I had a great time recently attending an afternoon devoted purely to high end headphones at Audio Affair in Birmingham, one of few UK dealers that keep a reasonable range of headphones available for demonstration.
For the afternoon, in addition to the high end 'phones, they had for comparison most of the popular price range 'phones including all of the Grado's, HD650, AKG 701 & 702, ATH A700 & 900. The range of high end 'phones available to try included the Ultrasone ED10, Ultrasone ED8 LE. the Grado PS1000 & GS1000i. Sennheiser HD800, Beyer T1 (with matching A1 amp) & the Audio Technica AT1000 & AT1000X.
Main source was the incedible Chord Electronics RED Reference MkII CD Player feeding into an equally mouthwatering selection of DACs and amps such as the Ayon Audio Skylla II DAC, Bricasti M1 DAC, the Benchmark DAC1 USB, Grace M902, Beyer A1, Sugden Masterclass HA-4 (excellent with the Grado's), Icon Audio HP8mkII (2w) + MP3 (5w), MF M1-HPA. In addition, some of us took along our own source equipment to aid comparisons.
The only unfortunate thing was that the HD800's were fairly new and still needed a fair bit of running in, so were not operating at their best. The only real impressions I gained was that they are extremely light (what do you expect from an LCD-2 owner), comfortable but overall seemed to have a character I can only describe as 'cold'. I look forward to trying a well broken in pair in my own system shortly.
Of the others, a consensus of those trying the Ultrasones was the over-bright character and excessive sibilance. Swapping sources and amps did little to make them listenable and no one managed more than a few minutes with them. A major disappointment.
At the other end of the price scale for high end contenders In the middle price bracket, the wooden Audio Technica's have a strong following and I've long been interested in auditioning them. The older AT 1000 were more comfortable than I had expected with the distinctive 'wings', and the sound quality was quite good with no immediately obvious aberrations apart from a very distinctive coloration that I assume was from the wooden housing. The newer AT 1000x model however has lost the coloration and added a deep, well controlled bass to the excellent mid and top end of the AT1000. Sound-staging was also very good when listening through the M1-HPA. The lack of the wooden coloration also allowed the midrange to be heard more clearly and the headphone was a favourite among the listeners. It doesn't seem particularly amp fussy either. Priced well below the usual candidates for top honours I could easily live with a pair as my closed phones.
As I'm not a great Grado fan I spent very little time with the GS & PS 1000, not enough to form enough of an opinion to pass on other than to say they are still unmistakeable as Grado's.
The T1 was the headphone that most people wanted to hear and plugged in to the A1 amp it was easy to hear why these are so popular. They are not an 'impressive' headphone, and that is meant as a compliment. There is no one area where it's exceptional. It's just 'right' in all areas. The soundstage was good and 'in front' of the head rather than being contained within the head, with plenty of air around the musicians to aid separation.
Light and comfortable, it portrayed bass, midrange and treble without any undue emphasis. Even though incredibly detailed, it was never tiring to listen to and is one of the few 'phones I have heard that can maintain the detail and separation of instruments when playing music where the volume and complexity goes through the roof. One of my test pieces is the last two tracks on the second disc of Pink Floyds "Pulse" album, "Comfortably Numb" and "Run like Hell". When played properly and at sufficient volume, these will always make the hair on my arms stand on end!
One thing that did become obvious when playing these tracks is that the T1's soak up a huge amount of power to get them playing loud or to give a realistic dynamic range. It was not unusual to see the A1 amp with the volume more then three quarters round it's range. I'm looking forward to trying a pair on my Lyr amp to see how they will perform then.
I had also taken some of my own 'phones along to give me a reference point when listening to amps and DAC's I had never heard before. This helped clarify one area that has been the source of much debate here lately, the treble on LCD-2s. Using my source music on pieces that I knew well, with some of the amps in use on the day the stick, shimmer and decay of cymbals was definitely dulled down compared to how I hear it at home and how 'phones such as the T1's correctly portrayed them in the same setup. My own conclusion was that the LCD-2's can sound recessed in the treble, but that in some way this seems to be very much a question of synergy with the amp being used (and perhaps the entire front end), unfortunately time didn't allow me to test that further but the issue is obviously not just black or white. There is much more involved than just the frequency graph of the LCD-2s.
Thanks to the hard working guys at Audio Affairs for arranging the event (and for such excellent coffee).
For the afternoon, in addition to the high end 'phones, they had for comparison most of the popular price range 'phones including all of the Grado's, HD650, AKG 701 & 702, ATH A700 & 900. The range of high end 'phones available to try included the Ultrasone ED10, Ultrasone ED8 LE. the Grado PS1000 & GS1000i. Sennheiser HD800, Beyer T1 (with matching A1 amp) & the Audio Technica AT1000 & AT1000X.
Main source was the incedible Chord Electronics RED Reference MkII CD Player feeding into an equally mouthwatering selection of DACs and amps such as the Ayon Audio Skylla II DAC, Bricasti M1 DAC, the Benchmark DAC1 USB, Grace M902, Beyer A1, Sugden Masterclass HA-4 (excellent with the Grado's), Icon Audio HP8mkII (2w) + MP3 (5w), MF M1-HPA. In addition, some of us took along our own source equipment to aid comparisons.
The only unfortunate thing was that the HD800's were fairly new and still needed a fair bit of running in, so were not operating at their best. The only real impressions I gained was that they are extremely light (what do you expect from an LCD-2 owner), comfortable but overall seemed to have a character I can only describe as 'cold'. I look forward to trying a well broken in pair in my own system shortly.
Of the others, a consensus of those trying the Ultrasones was the over-bright character and excessive sibilance. Swapping sources and amps did little to make them listenable and no one managed more than a few minutes with them. A major disappointment.
At the other end of the price scale for high end contenders In the middle price bracket, the wooden Audio Technica's have a strong following and I've long been interested in auditioning them. The older AT 1000 were more comfortable than I had expected with the distinctive 'wings', and the sound quality was quite good with no immediately obvious aberrations apart from a very distinctive coloration that I assume was from the wooden housing. The newer AT 1000x model however has lost the coloration and added a deep, well controlled bass to the excellent mid and top end of the AT1000. Sound-staging was also very good when listening through the M1-HPA. The lack of the wooden coloration also allowed the midrange to be heard more clearly and the headphone was a favourite among the listeners. It doesn't seem particularly amp fussy either. Priced well below the usual candidates for top honours I could easily live with a pair as my closed phones.
As I'm not a great Grado fan I spent very little time with the GS & PS 1000, not enough to form enough of an opinion to pass on other than to say they are still unmistakeable as Grado's.
The T1 was the headphone that most people wanted to hear and plugged in to the A1 amp it was easy to hear why these are so popular. They are not an 'impressive' headphone, and that is meant as a compliment. There is no one area where it's exceptional. It's just 'right' in all areas. The soundstage was good and 'in front' of the head rather than being contained within the head, with plenty of air around the musicians to aid separation.
Light and comfortable, it portrayed bass, midrange and treble without any undue emphasis. Even though incredibly detailed, it was never tiring to listen to and is one of the few 'phones I have heard that can maintain the detail and separation of instruments when playing music where the volume and complexity goes through the roof. One of my test pieces is the last two tracks on the second disc of Pink Floyds "Pulse" album, "Comfortably Numb" and "Run like Hell". When played properly and at sufficient volume, these will always make the hair on my arms stand on end!
One thing that did become obvious when playing these tracks is that the T1's soak up a huge amount of power to get them playing loud or to give a realistic dynamic range. It was not unusual to see the A1 amp with the volume more then three quarters round it's range. I'm looking forward to trying a pair on my Lyr amp to see how they will perform then.
I had also taken some of my own 'phones along to give me a reference point when listening to amps and DAC's I had never heard before. This helped clarify one area that has been the source of much debate here lately, the treble on LCD-2s. Using my source music on pieces that I knew well, with some of the amps in use on the day the stick, shimmer and decay of cymbals was definitely dulled down compared to how I hear it at home and how 'phones such as the T1's correctly portrayed them in the same setup. My own conclusion was that the LCD-2's can sound recessed in the treble, but that in some way this seems to be very much a question of synergy with the amp being used (and perhaps the entire front end), unfortunately time didn't allow me to test that further but the issue is obviously not just black or white. There is much more involved than just the frequency graph of the LCD-2s.
Thanks to the hard working guys at Audio Affairs for arranging the event (and for such excellent coffee).
