TubeStack
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2009
- Posts
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I've spent a couple days with my new 1540 and LOVE them! I am honestly blown away at their sound, especially for a closed back, but even just in general. Incredible for rock, electronic music, and hip-hop.
They are making me realize how much bass was missing in my other headphones (SR80, 325i, MSR7b, HD600). Also, their mids are among the best I've ever heard for rock guitars. As a guitarist myself, they really sound/feel accurate and like the real thing. Just insanely fun and life-like guitar tones. I still prefer my HD600 for acoustic guitars, vocal-centered music, and jazz, but for anything rock or electronic, its 1540 all the way.
I was a bit underwhelmed at first, running the 1540 straight out of my M11 Pro (unbalanced). The bass was somewhat sloppy and distracting and the overall sound was congested and a little fatiguing. Switching to powering them with my Little Dot Mk III w/Mullard 8161 and putting the M11P in line-out mode was a big WOW moment.
The 1540 may be lower ohm, but they sure come to life with some power and tube flavour. The bass tightened up immensely, soundstage increased, and guitars/mids became even more rich. Treble also became much more detailed and present. (This is also probably indicative of the M11P's limits when it comes to bigger cans, too. I'm going to eventually get a 4.4 balanced cable to try the 1540 with the M11P that way, but I'm extremely pleased with how they sound using the LDIII.)
All of this is with high res files from HDTracks or Tidal MQA/HiFi.
Overall, I'm super happy with the 1540 - and they haven't even burned/broken in yet - and even now can't wait to get home for another listening session.
So I gave the 1540 another try straight out of the 3.5 on my M11P, this time at low volume. I really enjoyed it and agree with Tyll that they sound great at lower playing levels, with the bass/sound signature acting as a 'loudness' feature. It was when I was trying to get a lot of volume out of just the M11P that things were getting boomy and fatiguing. But at a low level, it was great.
These might be my perfect closed, beside-the-bed set, with the the odd trip downstairs for the LDIII and a rock-out session.
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