Well it's been nearly a month so I guess it's time to report a few words on these things!
There were no taxes/customs charges, the total was $1140 AUD delivered to me, took about a week.
So.
I freakin love them.
Haven't posted till now as I've been to busy, and wanted to get to know them first and try a few things.
These are my first Grado, other cans I know well are DT-880 and 990, ER-4, KSC-75 and top end Sony buds.
Where to start. I got them in a big white box, they were wrapped in lots of bubble wrap. They are smaller than I though they would be, no bad thing. Much much lighter than expected too, which is great.
They are very high quality. Better made than I was expecting, but not perfect, which is ok as they are hand made, and it doesn't bother me at all.
The 2 things less than perfect are the splitter, the wood is "missing" a tiny chunk:
and one of the rod ends has its hole slightly off center:
adds character.
and honestly not noticeable unless your looking. I wouldn't even call it flaws, just some uniqueness.
First listen. Bright. No isolation with stock bowls.Revealing, forward, up front sound. Not much bass (later changed my mind, maybe after burn in?). Comfortable to wear. Punchy, great impact, what I wanted. Warm. Good soundstage, lots of air and so on and so forth. They sound fast too.
Makes DT-990 sound muffled, like it's in another room.
Very easy to drive. I use my PC, Flac and 320 mp3, AV-710 optical out, Coem modded Lite DAC-AH, Xin SMacro IV.
Or iAudio X5 and Xin.
Sounds much better through the PC set up. Can really hear big differences in opamps on the Xin too. Need to spend more time on this.
The HHF-1 needs much less power than the other cans I have/had. The X5 with no amp drives them painfully loud, but it sounds much better with the Xin.
Because I found the bass a bit thin to begin with, and because I found bowls uncomfy, I bough the C-Pads from Cantsleep:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=212225
and man, they Really Fix the bass! with all the plugs in, after I rebuilt the c-pads and sealed them together perfectly, and with fresh blu tac holding them in place, they pump like I imagine Darths might do, but presumably with more boom. With the plugs out they are fine, and very comfy with better isolation, but as others have said, the sound is better with stock bowls.
I will still use both now and then I think, but Im used to the bowls now and am silencing my PC so might not use the c-pads much. We'll see.
I don't know if it's burn in (I have left them on for probably 200 hours by now) or all in my head, or if I'm just used to them, but the stock bass is actually great, it's deep enough, maybe to 30 - 40 Hz, and at a very nice level. I think that the bright presentation took my attention away from the bass at first and now that I'm used to the treble and mids, the bass is more obvious. I don't actually need more bass than with the stock bowls. Still, you can never have to much bass if it's good bass, right.
Would still like some Darth's one day.
I got a Beyer 770/880/990 headband as I heard that they increase comfort, it does, but they HHF-1 was never uncomfortable there for me anyway. Only thing I had to get used to was supra aural (?) pads pressing on my ears. Used to it now. I also got annoyed with the earpieces turning around and twisting. Even though these have rod locks, when I store them they sometimes get twisted the wrong way. So I tied some pink ribbon between the headband and drivers until I come up with a better idea. Maybe a more suitable colored ribbon or something. Now they can't twist around.
I have been storing them in a case I bough tfor $40 AUD from a camera store, works great:
I really love listening to my MUSIC now, finally ignoring the equipment
and really enjoying music, both stuff thats new to me and very and old. Truly, absolutely everything sounds better on these than any other cans I've heard so far. I think I might sell the 990's as I never use them anymore and don't think I will. Anyone want to part trade on a Meier H5? Before I got the HHF-1 I sold the 880 and kept the 990 because they are more fun and I wanted some cans for movies and fun music but the HHF-1 is just better everywhere. I do really like the 990, but why drive a lotus when you have a Lamborghini
.
Okay, I know there are still better cans out there and soon I will want them all too, I still check the FS forum for L3000! Among others. But for now I'm happy.
Thanks Larry!
