Quote: I have no interest in hauling around my speakers at 100lbs each.  I meant to say that I have no interesting headphone-specific gear to bring, but that I could bring my digital source to the meet.

I don't really have any exciting headphone gear to bring at the moment as I am in a speakers only phase... (ha ha, speakers, phase, little audio humour there...) but if anyone else is going to be bringing some modern high-end digital sources (Ayre, Berkeley, Weiss, Meitner, that sort of...

Quote: For whatever it's worth, and I've been called a total moron for stating this... but I really did feel that the V2 Magnums continued to improve with bass-heavy, loud burn in past 400 hours... never experienced anything like it before with any other headphone, speaker, or electronics.  

  After being fairly convinced that the boomyness was mostly gone, I've been really digging deep to find albums and tracks where it's still a problem... a few have surfaced here and there...   But first... these are an INCREDIBLE pair of headphones for electronic music... the bass on...

It is my opinion that the V2, given sufficient LONG break-in, beats the V1 in clarity and detail... and sounds more "effortless" and "musical" while doing it.

Quote: I felt the same way for a long time... but now that the V2s seem to have stopped sounding different (after at least 600 hours of high volume techno torture...), I don't miss the V1s any longer... save for on really bass heavy albums--Walter Becker's _Circus Money_, or Air's...

"Congested" or "mushy" are not words I could use to describe the sound of the well broken in V2s....... even at absolutely outrageous volume, nothing seems to hurt for anything else.  They sound effortlessly capable...

A cool moment--just sat down and threw the V2s on and put on the last track from Plush's _More You Becomes You_, "The Sailor".  Upon hearing the first few chords from the piano, I had to check to make sure I had the sound routed to the headphones, not the Big Rig speaker system behind me. 

YES!  And they'll keep getting better! Quote:

Shawn--given my experience, 80 hours of hard burn in on these things isn't anywhere near enough....... hundreds is more like it!

I have trouble believing it, but the V2s continue to wake up and come alive for me with more and more burn in........ they are still a little too bassy, but everything else is becoming AMAZING.  Layers upon layers of effortless detail... while the V1s seemed to slap you in the face with detail...

I'm at around 275 hours of burn in on my V2s now.  Starting to seriously enjoy them.  Few good goosebump moments, which is a great sign!   However, Walter Becker's _Circus Money_ is still so boomy as to be unlistenable... this was AWESOME on the V1s, and is awesome on all my other setups...

Jury still out.  Right now it's still V1s for me, but I'm a detail freak and like my bass with zero flab/bloat.  V2s continue to improve...

About 150 hours of burning in with loud techno on my V2s now.  I'm able to sit down and actually do some serious listening now--on all but the bassiest material, they're becoming seriously enjoyable!  The one-note-bass effect is nearly eliminated.  I can see why Currawong likes them for jazz...

I am *not* a Sennheiser person, and my thoughts on the HD600s vs HD650s are the same as Uncle Erik's, Solude's, and Maxvla's.  I have never enjoyed listening to HD650s, but I have enjoyed listening to HD600s.