marone
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2013
- Posts
- 524
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- 98
This is an observation and discussion, not a complaint.
First headphones I heard were Koss 4aaa in 1975. First purchased were an original 1978 AKG 240 silver ring not Sextett.
$189.
Then 10 years later Beyerdynamic DT 880.
S219.
Both sets lasted a decade of heavy DJ booth use in clubs. 1000s of hours each.
Price ceiling then was $200 as "expensive'.
$300 would have been seen as very expensive. Nothing beyond that I could find then.
I own a set of HD 6XX (great sound and superior to 240 and 880) and will be buying a pair of SRH1540 soon.
Budget of $500 has not too many options for what I value in SQ and to get better (from what I have learned here by reading many reviews) would require a big jump to $600+ or even $1600+.
Now, the variety of cans in 2024 is huge compared to back then. Many more flavors of sound to choose from and an enormous body of knowledge online to sort out preferences. This is much better than 1989.
Also, prices are understandable.
Then we spent a sum on a receiver, turntable, cartridge, speakers, and tape deck. CD player later. And then sources of albums tapes and CDs.
S2k to $5k all in for a good system plus 500 albums at $6 each.
Now, that same exact amount is spent on just the headphones and a DAC/Amp combo. Many have multiple sets of headphones, few - very few - had multiple speaker sets back then.
Resolution of new headphones is vastly greater than then. I have a pair of old AKG 240s from then (not mine a set bought 2 years ago) and while these sound excellent, the amount of detail retrieval of most over $200 in 2024 is far better.
In modern terms those 240s would be viewed as a good starter set and perhaps a bit overpriced as many current 2024 $50 phones would have far superior bass and tonality, more vibrant and detailed soundstage.
Bass, modern bass, just did not exist in headphones then. Koss 4aaa had none, and hard ear pads, etc. Beyerdynamic and AKG sound good (especially on Classical) but with modern headphones to contrast it is no contrest.
Whilst looking for a closed pair at $500 these thoughts came to me as I realised that to do better than the 1540 would necessitate a jump to $800 or even $2k.
It is likely I will buy such in the future but not until I upgrade my amp and dac.
Not a complaint, just an observation that to improve upon $500 would require not $600 but $1600+.
I can afford that, but it seems...exponential(?)...in the step up function to do better.
Again back then this level of performance simply did not exist and lines such as planar magnetics were not around.
No one needed to drive their headphones from speaker outputs in 1978.
First headphones I heard were Koss 4aaa in 1975. First purchased were an original 1978 AKG 240 silver ring not Sextett.
$189.
Then 10 years later Beyerdynamic DT 880.
S219.
Both sets lasted a decade of heavy DJ booth use in clubs. 1000s of hours each.
Price ceiling then was $200 as "expensive'.
$300 would have been seen as very expensive. Nothing beyond that I could find then.
I own a set of HD 6XX (great sound and superior to 240 and 880) and will be buying a pair of SRH1540 soon.
Budget of $500 has not too many options for what I value in SQ and to get better (from what I have learned here by reading many reviews) would require a big jump to $600+ or even $1600+.
Now, the variety of cans in 2024 is huge compared to back then. Many more flavors of sound to choose from and an enormous body of knowledge online to sort out preferences. This is much better than 1989.
Also, prices are understandable.
Then we spent a sum on a receiver, turntable, cartridge, speakers, and tape deck. CD player later. And then sources of albums tapes and CDs.
S2k to $5k all in for a good system plus 500 albums at $6 each.
Now, that same exact amount is spent on just the headphones and a DAC/Amp combo. Many have multiple sets of headphones, few - very few - had multiple speaker sets back then.
Resolution of new headphones is vastly greater than then. I have a pair of old AKG 240s from then (not mine a set bought 2 years ago) and while these sound excellent, the amount of detail retrieval of most over $200 in 2024 is far better.
In modern terms those 240s would be viewed as a good starter set and perhaps a bit overpriced as many current 2024 $50 phones would have far superior bass and tonality, more vibrant and detailed soundstage.
Bass, modern bass, just did not exist in headphones then. Koss 4aaa had none, and hard ear pads, etc. Beyerdynamic and AKG sound good (especially on Classical) but with modern headphones to contrast it is no contrest.
Whilst looking for a closed pair at $500 these thoughts came to me as I realised that to do better than the 1540 would necessitate a jump to $800 or even $2k.
It is likely I will buy such in the future but not until I upgrade my amp and dac.
Not a complaint, just an observation that to improve upon $500 would require not $600 but $1600+.
I can afford that, but it seems...exponential(?)...in the step up function to do better.
Again back then this level of performance simply did not exist and lines such as planar magnetics were not around.
No one needed to drive their headphones from speaker outputs in 1978.
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