[LostOne.TR]

Harro. I usually randomly type thoughts as I listen to music and try diff headphones. Several uninterested people on IRC have probably been victim to my spam of such. Mainly intended for this to be posted on a blog/random musings/rantings site I'm making on my own time. I listened to some music I was familiar with, some I wasn't that familiar with. I did not run through much of the music I usually use to compare stuff with though. It's kind of my impressions/comparisons of the two headphones. Anways here it is, pretty much copy pasted.
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Source: Foobar; M-Audio USB Transit (ASIO drivers); Sonic Frontiers TransDAC
Amp: Presonus Central Station
Headphones used:
Grado sr225 w/ Flats (HP2 main out)


AKG k240 LP -Black Clover balanced recable- (Balanced CUE out)



Track: Tank - Dou niu yao bu yao (鬥牛 要不要)

sr225 : Bass punch is high, and loud. Not boomy. A bit bass heavy for my tastes, but does not mask/cover the rest of the music (?). Tank's voice is in front. Guitar notes have a certain feel to them, that seems more real. Like someone's there playing the guitar, more live feel if you will. The attack/speed of the sr225 is in my opinion a strenght of the sr225. At times, in louder parts of the song, the guitar part overpowers the piano a bit. It feels harder to hear the piano notes (could be the bass too, but I'm not sure). The busier parts of this song, seem to have too much happening for the sr225. The sr225 provides..what I could call a more fun sound with the edgier highs, but switching to the k240, I feel that I would be more comfortable with a longer listening session with the k240 with its more relaxed sound.

k240 : Overall feels a bit more removed/laidback from the music than the sr225, but not in a laidback HD600 sort of way (from memory). The vocals however, still feel very close to me, similar to the sr225. The balance is different, in that the piano notes are easier to hear and notice there. It seems that in the louder part of the song, the piano part is naturally harder to hear, however it's easier to hear it with the k240. I did not have to make much effort to focus on the piano. Tank's voice has more life to it than the sr225. Fuller, more complete, sound to it. Sound is clear, however subsequent guitar notes do not seem to have the speed/definition/growl the sr225 had. Again, maybe slightly more bass than I'm used to, but noticably less than the sr225. Not as much punch as the sr225, which in my opinion [the k240] is closer to the right amount.

Tracks: Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル) - Prisoner of Love + Prisoner of Love (quiet version)

k240 : In the 1st track (normal version) there's a repetitive bass line, with some beats that follow quickly after the others, and the k240's bass, which is a bit slower than the sr225's, stood out in this track. It kind of felt like there was a bass track, and then there was the music-- took away from the experience of the song for me. As for the vocals, the k240 sounded better than the sr225 on Hikaru's lower parts of the song. And I'm still undecided for whether the k240 hit it right on her higher parts, where her voice almost takes on a raspy sort of quality.

sr225 : A striking difference on this track, for me was the timbre the sr225 had for the string instruments in the background. There just felt like there was more weight on the notes, the way the bass handled the strings (notably on a crescendo), gave a very realistic feel to the sound. [I'd probably attribute this to the sr225's stronger punch, giving more emphasis to the power of the crescendo] As mentioned in the k240 section, the sr225s speed helped give it a better feel overall for the 1st song. The sr225 was bested by the k240 for the lower notes in the vocals, but for a good part of the rest of Hikaru's range, the sr225 sounded more correct to me. I don't quite know how to explain it for this one.

Track: T.M.Revolution - THUNDERBIRD (from under:cover album, which is a remade version)

sr225 : The sr225's bass seems to offer a stronger, more defined attack, but does not seem to have the same feel as depth as the k240 offers. The sr2215 reproduces Nishikawa's edgier/piercing voice notably better than the k240 here, largely due to the inherent characteristics of the headphone. The string

k240 : The bass of the k240 seems to go deeper, and help bring life to the piano. Nishikawa's weird vibrato technique in singing is easier to notice, however the k240's more laidback characteristic takes a bit away from Nishikawa's normally piercing vocals.

Summary : The k240 LP is a bit more laidback headphone, while the sr225 is more upfront. For a longer listening session, I'd probably choose the k240 LP, since it's more forgiving of a headphone. It hasn't done anything for me, that made me think it's the best at something, but it's done nothing so terribly wrong, where I'd not want to use the k240 with that type of music. Whereas for the sr225, there are times where I'd want to use a different headphone, when the sound is a bit too edgy for me or too bassy for me (a few have told me I lean towards a bass shy signature cause of this). I do however, hope to try some other amps with the k240 LP - something along the lines of M3/PPA/B22 to see what they can really do. For the price these two headphones came at, I think they're both very good. I've paid considerably more, for headphones I did not like as much as these two. With that said, I will very likely (almost positive) let the sr225's go, since they do similar to what my ATH-AD2000's do for me, but just not quite there.

Other Thoughts: The grado sr225 cord is a bit short for my setup. Still a comfortable length, however I'd have to be cautious should I choose to get up. The k240 with the 10' recable leaves room for moving around/getting up. Comfort wise, I used to prefer the k240 by a long-shot, but maybe after putting in a bit of use, the sr225s are starting to seem more comfortable than they were before. The k240 still wins in the comfort category though.

*originally I planned to have a bit on the Beyerdynamics dt990/250 (HP1 Main out) I have on loan for a week. Hence my using the k240s running on the balanced cue out. However, this took a bit longer than I expected, and some other things which sucked came up today. I might ad a short bit on the dt990 later... because I definately do have general impressions, but not per track. Short gist of it, they're likely not for me. Though I'd still love to hear the dt990/600 ohms.

 

[Nenso]

you'se win a prize?

 

[Gautama]

deleted

 

[LostOne.TR]

not as far as I know. which is why the users were just victims of my spam.

@Karura` : what prize does you speak of?