It is hard to find a pair of isolating headphones that won't rob the bank leaving a bitter after taste, a feeling of being conned, misled or otherwise suckered into filling another segment of that rapidly filling cupboard you so do not want the wife to find out about, you know, the one that is festooned with average, over priced abandoned audio kit.
In this case, the the phones were on special at £25 (retail normally £80) in Sainsbury's (a national supermarket).
Sennheiser is a name that is relatively reliable though that cupboard has a number of big S abandoned new kit.
So why try these.
I suppose I was facing despair and a lack of major funds. The inane desire for accurate, open, expansive phones often outweighs reason.
Are they the best I have heard?
Honestly, no. That honour lies with a pair of early 70's Beyer DT100's I stupidly traded for a pair of electrostatics that never really cut it.
Are they uncomfortable?
No they are as comfortable as that top of the range pair of Koss I dreamt of as a lad. They are like a feather on my head, bliss for a change, no crimping, scraping, pinching leading to an aching desire to throw them into a distant corner of the listening room.
Could they do with more bass?
That's a big one. A sort of subjective what is really needed, what is real, what should bass really sound like. They may open up, it maybe the lack of low end drive in the laptop which, running Linux, is bereft of any tonal adaptability. Though to many from my era we tend to believe that everything should be 'flat' when played. For me, they have the detail of electrostatics without the punch of the tiring gaming phones.
Are they sharp and painful at the top end?
For a new audio product fresh out of the packet, a set of phones with no run time no, not at all, there is no shrillness, no biting top, no brittle distortion. But then, I don't run my phones at levels that equate to me hugging a 500w Marshall stack during a Metallica concert.
Are they are flat, too two dimensional?
Surprisingly no, their balance and channel separation is impressive, there is real depth. It's sort of built to listen to sound rather than built to impress. Far better to have a pair of phones you have no conscious knowledge of as you listen. Phones that let you listen to the music rather than concentrate on listening to the equipment.
Are they underwhelming?
Well, at £80 ($120) I may have been a bit cheesed off (English expression) and feel I had had my pocket picked. At less than $40 there is no way I can moan. As they mature, one would expect them to settle in, like a V12 working within it's relaxed power band rather than a Japanese 1.2 screaming along at 9000 revs.
Overall impression?
They handle my genres well, they are not the most dynamic but then again, that's not what I want.
Who or when in real life, in the real world does music contain the range of dynamics as the stuff that is promoted as being DVD hi-fi quality.
I have a £50k hi-fi (yes I am that mad), as I sit here to listen to the Ghost of Tom Joad in HD lossless, hey it's pretty close. Especially for laptop stereo and knowing the music intimately, yep, it's bringing a tear to my eye as I type (that doesn't happen often). The bass is deep, detailed and not overpowering. I had anticipated the harmonica to cut through and tear my ears out, nope, sweet, balanced, detailed. I had expected the highs of 'the highway is alive tonight' to crackle in a cheap, boxy, forced, low value phone breakup. Nope, clean, detailed revealing, nothing is drowning out the detail of anything else.
Walk on the Wild Side. So hard to achieve an image on many an expensive system.
Hmm. The double bass rattles and harmonics ring out beautifully.
But what about the backing the singers? Well, it's YouTube, not a £5k turntable with virgin vinyl so, I have to settle for the shortfall of CD quality. Even so they seem to be advancing towards the microphones. It doesn't sound like their voices are being ranked up by an engineer with a slider. So just maybe, that magic image of them stepping forward towards the microphone is almost there. Oh and the sax doesn't break up or have an edge to it. Nope it's all good.
I tried for some sibilance (I hate sibilance), such a let down for many a recording. Nope, nothing harsh here.
So. In about 60 hours, hard driven, when things loosen up, experience says they will improve.
Hey but they were only £25, so no complaints.
In this case, the the phones were on special at £25 (retail normally £80) in Sainsbury's (a national supermarket).
Sennheiser is a name that is relatively reliable though that cupboard has a number of big S abandoned new kit.
So why try these.
I suppose I was facing despair and a lack of major funds. The inane desire for accurate, open, expansive phones often outweighs reason.
Are they the best I have heard?
Honestly, no. That honour lies with a pair of early 70's Beyer DT100's I stupidly traded for a pair of electrostatics that never really cut it.
Are they uncomfortable?
No they are as comfortable as that top of the range pair of Koss I dreamt of as a lad. They are like a feather on my head, bliss for a change, no crimping, scraping, pinching leading to an aching desire to throw them into a distant corner of the listening room.
Could they do with more bass?
That's a big one. A sort of subjective what is really needed, what is real, what should bass really sound like. They may open up, it maybe the lack of low end drive in the laptop which, running Linux, is bereft of any tonal adaptability. Though to many from my era we tend to believe that everything should be 'flat' when played. For me, they have the detail of electrostatics without the punch of the tiring gaming phones.
Are they sharp and painful at the top end?
For a new audio product fresh out of the packet, a set of phones with no run time no, not at all, there is no shrillness, no biting top, no brittle distortion. But then, I don't run my phones at levels that equate to me hugging a 500w Marshall stack during a Metallica concert.
Are they are flat, too two dimensional?
Surprisingly no, their balance and channel separation is impressive, there is real depth. It's sort of built to listen to sound rather than built to impress. Far better to have a pair of phones you have no conscious knowledge of as you listen. Phones that let you listen to the music rather than concentrate on listening to the equipment.
Are they underwhelming?
Well, at £80 ($120) I may have been a bit cheesed off (English expression) and feel I had had my pocket picked. At less than $40 there is no way I can moan. As they mature, one would expect them to settle in, like a V12 working within it's relaxed power band rather than a Japanese 1.2 screaming along at 9000 revs.
Overall impression?
They handle my genres well, they are not the most dynamic but then again, that's not what I want.
Who or when in real life, in the real world does music contain the range of dynamics as the stuff that is promoted as being DVD hi-fi quality.
I have a £50k hi-fi (yes I am that mad), as I sit here to listen to the Ghost of Tom Joad in HD lossless, hey it's pretty close. Especially for laptop stereo and knowing the music intimately, yep, it's bringing a tear to my eye as I type (that doesn't happen often). The bass is deep, detailed and not overpowering. I had anticipated the harmonica to cut through and tear my ears out, nope, sweet, balanced, detailed. I had expected the highs of 'the highway is alive tonight' to crackle in a cheap, boxy, forced, low value phone breakup. Nope, clean, detailed revealing, nothing is drowning out the detail of anything else.
Walk on the Wild Side. So hard to achieve an image on many an expensive system.
Hmm. The double bass rattles and harmonics ring out beautifully.
But what about the backing the singers? Well, it's YouTube, not a £5k turntable with virgin vinyl so, I have to settle for the shortfall of CD quality. Even so they seem to be advancing towards the microphones. It doesn't sound like their voices are being ranked up by an engineer with a slider. So just maybe, that magic image of them stepping forward towards the microphone is almost there. Oh and the sax doesn't break up or have an edge to it. Nope it's all good.
I tried for some sibilance (I hate sibilance), such a let down for many a recording. Nope, nothing harsh here.
So. In about 60 hours, hard driven, when things loosen up, experience says they will improve.
Hey but they were only £25, so no complaints.
