Member Reviews: JVC HA-DX1000

This is a terrific headphone that gets very little "love" on this site. I know it's pricey, and somewhat hard to get in the US, and it definitely has a distinct "personality", but it is capable of making musical magic that few other headphones can approach. The DX1000 is certainly a bass-head's dream. Has probably the best bass I have ever heard from a headphone. Its very open and transparent sounding, with airy, extended treble and a crystal-clear midrange. The midrange can be just a little odd, sometimes, and I like the DX1000 best with tube amps.  But with the Decware CSP-2 and the Ray Samuels Audio The Stealth, the DX1000 is an amazing sounding headphone. Gratuitous glamor shot of...

JVC HA-DX1000 review   Setup:   Source: Marantz SA7001 SACD player. Amplifier: Ray Samuels Audio XP-7 with power supply and AD797 opamps. Headphones for comparison: Sennheiser HD600 and Ultrasone HFI-780 with Beyer DT250 velour pads.   Music used:   The Allman Brother Band - At Filmore East (SACD). Beethoven - Complete Symphonies (London Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink) (SACD). Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (CD). Fatboy Slim - You’ve come a long way, baby (CD). Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight OST (CD). Van Halen - Van Halen (HDCD remaster) (CD). Eric Clapton - Unplugged (CD). Joan Baez - Farewell, Angelina (CD). I picked these...

I finally got to test a pair of DX1000 against the Denon AH-D7000, and right off the bat, the treble just sounded odd--it's kind of distant and muffled, but still articulate--as if the treble existed in a different plane of space. The sub-bass wasn't as extended as the D7000, with 30Hz being rolled off--in fact the right driver started buzzing at 45Hz and lower (D7000's 30Hz remains just as prominent as the other bass frequencies, with no sign of roll-off, and no sign of distortion). My M50's 30Hz is also struggling a bit, with a little bit of distortion, but seems better than the DX1000. Even if the DX1000's right driver wasn't misbehaving at sub-bass frequencies, the 30Hz area was...