[Hutnicks]

Koss ESP 950, as far as I've heard, are very much celebrated headphones - but I also hear you have to send them in for repairs all the time. If it werent for that, I would get one as my next pair of phones. Issue is I live in Norway and no way I'm sending them to all the way to the US several times a year.

I keep hearing that. Yet I had mine almost 7 years and not a glitch or hiccup in all that time. The worst thing about the 950 is you keep looking at other phones because you cannot believe they are really that good. Caveat. I learned about dust and all the other stuff we don't generally think about floating around in our homes ages ago and the 950's were either in a zip loc bag or the ever so handy leather case they come with when they were not on my head. Electrostatics and orthodynamics don't do so well with floating particles in the air.

 

[Svatopluk]

Over the years, I have no real regrets when it comes to selling headphones although cars are a different matter. 68 Camaro, 70 Nova and even a perfectly good 56 Corvette, all sold back before their value escalated into the stupid range.

 

[Hutnicks]

Over the years, I have no real regrets when it comes to selling headphones although cars are a different matter. 68 Camaro, 70 Nova and even a perfectly good 56 Corvette, all sold back before their value escalated into the stupid range.

Man you must just weep when you see the Barrett Jackson auctions. I feel for you!

 

[Svatopluk]

Man you must just weep when you see the Barrett Jackson auctions. I feel for you!

Yes, nowadays I have only cheap beer and overpriced audio gear to drown my sorrows.

 

[up late]

If you thought that wasn't great you've absolutely got to try K872. What a truly atrocious sounding headphone.

i didn't think that the k812 was a bad headphone - just a disappointing one

 

[thatonenoob]

i didn't think that the k812 was a bad headphone - just a disappointing one

The closed one was more than disappointing.

 

[up late]

i've not heard it and probably never will

 

[HumbleMan]

I wouldn't call them disappointments in sound, but the AD700 is the full-sized headphone I've bought the most, like a bozo, because they kept breaking at the plug but I kept loving the sound. I eventually left that toxic relationship.

 

[richard51]

I bought 4 headphones in the past, i hate none of them, but was not totally in love with them, for different reasons.... The headphone i like the most now is the fifth purchase,the beyerdynamic DT-150, paradoxically, it is also the headphone i posses i dislike the most if i put them,without modifications, in the headphone out of my new Sansui AU-X701... On the contrary if i put them in the headphone out of my Sansui AU-7700, my most beloved amplifier, the frog transform itself in a princess, but with some necessary anterior modifications about damping and EMI... Hence except for our particular taste and history, the synergy pairing play one of the greatest role in our experience, consciously or not....By the way without modifications i am not in love totally with none of my piece of gear.... Hence i modify all of them, to eliminate vibrations, EMI, with different means, and for some gear, the transformation make love possible between them and me...There is no piece i know of, that is perfect " per se", it is very important to experiment yourself with simple modifications ...

A final note: it is very different to evaluate an headphone about the details in the different sound frequencies range, and evaluate them purely and simply about their rendering of the realism of the timbre of each musical instrument... My he 400 seems to possess at first more "clarity" than my DT-150, but they completely lack their 3-d musical realism... For me the DT-150 are less fatiguing and more speaker-like, more organic, and beat them...Impressive sounds is not necessarily music...

Best regards to all of you for this very interesting thread....A necessary one....

 

[ToroFiestaSol]

A tie between Stax SR-009 and Sennheiser HD800...HARSH, more than sucker punching a baby.

 

[Brahmsian]

Best regards to all of you for this very interesting thread....A necessary one....

Unfortunately I don't find this thread very useful. You don't like the HD800 or the Elear? That doesn't tell me anything unless you also tell me WHAT KIND OF MUSIC YOU LISTEN TO. The HD800 are supposedly great classical music headphones. But if you listen mostly to rap or EDM, then the fact that you hate the HD800 might start making sense.

 

[ToroFiestaSol]

I never understood the "X headphone for classical, Y headphone for EDM", 1k for a headphone is a ton of money, just ask non audiophile people if it is a regular rational buy or not.
For a top of the line product, I value neutrality and musicality ("genre master"), anything that is "great for classical, bad for EDM" or backwards, is a waste of money and time for me.

Yeah I know, a ton of people doesn't think the same, but I just wanted to express my opinion, that's why forums exist.

 

[thatonenoob]

I never understood the "X headphone for classical, Y headphone for EDM", 1k for a headphone is a ton of money, just ask non audiophile people if it is a regular rational buy or not.
For a top of the line product, I value neutrality and musicality ("genre master"), anything that is "great for classical, bad for EDM" or backwards, is a waste of money and time for me.

Yeah I know, a ton of people doesn't think the same, but I just wanted to express my opinion, that's why forums exist.

I'm in agreement. Some headphones might work better out of the nature of their FR, etc. But that doesn't mean a headphone should only be good for a genre. Or can be considered only good by the standards of one genre. That represents a general failure as a transducer imo.

 

[Strangelove424]

I never understood the "X headphone for classical, Y headphone for EDM", 1k for a headphone is a ton of money, just ask non audiophile people if it is a regular rational buy or not.
For a top of the line product, I value neutrality and musicality ("genre master"), anything that is "great for classical, bad for EDM" or backwards, is a waste of money and time for me.

Yeah I know, a ton of people doesn't think the same, but I just wanted to express my opinion, that's why forums exist.

I agree. Sound engineers across all genres are using neutral equipment. If the goal is to hear the music the way it was created, neutral playback will reveal it the most accurately. That's not to say you cannot enjoy bass emphasis with your EDM, or even prefer it, but that is probably not the way it was mixed or mastered. Neutral headphones should never be an excuse for something sounding bad. If the music sounds disagreeable to a person on a pair of fantastically neutral cans, they shouldn't blame the headphone, they should blame the music. IMO, any music that's fundamentally well made will sound great on neutral cans, whether it's Bach or DaftPunk. A balanced mix is important, and producers who understand that will distribute elements of the melody and sonic goodies in each part of the frequency band.

 

[Brahmsian]

I never understood the "X headphone for classical, Y headphone for EDM", 1k for a headphone is a ton of money, just ask non audiophile people if it is a regular rational buy or not.

I still think it would be helpful if people specified what kind of music they listened to when they judge these headphones. I think it would clear up a lot of contradictory opinions about certain models.

For music with lead vocals, you might want the voice presented front and center, very forward. But listening to a symphony, I don't necessarily want the mids emphasized that way. Headphones are usually boosted here and there on the frequency spectrum, but not necessarily in the same place. For EDM you might want more sub bass; for other types of music, more of a mid bass emphasis, etc. Of three headphones, I prefer the HE400i for classical, the HD650 for mids and lead vocals, and the M1060 for just about everything else. Does rock sound okay on all of them? Sure. But it doesn't sound the same because the headphones themselves don't sound the same.

90% of what I listen to is classical, so I don't mind a headphone that is good mostly with just that. In fact, I'm specifically looking for a pair of headphones that handles orchestras a little better than the HE400i (as much as I like it). I didn't mean to bust anybody's chops. I just personally would find it more helpful if people specified. And I think others would, too.