I had a great time meeting all the folks that came down, I'm glad we had a great turn out! We definitely had more gear than we had time for but I got to listen to some gems that have been always in the back of my mind.
LCD2/3 - These were no disappointment to say the least. The new fazor LCD2's were wonderful: lush, smooth, intimate and polite. The LCD3's shared a lot of the same qualities while having a bit more treble on the top end for extra crisp snares and high-hats. In the end though, I think the LCD2's may have fit my preferences more, though they don't compare to the aggression and space of the HE-4 which is what I long for.
TH900 - The Fostex line has always intrigued me. The T50RP is nothing to overlook but the TH900 was phenomenal in so many ways: craftsmanship, comfort, and most of all, sound. These had more presence/body than my old D2000's but they shared very similar sound sigs. The TH900 was one of my favorites at the meet because nothing can compete in its dark yet refined ballpark... it handles the bass quantity with perfect quality, and I didn't find the mids to suffer as a result.
HE-400i - I was most excited to listen to these since they were in and out of my online shopping cart several times last week
. At first listen, I focused on the characteristics of the HE-4 that I find bothersome and I immediately concluded that the HE-400i did it better (especially the treble). After talking with Scotchy some more, I started listening to some other tracks and listening to them as a whole. The upper mid energy of the HE-4, especially in regards to electric guitars, is not shared with the HE-400i. As a result, they are also not as open/spacious sounding. I won't say the HE-400i is a compromise of several other HFM offerings but I can see where most of its influence comes from the HE-400 and HE-500. This is still a great headphone for the price, no doubt, but I don't know if it would get more head time over the HE-4.
HD800 - This was the second most anticipated headphone for me and it didn't disappoint. I was excited to find that Maxlva and I shared a lot of music interests, allowing me to dive straight into the HD800's. The amount of space and finesse was something that was not shared by any other headphone. While they are nowhere near as warm as even the HD600, these do not lack bass in the way I was imagining. Most importantly for me, even Maxvla's unmodded pair did not seem to fatigue me at all in terms of treble. Headphones like the HE-4, TH900, and D2000 all have a pretty relentless 8-10kHz treble region that I find quite fatiguing but I didn't experience this at all with the HD800. As I drove home last night I found myself considering the HD800's more than any other cans for my next purchase... wallet =
MA900 - Also a headphone that has intrigued me over the last year. These are great! Holy cow! I can see why Maxlva's got these side-by-side with the HD800's; they are two great headphones that excel in similar areas (space and staging) but perform very differently (sound sigs). The MA900 was possibly warmer than an HD600 and very punchy. I was thoroughly impressed with how they performed while having the open back, can't say I understand it. I guess it's those 70mm drivers?
Aaaaanyway, those were the cans that stood out the most to me. I wish I'll have more time in the future to simply try different equipment instead of just headphones but, heck, I had a great time. I hope Scotchy and I could convince a few of you to grab a pair of HE-4's (
), they still remain my planar of choice.
For those of you who got a chance to listen to the Ghettofabulous-Grado's, here is the thread that I followed: http://www.head-fi.org/t/323271/alessandro-ms1000-and-ms-ultimate-diy-modding-56k-warning.
The hardest part is getting the distancers, everything else is quite easy. You can also buy some GS1000 knock-off pads for less than half the price of the normal set, search for them on Amazon (mine had the real GS1000 pads but I have a pair of both). Here is a post describing the mods done to my personal pair, along with some measurements.
. If we'd just plugged it in and gone, it would have worked perfectly.
