Grado Hemps came in today. So far they passed the hifi playlist and many problem metal albums.
I find guitars often sound weird on these albums when headphones have hyped or recessed mids: Hath - Of Rot and Ruin, Ihsahn - After, Numenorean - Adore. But they all sounded great.
Some of the black metal I've thrown at it has been...OK. Black metal is a tricky one though. I.e. Emperor - Towards the Pantheon sounded kind of off to me and I couldn't figure out what it was. I'm comparing with my Presonus S6 monitors b/c they're the most accurate things I have or have ever heard. Vukari - Aevum, another rather poorly recorded thrashy black metal album has the same offness to it. Like it's lacking some edge or treble extension that brings it down a notch. I have some Geekria pads to swap with later that'll try. I haven't listened to any trad black metal on them yet; lo fi black metal is not my thing. I'm more of the thrashy riff driven death metal type like Immortal and Emperor than the ambient noise.
Fast death metal - great. Tight bass, guitars sound killer. Slays in general.
These have been pretty consistent sounding to me off the Atom + MOTU M4, direct off the Apple USB-C dongle connected to a laptop, and my LG G7 phone. I have an iFi attenuator on the vintage Technics SA400, but haven't checked them without the attenuator and the high impedance straight off the jack. These do trigger the high impdeance mode for me on the G7 consistently. I had to trim my phone case because the jack terminal housing is huge. These don't really have the increased bass response from higher power like the 6XX or dt770-250s do, which makes sense. They're not that hard to drive. Phone volume is at 15/75. 770s can get up to 30/75.
Everyone says these are "lively", but I find they're still pretty mellow. Male and female vocals sound excellent. I love the way snares sound, something I don't say often. Cymbals are kind of subdued for me though. That's better than harsh and overpowering. Same with the bass. Nice texture. Listening to the Gladiator score by Hans Zimmer you can really hear the timpani strikes without losing the boominess, which is often completely washed out on many headphones and speakers.
As for comfort, I thought the headband was uncomfortable immediately. It has zero padding. But after an hour that was fine and the ear pads started to pinch the tops of my ears. I don't find the pads rough or harsh at all. I use Yamaha RH5ma's for CSGO daily, so I'm used to on ears and those pinch my ears a bit too, but have softer pads. Clamp is fine and easily adjustable. So, not the comfiest cans ever. But not nearly as uncomfortable as many reviewers were saying.
They're the best things I own, and sound like a well tuned 58X with a different sound stage. I'd say they're closer to the HD600 but with better bass? I don't think they're as buttery as the 6XX or HD650, but they're definitely as enjoyable to listen to and work better across many genres that I like (metal, classical, jazz, classic rock). The 6xx are extremely genre specific to me, and why i didn't keep them. I don't have an OTL amp to say anything about that. I have no other Grados to compare to, hence the Sennheiser comparison.
For the price...I'm not sure these are a no brainer or not. I think they're reasonable considering the HD660 is about the same price, but the Sundara's are less. But after owning the HE4XX I'm not really looking for that sound or low build quality. So I'm pretty happy with these.
Big edit:
These are so much faster than any Sennheisers I've heard. Unfortunately it's been a long time since I've been in a store and heard pricier dynamics.
Example:
Carcass - Necroticism (Full Dynamic Range FLAC on UAPP in Bit Perfect mode) sounds closer to a planar in speed than a dynamic. I'm hearing much better instrument separation on this album than on the 58X which I still have to compare with. I can easily hear all the little subtle thigns going on with the riffing. This album can sound like a mess of instruments and that's not the case at all.
Black metal: needs a treble boost and some lower mid cuts to get that bite back to the guitars. But I mean it's black metal. And so far the only thing I've felt the need to EQ. I like listening off the vintage receiver with these b/c I can just twist the treble knob to get some bite back. I think these headphones would be a good combination with an analog preamp like the Loki so you can do some minor EQ tweaks on the fly.
Overal verdict: Crazy good dynamics that cover a wide range of genres well. Fast and deep like a planar, a little dark in the treble. I found that to get the best comfort you need to get the clamp perfect, to where it's not falling off your ears but also not pinching the cartiledge at the top.
