One thing I have to mention, these cans shipped to you with only ~20-25 hours of burn-in, so you might want to keep burning them unless you already have put at least another 25 hours into them. Should help with listener's fatigue and sonics. Also, are you sure that the 414 pads don't increase fatigue? I'm sure those are much more comfortable on your earlobes, but that doesn't necessarily mean less fatiguing for your eardrums. I would assume that having the driver closer to your ear (comparing to the bowls) might increase the fatigue(?). Did you "soap and water"-mod the bowls yet? Cheers.
Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not very picky with amplification though.
Don't know if it changed that much during break in process or if I had problems with my ears, however, the MS2 turned out to be even more picky with amps than even the DT880. As mentioned, my cheap SS amp plus gain is fine for casual sessions, but inacceptable for critical listening. Much too bright and upfront. The MS2 seems to like tubes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comfy Are you sure that the 414 pads don't increase fatigue? I'm sure those are much more comfortable on your earlobes, but that doesn't necessarily mean less fatiguing for your eardrums. I would assume that having the driver closer to your ear (comparing to the bowls) might increase the fatigue(?). Did you "soap and water"-mod the bowls yet? Cheers.
The bowls are dry and don't stink anymore, they are a nice combination with my MS1. The MS2 will keep the reversed 414s forever, as they sound 95% identical, but provide 578% better comfort. I'd say they position the driver rather more distant than the bowls, so listening fatigue has become less.
Being a playchild, I also built myself a Ohm adaptor this morning, I used 47 Ohms, as that was all I had in stock on a Sunday morning. Has a slight smoothing effect, but does not kill as much details as the BTech's gain poti. Guess I need to organize stronger resistors, their effect is nice enough to get deeper into that subject. I would say already the "small" 47 Ohm adapter is sufficient to kill half of the listening fatigue. That was a great idea, Televator.
Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif That was a great idea, Televator.
well, I really can't take the credit for it... I found out about this in an old(er) thread by Cantsleep. He tested it and didn't really like the effect 100%, but his short review did intrigue me enough to beg him to build me one.
I, again am not 100% sure I like every aspect of the adapter-sound, but overall I think it is a very pleasing sound and I promise that I will try and do a more thorough comparison when I can find some time (all spare time right now gets wasted on simply sitting back and enjoying the music without plugging/unplugging)
Originally Posted by Televator I, again am not 100% sure I like every aspect of the adapter-sound, but overall I think it is a very pleasing sound
Maybe the effect is too strong with the mighty 200 ohms?
My humble 47 ohms just do 1/4 of that, and it's still noticable. With this, I landed somewhere in the middle between the forward stock sound and the gentle MS1 presentation, with slightly wider soundscape and more warmth. Amount of details is also effected, but almost beyond level of recognition. Anyhow, I won't use this for concentrated listening.
A little more detail? Yup a little more detail and a little more bass and a little more soundstage and a little more top end and a little more weight...uh...maybe a LOT more weight, but a little more of what makes MS-1, MS-1 but with a nice upgrade in materials and workmanship!
There's just more of everything that's fun with MS-1!!
This thread really did it for me. 5 months ago, I bought the DT990 32ohm saying that they would work without amp and be my headphone for years to come, or until I start working (student atm).
Well... since then I bought a headfive (improved dt990 alot), bought two x-fi's, modded one of them. AND NOW I HAVE A MS2i ON ORDER!!! Will this ever stop?
NOW I will be satisfied (or maybe try hd650.. but.. but.. the RS1???). If I never would have found this site I would have been $1250 richer. But still, they music I enjoy now is just wonderful. Thanks Head-Fi for Opeth, DT990, H5, X-fi modded and soon MS2
Originally Posted by Henmyr /img/forum/go_quote.gif This thread really did it for me. 5 months ago, I bought the DT990 32ohm saying that they would work without amp and be my headphone for years to come, or until I start working (student atm).
Well... since then I bought a headfive (improved dt990 alot), bought two x-fi's, modded one of them. AND NOW I HAVE A MS2i ON ORDER!!! Will this ever stop?
NOW I will be satisfied (or maybe try hd650.. but.. but.. the RS1???). If I never would have found this site I would have been $1250 richer. But still, they music I enjoy now is just wonderful. Thanks for Opeth, DT990, H5, X-fi modded and soon MS2 Head-fi.
You clearly have been infected with the Head-Fi disease.
You have two options at this point:
1) Stop fooling yourself and just give in to its evil power.
2) Check yourself into a 'rehab' clinic.
To answer your question as succinctly as possible:
I wasn't sure whether to bump this thread or start a new one. My MS2 arrived yesterday (Alessandro nicely declared the price to be $100, same as the MS1, so I got charged less tax. Thanks!) I let them burn in last night.
Improvements over MS1:
- Bass is tighter and goes much lower. I heard bass lines in songs that I just couldn't hear with the MS1.
- Treble is much smoother and more extended. Cymbals that sounded distorted and harsh with the MS1 sound very realistic and natural on the MS2. This is what really blew me away.
One complaint is that I REALLY don't like the bowl pads. When I first tried them the mids sounded grainy and distant. Then I tried the reversed comfies from my MS1, and WOW! The mids are there, with maybe slightly more forwardness and detail than the MS1. It's more comfortable too (though I don't find comfort to be an issue at all with the MS2). I also tried the regular non-reversed comfies (with a hole cut in the centre) but this sounded "muddy". Reversed comfies seem to be the way to go with the MS2, at least with my setup.
Glad to hear you're happy with your MS2i thus far! But yup; one nice thing about Grado/Alessandro is the ability to taylor the sound by pad swapping. And it's relatively inexpensive too! One thing I did notice about my MS2i is the bass especially took a number of months before it really settled in. I'm still happily using bowls with mine and they're actually getting more comfortable even now! But one thing for sure; we all seem to hear differently so it sure is convenient that we have such an easy way to make our cans "our cans"!!
....and yup, also; I'm still happy with the reversed and modded 414s on my MS-1, go figure, but...it IS fun; ain't it?!
Give them some more time to burn in, only one night won't do that much. I have mine for a month or so, and still got the impression they still get smoother. Maybe psycho though.
Meanwhile, I ordered myself the Liberator spacers and hope to achieve mentionable soundstage from this. Link
I was just reading through this entire thread again and I think I came to an interesting realization.
I think I know where the Upgraditus Bug was hidden. It was hidden in the smaller headbands! I had a real serious desire to get MS-Pro, not only for the reason of better SQ, obviously; but for the added goodies of wooden housings and more plush headband. Having the top headband on my MS2i goes quite a ways to ease the infection!
....we all handle illness in whichever way we can.
I had the good fortune to have a phone conversation with John Grado a few months ago about a problem I was having with the MS2's I received (i am sure you can find the related threads if you search) and the topic of the headbands came up. They are all like the RS-1's now - their old supplier went out of business, so they decided to make it easier and just have one band made for the upper level phones. Same thing happened with those wooden boxes, but they weren't able to find a replacement builder - I think it was a family business. Anyway, everybody gets the nice band now, which is a great thing in my book. Love my MS2's - they are playing right now!
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One thing I have to mention, these cans shipped to you with only ~20-25 hours of burn-in, so you might want to keep burning them unless you already have put at least another 25 hours into them. Should help with listener's fatigue and sonics. Also, are you sure that the 414 pads don't increase fatigue? I'm sure those are much more comfortable on your earlobes, but that doesn't necessarily mean less fatiguing for your eardrums. I would assume that having the driver closer to your ear (comparing to the bowls) might increase the fatigue(?). Did you "soap and water"-mod the bowls yet? Cheers.
