[beowulf]

Bought in 1999/2000, with my first paycheck. Reached almost 20 years of fun.
Those were the years shortly before Head-Fi appeared.

 

[takato14]

JVC HA-D990 DIGITAL REFERENCE




These are a studio monitor in the same vein as the MDR-V6 and the like. Normally I don't bother with stuff like this, but @nick n has been nagging me to try one for a while now so I figured I might as well grab the next cheap one I saw.

They're ok. Slightly bright, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Very clean and resolving in the midrange, with spot on timbre from bass to lower treble. Mid treble and up goes a bit off, sounding rather "plasticky" and hard. No top octave (>10kHz) though they do image well and maintain a good sense of space for a closed headphone. Bass doesn't reach super deep but has decent dynamic range and correct timbre.

The midrange is keeping me listening to these longer than I expected. Will likely play around with these a bit.

 

[nick n]

!

Are you getting a good seal? I find I have to tilt the band back slightly to get a fit correct.
Definitely a bit of futzing.
Often the small cup wires get caught behind the hinge and cups and I don't notice that the fit is goofy.
Creative bending of the sliders helps also.

and also thanks for those charts.

 

[takato14]

Fit was def. odd but I had no issue getting a seal on either my head or the rig. There was some decayed foam in the right side that was missing from the left, so I removed it before taking the final measurement. There was more bass with the foam in, but still the same amount of roll-off. Better without the foam, tbh.

I'll take a low noise floor measurement tonight; distortion below 100Hz should be ignored until then.

 

[waynes world]

JVC HA-D990 DIGITAL REFERENCE

They're ok. Slightly bright, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Very clean and resolving in the midrange, with spot on timbre from bass to lower treble. Mid treble and up goes a bit off, sounding rather "plasticky" and hard. No top octave (>10kHz) though they do image well and maintain a good sense of space for a closed headphone. Bass doesn't reach super deep but has decent dynamic range and correct timbre.

The midrange is keeping me listening to these longer than I expected. Will likely play around with these a bit.

I have to thank nick as well

I put on my Yamaha MT-220 pads on the HA-D990. Very comfortable with a better seal. Love the sound.

 

[volly]

A new, surprisingly good headphone arrived today:
'Prefer HD 95 Studio Monitor Series' - Ultra Light, Rare Earth Metal Super Magnet'
Wonderfully balanced smooth sound with just enough lack of bass to add a touch more mids than being completely flat. I bough them for monitoring in the studio as the Sony MDR V6 can get a bit too warm in summer months. From what I have heard they should be perfect with the bonus that they with their nice relaxed easy to listen to tone that are also great for music

Looks almost identical to the 'Maruni' [is that the name?] brand

My Murani HV-3000R.

 

[GREQ]

.

 

[Hutnicks]

Those Grundig's look interesting with the sort of megaphone enclosures. Almost looks like a Dieter Rams design. How do they sound?

 

[GREQ]

Honestly, they're a little bit meh, but the best of the bunch. (Even a stock Pioneer SE-2 sounds better)
A few too many resonances in the cups. and definitely in some need of EQ for a balanced FR... I don't think any damping or pad rolling would quite cut it, but it might help, especially with these plastic pads.
Still better than any Telefunken wannabe-high-end nonsense I've posted in the past... they have somewhat similar drivers to the telefunkens, in size and appearance.
But I do think it's more than just better implementation.

But still, nothing to chase if you're after some quick-good sound. These require work, and I have no idea how good they can sound either... only had them for a short while and havn't tried anything other than some very simple EQ.

 

[Blze001]

My small vintage collection. Really just got the itch a few months ago and started casually browsing eBay for ones that piqued my interest. From left to right:

Pioneer SE-500: These are strange. Dunno if like them or not. I'm mostly withholding judgement until I have the time to fix them up a bit, the cord is pretty well shot and the pads are even worse. Also I'm not sure if my headphone amp is the proper driver for these, or if I should recable them to use speaker taps. Got 'em for $25.

Stanton Dynaphase Sixty: Big and heavy. Comically so. But they have bass for days, basically a '70s version of the HA-SZ2000 bass-cannons we have now: separate woofer and tweeter. Sound pretty good, but I need to pack the cups with some tack to get rid of the clamshell effect. Also I'm willing to bet the capacitors are pretty knackered too. Picked these up for $30.

AKG K340: Wow these are good. Like, really good. All I've done is replace the worn out stock pads with "new" ones (the stock pads off my K550s that were collecting dust. They fit like a charm!) and these easily pass my Q701s in pretty much everything except sheer soundstage. Maybe bass depth too, but not impact if that makes sense. I also need to look into replacing the elastic, it's there for looks only at the moment. These were the most expensive of my pickups at a whopping $90.

 

[kid vic]

AKG K340: Wow these are good. Like, really good. All I've done is replace the worn out stock pads with "new" ones (the stock pads off my K550s that were collecting dust. They fit like a charm!) and these easily pass my Q701s in pretty much everything except sheer soundstage. Maybe bass depth too, but not impact if that makes sense. I also need to look into replacing the elastic, it's there for looks only at the moment. These were the most expensive of my pickups at a whopping $90.

K340's are an underrated steal! I think you have to spend closer to $1,000 to really equal or surpass them. They give my HE500 a work over on many genres of music

 

[GREQ]

K340's are an underrated steal! I think you have to spend closer to $1,000 to really equal or surpass them. They give my HE500 a work over on many genres of music

Interesting...
I'd say they're a massively overrated vintage headphone with ridiculously inflated resale prices and you'd have to spend $30 or more to equal or surpass them.
Each to their own.

 

[kid vic]

Interesting...
I'd say they're a massively overrated vintage headphone with ridiculously inflated resale prices and you'd have to spend $30 or more to equal or surpass them.
Each to their own.

I got mine for $30 and I rarely see them on my local craigslist for more than $150 CAD. I agree to each their own though; its quite possible the ones you heard were shot or that my love for AKG and dislike of sennheiser's is clouding my judgement.

 

[WallofHooligans]

I just snagged a pair of k340 for 65, so I'm hoping they do something positive for me. Tbh, even if I don't like them, I'm still absolutely smitten with the technology driving them.
Ps: I'm fixing up a crushed and beaten pair of rare Victor orthos. Expect pictures on the roundup

 

[WallofHooligans]

Here's a gem for the dynaphase believers here