[haloxt]

Imo the reason why the pro 900 has no dampening is because that would reduce the amount of the earcup size and the sound funneled through to the upper holes, which may sound very euphonic, but loses echo/ambient detail. I think Ultrasone thought there was too much noise from the top so they blocked two of the five holes, with the detrimental effects of way too much bass resonance and narrower soundstage and less accurate positioning of mids/highs, but some might consider it good because it results in more impact and texture and less smearing of frequencies. More dampening improves this effect, taking off the two stickers goes in the opposite direction, but imo both have more balanced FR than stock.

 

[haloxt]

I got it today and been listening about five hours. I gotta say I admire Sony for making such ugly looking headphones, and I think all the accessories are nice of them. The booster has no adjustable volume so it is supposed to take volume from the headphone out jack or a variable lineout, but I'm guessing 90% of the time people will use the stereo out of mp3 players or receivers etc. The case is very well thought-out, the double pouch and two rectangles on the bottom have velcro and can be lifted (but not taken off), my giant 5.5"x3.5" q5w fits inside with the headphones, so just about any player should fit in there just fine. Even the plugs on the cables are well-designed, and of course the headphone's design is inspiring to me, but I look like a big idiot with it on. ImageShack Album - 7 images

It's got pretty good mids and highs, the strongest point I see now is the enjoyable soundstage and vocals. The bass is acceptable on most genres, but with heavy electronic music the bass is often missing a lot of data, but is what you'd expect if you were 20-100 feet from the musicians. Another shortcoming is, compared to pro 900, it fails quite spectacularly doing sounds positioned behind me, it really is like sounds only from in front of you, so expect to be confused playing games without DSP. Also there is zero noise reduction, if your computer fan is spinning from playing a game or birds are chirping outside, you will hear everything. It is pretty darn unforgiving of my H120 and ipod 5g, sounding metallic and weak, but almost unfatiguing with the booster. Sounds good on q5w, better without booster. Improves decently in clarity and space size with dac19mk3+phoenix.

The cable isn't that bad-looking, I thought it would be really thin, but still I am interested in recabling it to balanced since I already purchased all the parts. I am worried I might damage it while doing it, and if I decide to do it I will wait at least a week for burn-in or to see if there's any defects before I attempt it.

 

[Graphicism]

Very nice, I don't think they look too bad really... more like a large IEM with head scaffolding to keep it in place. I've been intrigued by the PFRV1 for a while, I'd imagine acoustic music would sound stunning on these; Jack Johnson, Eric Claptop unplugged - give those genres a try if you haven't already.

Do they respond to EQ, perhaps you could bump the bass up for electronica?

 

[haloxt]

I may need at least another week before I give more impressions to allow drivers to settle, but for acoustic, the soundstage can be impressive, but it is like stereo speakers with subwoofer set to low and standing 20 feet away, you won't hear the nitty gritty details of guitar fingerpicking. I will play with EQ when I test it with my mp3 players tomorrow, but don't feel like doing it right now with my desktop setup because I want to hear more of this "front speaker" sound.

 

[haloxt]

I gave my mom my HFI-2200 and iCans and she thinks they're nothing special, but she approves of the pfr-v1 and wants me to buy her a pair

.

Right now with ten hours of use I feel pretty confident to say these aren't fit to be monitor headphones and they are missing bass ambient detail you would expect with $100 headphones, but nonetheless they can be very enchanting in soundstage, mids and highs. I wonder if I would say in the future its strengths redeem its shortcomings, but right now I think the only way this could be true is if you are looking for this particular sound. It certainly is not a reference or monitor headphone with which you can critically analyze music and different audio equipment.

 

[Ypoknons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do they respond to EQ, perhaps you could bump the bass up for electronica?

What about a woofer?

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ypoknons /img/forum/go_quote.gif What about a woofer?

This one any good.

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ypoknons /img/forum/go_quote.gif What about a woofer?

Yeah I've mentioned that before regarding the PFRV1... it would have to be a reasonably good one and able to be delayed in order to fine tune with the headphones. It might create a nice listening experience but then you may as well go all out and just listen to speakers.

 

[Ypoknons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ford2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif This one any good.

Probably not electronica. Maybe R&B and rock

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah I've mentioned that before regarding the PFRV1... it would have to be a reasonably good one and able to be delayed in order to fine tune with the headphones. It might create a nice listening experience but then you may as well go all out and just listen to speakers.

Yep, I really couldn't help getting in that quip. I know, I said myself earlier in the thread that I'd rather put the money towards a sub for my Minipods than getting a V1, but at the same time V1+sub would be something fun and different. You're right though, I do wonder about EQ.

 

[kool bubba ice]

Why didn't Sony focus on a 1,000 headphone with the 010 technology? A true successor to the great SA5000.

 

[haloxt]

It looks like SA5000 is using most of 010 design, right? It might come in a few years since SA5000 was released April 2006. Pfr-v1 has already been discontinued when released in April 2008

.

Just want to explain what I feel about the bass more fully, I think the lower frequency can get too localized but is very clean when there's not too much humming bass going on, but once you play some electronic sound effects or punk music that is supposed to echo all over the place you see it's all in your inner ear (but clean bass), the same with multiple bassy drums or other instruments, some cello recordings, and guitarists who like making weird noises like Anni DiFranco. It's like you know there's an angry little woman making the guitar ring while you stand at a distance, and much of the micro-detail of sustained bass is lost.

Enjoyable though, I never feel oppressed by the sound the way the pro 900 makes me feel oppressed with bass leaning over me, in fact with some music like David Modica: Acoustic Earth - Electric Sky the further soundstage is really nice, and for songs like these you don't hear for nitty gritty guitar details.

 

[AudioDwebe]

The curiosity got the best of me; they're incoming.

At that discounted price, they're worth a shot...although, I'll probably never be able to sell them if they're not to my liking. They better be to my liking.

For Jazz, I'm guessing they should be pretty decent. I have low, to no expectations so I should be pleasantly surprised.

Now, with no expectations if I'm still disappointed, that would definitely fall under the SUCK category.

 

[haloxt]

They aren't that bad if you don't mind missing bass detail.

 

[AudioDwebe]

You're comparing the bass of these to the (Ultrasone) Pro 900's, right? Isn't the bass on those supposedly close to being on par with the Edition 8/9?

I think most any other headphones' bass output will appear anemic using the 900s as a basis of comparison. My personal preference seems to lean more toward the bass(lite) versions of many cans/IEMs so I'm hoping the Sony's won't seem so lacking in the nether regions.

At least that's what I'm hoping.

 

[jjmai]

For some reason whenever I see the title of this thread, I see the word "PERV"....