bangraman
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2002
- Posts
- 10,305
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- 65
Portable closed headphones have to compromise between sound quality, isolation, portability, durability, efficiency and wearability.
The HD25-1 is the best compromise in this category I've come across to date. The FOTM came about perhaps because people ended up expecting the world from these phones and came away disappointed. Soundwise, these are only in the class of $200~$300 IEM's which in open headphone terms is about $80. That may disappoint the VFM guys bit it's how the $80 open phone sound is delivered into your ears and how the headphone brings together the above attributes that makes the HD25-1 almost unique.
The isolation provided is the nearest thing headphone-wise to using IEM's with foamies. It is a genuinely useful level of isolation from very high noise levels.
Durability is the other facet of the HD25. They don't look like much, but they can be tossed in a backpack, sat on, pulled, etc without overt fear of breakage. And because they're fairly compact like Grados, they can be tossed, as opposed to shoehorned, into a backpack. They're lightweight too.
They're quite efficient as well, which combined with the higher impedance makes it an ideal headphone for players which have slight (iPod 5G, Creative ZV:M, iAudio X5, etc) to pronounced (iPod < 5G, quite a number of vintage PCDP's, etc) bass fall-off with low impedance phones.
I like how (in marked contrast to an IEM) I can sweep these off my head in a fraction of a second onto my neck when I'm not using them, where they can stay until needed again. And be able to put them back on in under three seconds. The other thing you can't do with IEM's is to simply lift one cup off to hear anouncements.
Despite the clamping force needed to deliver the isolation, comfort is acceptable for short-term listening. I recently had reason to wear these for about 10 hours straight because I didn't bring an IEM with me and I REALLY needed isolation. My ears started hurting after about 4 hours. For my usual commutes of up to two hours, no problems.
The HD25-1 is the best compromise in this category I've come across to date. The FOTM came about perhaps because people ended up expecting the world from these phones and came away disappointed. Soundwise, these are only in the class of $200~$300 IEM's which in open headphone terms is about $80. That may disappoint the VFM guys bit it's how the $80 open phone sound is delivered into your ears and how the headphone brings together the above attributes that makes the HD25-1 almost unique.
The isolation provided is the nearest thing headphone-wise to using IEM's with foamies. It is a genuinely useful level of isolation from very high noise levels.
Durability is the other facet of the HD25. They don't look like much, but they can be tossed in a backpack, sat on, pulled, etc without overt fear of breakage. And because they're fairly compact like Grados, they can be tossed, as opposed to shoehorned, into a backpack. They're lightweight too.
They're quite efficient as well, which combined with the higher impedance makes it an ideal headphone for players which have slight (iPod 5G, Creative ZV:M, iAudio X5, etc) to pronounced (iPod < 5G, quite a number of vintage PCDP's, etc) bass fall-off with low impedance phones.
I like how (in marked contrast to an IEM) I can sweep these off my head in a fraction of a second onto my neck when I'm not using them, where they can stay until needed again. And be able to put them back on in under three seconds. The other thing you can't do with IEM's is to simply lift one cup off to hear anouncements.
Despite the clamping force needed to deliver the isolation, comfort is acceptable for short-term listening. I recently had reason to wear these for about 10 hours straight because I didn't bring an IEM with me and I REALLY needed isolation. My ears started hurting after about 4 hours. For my usual commutes of up to two hours, no problems.
