[WarriorAnt]

.

 

[Trav]

WOW you have a TALL order right off the bat! The CLS2 are incredible! Regarding the tightness of the ML's, un amped i would suggest the Denon 1001. They resemble my Maggies very closely in presentation with a very snug low end and nicely accentuated mids plus non stridant highs.

 

[panda]

akg k501 but youll need an amp, otherwise stax 404 is prob closes sound signature

 

[Moocher]

AD700s are probably a good start, but I think you'll have to graduate to Stax eventually if you want something to compare to the Martin Logans. The Audio Technicas do not need an amp and I don't think you should consider one now. Try the 700s. See if you like headphones. Figure out what you like and don't like about them. Then, if you decide you want to continue on the headphone road, use that information to choose your next journey.

Mooch

 

[WarriorAnt]

I've been using high end audio gear since the early 80's but have never used headphones. The art form seams relatively cheap compared to high end gear like Krell amps and such.

For decades I've been enjoying the cues of an external audio dimension. Headphones seem so internal, another world completely. Hopefully I can just get away with a pair around $100 or so and the bug won't bite me.

Hmmmmm maybe I should just stay away!

 

[kool bubba ice]

The 700s do have a nice wide sound stage, but are not known for their detail retrieval. Sounds like you want to go STAX, but will cost more then a 100 bucks..But you'll hear detail that your Logans missed, and probably another level in terms of clarity and resolution..I can't listen to speakers anymore..Sound is too far away and I miss too much detail.

 

[WarriorAnt]

kool Bubba,

Interesting comment:

"I can't listen to speakers anymore..Sound is too far away and I miss too much detail."

All my life I listened to music reproduced electronically. One stereo after another. Then in my mid thirties something happened to me. I heard live unamplified music for the first time in my life at Carnegie Hall in NYC. It was Carmina burana. After that I knew that reproduced music through electro mechanical means was somehow unreal. That my high end gear would never give me the truth but it would tickle that part of my brain that responded to the aural.

Headphones seem to be yet even more of a step away from live music yet somehow strangely circular back into the brain. The reproduced sound does not really travel thru the air so to speak. The distance it does is so miniscule compared to live music moving thru a music hall or even from a set of speakers in a room.

wether thru speakers or headphones the experience is now a world onto its own. Live music is one realm, electro mechanical another. Headphones have becomes almost a direct injection into the brain. I'm smiling now because I'm pretty sure the day is fast upon us where headphones will be quant and antique. Intelligence amplification will set the signal directly into the brain center for musical pleasure.

Then the forums will move to discerning the implants and the virtues of the various manufacturers.

I was never dissapointed to hear live music at Carnegie Hall. In fact every visit gave me that manical grin for the duration of every performance. I have been excited by my high end over the years but eventually the ear needs a new electro mechanical stimulas. A new amp, a new DAC, new cables. The ears decide when the hunt is to begin anew. New neural pathways to be formed from new equipment that bring this or that sonic quality forth.

I gather this is the same with the pursuit of "The Headphone".

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarriorAnt /img/forum/go_quote.gif I gather this is the same with the pursuit of "The Headphone".

Yes, eventually the ear needs a new electro mechanical stimulus, and then another and then another. Cheers to the audioholic in you!

Think $1,000 instead of $100 and find yourself a pair of AKG K1000 (if you can) or perhaps settle for a $500 budget and pair of Audio Technica AD2000, or (as others have said) go the more obvious route such as the Stax 404. In any of the above scenarios, you'll need to buy an amp that will be well suited to the task. That will ring the register again for some lucky vendor. There is no easy way to the top and an ML-like sound in a headphone setup won't be terribly cheap. But in the end, it should definitely provide the kind of new EMS you're looking for!

 

[WarriorAnt]

Just a reminder, I'm looking for cans around $100 for light use at night with my eMac while the family is asleep to listen to straight AIFF files and compose some electronic music.

I tossed in the Martin Logan reference for cans thinking maybe there were some cheap cans with those qualities being ignorant to cans themsleves.

It seems the current consensus for cans hovering around $100 or so are the AD 700's, Denon D1001, Grado 80's. Senn 555.

I guess I'm more into a can that doesn't seem to create music inside my head but something that creates an enviorment all around my head. Sorry for my ignorance!

Also let me just say that I will not be mobile while wearing cans. Headphones seem to have a disabling effect on my bodies physical balance. Its as if I am gripped by the sound and I am unable to walk without tripping. That sort of thing. I am the only one this happens to?

Anyway thanks again for the input.

 

[Moocher]

"I guess I'm more into a can that doesn't seem to create music inside my head but something that creates an enviorment all around my head."

Of those you listed, I've heard all but the Senns. Other than those, only the AD700 has the soundstage to do what you want.

Mooch