[Uncledan]

Grado RS1 and Grado SR325 <= maybe I am not Grado's fan..

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia Sennheiser PX100's and PX200's. Such good design, and yet, terrible sounding. Awful.

Finally, someone who agrees with me. The PX200's design is great, they work perfectly for portable, and yet the sound is so blah. It's really too bad. That was a disappointment to be sure.

 

[N@Z]

Quote:

Originally posted by wallijonn The K1000 is like a good woman, who you throw away, and then regret it later.

I guess 'she' was not my type since I haven't had the remorse. Some nice qualities but not exactly what I'm looking for. Hmm... reminds me of the thread about what headphones reflect what Star, maybe the spin-off could be what headphones what kind of woman

 

[jpelg]

Quote:

The K1000 is like a good woman, who you throw away, and then regret it later.

Word.

 

[JaZZ]

Koss «The Plug»: astonishing amount of low bass, but extremely inaccurate and smeared over the whole frequency range. Unlistenable. [Well, I'm realizing the question is about expensive gear, which the «Plug» is not...]

Grado SR-225: better than SR-80 in every respect, nevertheless less musical and involving; simply uninspiring and boring.

Grado SR-325: relatively good resolution and dynamics, but terribly colored, with a metallic aftertaste.


Quote:

Originally posted by austonia Sennheiser PX100's and PX200's. Such good design, and yet, terrible sounding. Awful.

That's hard to understand for me. Especially the PX 200 is a well-balanced and fine sounding portable headphone to my ears, and the PX 100 gets more into balance by attenuating the excessive, but actually quite accurate bass (if you have an EQ or tone controls built in in your player like me).

 

[john_jcb]

When I first got my PX-200 out of the box I would have agreed with you. The highs and lows seemed constrained not really full and dynamic. I let them burn in for about 4 days. The change was perhaps the most dramatic that I can recall with any headphone. I am actually quite pleased with them now. I know many people just listen to their headphones right out of the box and let the burn in occur over time. Maybe these really need a 100 hours or so t really open up and at 2-3 hours a day this will take a long time.

 

[stevesolo]

Quote:

Originally posted by Rizumu Finally, someone who agrees with me. The PX200's design is great, they work perfectly for portable, and yet the sound is so blah. It's really too bad. That was a disappointment to be sure.

When you say that they are blah and a disappointment, compared to what? Within their class of lightweight portable headphones and price, what would you consider to be a better headphone?

From my experience the only headphone in this class which offers better fidelity would be the KSC-35's but then again they are clip ons.

What portable headphones would you consider to be better than the PX200/100's?

 

[Hirsch]

I have bought several amps and headphones that disappointed upon first listen. However, several of them got much better once I got a handle on how to use them optimally. An amp I actually disliked upon first listen was the Grado HPA-1. The manual says the amp is cable sensitive. It is. One I found interconnects it liked, it became one of my favorite solid state amps. The Melos SHA-1 is another amp that didn't meet expectations when first acquired. It took some serious tube-rolling to reach a sound I liked (and mods by carlo to reach a sound I liked better). I returned the first Grado RS-1 I bought, and sold the first ATH-W2002. Didnt' like either headphone. I've since rebought them, and am much happier this time around, now that I've figured out what to use them with. I don't think I could make myself re-buy an ATH-W100

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by Rizumu Finally, someone who agrees with me. The PX200's design is great, they work perfectly for portable, and yet the sound is so blah. It's really too bad. That was a disappointment to be sure.

You must not have gotten a good seal. (Seriously!) Before I got the right fit, the PX 200 sounded pretty bad. But then I found the "sweet spot," and I now think they're one of the best buys in headphones, and one of the best headphones under $100. (As others have said, the PX 200 are also very suceptible to burn-in changes.)

 

[bangraman]

Here are my major critical disappointments:


Sennheiser HD600: Plenty of quality but not enough quantity. Quite redeemable by Cardas cable.
Grado SR-325: Hard, harsh, uninvolving. Ergonomically deficient. Seems to be redeemable through pad change... I wish I'd known that at the time.
Grado SR80: Ditto, only I know a pad change works.
Panasonic RP-FDA100: If the uncabled HD600 is laid back, then the RP-FDA100 is fast asleep. Overpriced, underspecced, build quality concerns for the money. The same investment will buy a HD600 + Cardas, a lot smarter decision.
Beyerdynamic DT250-80: Too rolled off, too unresolving for the money, too hard to drive unamped and non-isolating.
Beyerdynamic RSX600: Built to levels that would only pass on a Koss production line, underspecced when compared to competition. Fundamental problem acknowledged by Beyer engineer 'to be fixed in next batch'.
Sennheiser PX200: It seems churlish to criticise these since they are such good value and so well designed. Nevertheless a slightly wooly soft sound with a low bass that's almost totally disconnected from the rest of the sonic spectrum. I stress that these are not actually bad at all, but it is a slight step down from the PX100's more engaging tone. There was a fit issue which made me like them less the first time I had this phone, but even now when they do fit me I'm still not totally in love with the sound. Nevertheless, you could do a lot worse for the money, and they are more portable-practical than the PX100.
Sony MDR-CD3000: Incredibly, too small for me.
Audio-Technica ATH-A1000: Mechanical design was not what was expected for the money.
Sony MDR-7509: Not worth the retail price on grounds of sound, which is too similar (if not identical) to the much cheaper MDR-V700DJ.

 

[blessingx]

Most disappointing purchase was the Sony D66 Eggos. $100 was way too much for those phones. Hype was bigger back when I bought them with nearly universal praise for a few months. Another flavor of the month infliction I should have watched out for. My bad. Different expectations and $30 off and they'd probably be a decent option for certain situations.

 

[mecano]

The Stax 005sr system.Its the 001sr cans with standard Stax plug and 212SRM driver.Severe rolled-off treble and overblown bass.A real disappointment.

 

[NewSc2]

D66 Eggos for sure. They were the hyped headphones of that period, and I sold them within a week (at least the hype was still going strong when I sold it).

I really tried liking them, they had no glaring faults and didn't sound horrible, but my KSC35's were much better and much cheaper. At best they were decent medium-sounding headphones at a pretty expensive price.

 

[Knerty5]

Not the most expensive but definitely worthless. The Sony EX71's were the most crappy headphones I have put in my ears to date. So furious when I got these dust collectors. (Vomit, choke, hack)

 

[blux]

Why does everyone hate on the grados?

For a rock headphone I think they sounded good?

I dont like the sound of the senn headphones though..

am I the only one that doesnt hate the grado line?