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Grados for classical? - Page 2

post #16 of 23
1/17/10 at 5:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by baka1969 View Post
Hi,

My AKG 701 sound much more natural and has the extra detail needed for the genre.
AKG and Sennheiser sucks for Classical , i owned them both for 2 or 3 weeks, sold them and bought myself a Grado SR80 and a week later a Grado SR-325
specialy the SR325 is very good for classical and new-age music.
The AKG and Sennheiser don't have the sparkling Highs and fine mids as the Grado's. My music collection is 50% classical, the rest new-age and PINK FLOYD
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post #17 of 23
1/17/10 at 8:01pm
I've always enjoyed classical vocal pieces & opera on grados FWIW - strings can be nice

they are kind of like listening to classical on a single driver speaker set up - you're fighting against the grain and have to carefully select the programming but there are flashes of brilliance incredibly difficult to reproduce elsewhere
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post #18 of 23
1/17/10 at 8:27pm
What sort of classical music do people who think Grados suck, listen to? Is it the soft and mushy variety?

J/k. Honest!

I listen to mostly chamber music: the string quartet combination of two violins; a viola and a cello, is the most exemplary form of classical music ever invented in western Europe. It is as deft and requires swift attack speed, as much as it is profound and intense. The weaker bass response of the Grados compared to my Sennheiser HD25 Mark IIs and Ultrasone Pro 900s matter little with a genre like this.

No idea whether symphonic music would be interesting enough on the Grado 125s. Be interested to hear what others say. Then again, anything by Grado sure beats etymotics....
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post #19 of 23
1/17/10 at 8:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by keezzzz View Post
AKG and Sennheiser sucks for Classical , i owned them both for 2 or 3 weeks, sold them and bought myself a Grado SR80 and a week later a Grado SR-325
specialy the SR325 is very good for classical and new-age music.
The AKG and Sennheiser don't have the sparkling Highs and fine mids as the Grado's. My music collection is 50% classical, the rest new-age and PINK FLOYD
Huh??
Sennheiser and AKG suck for classical? You aren't serious are you?

I personally wouldn't use any of the Prestige or RS series for classical. Haven't tried the others.
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post #20 of 23
1/18/10 at 4:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Palpatine View Post
Huh??
Sennheiser and AKG suck for classical? You aren't serious are you?

I personally wouldn't use any of the Prestige or RS series for classical. Haven't tried the others.
Yep i'm serious , I think Sennheisers (specialy the HD800) are far overpriced,
but the same thing with the Grado's RS-2 , RS-1 and the GS1000.
I think a price of 400 euro is max. for a HP.
I never liked the Sennheisers (to dark and colored) I like the sparkling sound of the Grado's and i like the special sound of the Ultrasone's , maybe i'm trying a Audio Technica some day, never heard them before, i like the A900 , i think that's a nice closed HP for my music.
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post #21 of 23
1/18/10 at 6:52am
Thread Starter 
Thanks everybody for your answers, especially the long ones, they have been really useful.

Quote:
Originally Posted by keezzzz View Post
Yep i'm serious , I think Sennheisers (specialy the HD800) are far overpriced,
but the same thing with the Grado's RS-2 , RS-1 and the GS1000.
I think a price of 400 euro is max. for a HP.
I agree on the price issue. I've always felt that the SQ of audio equipment follows price more or less linearly up to a certain point. After that, you have to double the price for very small increments in SQ and --- to me, at least --- it is not worth it anymore. I don't know if this is a consequence of engineering costs or marketing choices, and maybe it's wise not to think too hard about this.

Quote:
On something like classical, the Grado house sound is at its best, regardless of what passes for wisdom on headfi. Listening to classical, you don't want dark cans. Dark cans are useful for suppressing HF so the bass can be cranked up for that thumping back beat, which is why you'll notice how muddy so many of them sound. The SR60 is so much clearer in the mids and HF, with minimal resonance. It's a much better fit for acoustical music where most of the sound presentation is not at the thumping club-beat end of the spectrum.
That's exactly what I meant. On the other hand, I like HPs that will tame down the exaggerated treble of most rock and pop music: they are very tiring to my ears.
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post #22 of 23
1/18/10 at 4:28pm
It's all according how you define classical..........if you mean Opera, and Symphony - then it's properly modded K340 which easily define various sections/intruments in complicated passaged (also the distant perspective of a large concert hall or opera house) - IOW a no-mush zone No-one does these things better. Alternatively, I also like X-Deep Darths built with 600 ohm dt770 drivers......a Beyer T1 may lurk in my future - time will tell.

But, you may mean such as string quartets and various other small venue recordings where RS-1/flats can perform very nicely and provide that more intimate perspective.........for Oratorio you might wish to scrimp and save for a pair of Joe Grado HP1000,
You want to think precisely about what deserves most of your listening time. Clearly, I tend to disagree with much that has appeared here.........but then it is likely I'm the only one classically trained/experienced.

Similarly, the same distinctions apply to speakers eg. less impactfull (dynamic) music will be presented beautifully by Magnepans and such, whereas I never heard Segovia better than my ancient Vandersteen 2C - but neither fairs that well with a "rambunctious" Symphony. Unfortunately the larger speakers I had on trial for Symphonic works seemed (physically) too large for the room where they would be located (this was back in latter '70's and everything Vinyl for me).
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post #23 of 23
1/18/10 at 4:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by keezzzz View Post
Yep i'm serious , I think Sennheisers (specialy the HD800) are far overpriced,
but the same thing with the Grado's RS-2 , RS-1 and the GS1000.
I think a price of 400 euro is max. for a HP.
I never liked the Sennheisers (to dark and colored) I like the sparkling sound of the Grado's and i like the special sound of the Ultrasone's , maybe i'm trying a Audio Technica some day, never heard them before, i like the A900 , i think that's a nice closed HP for my music.
over priced or not it's got nothing to do with the discution,and if talking about over priced, the PS1000 is probably the most overpriced headphone in the industry right now. as a HUGE fan of the grado sound i like the HD650 a lot more for classical,even better than my D5000.

if you think that the senns are dark sounding or veild in some way,I invite you to come and listen to the 650 out of my headroom amp..I will bet you will change your mind. they are very neutral and aggressive sounding. the HD650 present deep bass very good, and that's goes really well with the low celo notes and orchestra. the grado have a great punchy bass but far from the HD650 in terms of deepness of the bass.
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