Whoever adviced me that Grado SR80i's do not need to be amped is a liar! - Page 2

I did a test between my grado sr80i amped/unamped and i didn't see any difference (whereas  i do with all my senn's  )

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brumagician99 

+1 i agree jimbob and estreeter

 

I think its a head fi phenomena and its like a brainwashing plague! Im happy as a newbie I went against convention and amped my grado's. The fact that sr80i do not need to be amped, its all bs. ALL cans can benefit from amping IMHO and experience!

 

I just wrote a post about my vintage marantz receiver and plugging my grado sr80i... 

 

if you live in a dream fantasy world whereby an ineffective can to you is something like a grado sr80i, then you should try plugging it into an amp! The difference is night and day with the vintage marantz - yes the resolution will not be as good (foggier, muddier, +floor noise) as a LDMKIII etc, but the bass.. HEAPS of bass... this is without the loudness button, and equalization of bass and treble on 0. Put the loudness on...and it gives u ooomph far beyond the LD MKIII -  suprising. Just what these SR80i's need is bass - and its offered to u here. only an amp can solve that issue or Bilavideo!

 

 I think many of the cult followers who believe grado sr80i/60i/125i cannot benefit ffrom ampage are insanely ignorant - there are countless threads about this and I advice all you newbies... if you wanted to get a starter set up like me sr80i + LD MKIII -- get it and dont look back. Infact if you have an ipod next to you i insist to constantly do A/B checks with and without the amp... its honestly a noticeable night and day difference. This is with stock tubes, stock IC's and stock mains - no DAC as transport just CDP.

 

Ive tried the sr80i's also on the Project headbox, SPL Auditor,  LD MKIVSE, Graham slee novo- all make a difference positively vs a standard ipod>sr80i set up.

 

Bhangraman - as a contributor with 9000+ posts its surprising you havent figured that out yet.

 

My next step is to start rolling tubes and buy a DAC transport then it will be OBVIOUS to somebody who isnt even into all this that the cans sound better plugged into the amp vs not.

It's how you figure it out that's important.
 

Ironically for all the 'going against head-fi norm', you've fallen into exactly the same mindset as many others here who might have either opinion. The problem with a lot of testing on Head-Fis that most of them start by assuming that your hearing and your auditory memory is infallible. Whereas what you need to do is to devise a test that's as least compromised by your bad audio memory as possible.

Granted though, some iPods have a bass fall-off (although these days not so much) with a low impedance load and amping the iPod can give a flatter result. Not to mention that some amps colour the sound of course. 

And thanks for spelling my nick right... even I couldn't, as you can see

If I have to be part of a 'mindset', I'd prefer to be part of the mindset that is willing to amp a pair of 32 ohm cans in search of better sound than the mindset which simply *assumes* that an amp wont benefit their cans simply because they read that somewhere. We arent asking anyone to buy the Zana Deux to run a pair of SR60i from an iPod Shuffle.

Once again these things are generally considered (in order of importance) source, headphones and then amping... As mentioned above, neither your headphones or amp can correct poor signal quality, your amp is only the 'finer tuning'. When your working with SR60 and decide to amp it, you could just spend more on your source or headphones which would probably lead to a much greater improvement in SQ. If you're just upgrading then fair enough, amp away and make your way up the chain of audiophilia. 

That makes sense. The iPod isn't even a decent source. Get a uDac and compare it the the LD. 

The difference would be tiny compared to say a K702 amped and unamped. 

KTHNXBAI.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bruze 

I did a test between my grado sr80i amped/unamped and i didn't see any difference (whereas  i do with all my senn's  )

IME, with Grado's it is less apparent in the difference it makes when amping them (especially the lower end models) versus other headphones with a higher impedance. As you go up to higher models, the difference becomes more apparent as far as frequency extension and control. Source also becomes a factor.

Going from ipod to LD MKIII would definitely yield a difference in sound even with the SR80i.

I just recently got some used Grado's -SR60's and SR125's and I picked up a little Fiio E5 and LOD cable for late night ipod listening, or from my laptop....the E5 was my first headphone amp of any kind and I wasn't sure if it wasn't supposed to make the volume markedly louder. I come to find by listening to the E5 its more about quality of signal and not so much gain or increase in volume. 

what mods have you done with your 125 sir?

i used some grado 325 a while back, with a nad c350 amp, and saw no benefit from using a bada tube amp, i couldn't even tell them apart! (odd, i know)...but for portable sources i would imagine amping is half the picture, lots of portable amps that are very reasonably priced too :D

So this is related but slightly off topic.Right now I'm listening to my Grado Rs1i through a cowon D2+ unamped and it sound awesome.

All grados should sound good from a portable media player but it just sounds even better amped. I can listen to mine from my Zune but when I amp it, the realism of the sound kicks in.