A Blast From The Past

[mecano]

I have many old hi-fi magazines from my early days as a headphone geek.So I took a 10 years old(1993) Hi-Fi.Choice and made a decision to post the info and comments from the Directory of HFC about (of course)headphones.Young (and not so young

) Head-Fiers will find interesting info about some classic cans here .It contains the ratings and a potted summary based on the original review of HFC(done between mid 80s and early 90s)emphasizing the salient points of a headphone character and sonic performance.At the time HFC was using the following rating system about sound quality:Range from Poor to Excellent:
P poor
A- average-
A average
A+ average+
G- good-
G good
G+ good+
VG very good
E excellent

It goes like this: product/rating/comments/list price(in sterling pounds)
AKG-K1000/E/one of the best dynamics on the market hooks directly to speaker outputs and makes much of the competition sound lame/500
AKG-K280Parabolic/G+/a very revealing and unusual twin driver design that uses the same principle as a satellite dish to beam sound into ear/90
AKG-K340/E/heavyweight cans in most respects the k340 with its electrostatic tweeter is a very revealing headphone/140
AKG-K400/VG/comfortable over long sessions the sound is exquisite detailed dynamic and uncoloured/100
AKG-K500/G+/open and clear they reproduce music with impressive definition balance is on the light side but transparency is high/120
A-T ATH-9000/G/electrets which connect to the amps speaker outputs it sounds a little too smooth but would suit aggressive amps/250
A-T ATH-911/VG/nicely finished dynamic headphones with all the trimmings plus a very clean and subtle sound/80
Beyer DT911/VG/propably too revealing for many headphone amps these are very subtle and fine if expensive cans/180
Beyer DT990(600ohm)/VG/a significant pair of dynamic headphones they have a smooth and yet revealing g neutral sound that is hard to criticize /102
Beyer IRS690/VG/high quality infa-red headphones with soft comfy ear pads and mellow but informative sound quality/200
Jecklin Float Electrostatic/E/these cans have an openness of sound rarely found in the breed with good dynamic range to boot/400
Jecklin Float model one/G+/very unusual in appearance give remarkable sound quality and openness at a reasonable price/80
Jecklin Float model two/G+/pretty unflattering but open sounding and comfortable in the long term/100
SennheiserHD560 ovation two/VG/characteristic slightly heavy sound but still the benchmark at this price level .high class sound and confort/125
Sennheiser HD540ii/G+/a good but not great headphone that due to its high impedance and efficiency should work well with most sources/100
Sony CD1000/G+/a fine sounding and comfy headphone that is likely to work well with most sources/150
Sony CD3000/G+/better than most of the headphone outputs around so hard to make the most of potentially up there with the electrostatics/300
Sony CD850/A+/very comfortable and reasonable sound –better than most sealed designs-though hardness intrudes/100
Sony R10/E/state of the art design build to the highest standards. sound quality reflects this care being big clear sweet and refined/2500
Stax Gamma Pro-srdxpro/E/the gamma pros are like a stethoscope for you hi-fi revealing subtleties that many speakers fail to resolve/583
Stax Lambda Signature-srmt1/E/the signature when combined with the srmt1 valve driver must be the most transparent headphone available/1370
Stax SR Gamma/G+/the next model down the stax range from the lambda the gamma is an excellent headphone with nothing to criticize but the price /220
Stax SR Lambda pro-srd7sb/G+/an industry reference frighteningly revealing bringing across more information than speakers costing twice as much/559
Stax SR Lambda pro-srm1/E/extracts layers of information that other headphones only hint at .the srm-1 has more edge that srm-t1/1020
Stax SR34/G+/the electret driven sr34 are lively and rhythmic with good tight bass and sweet midrange/140
Stax SR84/G+/the stepping stone between dynamics and full electrostatics these electret phones are revealing open and highly enjoiable/210


mecano

 

[darcangelo]

he he nice to see those comments, kinda gives me the impression that the headphone world isn't that far away today... just something I don't get: how come Sonys CD3000 and Stax SR Lambda pro-srd7sb only get a G+??

 

[darcangelo]

oh and BTW, pretty useless comment, but at the time, 1993, I was 13 years old and the best way for me to listen music loud without waking up my parentswas to put little walkman speakers on my ears he he how times change

 

[joelongwood]

Interesting that only three dynamic headphones received an Excellent rating.......the AKG K1000, AKG K340 and the Sony R10.

 

[mecano]

At the time (pre internet,pre Head-Fi)that directory was all I had to choose a headphone(I still remember all the comments by heart

).one thing is for sure you could buy some superb cans 10-15 years ago.are the things better today?
Except that now we have many head amps.At 1993 I had no idea that such a thing exists

.

 

[Number9]

Hurray for my beloved K340s!
Imagine if they had used Equinox cables.

 

[mecano]

At the loudspeakers directory of HFC at early 90s there were at least 150 different models. And not even ONE of them with an Excellent rating. Even the Martin Logan cls ii got only a G+.That always made me feel so good (to be into the headphone hobby

)
10-12 years ago there were many electrets/electrostatics available.Today I believe that only Stax still produces ESL cans. Also there were very interesting hybrid esl/dynamic designs like K340.Nothing similar is available today

.
And in addition superbly engineered dynamic cans like HP-1000 and R10(plus cd3K) were made.All discontinued. I mean …we suppose to be making progress...
Aren’t we?

 

[darcangelo]

Quote:

I mean …we suppose to be making progress... Aren’t we?

he he, not necesarily... in our economic context it becomes more and more essential to cut costs... thus anything that would seem "irrational" on a production line would simply be discontinued for less expensive alternatives. I'd say that the way things keep on going, get ready to see less and less jewels and more and more mostly-plastic-containing and very-good-but-not-great cans.

 

[mecano]

...there are many cd players SACDs turntables amps speakers etc available that are build like a tank and cost thousands of $$$…
…and at the same time special cans like K340,HP1000,R10 etc are no longer available

 

[darcangelo]

this stuff has a lot to do with price flexibility (how many potential buyers there will be at a certain price), brand management (very expensive but great Vs pricey but almost-as-good-as-very-expensive), dividends distributed for the shareholders (they'll prefer selling high-margin cans cause it'll make them richer) etc. etc. etc. face it, the time when some crazy researcher put something on the market without knowing if it'll make him rich or make him bust are long gone...

 

[lini]

Interesting. Especially, as they rated the K400 higher than the K500, like I did, then. Whereas it was the other way round with the K401 and K501 for me, later on...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini