aerinsol
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2011
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Ok, it's been a while since I posted in this thread due to the holidays + work ... I managed to go to B&H Audio for a headphone listen, so I thought I would post my review here in case it would be useful or of interest to anyone.
Reference tracks: Stonevalley - Relative (Club Mix), Wicked - Defying Gravity, some random Avicii (with vocal samples), from latest generation (6th?) iPod Nano, not FLAC, just regular 180-ish to 320-ish mp3s/aac.
Audiotechnica ATH-M50 - Among all the headphones that I was listening to, this was probably the one (though the HD-25 comes close) that did surprisingly and consistently well across a large variety of music; it seems to play every thing that you throw at it to a degree that makes it sound both engaging and articulate, and yet, overall, still fairly balanced. The vocals had a decently good treatment, but did not sound particularly rich/lush/full -- I didn't mind this trade-off given the versatility of the headphones, but my friend who came with me and is in the market for a female-vocal-focused headphone, thought that it lacked something in the delivery -- perhaps this is the "slightly V-shaped sound" I keep hearing all over the forums. I say "surprising" because I came into the store expecting the M50 to be overhyped, but found it to be pretty much able to deal well with most genres of music. With the tracks I listened to, instrumentals tended to sound like you're sitting about 5 ft away from whatever is playing -- I guess this is "soundstage" and I found that to be a pleasant experience.
Sennheisers HD-25 - I think although I have a measureably large head, the width is not as great as some other people, so I despite comments to the contrary I didn't find the HD-25s to be a tight or uncomfortable fit at all. They are definitely a tighter, more in-your-face sound in comparison to the M50 ... kind of hard for me as a newbie to describe the sound in a way that would meaningfully contrast. It is definitely *different* from the M50, which is obvious when you do an A/B test, but when simply focusing on the music, both headphone sets are quite good at making different parts of any music sound balanced in relation to the other. The HD-25s are definitely much more forward than the M50, and I found myself going back and forth between the HD-25 and the M50s. It seemed as if in some instances the HD-25s really brought out the fullness of the music much more so than the ATH-M50, but in other cases, they seemed either a bit too tight, or somehow as if something was missing. It could be because they are very dependent on correct positioning on the head (which would make sense, since they sit on top of your ears rather than around them), or it could be also that they are simply rather unforgiving headphones, which is consistent with a previous listening experience I had with them from a much worse audio player.
Sony MDR-V6 - I quite liked this sound, especially among both the low and the high instrumentation, and there was some nice separation between the instruments / textures on the electronic music, and good instrumentation placement (store track definitely had distinct 180 degree placement for all instruments). I found the sound quite and engaging/fun, with a good amount of texture and detail, but definitely noticed some thinness/graininess in the upper mid regions; their weakness in this area seemed to particularly stand out in comparison to their treatment of the instrumentation.
Beats Pro (I think -- it was something around $300) - Awful, simply awful. I listened to this because I went with a friend who was looking for female-vocal-focused headphones, and who was curious about why they were all the rage among the cool kids ... we both agreed that it completely destroyed the tracks we were listening to. It made the female vocals on "Defying Gravity" sound "as if the female leads had been cast with child actors", and the bass hits sounded as if someone had wrapped cloth around the percussion - no depth, no extension.
I also got the chance to listen to the Sennheiser HD800 ... which was frankly, amazing. Clearly I am not in the market for a $1,500 headphone, but the amount of texture, lushness, and detail that was present in the phones was just incredible, and I have no idea if I am describing the sound correctly. In the "Stonevalley" track all of the percussion and instrumentation was very articulate and responsive to small changes on the track, and yet integrated together to . Also, a truly surround sound experience
I decided to do a buy-and-try of two headphones not on display because of B&H's 30 day return policy, which they assured me they would honor. Currently burning in:
Sony ZX7000 - I bought these because I liked the balanced yet these sound really terrible out of the box, just kind of flat and boring; I hope that they will improve greatly after burn-in. It's been about a week of burn-in, so probably somewhere around 20 hours -- they do sound better, and the instruments have a lot of musicality and articulation, and the headphones overall are rather involving without sounding too 'dry' or 'colored (although a colored sound doesn't personally bother me), but it still sounds ... hmm, how to describe. Somewhat thin or "tinny" at times, to me. I suspect that's related to the fit of the headphones on my head: they feel pretty loose to me, especially near the bottom, and that's supported by the poor isolation I get with them (compared to what Joker reported on his review).
AKG 81DJ - I find that I liked this sound much more than I expected for <10 hours of burn in. Bass is definitely prominent (can "feel" it), but I did not find it too boomy or overwhelming ... it is extremely uncomfortable though. The soundstage is not great, but decent (better than the Senn HD-25 II, as far as I can tell), same with positioning (can tell when vocal overlays come in slightly to the right and left of the main voice) and everything else -- specific performance seems to vary from track to track, depending on how it's mastered. It definitely needs some padding up top to alleviate the hard plastic pressure on head. however, I *did* discover that despite this headphone being rated as one of the best in terms of sound isolation it is JUST NOT isolating enough for New York.
Because of this, I am seriously reconsidering going the IEM route since I am beginning to suspect that no OTE headphone will be good enough for me. I still have some hesitations about buying earphones blind, but I think the trade-off in terms of portability in isolation will *probably* be worth it. IEMs I am considering include:
Fischer Audio Eterna
Fischer Audio Silver Bullet
HiSound Audio Crystal
MEElectronics CC51
So, my immediate plan to improve my audio set up is:
- Buy an AMP/DAC to go with my laptop (probably the Fiio E10 or the iBasso D-Zero). I have an old Sennheiser 485 open headphones, and while the drivers are a bit worn out I am hoping that the addition of an amp will tighten up the bass somewhat and improve the audio signal.
- Demo the Beyerdynamic Pro 770 if they are on display (I might have missed them), Ultrasone HFI-40, and the M50 plus HD-25 (again) with the addition of a male vocal (probably rock) track, a hiphop track, and a jazz guitar track.
- Probably get an IEM.
Hope some other people who might be in a similar situation as mine find this post helpful!
