Grados-- SR60 or SR80 if I'm going unamped?

[appar111]

I'm trying to decide on which of these will sound better out of the headphone out of my D-EJ955. I've heard that the SR60 doesn't sound much different amped than when its unamped. I've heard the SR80 however, sounds significantly better with an amp. Also I've heard the SR60 sounds a bit warmer than the SR80 when they're both unamped.

I'm trying to figure which would be the better upgrade from my Sportapros. I could get a CMoy pretty cheap ($40) and the SR60's for $65 shipped, but if an amp isn't going to improve their sound that much, I'd rather forego it and get the SR80's for $87 shipped and go ampless.

Suggestions on which I should go for, based on my current main cans and rig?

appar111

[appar111]

bump

[blessingx]

Your choice is basically a catch-22. You can get the 60's (and an amp) which is often stated be not be significantly helped by helped an amp, or the 80's, that some people feel only reach their full potential with an amp, but you can't get it. I did spend time with both of them ampless and I agree the 60's sounded overall a tab better (and I think slightly more efficient - though I can't explain way) than the 80's. The 80's though are no slouch. I went 80's ampless until I got an amp and didn't feel like I was missing anything during the wait. So you may want to go this route if you want to grow. In addition if you're running them off something with a decent output (do you know of the quality of the D-EJ955?), the amp "necessity" (which itself is up for debate and may be the disagreements are because of this) starts to disappear. You can also just get the 60's with no amp and save up for a future phone/amp combo (as you've seen upgradoing is a disease here). You can go used from the for sale forum, and pick up the 80's and amp for your 60's/cmoy price. If though you pay new prices you may also want to consider the Alessandro MS1's as a jump over either for $10 more (though free shipping) over the 80's. This may be your best bet. Sorry to make it more complicated.

And you may want to check out the Ampless Ratings for different opinions of which sounds better ampless. There's certainly disagreement.

Hope I'm not stating the obvious, though this gets asked very often. Good luck.

[Hiker]

I have used the SR-80s with my Ipod for almost a year, and I have to say that I am very satisfied. The Ipod has a pretty decent output so for me, pairing an amp up with the Ipod would have very minimal effects on the SR-80 sonic quality. If your source has a powerful output, go straight for the SR-80s and don't look back.

[appar111]

Well, the D-EJ955 doesn't have too bad of an output, but definitely nothing like the IPod. I've heard that the SR60's sound better unamped, so I think I may go for the SR60's (no amp) and just keep things as simple as possible.... I'll use the money I saved on not getting the CMoy to grab a pair of those gold Sony 888's on Bluetin. That way I can run either pair without the necessity of an amp..