Experiences of listening to vintage vinyl on headphones?

[Jazz du Look]

First time post. Hello.

So, I'm just discovering the joys of headphones and feeling my way around what works best. I mainly listen to jazz vinyl and have noticed a massive difference switching from speakers to cans - sometimes good, sometimes not so good. The thing that's perplexing me at the moment is that some pressings of lps that I own that sound amazing through my speakers sound less than amazing through my cans.

(Don't think I can edit my profile yet, but I'm listening with Grado RS1e and RA1 combo).

Now I'm not talking about crackle, surface pops etc, I expect that, I'm talking about pressings suddenly sounding very bad indeed. I expect a change in character because of soundstage etc, but not some of the results I'm currently getting.

Some examples (good and bad):

Japanese King pressing (stereo) of Somethin' Else sounds great and spacious through speakers, sounds detailed, alive and just great on my phones. No problems here.

Japanese King pressing (mono) of Sonny Rollins Live at the Vanguard sounds detailed and present on my speakers but just sounds unbalanced and lacking in atmosphere through my Grados.

A vintage US first pressing of Dizzy Gillepsie's New Wave is rich and great on speakers, but through my phones Dizzy's trumpet sounds like a kazoo!

I'd say about 80 per cent of the vinyl I've tested is great through my phones, but I'm struggling to understand why the other 20 per cent sounds awful.

Does anyone out there have experience of listening to vintage vinyl? When I say vintage I'm talking pre 1980.

 

[buke9]

Just a guess but it can be the headphone or amp that doesn't like the recordings. My K872's just hate some recordings ( not vinyl per say ) and others sounds great. Most people think Grados are the best Rock headphones out there have not heard the RS1e's but have heard the RS2e's and PS 1000 and GS 1000's and think most of those should be ok for Jazz but some headphones react very differently to different recordings.

 

[Jazz du Look]

Thanks buke9. Limited experience, but I love the sound of the RS1 for jazz - totally gets me involved.

I forgot to mention that when I listen on Spotify (to the vinyl recordings I've had problems with) they sound okay
- though some of them have been remastered I suspect. Maybe I should try buying some different pressings of the same titles and see if that makes a difference.

 

[buke9]

That's why a lot of people here have several headphones not all work with everything as there is no perfect one. I'm just getting back into vinyl after a three decades lay off. I didn't have a bunch of albums but I do like the change of pace still working on the setup not quite right just yet but not going to fall down another rabbit hole on it as the headphone hole is getting pretty deep ; )

 

[Jazz du Look]

Looks like I may be going on a long journey.

 

[buke9]

Looks like I may be going on a long journey.

I does involve good music so it's not too bad just the wallet and my wife have a problem with the journey.