HFI-580 or HFI-780?

I've never heard the 780's but I've had my HFI-580's for about a year now and I completely recommend them. They were a little clampy on my head at first but they loosened up and the sound is really fun and rich. The soundstage seems pretty wide to my rather novice ears (this is my first set of phones that didn't come with my latest gadget). They pump out just a bit more bass than most of the other cans in that range did and I love them for it. The overall sound quality is excellent IMO, I'm not looking for a flat sig reference level set of cans though.

I listen to everything from ambient dream-pop to minimal techno, jazz and classic rock to classical and I've yet to find a significant fault that I can perceive. Hope these thoughts help.

I think HFI-580 are probably gonna satisfy more users that's listening to those genres. The sound is warm and the bass is very punchy, the treble can be a bit too excessive on HFI-780 for some so for a cheaper price you can't go wrong with the 580 IMO.

I agree with RPGWizard.  You might as well go for the 580. The 780 have a "better" sound overall, but more users would be pleased with a 580 in a blind test.  Throw the price in, and it's a no brainer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shnitz 

I agree with RPGWizard.  You might as well go for the 580. The 780 have a "better" sound overall, but more users would be pleased with a 580 in a blind test.  Throw the price in, and it's a no brainer.

That depends how you define "better". For me for example it means whatever headphone I'm enjoying more that sounds more according to my own taste, not what the manufacturer thinks is better. :p I won't go further from here as this is the never ending discussion topic but my point is sound is highly subjective and you shouldn't need to tell other headphones that are expensier or more liked overall has to be better cuz of that, that's like saying your own prefers/taste have no value whatsoever. Every's opinion is of equal value, it's just we have different taste that determines what headphones are more suited for us and no1 but yourself can find out what exactly that is.

 Penzo,

 I have the Hfi780s, and the first thing I did was get the 250 velour pads.

They are alot more comfy than the stock pleather. I wear glasses too,

the velour pads are better. I also have a large head, and the clamping

problem was solved by stretching over a small speaker.

 Mine also benefitted by burning in for a week hooked up to FM on a receiver

in a back room.

 Enjoy!

Hi,

The 250 pads worked for me to on my 780's.

The only thing about the pads is that they make the room for your ears a bit smaller.

So if you have REALLY big ears, i would not buy them :)

hope you enjoy

Where can I get the 250 pads- online?

I would say two things about my HFI 780, first of all place them over 4-5 thick books for couple of days to decrease the tight grip and play the music at the same time to break them in. Second in spite of 32 ohm impedance these don't sound good from ipod, iphone directly. They need amplification. At home I'm getting very good sound from my SONY amp. Grado SR 225 that I had sounded great directly from ipod, but I didn't like them for other reasons. So even though I like my Ultrasone's I'm a bit disappointed cause I need to spend money for the portable amp now. So they are not universal. I'm still looking for perfect headphone that would do it all. My philips SHP 54001 is on the way and my HF5 are on the way, so we will see how good these are for portable use. At home I will keep the Ultrasone even though I have to say that I see little value in them cause both my home audio and my car audio sound better. What I mean that these headphones simply don't achieve the same SQ that I have out of speakers. So I'm not gonna listen to them a lot at home.

+1 for burning in these headphones for a week or so. It seemed to improve the treble performance for mine in particular. I used the track here to burn mine: http://www.jlabaudio.com/burn.php