Joshatdot
Headphoneus Supremus
I went down to Seattle again, and visited Hawthorne Stereo again. I spent some quality time with their headphone selection:
SR60's (comfies), SR80's, SR125's, SR225's, HD 25-SP, HD 265 Linear, HD 465, HD 595, HD 25-1 70ohm.
I listened to the Ultrasone S-Logic Demo CD as a reference. Here is how I rated them:
SR60 (comfies) C+/B- : The sound was not that crisp, clean, detailed. They were somewhat lightly muffled/blanketed, and the bass was not clean sounding either.
SR60 (bowls) A- : With the bowls they were much much more clean, crisp and detailed, but less bass. The bass that was there, was cleaner. They gave a much better detailed soundstage with the bowls.
SR80 (bowls) A/A+ : These were more detailed sounding than the SR60's with bowls. I could hear alot more little small quiet sounds on the Demo CD with these. Like on track 5, I could hear the pianist's bench/seat creak and crack as if they were sitting right in front of me. On track 10 in the beginning there is a person coughing in the background and with the SR80's I heard that cough very clear, and could almost point out where they were sitting. There was alot of little stuff I heard in the SR80's that I didn't notice before. IMHO, with all bowls, there is little low end bass.
The SR125 & 225 were identical to my ears, but didn't give me the same detailed feeling as the 80's.
HD 25 SP, HD 265 Linear, HD 465 ... all three of them sounded very blanketed, and muddy. I gave them all D's (maybe even F's)
HD 595 B+ : These felt very comfortable on my head, sounded ALOT cleaner than the others and reproduced nice amounts of bass. But compared to the Grados, they were not as bright or detailed sounding, I liked these quite abit. Decent bass and pretty darn good mids & highs (but nothing like the Grados).
HD 25-1 70ohm B+ : These also sounded very good, lots of bass (even more than the 595's), decent amount of mids and highs. And again compared to the Grados, they were not as detailed. Also they were sensitive to microphonics? I could hear every little thing bumping on the headphone cord, even tapping the 1/4" adapter onto the plug.
I can see why some many people here talk about the brightness of Grados, and the Sennheiser veil. I really liked the SR80's the best out of all of them, and the SR60's a very very close 2nd. If I had to pick Senns, I think I would go with the HD 25-1 70ohm. They produced much better low end bass but not too boomy or muddy, plus they are very portable. But with the HD 595's I didn't notice any microphonics at all, and they were a very comfortable closed can.
I would love to have the SR80 sound, but with the HD 25-1's bass (or even the HD 595's bass)
SR60's (comfies), SR80's, SR125's, SR225's, HD 25-SP, HD 265 Linear, HD 465, HD 595, HD 25-1 70ohm.
I listened to the Ultrasone S-Logic Demo CD as a reference. Here is how I rated them:
SR60 (comfies) C+/B- : The sound was not that crisp, clean, detailed. They were somewhat lightly muffled/blanketed, and the bass was not clean sounding either.
SR60 (bowls) A- : With the bowls they were much much more clean, crisp and detailed, but less bass. The bass that was there, was cleaner. They gave a much better detailed soundstage with the bowls.
SR80 (bowls) A/A+ : These were more detailed sounding than the SR60's with bowls. I could hear alot more little small quiet sounds on the Demo CD with these. Like on track 5, I could hear the pianist's bench/seat creak and crack as if they were sitting right in front of me. On track 10 in the beginning there is a person coughing in the background and with the SR80's I heard that cough very clear, and could almost point out where they were sitting. There was alot of little stuff I heard in the SR80's that I didn't notice before. IMHO, with all bowls, there is little low end bass.
The SR125 & 225 were identical to my ears, but didn't give me the same detailed feeling as the 80's.
HD 25 SP, HD 265 Linear, HD 465 ... all three of them sounded very blanketed, and muddy. I gave them all D's (maybe even F's)
HD 595 B+ : These felt very comfortable on my head, sounded ALOT cleaner than the others and reproduced nice amounts of bass. But compared to the Grados, they were not as bright or detailed sounding, I liked these quite abit. Decent bass and pretty darn good mids & highs (but nothing like the Grados).
HD 25-1 70ohm B+ : These also sounded very good, lots of bass (even more than the 595's), decent amount of mids and highs. And again compared to the Grados, they were not as detailed. Also they were sensitive to microphonics? I could hear every little thing bumping on the headphone cord, even tapping the 1/4" adapter onto the plug.
I can see why some many people here talk about the brightness of Grados, and the Sennheiser veil. I really liked the SR80's the best out of all of them, and the SR60's a very very close 2nd. If I had to pick Senns, I think I would go with the HD 25-1 70ohm. They produced much better low end bass but not too boomy or muddy, plus they are very portable. But with the HD 595's I didn't notice any microphonics at all, and they were a very comfortable closed can.
I would love to have the SR80 sound, but with the HD 25-1's bass (or even the HD 595's bass)
