The goldies are gorgeous, wish they were still available. As for the grados (325 in particular?) being harsh and sibilant...they aren't either, at all, to me. I am certainly no bass head, and the 325 is on the bright side of dark, for sure. Sibilant? Never. My DT880s show sibilance far more...

Quote: Mine stayed in the ear guides without issue.  I did decide not to use the guides at all though, once I found proper chin slider use makes the guides useless.  They are more comfortable like that too, imo.

That would depend on the cans, more than the amp really. An analytic can, or one with a severely rolled of low end will likely never please a bass head. And an E11 wouldn't fair any better there. No Amp out there will really change that, and EQing that heavily will likely hurt the rest of the...

If you are using an Apple device, an LOD is the best option. If you are using another player, the cables that come with it will do. Most common players, besides Apple and a few others don't give a line out option.

That's not correct, the E6 is far better than the E5 in every way. The bass boost on the E6 on EQ2 is very prominent. On EQ1 it is even more so, but it also effects the treble, and leads to muddy sound in all but the brightest headphones. The E11 isn't a bass boost so much as it is a sub bass...

Meh, go with the Fiio E6 for <$30. I don't think your cans need the power the E11 has, and the E6 has different EQ options. The E11 has two very decent, non-bleed sub bass bumps. The E6 can actually add warmth by boosting sub and mid bass, or play flat with no EQ, so works with different cans...

Those beats have batteries because they are active noise canceling. They actually create sound waves to counteract ambient sound. It's different from passive isolation, like most headphones, which just try to seal out outside noise. The active noise cancelation does change the sound of the music...

Congrats man. I'm really excited to place my order now. Your description of early impressions sounds exactly how I hoped they'd sound. And it's really nice to see those came with the sticker on the box.

Did you really just state the best quality/value is on a DAC that isn't even available yet? I smell fanboy, and nothing backing it up. I guess I could say Fiio provides the best bang for the buck sound, but that would be just as much fanboying. Honestly, most of your posts in this thread are...

A really good brick and mortor dealer does allow you to try before you buy, with in store demo sets. IEMs excluded usually, for obvious reasons. Our local dealer (mine and Focker's) has demos for all the Grados they stock. Actually, when I bought my 325is, he didn't have a demo opened. He opened...

Now I await your impressions even more, since the 500 is the way I'm leaning.

I hear ya. I was just letting you know what D2K was, not recommending. I haven't heard them. :)

Denon AH-D2000

Haha, couldn't even wait to get a listen first, eh? Let us know your impressions. I have a strong feeling a PS500 is going to be ordered by me in the next week or two as well.

Man, Beyer makes my head hurt with their model lineups.  Pro/Premium/M/LE, 16/80/250/600 Ohm....I don't know how they keep them straight, much less expect us to.