Two cups, with a piece of string attached between them. Clearly, you were not a child in the 1960s...not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-)

Athena: I think the low-volume response on the SR's is pretty good indeed, but the qualifier here is whether one is judging these against, say, a really good planar or electret. (And it sounds like your experience runs the gamut.) As dynamics go, I'd subjectively put it up there with the best of...

Athena: Over time (longer than I'd care to go into here), I'm of the belief that tight quality control counts just a bit more than having a rep for the absolute-best "fi." This is not a knock against smaller, specialist manufacturers: I split the difference between the cans I use at home (Grado...

Athena: Depending on just when you did this, I'm impressed with that DIY attempt: couldn't have been too much worse than those early airline buds.;-)

They should serve you well for quite some time...had mine for several years, after owning numerous other good cans. Can't say I'm disappointed.

  Right you are! Of course, Grado just released the SR325e, so...

The K240 was my very first set of cans - ever -in the mid-70s. Spoiled me rotten, of course. I stuck with those 'phones for nearly a decade (flirted with w pair of K340s briefly, but didn't like them at the time), moved on to electrets (Signet TK44/a-t ATH-7), briefly back to K240s, then a long...

Interesting: my "main axe" cans are 325is for home, Senn HD 25-I Mk II with my iPod classic/Fiio inline remote-amp combo. Lots of bang for 500 bucks total. - Barrett

Better than the reverse, I say. :-) - Barrett

Quote:   I think that's the issue here, and it's almost as old as recorded music itself: no two listening systems are exactly alike, and everything from the quality (or lack thereof) of source material to the transducers themselves  have an impact. The primary means of listening with my...

@lightsplease: I'm a bit curious: what sort of music comes off as harsh-sounding to you with these 'phones? What sort of setup do you listed to them through?     - Barrett

Here in Gotham (nee NYC), it's amazing that I don't see more people with "decent" cans than I do (hmm...that line could be misinterpreted anyplace other than here...): the most popular are B&W, which I spot with some frequency (and, FWIW, equal distribution by gender). Of course, there's a sea...

Having gone up and down the scales in listening to various headphone lines (specifically Grado, Sennheiser, AKG and Stax), I can comfortably state that the 325is hits a certain bang-for-the-buck "sweet spot" that few others manage. Yes, in an absolute sense, you *can* do "better", but doubtfully...

The audiophile life is...difficult.

Generally speaking, the seller's receipt is what's important to have and keep in the event of needing warranty-covered repair work done. Also, I'm certain a quick call or E-mail to Grado will set things right in terms of receiving that info sheet. (Just broke out my stepladder to pull the box...

Since the OP advised to ignore the Usual Suspects for this thread (meaning I have to scratch the truly-execrable Beats Solo off my list), I'll just stick to a model from an outfit that should really know better: AKG's K 450. I've auditioned these several times, and it amazes me how these cans...

Whoa...nice going! - Barrett

If the headphones are used primarily at home, I seriously doubt there would be any issues involving wear-and-tear to the finish on these cans. (We're talking chrome plated cast-metal housings here, after all...I have seen chrome/gold-plated plastic bits on other cans - my old AKG K-240s come to...

I really, really wanted to like these when I was auditioning headphones to use with my iPod classic (120GB). It did a number of things rather well - soundstaging comes most immediately to mind - but the things they did wrong, to my ears, particularly in the bass/madness region, they fell a bit...

CreativeCthulu writ: "I explained it to a friend last night as 'The 701s are an electron microscope in a bio lab somewhere and the 325s are a good set of binoculars looking into a hot girls' bedroom across the street'." Not entirely certain about the absolute efficacy of that analogy...but I...

Chris: I'm not entirely savvy with the facts on electret drivers' longevity, although transducers of nearly every stripe experience changes and/or deterioration over a good stretch of time. My memory of the '33s is of a smooth but fairly fast and snappy sound, anything *but* dull. About that...

Quote:   Chris, let's just say you're lucky I can remember that far back...!   First amp - briefly - was a Yamaha A-1 integrated. Incredibly sweet-sounding (also incredibly-subjective verbiage here, but please bear with me), but the damned thing had a bad habit of tripping its...

Ah...finally stumbled upon this group. :-)   (For the record: Grado SR 325is, #5255)   These are my first "high-end" headphones in quite a few years. My last setup was a pair of Signet TK33 electrets, and a pair of a-t ATH-7s (if I recall correctly). Wonderful 'phones, but both started...

Quote:   Which, for the most part, is my point: for many if not most of us, the reality is that we can't enjoy loudspeaker-delivered music anytime we want, or at the desired volume levels we want. A good pair of headphones is often a necessary option in this case. This is not a "speakers...

Damn good thread here, with thought-provoking comments all around.   A little under 25 years ago, at what would be the zenith of my involvement in the land of high-end audio, the shop I worked in assembled a "statement" system in our main listening room. The main draws of this system were...