, even though it may seem that I am but I cannot deny that they are superb sounding not just for the money, but as a whole even after hearing B&Ws, Epos, Marantzs, Rotels, Arcams and even Roksans.
No doubt that they have limitations, they sound thin on complex songs, are lacking in bass but make up for it for being musical, and with the amazingly realistic midrange for vocals.
The funny thing is that even after the many auditions I have been to in search of a Hifi system that is upto my standards, what I find is a system that has similar sound characteristics to the Lars & Ivan+T-amp combination.
Indeed, I am referring to Roksans. The Kandy K2 speakers, amp and CD player. To me, I find this whole setup alittle bright sounding, the speakers are more clean sounding and refined then the Epos M12i's which to me at the time had my thumbs up because they were detailed and revealing, the Kandy K2 amp cancelled out the brightness from the Epos speakers when I had it stacked with a Marantz CDP and amp (PM7003 & CD6002). The K2 CDP gave more emphasis on the highs then the Marantz, this is silly because I'm comparing a £900 CDP to a £250 CDP. I have come to the conclusion that you have to pay many times more for an item even for a small upgrade in sound quality compared to the last item you thought was 'great'.
Okay, well because the complete Roksan setup sounded bright, I have booked for another audition at my local hifi shop, this time having to change to pure copper wire since I was demoing them with half copper and silver ones, also this time with an added subwoofer to recover the bass I lost in comparison to the Epos+Marantz.
The whole reason to why I even wanted a hifi in the first place is because I was and still am not entirely satisfied with my Grado Sr60's. I don't want anything clamped to my head when listening, I find them lacking in bass, occasionally bright sounding depending on the song. It's also hard for me to handpick exactly what I want to listen to in a song when I am in a deep focus, for example, the drum beats in a rock song, others call it 'seperation' lol because the vocals or other instruments overwhelm it. I understand I can improve the sound with an external amplifier and DAC as I have them directly connected to my PC as it is at the moment but this is something I may consider in the future since my priority now is a hifi.
If I had to compare these Grado's to my Sennheiser's, I would say each have their own strengths and are by no means perfect but still enjoy the sound signature of each. The sennheiser's are airy sounding, it priortizes on midrange, and are loose on the bass, not to mention abit punchy. Whereas the Sr60's are revealing in the sense that they bring the entire frequency range to the forefront, but yet balanced sounding.
These Grado's mean alot to me since they introduced me to the world of 'Audiophile'.
It's been a long read for you so I am going to have to end it here.
Thanks for reading and I hope you share your stories here with me to. =)
A story of a 19 year old boy with £5000 to spare lol
Before this, I was using Sennheiser HD202's which was bought from amazon for less then £15, before that the Sony MDR-V300's and even before that, your standard Ipod earphones.
Before buying the Grado's however, I did alot of research online searching for a decent pair of PC speakers to replace a pair of Phillip's which died on me which up untill now I thought were good sounding. I was somehow directed to the WhatHiFi website and being shown the Acoustic Energy Aego M. As I kept researching, I realised that these were rated 5 stars when they initially released before falling down to 3 stars over the years. One step up from the Aego's were the Audioengine A2's, in What HiFi tradtion, they too used to be 5 stars before dropping to 4. According to What HiFI, the best PC speakers you could get for your money were the Lars and Ivan BK21.
My one and only older brother's birthday was coming soon so I decided to buy him a little present since he had issues with his current Creative I-Trigue 3300 speakers. I found them for a steal, £86 when they normally should sell for £130. Little did I knew that I was ordering the Lars and Ivans Bobo passive speakers and not the complete setup with the amplifier, but not to worry, I bought a £60 Sonic Impact T-amp 2 after finding out. After further research, I discovered that the speakers were rated 8 Ohm, the amp 6W @ 8 Ohm,0.1% THD+N, 10W @ 8 Ohm, 10% THD+N, oh shizzle, that means he won't get decent listening volumes without massive levels of distortion, ok well technically on paper it should sound bad but that wasn't the case however.
In my opinion, the pair still sound exceptionally well even for my standards, maybe it's because of the synergy, but this is even after hearing Hifi equipment worth thousands of pounds.
I am not promoting these products, even though it may seem that I am but I cannot deny that they are superb sounding not just for the money, but as a whole even after hearing B&Ws, Epos, Marantzs, Rotels, Arcams and even Roksans.
No doubt that they have limitations, they sound thin on complex songs, are lacking in bass but make up for it for being musical, and with the amazingly realistic midrange for vocals.
The funny thing is that even after the many auditions I have been to in search of a Hifi system that is upto my standards, what I find is a system that has similar sound characteristics to the Lars & Ivan+T-amp combination.
Indeed, I am referring to Roksans. The Kandy K2 speakers, amp and CD player. To me, I find this whole setup alittle bright sounding, the speakers are more clean sounding and refined then the Epos M12i's which to me at the time had my thumbs up because they were detailed and revealing, the Kandy K2 amp cancelled out the brightness from the Epos speakers when I had it stacked with a Marantz CDP and amp (PM7003 & CD6002). The K2 CDP gave more emphasis on the highs then the Marantz, this is silly because I'm comparing a £900 CDP to a £250 CDP. I have come to the conclusion that you have to pay many times more for an item even for a small upgrade in sound quality compared to the last item you thought was 'great'.
Okay, well because the complete Roksan setup sounded bright, I have booked for another audition at my local hifi shop, this time having to change to pure copper wire since I was demoing them with half copper and silver ones, also this time with an added subwoofer to recover the bass I lost in comparison to the Epos+Marantz.
The whole reason to why I even wanted a hifi in the first place is because I was and still am not entirely satisfied with my Grado Sr60's. I don't want anything clamped to my head when listening, I find them lacking in bass, occasionally bright sounding depending on the song. It's also hard for me to handpick exactly what I want to listen to in a song when I am in a deep focus, for example, the drum beats in a rock song, others call it 'seperation' lol because the vocals or other instruments overwhelm it. I understand I can improve the sound with an external amplifier and DAC as I have them directly connected to my PC as it is at the moment but this is something I may consider in the future since my priority now is a hifi.
If I had to compare these Grado's to my Sennheiser's, I would say each have their own strengths and are by no means perfect but still enjoy the sound signature of each. The sennheiser's are airy sounding, it priortizes on midrange, and are loose on the bass, not to mention abit punchy. Whereas the Sr60's are revealing in the sense that they bring the entire frequency range to the forefront, but yet balanced sounding.
These Grado's mean alot to me since they introduced me to the world of 'Audiophile'.
It's been a long read for you so I am going to have to end it here.
Thanks for reading and I hope you share your stories here with me to. =)
A story of a 19 year old boy with £5000 to spare lol
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