More Headphone Advice

[Jason36]

Right guys more suggestions required.

I have just sold my Grado SR80i with the Bocote cups and I have some spare cash burning a hole in my pocket

Headphones I currently have are listed in my signature. All of these are low impedence cans and fairly easy to drive without any problems.

I am keen to try out some higher impedence cans and see how these differ. They would be used with the Arcam rPac and also iPod / TTVJ Slim combo.

I would be interested in open back headphones and wondered what you could suggest from Beyerdynamic / Sennheiser etc etc. I would love to try some Audeze or HiFiMan....but these are a little out of reach at the moment and I don't think I would get the benefit of them with my current setups.

Musical tastes are varied pretty much everything except Classical and Opera.

Throw some ideas at me....price wise I could look up to about £300.00. Don't mind new or secondhand suggestions either.

 

[quadpatch]

Any idea what kind of signature you would like? More or less bassy than the M80? I'm assuming less treble than the T70... I really like the Beyer DT880. 600 Ohm but the rPAC does struggle to drive those on occation. The high impedance there rolls the trebbke down and you are left with sharp detail without too much pain... well that's what I got from it anyway. Hey, wanna swap Beyers?

 

[Jason36]

Hmmm probably a more neutral headphone....with yes not as much treble as the T70p. To be honest I'm very happy with the T70p's and their sound signature and not sure if I will actually get anything better without paying lots of money.

I was thinking about the Sennhesiser HD700 / Shure SRH 1840 but both of these are £600. I'm not sure whether to just hold off for a bit and then look at the Audeze LCD2 or Beyer T1?

I have also been looking at / thinking about the AKG Q701 or K701 just to see what they sound like? What do you think of the Q701 Quad?

 

[robfol]

Personal comment only!

I love the Sennheiser HD650, comfortable and neutral

Glad you got an rPAC, makes one-hell of a difference

Cheers Robert

 

[quadpatch]

If you are curious about the HD700 or SRH 1840 I would only recommend them if you can try them out first becuse I have heard lots of rather average opinions of these two. If it were me with that amount of cash and your collection of headphones I think I would be looking at either the Hifiman HE400 or I would try to stretch to the Audeze LCD-2. Which part of the country are you in btw? There is a showroom in Brighton that will be getting the LCD-2 in to play with soon (as well as tons of other high end headphones). I will be off for a visit to these guys as soon as they have them.

http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/headphone-demo.php

As for the AKG 701. I likes it but not enough to keep it so my Dad has it at the moment and he really loves it. Between the K701 and Q701 get whichever is cheaper, if you want one. They are really open, but light as hell on the bass (lean if you want to call it that) - way more so than the Beyer DT880! The top end is also extremely bright so I advise caution with this headphone. Especially if you are wanting something a bit more laid back than the T70 (although I'm guessing a bit about that, I've never hear it).

Hope that helps a bit... I will be back with more thoughts later, gotta run now

 

[Jason36]

I have been looking at the HD650 and they seem to get some fairly good recommendations....have you any experience of these Quad? I assume the rPac would be able to drive these fairly well as well at 300 ohm?

The HiFiman HE400 or the LCD2 look promising and again assume they should be ok with the rPac. Part of me is torn as to whether I should just wait for a while and then get these rather than an in between pair.

I am probably covered in most areas now with the T70p and M80 being quite different sounding and the A.4i hopefully being a very neutral IEM.

 

[lonely boy]

I blow hot and cold over the 650s. For all their reputation as being smooth and layed back, etc, the midrange can sound forward and grainy to me. The treble is certainly not as prominant as Grados can be.

 

[quadpatch]

I have heard the HD650 but only a couple of times in shops (once on my own DACs) and I thought it was good but lacking in excitement. This is not something that I found with either the AKG Q701 or the Beyer DT880, but a lot of the people who love this headphone seem to be people who drive the hell out of it! With expensive amps or just good tube amps (Bottlehead Crack) it apparently excels. I can't vouch for this but it seems to be a common aspect of owners who love it. I want one... one day, but after I have tried things which seem to get more passionate reponses out of people.

I think that the Audeze LCD-2 and Hifiman HE400 are both easy to drive so should be fine with the rPAC initially although I get the impression that they scale very well with a good amp (perhaps the HE500 more than the HE400, the HE500 would be more in line with the price level of the LCD-2). Speaking of easy to drive, I'm not sure that the HD650 would be fine on the rPAC, it might be ok but I get the impression that it's harder to drive than the 600 Ohm DT880. I need to get my head around the figures better, but that's another reason to beware of the HD650 straight away I think.

 

[dalethorn]

Having owned the 565/580/600/650/800, I think the 600 and 650 are nice polite headphones that cover the hifi range of frequencies with good quality, and should serve well as references when evaluating other headphones. But I think a lot of people are finding other not-so-polite headphones that can supercharge their listening, or maybe put just a tad more excitement into it.

 

[Jason36]

Cheers Guys,

I think with the headphones / IEM's I have at the present time there is really no point buying something for the sake of it. I might as well hang on for a bit and then go for the Audeze LCD2 or HiFiman HE500 or possibly 400.

 

[Jason36]

Well I have just purchased and taken delivery of a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones.

At the end of the day it came down to two choices - The HD650 and HiFiman HE-400 - From what I have heard and seen they are both very similar soundwise, albeit the HE400 has better and extended Bass being planar magnetic headphones.

However having had the HD650 on my head for the last hour I must say I am very impressed with them...extremely neutral and the midrange is sublime......Katie Melua and Holly Cole's voices both sound like honey through these headphones

Some people have said that the bass is very lean and in some cases none existent with the HD650, but thats not my experience so far.....OK they dont go thumpingly deep....but the bass is there. Listening to Holly Cole's album "Dont Smoke in Bed" the HD650 produce an extremely balanced sound, the string instruments have presence and depth and Holly's voice just shines :dance:

At the moment these have only been amped via my ALO The National portable amplifier....but they work together very nicely. Will be interesting to see what a dedicated and more powerfull headphone amp can produce with these.

All in all and absolutely brilliant pair of headphones.

 

[eggontoast]

Well they are certainly comfortable I'll give you that

 

[Jason36]

:roll: :roll:

Well they are certainly comfortable I'll give you that

They certainly are mate,

However having read a couple of your older posts where you were knocking the HD650 :roll: I must say my opinion of them so far is that I wouldnt personally class them as boring......I would say they were very neutral, as you would expect from a reference headphone, but not boring....I am finding that they don't really add anything to the music...you get what is there and nothing more or less.

I am finding them to be airy and detailed....soundstage is probably a little restricted compared to my 4.Ai and T70p, but nothing that I can't live with on that front.

I can see me holding on to these for quite a while, although I am looking at a pair of HE400 just to try them and see how they compare....My issue with the HE400 though is there size and also the weight.

So any new toys yourself? How are the Magnums breaking in?

 

[eggontoast]

Sorry Jason, I was trying to be enthusiastic for you :-D

The HD650's are not bad headphones by any means, I personally see them as the safe option. I'm quite surprised to see that some people thought they were lacking in bass, I always thought the bass was pretty good and well extended. I think if your into your head-fi that at some point you will own a pair of HD650's, it's a must surely.

I haven't bought any new cans recently, the magnums have broke in well but as of late I have gone back to using my Stax most of the time. I bought a couple of amp/dacs to play with......but it's time to sell some gear really and start afresh, I'm not over enamoured with the m-dac either.

 

[Jason36]

Cheers Lee,

So what amp/DACs have you been playing around with and why arent you enthused by the M-DAC?

Ive bought myself a new portable amp and have been tinkering with an old iPod I had......I have undertaken a DIY Mod on this, using silver wire straight out of the Wolfson DAC and direct to the pins on the LOD socket and fitted inline capacitors....this therefore bypasses all the internal amlifications sections and you just get the signal straight from the DAC. I have also removed the original HDD and replaced this with a 128Gb CF Card....absolutely silent and really quick with boot up and changing tracks etc....I am also now using Rockbox which completely negates having to us iTunes and means I can play FLAC on the iPod?