My fist post here, what brings me here:
I joined up ages ago and didn't keep a habit of it, but recently I got an itch and this place is certainly the place to help scratch it! My headphone history: I got some DT990 pros a few years back because they provided the most bang for the buck of what I could try - with a basic cmoy they're pretty nice, and I used them for a while as my out and about cans, but they are a bit ridiculous for that. They're heavy and big, the weight of the headband on the top of my head would give me a headache and whilst they keep my neck warm when I'm not wearing them, you don't always want to have them on display, and the killer was that the big jack on them with their heavy cable would put strain on the sockets of the cmoy and one or other ear would lose sound as I walked - I put it down to the quality of the sockets on the cmoy, changed them; same... At this point, having no money, I got some cheap sennheiser buds, but didn't listen to music much on the go... A while later, and with a little money I made an airport impulse buy of some shure se110s which did a job, and made me at least listen to music on the go again. Fast forward to two weeks ago... I was listening to a track on a Dave Brubeck album and there was a kettle drum which sounded distant and poor, recessed, lacking in presence and sparkle - very irritating. I got home and put on the DT990s and dug out the cmoy, I found that the extension cable of the se110s into the 990s solved the problem with the cmoy sockets, so I ordered a portable LOD to replace the desktop apple item... The 990s are nice, smooth and involving with quite an open soundstage, I don't need the amount of bass, although it doesn't bother me, and the trebles could be a bit waring, so I modded them with some felt over the front of the drivers and that helped calm the treble (after research on headfi). But the Beyers are still useless to me as an outdoor headphone.
Well lots of digging around made me thing that whilst the c-jays are not going to do everything for me, they might be the best compromise... So here I am with c-jays and very happy.
Thanks for all of the information - it was really useful in deciding to get the c-jays. I got mine exactly 25 hours ago, and they've been on my head (or burning pink noise under a pillow) for all of those hours.
At first they sound nasty (as I expected them to initially sound, but more), no bass with the big pads, sibilant, harsh, lacking in detail. SOme stuff sounded OK, but I listen mainly to modern jazz and most trumpets sounded like harsh deafening squarks and little more. Four hours bought in a really pleasing bass - not big but it's there when it's there in the recording, rather like the bass of my Nakanishi Superswans (which are full range driver back loaded horns, and not particularly bass laden, but it's there in a nice controlled way, and the jays currently present bass in a similar way with the big pads), about eight hours in and Chet Baker, whose voice had been constricted to a thin whine and whose trumpet had been one of those nasty squarks was sounding musical, it's better still now. The c-jays are getting smoother and more musical all the time... Roll on more hours. I already prefer these to the DT990s. They're more forward (I'm using the big pads), and obviously lack the bass, but they make the 990's sound a bit syrupy, and they're starting to show or perhaps exceed the amount of detail that the 990s reveal. I like using the Battlestar Gallactica series one album as a test, and there are bits where you get a sound that sneaks up on you ands sounds like a noise in the room outside the headphone and then you realise it's in the music, well I notice more of that with the c-jays than with the 990s. I think and hope the treble will improve more, and I hope that MaoDi's words about the bass and mid becoming more lush with extended burn in will also be right, Atomic Basie is still a bit squarky.
Well, the point is that I wanted to thank you guys, and to confirm what you've said about the way these things improve with even a modest amount of burn in. I can only compare them to my 990's in terms of decent headphones, but they do really well in the context of the Beyers already.
