The best phones I've tried so far. I tried some well-burnt-in beyerdynamic and others in similar price range in a store, and I have owned the 601 before.
I also own closed cans, e.g. the K271, and before that, several others further down the price range.
The previously owned 601 was my first open system pair, it took some getting used to coming from cans - but I quicky noticed the advantages especially for certain types of music, e.g. the actually open sound vs. canned.
Sits well on the head due to clever adjustment mechanism.
I use these mostly for classical music, jazz, blues, some rock - but only stuff done in good studios by people who know their stuff.
Music with a lot of acoustic instruments (guitar, A-bass, percussion). Some electronic music in the vein of Vangelis or more modern but without boom boom boom can also sound very nice.
This is where these phones shine: Recordings with a lot of details to be heard, especially stereo-wise.
These are the clearest sounding, non-adulterating phones I have had so far. And none have sit so well on my somewhat big head as the K701/2 and 601.
Since I've read some funny reviews I can't resist to comment on some things...
Those are *not* phones for:
- badly mixed metal / punk albums by half deaf studio "engineers" or / and mixed with low-end gear. Seriously, on some CDs you hear "high" frequency noise that should not be there indicating deaf personnel... yeah, even Dream Theater, not quite a garage band, but it's worse with lesser known bands.
I.e., these phones enable you to hear "everything", and the truth may not be pleasant.
This is not genre snobbery, I own several dozens of metal albums from 80's to prog to death.
- some "loads of digital synth & effetcs" music - can be quite harsh at the high end, but this is probably not these phones' fault, but because it's mixed that way
- people who are used to bass-exaggerating phones and albums mixed with low-end gear of the average target audience in mind
- mp3 files: may give you ear fatigue quickly, even ones with acceptable bitrate (>=256 fixed) where you can't quite detect artifacts' presence, still quicker fatiguing than original wav. (yah yah, this is an impression, not scientifically tested)
- Internet radio: not only is this often rather low bit rate, but I sometimes have the impression that they send stuff that was converted between different lossy formats, ugh (it's 5 years since I tried to listen to internet radio with the K601 IIRC, though)
So, the ear fatigue mentioned by some may well be a problem of their source material.
Of course, these phones, as they are open system and thus not shielding you from external sound sources like closed type on low volume, and the nice sound stage, may tempt you to crank up the volume while not really noticing it is too loud - which will certainly increase the chance of ear fatigue.
There are also people who get that from any headphones (try whether a crossfeed amp helps)
And now the obligatory: excuse my clumsy English
I also own closed cans, e.g. the K271, and before that, several others further down the price range.
The previously owned 601 was my first open system pair, it took some getting used to coming from cans - but I quicky noticed the advantages especially for certain types of music, e.g. the actually open sound vs. canned.
Sits well on the head due to clever adjustment mechanism.
I use these mostly for classical music, jazz, blues, some rock - but only stuff done in good studios by people who know their stuff.
Music with a lot of acoustic instruments (guitar, A-bass, percussion). Some electronic music in the vein of Vangelis or more modern but without boom boom boom can also sound very nice.
This is where these phones shine: Recordings with a lot of details to be heard, especially stereo-wise.
These are the clearest sounding, non-adulterating phones I have had so far. And none have sit so well on my somewhat big head as the K701/2 and 601.
Since I've read some funny reviews I can't resist to comment on some things...
Those are *not* phones for:
- badly mixed metal / punk albums by half deaf studio "engineers" or / and mixed with low-end gear. Seriously, on some CDs you hear "high" frequency noise that should not be there indicating deaf personnel... yeah, even Dream Theater, not quite a garage band, but it's worse with lesser known bands.
I.e., these phones enable you to hear "everything", and the truth may not be pleasant.
This is not genre snobbery, I own several dozens of metal albums from 80's to prog to death.
- some "loads of digital synth & effetcs" music - can be quite harsh at the high end, but this is probably not these phones' fault, but because it's mixed that way
- people who are used to bass-exaggerating phones and albums mixed with low-end gear of the average target audience in mind
- mp3 files: may give you ear fatigue quickly, even ones with acceptable bitrate (>=256 fixed) where you can't quite detect artifacts' presence, still quicker fatiguing than original wav. (yah yah, this is an impression, not scientifically tested)
- Internet radio: not only is this often rather low bit rate, but I sometimes have the impression that they send stuff that was converted between different lossy formats, ugh (it's 5 years since I tried to listen to internet radio with the K601 IIRC, though)
So, the ear fatigue mentioned by some may well be a problem of their source material.
Of course, these phones, as they are open system and thus not shielding you from external sound sources like closed type on low volume, and the nice sound stage, may tempt you to crank up the volume while not really noticing it is too loud - which will certainly increase the chance of ear fatigue.
There are also people who get that from any headphones (try whether a crossfeed amp helps)
And now the obligatory: excuse my clumsy English
