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Question about the Sennheiser 280s

post #1 of 5
9/5/11 at 9:49pm
Thread Starter 

I tried a pair of these the other day and promptly returned them.  I found them quite lifeless and the vocals in my music were completely wrong(seen the bands live, so i know what the vocalists voice sounds like), when compared with my sennheiser 203s.  I'm not yet an audiophile, so what quality am I describing that I didn't like about the 280s and is there another sennheiser or another headphone that would make a nice upgrade that would definitely sound better without sacrificing anything?

btw, i listen to metal(all subgenres so both the extreme and melodic forms), classical, prog and industrial.  I'd read around the forums but when I asked before I was told the Grado would be good for metal but would be awful for classical and such.

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post #2 of 5
9/5/11 at 9:55pm

Heya,

 

I don't agree about the Grado not being good for classical. I found that my first Grado sounded like it had no bass at all. But then I realized, it's all about the pads. The flat pads that come with some lower grados are basically awful in my opinion. They allow everything to escape and don't provide the bit of containment needed to create an area of air to compress to give you a good bass presentation. The moment you upgrade a SR60 or SR80 to L cush pads, you will suddenly realize Grados do plenty of bass and actually start sounding more like a balanced headphone with simply really forward and energetic mids.

 

I think the SR60i + L-Cush pads are simply one of the best headphones for the cost that there possibly is for all music types. G-Pads are even better, if you want the most comfort you can get out of a Grado. But seriously, even the lowest Grado is one of the best audiophile headphones I've listened to for it's cost. It's $100 new, shipped for the SR60 with L Cush. The G-pads are actually quite expensive ($45). But seriously, all the "Grados are zero bass" is not true. They have pretty good bass if you upgrade the pads to get some containment. I'm a silly basshead, but even I think the SR60 provides enough bass to satisfy non-bassheads.

 

I've used them for things ranging from Buckethead, Petrucci, to Ludovico Einaudi and Keith Jarrett and they actually perform wonderfully in the genres. Even in EDM.

 

I say go for it.

 

Very best,

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post #3 of 5
9/5/11 at 9:55pm
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So your "greralllslandadkajpncx" doesn't sound good?

 

I actually sounded that out.

 

T50RP are probably the best headphones for metal, and acoustics too. Review and mods in my Signature

 

 

You probably got the HD280's and didn't burn them in. The first hour you probably sent them back, huh? There is a such thing as burn in. I havn't burned a HD280, but my HD598 took about 100 hours to sound good.

 

 

Just get Grado, listen to them and then return them because you can't find what you're looking for.

 

You might want to go IEM. Brainwavz have great vocal imagery. A M2 and FiiO E5 is in your price range. They have the same sound as Grado and more bass with the FiiO E5

 

EDIT: T50RP need modding and a amp badly to sound good. Sky's the limit and I've gotten mine to sound like LCD-2's

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post #4 of 5
9/6/11 at 9:17am
Thread Starter 
I listened to them for several hours, read up in burn in... what I'd seen was that it doesn't fix the stuff you don't like, but do improve the ones you do. How do the ath ad 700s compare to the grado?
Edited by phrozenspite - 9/6/11 at 9:46am
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post #5 of 5
9/20/11 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 

Just an update.  I bought Ultrasone HFI-580s after hearing them instore... amazing.  And while i've noticed burn in for sure, they didn't sound like **** out of the box like the 280s did.  I tried the Grado while in store and I can see why they're loved for the guitar reproduction, but the rest of the music did not sound great.. it was like they overemphasized that one instrument... kind of like a Yngwie Malmsteen album lol

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