no cans
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2012
- Posts
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[size=medium]My trusty Sennheiser 497s (cheap) were getting on my nerves and I wanted to upgrade to cans for stereo listening. Not iPods, not MP3 players and no amps other than my Marantz stereo with ¼ “ outputs.[/size]
[size=medium]At the local brick & mortar, I had a selection of Grados, Denons and Sennheisers – about 16 in total.[/size]
[size=medium]Sennheisers 595, 515 and 485 – The best of these was the 595 with a glorious midrange and a diluted bass and unimpressive highs.[/size]
[size=medium]Denons D2000 had exciting bass but I tired of the aggressive bass and sibilance on my reference female vocals (Diana Krall, Holly Cole). These were the best at comfort and cable construction. The bass gave them an exciting quality on MP3 players at any volume.[/size]
[size=medium]Grado -- I didn’t want to try these because they were aggressive in the treble when I first tested them. Reluctantly, I tried the 225i which was better than expected with pleasant full base but not quite full mids and highs. Then the RS2i was near perfection in bass with fuller mids and highs than the 225i. If the RS2i hadn’t been so expensive, I would have accepted them. Short cables but flexible.[/size]
[size=medium]I did not purchase anything that weekend because my ears started ringing from the listening tests. [/size]
[size=medium]If only I could blend the 595 with the RS2i. [/size]
[size=medium]I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks what I finally come up with. It’s the least I can do after using all the info from this site.[/size]
Thanks!
[size=medium]At the local brick & mortar, I had a selection of Grados, Denons and Sennheisers – about 16 in total.[/size]
[size=medium]Sennheisers 595, 515 and 485 – The best of these was the 595 with a glorious midrange and a diluted bass and unimpressive highs.[/size]
[size=medium]Denons D2000 had exciting bass but I tired of the aggressive bass and sibilance on my reference female vocals (Diana Krall, Holly Cole). These were the best at comfort and cable construction. The bass gave them an exciting quality on MP3 players at any volume.[/size]
[size=medium]Grado -- I didn’t want to try these because they were aggressive in the treble when I first tested them. Reluctantly, I tried the 225i which was better than expected with pleasant full base but not quite full mids and highs. Then the RS2i was near perfection in bass with fuller mids and highs than the 225i. If the RS2i hadn’t been so expensive, I would have accepted them. Short cables but flexible.[/size]
[size=medium]I did not purchase anything that weekend because my ears started ringing from the listening tests. [/size]
[size=medium]If only I could blend the 595 with the RS2i. [/size]
[size=medium]I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks what I finally come up with. It’s the least I can do after using all the info from this site.[/size]
Thanks!
