Grado SR60i vs. Sony MDR-V6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Modified Bear 

I'm looking for some good headphones and I was recommended both of these for my price range of £50-70 (about $70-100)

 

Which ones would you people recommend?

 

I will mostly be using them at home and on bus journeys.

 

Also, I really like hearing all the details in music if that's a factor

Never heard the  Grado so cannot comment on them but the MDR V 6 is very detail and a bit emphasis on the top end . Bright recording will result some harsh sound. Female vocals ( Norah Jones in " Come away with me" )  sometime reproduced  with sibilance. Is it the recording fault or the HPs design flaws ? It seems the answer is BOTH.

I played the Fourplay's  CD " Between the sheets", on the first track " Chant" ,the MDR V 6s reproduce the drum beats faithfully that reminds me of the sound of the Krell amp and Martin Logan SL3 combo : tight, punchy and  fast attacks. The cymbals sound is accurate . This is an area where the MDR V6s shine and excell the JVC HARX 700s. 

This is just one man opinion so take it with or leave it. No confrontation, please. .
 

Oddly enough, I only have 2 fullsized headphones in my house, and they are these two. Both of them are good headphones.

I prefer the Grado's personally, but the Sony v6 is good too. The sony v6 is a tank, but the simplicity of the grado makes it fairly durable as well.

First off: if sound leaking out/in is absolutely impossible (going to be using them in a loud environment, or a really quiet place likea library and you don't want to bother people) don't go with the grado, or any other open headphones, as they let sound leak out.

Secondly: What music do you listen to? The grado's are great for rock and roll, jazz, folk, female vocals and even classical solos/chamber music (not full orchestra), but I wouldn''t suggest them for hiphop, or bass heavy techno, although they can be made to work well with it if you are willing to 1: do some eq-ing and 2: some basic mods.

The V6 has the edge over the Grado in terms of clarity, they literally reveal everything about the music, but they don't seem especially "musical" compaired to the Grado, which adds a coloration to the music that I find very desireable. Keep in mind that compaired to consumer headphones/earbuds, both of these will show you things in your music that you never knew were there. Both the Grado and the v6 have a fair amount of treble and not a lot of bass in stock form, so if you want bass monsters, hopefully someone else will  be willing to offer some advice in that catagory, although I have heard good things about the dennon d1001, and some others, i don't have any experience with them.

Honestly, I don't particularly enjoy the v6 as a pleasure listening phone (it's great as a monitoring phone though), perhaps someone else with experience with other headphones in the pricerange could drop by and make a few other suggestions. if isolation isn't a problem though  (it might be on a bus, but probably not at home) and you listen to a lot of rock/metal/or female vocal music, i'd suggest the grados. If it is a problem, or you prefer more Dubstep and hiphop, I'd bet that there's a 3rd contender out there as an option

Good taste! haha.

I cannot say for certain how they sound with stock grados, as my 60's are holepunched (the back of the driver had the cloth over the holes vented to increase bass) and have wood cups, but it sounds good to me on the Grados, and the bass still comes through strong. Again, I'm not sure if that's true of the stock ones however.

I am a grado fanboy, but i havent tried the SR60 that much, only a few minutes in a friends house. 

I have great respect for the V6, i love its construction, comfort and most of all the fun sound. and of course the portability. and the SR60, well its a grado. its a hard choice but you cant go wrong with any. its down to your personal pref.

Joker has both in his amazing shootout http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/433318/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Modified Bear 

I'm actually considering getting a pair of Alessandro  MS1i's which are basically modded sr60i's

 

Have you heard of those?

 

Thank you for the compliment by the way ^_^

MS1 is my favorite headphone along with the senn HD25. its perfect for me. very very detailed. little bass in quantity but very tight and punch, which i like. for home or office I use it more then the rest of my headphones together, i dont have many but that should give you an idea. although I have MS1 not MS1i

btw Joker has this in his shootout too

You can do tons of basic mods to the SR60i's that can change the sound to your liking. The highs have a lot of sibilance to me so I put some adhesive felt on the driver and that solved the problem. Doing the vent mod increased the bass extension as well. That's the awesome thing about the SR60i's, you can mod them to sound however you like. 

Grado SR60 is open type. Can't use use on Bus journey.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Modified Bear 

I'm looking for some good headphones and I was recommended both of these for my price range of £50-70 (about $70-100)

 

Which ones would you people recommend?

 

I will mostly be using them at home and on bus journeys.

 

Also, I really like hearing all the details in music if that's a factor

The SR60 sounds better, but the V6 is a closed headphone, so you might actually be able to hear your music on a bus (closed headphone = some noise attenuation). Also consider the Sennheiser HD280 pro. It is a little less comfortable due to the greater clamping force, but it has better isolation because of this. Your best bet for bus trips would be IEMs, as those offer significantly more isolation.

Welcome to Head-fi, and sorry about your wallet 

x

I've owned the SR80i and the V6.

If you need them for travel, forget the Grados.