[slmckay73]

I'm thinking about picking up the sr80e in the nearish future. I've heard they work really well for rock, but how about music with a more acoustic focus? Folk/Folk Rock, Indie Singer/songwriter? And how is the soundstage? I've heard Grado's house sound includes very forward mids, but I'd like something fairly open with good stereo imaging both for music and good positional audio for gaming. It doesn't have to sound like I'm sitting in a concert hall, but something significantly more open than my M50x would be nice. I've heard that the ATH-AD700x are a great gaming can and are very spacious, but the two headphones seem to have pretty different sound signatures. Any thoughts on how they stack up to each other for the genres I mentioned and for gaming? I can provide some links to some artists that I'll be listening to pretty often if needed. 

 

[cel4145]

Grados soundstage is fairly 2D--not the best choice for front to back positional audio for gaming.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I'm thinking about picking up the sr80e in the nearish future. I've heard they work really well for rock, but how about music with a more acoustic focus? Folk/Folk Rock, Indie Singer/songwriter? And how is the soundstage? I've heard Grado's house sound includes very forward mids, but I'd like something fairly open with good stereo imaging both for music and good positional audio for gaming. It doesn't have to sound like I'm sitting in a concert hall, but something significantly more open than my M50x would be nice. I've heard that the ATH-AD700x are a great gaming can and are very spacious, but the two headphones seem to have pretty different sound signatures. Any thoughts on how they stack up to each other for the genres I mentioned and for gaming? I can provide some links to some artists that I'll be listening to pretty often if needed. 

 

Grado imaging looks like Neptune threatening you with a trident - very forward L-C-R and pushed back a bit between L-C and C-R. Tonally, acoustic instruments have that "raw" quality about them (a bit longer ring to the decay on some recordings, like resonance reminiscent of actually playing in a small room) while percussion and fast bass guitar riffs sound "fast" (ie the notes fade out fairly quickly, which means either no distortion as the driver moves or there's a boost in the upper freqs). 

 

As for gaming use, they have virtually non-existent isolation, so if you can hear your computer fans at full tilt without headphones on, you're going to go on a down(up?)ward spiral of dealing with noise by turning the volume up, increasing distortion, the likelihood of hearing damage, etc. Just to give you an idea  though my gaming PC at home has two Corsair AF120s in the front intake, both set to full 12v all the time, a dual fan HD7850, and an Antec 120mm AIO in the exhaust (plus the PSU fan), and the A/C on the window is still a lot louder than this thing.

 

[slmckay73]

Grados soundstage is fairly 2D--not the best choice for front to back positional audio for gaming.

 
Duly noted. Maybe I'll go with the AD700x as my gaming cans and get the Grados later on as purely music headphones. 

 

  I'm thinking about picking up the sr80e in the nearish future. I've heard they work really well for rock, but how about music with a more acoustic focus? Folk/Folk Rock, Indie Singer/songwriter? And how is the soundstage? I've heard Grado's house sound includes very forward mids, but I'd like something fairly open with good stereo imaging both for music and good positional audio for gaming. It doesn't have to sound like I'm sitting in a concert hall, but something significantly more open than my M50x would be nice. I've heard that the ATH-AD700x are a great gaming can and are very spacious, but the two headphones seem to have pretty different sound signatures. Any thoughts on how they stack up to each other for the genres I mentioned and for gaming? I can provide some links to some artists that I'll be listening to pretty often if needed. 

 

Grado imaging looks like Neptune threatening you with a trident - very forward L-C-R and pushed back a bit between L-C and C-R. Tonally, acoustic instruments have that "raw" quality about them (a bit longer ring to the decay on some recordings, like resonance reminiscent of actually playing in a small room) while percussion and fast bass guitar riffs sound "fast" (ie the notes fade out fairly quickly, which means either no distortion as the driver moves or there's a boost in the upper freqs). 

 

As for gaming use, they have virtually non-existent isolation, so if you can hear your computer fans at full tilt without headphones on, you're going to go on a down(up?)ward spiral of dealing with noise by turning the volume up, increasing distortion, the likelihood of hearing damage, etc. Just to give you an idea  though my gaming PC at home has two Corsair AF120s in the front intake, both set to full 12v all the time, a dual fan HD7850, and an Antec 120mm AIO in the exhaust (plus the PSU fan), and the A/C on the window is still a lot louder than this thing.

That's a brilliant analogy haha. Musically, they sound like exactly what I'm looking for, the soundstage notwithstanding. I can see the concern with fan noise, but I would have that same problem with the AD700x, or any other really open headphone for that matter, so I guess it's just something I'll have to deal with. Like I mentioned above, maybe I'll be able to eventually get both and use them in their respective niches.