[protoss]

For rock or heavy metal….the L3000 can do a better job!

I'll add a few more,
Rap, EMD, Trace, New retro wave, the L3000 kills it.

 

[mulveling]

More power to you brother. I listen to more acoustics, jazz, vocal, pop, classical, and some classic rock and the OG R10 is definitely my cup of tea.

For context, I also listen louder than Purk. That's where the OG R10 bass kinda falls apart for me in keeping up with harder hitting fast paced rock. It would be much better at more moderate levels. The ES-R10 can take the pain in stride though. And the L3000 doing it can be a thing of beauty.

 

[mulveling]

Two great rock headphones, here. I guess looking at more ES-R10 grains now: you can have cleaner lines with wide spacing, or more diffuse/blurred lines with tight spacing. The OG is really amazing in having both clean & tightly spaced lines. That's the magic of the 200-year old tree they selected. Both kinds of ES cups are still lovely, though. I've seen at lot of beautiful wood headphones, but nothing is quite as classy and timeless as these zelkova cups.

 

[protoss]

Trance on the L3000 is a beauty.
The ES-R10 can keep up but so-so.
The Sony sucks at it.

 

[purk]

I miss my old L3000!

 

[mulveling]

I miss my old L3000!

I miss your extra bass-heavy pair, why did you sell those

 

[protoss]

@mulveling
Probably I have it
And wait a minute, you have a L5000? I hope you like it. It's great.

 

[Aura]

had a fun 4-5 hour listening session last week where I connected my Naim Uniti HE to a friend's vinyl chain of Technics SL1200GR + Pass Aleph Ono phono and ran through several good LP's across a range of genre's.

ES R10 sounds pretty ridiculous off good vinyl - impact and staging somehow improve further. friend's main is HD800S and he found ES R10 easily better... we abandoned A/Bing those two in less than 30 minutes. He also preferred ES R10 to Utopia but that was more preferential - I noticed that Utopia didn't respond as much to vinyl vs. digital. it doesn't change character too much from it's super clean, detailed, impactful, mostly-neutral character whereas ES R10 seems more chameleon on given genre and recording.

 

[Mach3]

@protoss
Seriously, you're a hoarder 2x STAX SR-Ω, 2x MDR-R10 & 2x L3000 Geez.

 

[protoss]

I had one time 8 HD800. It is a great modding can.
And its 3 L3000 lol. One is in a box, tuck away. Its a special one. Lets say the color is rare
I wonder if theres a pic of it close by? up to the right? or down? or left? not sure...

 

[purk]

I had one time 8 HD800. It is a great modding can.
And its 3 L3000 lol. One is in a box, tuck away. Its a special one. Lets say the color is rare
I wonder if theres a pic of it close by? up to the right? or down? or left? not sure...

Where do you live? I am sending someone over…..

 

[purk]

I miss your extra bass-heavy pair, why did you sell those

What?!?! Extra bass version? Why don’t you u just turn the Mega Bass function on your Sony MD player on?

 

[Mach3]

Where do you live? I am sending someone over…..

Same, I want to know that info. I just want to permanently audition all his flagships.

 

[protoss]

Where do you live? I am sending someone over…..

lol! I got to start keeping pics to a minimum and start deleting post

 

[mulveling]

had a fun 4-5 hour listening session last week where I connected my Naim Uniti HE to a friend's vinyl chain of Technics SL1200GR + Pass Aleph Ono phono and ran through several good LP's across a range of genre's.

ES R10 sounds pretty ridiculous off good vinyl - impact and staging somehow improve further. friend's main is HD800S and he found ES R10 easily better... we abandoned A/Bing those two in less than 30 minutes. He also preferred ES R10 to Utopia but that was more preferential - I noticed that Utopia didn't respond as much to vinyl vs. digital. it doesn't change character too much from it's super clean, detailed, impactful, mostly-neutral character whereas ES R10 seems more chameleon on given genre and recording.

First real early WOW moment here with ES-R10 was sourced by my turntable off the main rig (even patched through an extra 2ch preamp). It's definitely a super duper fun listen with vinyl. I need to hook that up again soon. My main rig doesn't really have room to accommodate headphones, and the 2nd TT is currently being used for cartridge storage lol.

Had the same issue as you with Utopia - it doesn't really open up and breathe with great vinyl like some other headphones do. It doesn't sound worse than with good digital, but not a lot better either. I think it's an affliction of all the smaller-soundstage'd headphones. For example, the L3000 is another one that sadly doesn't scale along with great vinyl sources. HD650 scales like crazy, getting maddeningly close to top-tier, but not quite. Stax 009 does amazing on vinyl (with T2 is nearly a religious experience), though you need a lot of gain on the phono stage since Stax amps are mostly adjusted gain-wise like they expect 4 Volt+ hot balanced digital sources.

I also worry about subsonic energy from a TT on those Utopias, and its implications on the delicate drivers over time. I could see the drivers flapping around sometimes (even with a SOTA vacuum clamping the whole record down flat).