[Xplo]

My initial impressions:

Clamping force not crushingly painful, but a bit tight, seems like it might give me a headache after extended use. The headband/padding tends to push into the top of my head a bit; hopefully this is something I'll get used to. The cups are completely circumaural for me, and a person would need some truly huge ears for them not to fit inside comfortably. Despite being plastic, the construction seems quite solid. The cord is slightly thinner and lighter than the V6's cord.

It came with an instruction manual! *laughs*

Er, what? The sound? Yeah, I guess I could talk about that, if that's what you want...

I'm running these from the audio out on my MDD G4 Power Mac, and so far, I'm not impressed. Compared to the Sony V6, the 280 sounds a little "distant", even cold. The bass is weak and flabby, with hardly any punch; some EQ helps with the weak, but not the flab. Mids and highs seem reasonably well represented, and very tight; no complaints there. Instruments seem to blend together a bit. I can't help wondering how these would sound with a good tube amp.

Right now they're burning in with a few VHS tapes between the cups to help loosen them up. I'll post again when I have more to add.

 

[injinuiti]

Quote:

Originally posted by Xplo I'm running these from the audio out on my MDD G4 Power Mac, and so far, I'm not impressed. Compared to the Sony V6, the 280 sounds a little "distant", even cold. The bass is weak and flabby, with hardly any punch; some EQ helps with the weak, but not the flab. Mids and highs seem reasonably well represented, and very tight; no complaints there. Instruments seem to blend together a bit. I can't help wondering how these would sound with a good tube amp.

EXACTLY how my brother described his set of HD280 pros. After a burn in, they sound absolutely beautiful. Hope you enjoy them after the burn in

Yay first post

 

[Jasper994]

Just wait, after some serious burn in they become truely impressive...

 

[Xplo]

After about 10 hours or so of burning in, the bass seems to have "woken up"; it's still half-asleep, stumbling drunkenly to the bathroom and muttering something about coffee, but it's a little tighter and punchier than it was right at first, and it sounds nearly as good with flat EQ as it did with my early adjustments (although a touch more warmth still wouldn't hurt).

OTOH, the highs seem to have lost a little of their tightness; snares and cymbals run together even though they still seem to have detail. Curious. Then again, I guess I shouldn't expect too much from some of these mp3s. I'll have to play a CD in here and see what happens.

One particularly good thing I'm noticing: certain sounds, particularly acoustic stringed things (piano, guitar, violin, harp) sound unbelievably sweet through these! It's like having honey poured directly into my brain. *drool*

I look forward to seeing how these sound by the weekend.

 

[Kirium]

dont stop at 10 hours....

I put about 50-70 hours into my 280's, and they really shine after that...

 

[noiseunit]

i laughed at the instructions with my 280s too, but they show how to change the cord in there, which might be useful (depending on your level of experience, i imagine)

i have about 40-50 hours on mine...i thought they sounded good to begin with using an amp, and after 10 hours I wasn't sure how they could burn in any further...but man, these things _really_ changed after that first 30-40. they seem to be opening up at a more rapid rate now, and they went from evil clamps to almost form-fitting comfort. love these things...

 

[Xplo]

Okay, so they've had 100+ hours by now. Here are my final (or at least current) observations:

The bass definitely did improve! (Not that I doubted it would.) It's much tighter and more noticible now. It's still nowhere near as punchy as the V6, though. Sometimes this is a good thing as the V6 can get excessive, but I still like to feel the bass a little, and somewhere between this 280 and the V6 was what I was hoping for.

There was one exception. My huge playlist is set to shuffle, so there's no telling what'll come on next.. and for the duration of this one Aphex Twin track, the 280 suddenly acquired HOLY****BASS!! Wow. Hearing what the 280 is capable of makes me wonder why the bass is so non-visceral the rest of the time.. I know bass can be really recording-dependent, but this is ridiculous.

On a possibly-related note, I found that as the bass developed, even small EQ changes (+/- 1dB or so) around 60 Hz had a wild effect on the bass punch, making it go from dead to V6-like. (Changing volume has a similar effect, but more subtly.) So once again I find myself wondering how the 280 would sound with an amp; I imagine it would improve punch without sacrificing control, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

The highs seem to have gone back to normal, being tight and nicely detailed but not too sharp. Cymbals still sound a little funny sometimes, but I've come to the conclusion that it's just mp3 artifacts or flaws in the recording that I couldn't hear with my boombox. Mids have lost a little of their previous sweetness, I'm sorry to say, but once in a while I still hear something that makes me feel like melting. Clannad and Meat Loaf have been my friends tonight.

The clamping force has loosened up and these phones feel a lot more comfy now. I don't even notice the foam pad on the band pressing on my head anymore, although it does make me itch sometimes.

After wearing the 280 for an hour or two, I usually find myself taking a short break to rest my ears (both physically and aurally) but other than that I haven't noticed any discomfort with extended use, which is great.

Overall I'm quite pleased with these cans. If I could just figure out the reason for the anomalous bass punch, and fix it, I'd be in headphone heaven.

 

[Kirium]

The bass discrepancies you describe could be due to the fact the HD280's being more.... uhhh.... for want of a better description, "Honest" than the V6's. i have personally never heard the V6's, but the 280's are alleged "Pro monitoring headphones, for eng and studio use". therefore, these may be, as i described, more honest, what is on the recording is what you get...

my $0.02

 

[blessingx]

How are "Pro Monitoring Headphones" (280) and "Studio Monitor Headphones" (V6) different in expected uses?

 

[ph0rk]

the HD280's have a bit of bass emphasis, but its 20-35hz or so; and so it still ends up sounding pretty flat-ish to most people

I don't mind the boost, as in a crowded area i can sill hear the low material withouth cranking the phones up too loud. If you are curious, search google for a few frequency sweeps, like from 20hz to 200hz. the volume should remain pretty much the same during the whole sweep, though it will feel like it gets louder as the frequency climbs. (usually they keep the amplitude of the wave constant, the page you get them from should tell you if they didn't).

the 280's are some fo the few pairs of headphones that don't cost an arm and a leg that really let you feel that first octave.

 

[SunByrne]

I just acquired a pair of 280s on Saturday at Guitar Center for $70 (had the PCMall quote page printed out and with me, and they honored the price). Other than to plug them in to let them break in, didn't touch them until late last night, probably 18-20 hours of break in.

Then I couldn't stand it anymore and gave them a listen... very impressive for $70!! I can see how some people wouldn't like them because the response does indeed feel pretty uniform and some folks might want more bass for head-bangin', but for a good cross-cut of music they performed very well on my standard audio test mix...

I also found them fairly comfortable, no head-clamping issues. I have a medium-sized head, so maybe it's just you guys with big heads that have problems with this.

My V6's should arrive on Tuesday, so I should have a little head-to-head piece on them probably on the weekend.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally posted by SunByrne I just acquired a pair of 280s on Saturday at Guitar Center for $70 (had the PCMall quote page printed out and with me, and they honored the price). Other than to plug them in to let them break in, didn't touch them until late last night, probably 18-20 hours of break in. Then I couldn't stand it anymore and gave them a listen... very impressive for $70!! I can see how some people wouldn't like them because the response does indeed feel pretty uniform and some folks might want more bass for head-bangin', but for a good cross-cut of music they performed very well on my standard audio test mix... I also found them fairly comfortable, no head-clamping issues. I have a medium-sized head, so maybe it's just you guys with big heads that have problems with this. My V6's should arrive on Tuesday, so I should have a little head-to-head piece on them probably on the weekend.

Congrats, I'm glad you like them.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally posted by SunByrne My V6's should arrive on Tuesday, so I should have a little head-to-head piece on them probably on the weekend.

Looking forward to a head-to-head review.

 

[SunByrne]

Quote:

Originally posted by blessingx Looking forward to a head-to-head review.

Not that it hasn't already been done, of course, but why not add one more voice, right?

Listening to Handel's "Water Music" right now on the HD280s and if the V6's can do this well, I'll be stunned. But based on what I've read, I suspect the V6's will be better for rock/techno off the iPod...