Trastan
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2007
- Posts
- 209
- Likes
- 27
All right, I just couldn't decide. Being completely new to the head-fi world, the best 'phones I've heard remain the SR-60s. With that in mind, I've been mulling over a new set, and decided (through three previous threads, and a big thanks to everyone who helped me!) that it's going to be either the Beyerdynamic DT 880 or the Grado SR-325i.
I have both coming in on order, and I'll be doing some evaluating on which I should keep in the end. I'll post my findings here (seeing as I haven't yet found a comparison between these two anywhere), but being as new as I am, I'll need some ideas on what to listen for, what to try out, and just generally any ideas you guys and gals may have for how best to choose the right set.
From what I've read, this is a fairly popular pricepoint around here (bang for the buck and all that), so I hope that any knowledge that I can glean from this experience will be able to help others with my predicament. And, of course, be a crazy amount of fun as I'm introduced to the best pair of headphones that I'll have ever heard.
With all of that said, they should be arriving no later than Thursday.
UPDATE!!
All right, I just got them today. After a bit of listening, here are my impressions:
BUILD QUALITY: I wasn't going to have this section, but since both phones have an issue, I felt it was needed.
First, WOW do bowl pads suck. I'm not sure if there's some colossal error in my usage of them, but the fact that my ears are literally pressing up against the 'phones themselves is pretty inexcusable. They're cheap, hard, and just a plain old poor experience. If I keep these, I'm definitely going to have to find another option.
Second, some of the gold paint on the button labels on each side of the 325is is rubbed off. This is absurd for a brand new set of $300 cans, and something that I'm going to consider indicative of Grado's overall build quality. Not impressed.
Third, the Beyer's "L" and "R" indicators on each side of the headphones are BACKWARDS. "L" is on the right side, and "R" is on the left. How on earth someone can mess this up on headphones that are this expensive is beyond my comprehension.
Both Beyerdynamics and Grado need to get their act together. These are stupid problems that should not exist, and I'm hoping that, outside of the bowl pad issue, both problems are not commonplace. With that said, on to the important stuff!
COMFORT: I anticipated this one to be obvious, and it certainly has been. The 880s are fantastic for comfort, with the only issue being possible heat insulation. The 325is, as noted above, are inexcusably uncomfortable with the bowl pads.They're much too small, and cause your ear to be directly placed on the headphone itself. After applying the comfies from my SR60s they became much more tolerable, but lost much of their highs. So, thumbs up to Beyer, and a sad shake of the head to Grado.
TREBLE CLARITY: The 325i, while a fine improvement (and one that I'm sure I'd appreciate more given time), is not as impressive as I might have liked. From all of the reviews on this forum I anticipated the highs to be very clear, if not piercing. What I found, however, was more of a moderate improvement, especially when compared with the Beyers. A huge reason that I upgraded from the SR60s was to get clearer highs, and the 325is just don't do it for me. With the Beyers I was able to get lost in the sound, but when I put on the 325i, I get the same "you're still just listening to headphones" sound. The bowls helped this a bit (at the expense of comfort), and I'll continue to do testing, but at this point the Beyers are easily beating the 325is in this category.
BASS CLARITY: This one's a mixed bag that seems to be changing a bit over time. Initially I was very impressed with the 325i's bass, and disappointed with the 880's complete lack thereof. However, after less than an hour of use I noticed the Beyers COMPLETELY open up. As of this writing they provide fantastic bass, handily beating the 325is in both clarity AND amount.
NOTE: I'll be running both sets with pink noise to continue to help each burn in a bit more. While I doubt that my findings will change much, if at all, I will give it a shot.
So, those are my first impressions. Both sets are quite excellent, and if there wasn't such a large difference in comfort, I might have a more difficult time choosing. As it stands, the Beyers sound better, have a level of comfort that the Grados couldn't touch, and a much more solid build.
If anyone wants me to test anything, let me know. I could get some (halfway decent) camera phone pics if anyone's interested in comparisons or somesuch.
Thanks for reading, and I'll keep updating as things change (or don't!).
I have both coming in on order, and I'll be doing some evaluating on which I should keep in the end. I'll post my findings here (seeing as I haven't yet found a comparison between these two anywhere), but being as new as I am, I'll need some ideas on what to listen for, what to try out, and just generally any ideas you guys and gals may have for how best to choose the right set.
From what I've read, this is a fairly popular pricepoint around here (bang for the buck and all that), so I hope that any knowledge that I can glean from this experience will be able to help others with my predicament. And, of course, be a crazy amount of fun as I'm introduced to the best pair of headphones that I'll have ever heard.
With all of that said, they should be arriving no later than Thursday.
UPDATE!!
All right, I just got them today. After a bit of listening, here are my impressions:
BUILD QUALITY: I wasn't going to have this section, but since both phones have an issue, I felt it was needed.
First, WOW do bowl pads suck. I'm not sure if there's some colossal error in my usage of them, but the fact that my ears are literally pressing up against the 'phones themselves is pretty inexcusable. They're cheap, hard, and just a plain old poor experience. If I keep these, I'm definitely going to have to find another option.
Second, some of the gold paint on the button labels on each side of the 325is is rubbed off. This is absurd for a brand new set of $300 cans, and something that I'm going to consider indicative of Grado's overall build quality. Not impressed.
Third, the Beyer's "L" and "R" indicators on each side of the headphones are BACKWARDS. "L" is on the right side, and "R" is on the left. How on earth someone can mess this up on headphones that are this expensive is beyond my comprehension.
Both Beyerdynamics and Grado need to get their act together. These are stupid problems that should not exist, and I'm hoping that, outside of the bowl pad issue, both problems are not commonplace. With that said, on to the important stuff!
COMFORT: I anticipated this one to be obvious, and it certainly has been. The 880s are fantastic for comfort, with the only issue being possible heat insulation. The 325is, as noted above, are inexcusably uncomfortable with the bowl pads.They're much too small, and cause your ear to be directly placed on the headphone itself. After applying the comfies from my SR60s they became much more tolerable, but lost much of their highs. So, thumbs up to Beyer, and a sad shake of the head to Grado.
TREBLE CLARITY: The 325i, while a fine improvement (and one that I'm sure I'd appreciate more given time), is not as impressive as I might have liked. From all of the reviews on this forum I anticipated the highs to be very clear, if not piercing. What I found, however, was more of a moderate improvement, especially when compared with the Beyers. A huge reason that I upgraded from the SR60s was to get clearer highs, and the 325is just don't do it for me. With the Beyers I was able to get lost in the sound, but when I put on the 325i, I get the same "you're still just listening to headphones" sound. The bowls helped this a bit (at the expense of comfort), and I'll continue to do testing, but at this point the Beyers are easily beating the 325is in this category.
BASS CLARITY: This one's a mixed bag that seems to be changing a bit over time. Initially I was very impressed with the 325i's bass, and disappointed with the 880's complete lack thereof. However, after less than an hour of use I noticed the Beyers COMPLETELY open up. As of this writing they provide fantastic bass, handily beating the 325is in both clarity AND amount.
NOTE: I'll be running both sets with pink noise to continue to help each burn in a bit more. While I doubt that my findings will change much, if at all, I will give it a shot.
So, those are my first impressions. Both sets are quite excellent, and if there wasn't such a large difference in comfort, I might have a more difficult time choosing. As it stands, the Beyers sound better, have a level of comfort that the Grados couldn't touch, and a much more solid build.
If anyone wants me to test anything, let me know. I could get some (halfway decent) camera phone pics if anyone's interested in comparisons or somesuch.
Thanks for reading, and I'll keep updating as things change (or don't!).
