Excellent headphones that easily goes up against the best. Spacious, dynamic and for me, great with any music. I trade off between the SR3 and the R-10 with a different flavor but no less quality.

@jamato8 I love having the choice between the SR2 and SR3. If I'm trying to enjoy a movie, I'll definitely pull out the SR2. For serious music listening, the SR3 it is.

I know that you always ranked the SR2 up with the best, and now that the SR3 has exceeded that... It's quite the statement =)

The way you conclude the review sounded like the sr2/sr3 are going to be your end game headphones for quite some time.....

Reading this particular review reminds me of the process i took when i got my first "serious" headphone, the sennheiser hd558 knowing nothing about audiophile but just want a proper genuine quality sounding headphones.

Till this day, i still don't possess the analytical and appreciation ability like pretty much everyone here, but i feel very fortunate that i came across your written review of the sr2 and really convinced me that there truly is a headphone that don't need to be at insane prices to really do proper audio. I was quite disappointed reading review after review for a proper quality headphones of different makes, until yours truly struck a real cord to me.

This gave me the confidence to order the sr3 some months back as an upgrade to my almost decade old hd558. Still a very satisfied purchase compared to the usual hd660/hifimans/mezes/etc

@wkc5657 Wow, you're going to make me shed a tear!
Thank you for this, it means a lot. I really try my best to judge each headphone faithfully, and the SR2 and SR3 are different from anything else I've come across. I could never put together SR2's sound and its price... it didn't make sense—endgame sound, $550 price tag.

I am very grateful to hear that my SR2 review gave you courage to make the jump from a headphone you've been with for so long! Thank you for everything, especially having enough trust in me as an author to make such a big decision.

So when you speak about the SR2 treble being more vibrant and Airy than that of the SR3, are you referring to the 2nd set of pads? The stock pads made the upper frequencies very smooth and mellow to my ears. I also lost about 50% of the bass quantity from the SR2 when switched to the 2nd set of pads, but the treble became much cleaner and articulated.
If you were referring to the stock SR2 pads, we must have been hearing totally different things. If the SR3 is even darker than the SR2 with stock pads, it must be buttery dark.
I love the 2nd set of pads on the SR2. It really brought them to life turning them into a more mature can with better clarity and resolution. Also, if you were comparing bass using the 2nd SR2 pads, the SR3 must not have much bass at all. So, which pads were you using when making these comparisons?

@Mhog55 I'm talking about the stock pair of pads (smaller perforation). I actually now find the 2nd set of pads too bright on the SR2. I wouldn't say the SR3 is darker, only because that term usually refers to both lows and highs being more pronounced, and SR2 has a significantly more forward and present low end. So, once again, just to clarify, the whole comparison was made using stock, smaller perforation ear-pads.

Very well written! seems these might have done some kind of spellwork on you

I do agree that at some point one has to be satisfied.

However, I've personally not found the best dynamic drivers to compete with the best planars when it comes to detail retrieval and imaging. Estats are another story as you know.