[wallijonn]

Jon7,

Welcome to Head-Fi. Sorry about your wallet.

You may not want to base your first purchase on what has been lately said on this forum. Forget you have ever heard anything for or against any headphones. It's best if you audition them yourself and make a decision. As an outsider just joining us it may seem as if a lot of these guys are fighting, but actually a lot of these guys are friends and as part of the community have a lot of respect for each other.

Trends may come and trends may go, but chances are the HD600 will still be standing after all the dust has settled. And all the big boys will still be there, the Grados, Senns, Beyers, Stax, Sonys, ATHs, AKG, et. al. They're all be a little bloodied, but they'll all make up and go down to the pub for a cool one. So enjoy the HD600s, they're an awesome headphone.

 

[Maxvla]

Flavor of the month is most definately Sony CD3000.

 

[gaineso]

The HD600's are NOT perfect. No phone is. As many have stated, if you take every aspect of listening, including how comfortable they are to wear for extended periods, the HD will always come out very near the top.

Just put that system together kick back and ENJOY THE MUSIC!!!!!! You can experiment with all sorts of different components and find things you like about each one. You'll also find things you'll dislike about each one.

I sometimes get the impression that some people on this board are more interested in hardware than music. Nothing against that, but every piece of audio gear I've ever bought was for one purpose only. To listen to and enjoy music.

Yeah, you'll probably want to make upgrades. We all do. Set your priorities though and ENJOY what you have rather than worrying about what could MAYBE make it more enjoyable. It's all supposed to be about music, not hardware

Yeah, I would really like a Little/Premium Module. I'll probably get one this year. Meantime, I'm very happy with what I have and spending a lot of time and limited resources on my other passion, Low Frequency Boating and fishing.

And if you really want the INSANE ULTIMATE, get a stepped attenuater Blockhead with Cardas cable HD600. Also need that BAT CDP that Tyll had at the World of Headphones Tour. Totally insane price, but probably as close to perfect as current technology will get.

My $0.04

 

[grinch]

from what i've heard so far, the new at cans aren't worth my time. i'm pretty amazed at the huge run of threads about all these models of headphone that get blown out of proportion like crazy, but then they turn out to be crap. that whole moldy jvc headphone thing is a pretty nasty example.

i find it interesting that the majority of users interested in the new at cans are fairly new members, while most of the older head-fiers just stick to the venerable grado rs-1, hp-1000, and hd600/cardas/equinox. i could care less what at releases next, i'm saving up for stax.

 

[JonCovenant]

Well, the CD3000 may not be the King. That name may rightly belong to the Elvis, the R10 and the high end Stax. Maybe we should just consider the CD3000 to be the Crown Prince.

JC

 

[stan23]

Quote:

Originally posted by KR... Also, many times you will have a lot of sheepish people say bad things about certain headphones that they never even heard, and also say good things about headphones they never heard, all according to the current head-fi trend.

I fully agree. Thats why I tend to look into the posters profile right after they make a comment on a phone.

 

[TimSchirmer]

I'll take my HD600's over japanese wooden gimmicky headphones any day...

Long live the king!

 

[radrd]

I'm getting tired of some of you.

No one who has heard an ATH A1000 or W1000 has had anything bad to say about them. Yet you guys refuse to believe that they might possibly sound better than your beloved HD600. Talk about closemindedness. I've never heard an HD600 in a condition where I could make any firm value judgment, SO I DON'T. I don't know whether the HD600 or the W1000 sounds better, so I don't tell anyone that one is bad and the other is good.

Until you hear it (or at least have read something significant to base your opinion on), don't knock it because you sound like an elitist, closeminded, prick.

As far as the CD3000 goes, it should be obvious by now that people who like it generally have a system that makes it sound good and/or happen to like that type of sound better than the Sennheiser sound. I don't see any reason why there is any problem with that.

 

[LTUCCI1924]

radrd
HI: ROFL. In my house the ATH-A1000 are king. But I do own them and have listenend to them. I have ownd the 580s but sold them. But like DUNCAN has said to me as my source and amps get way better the 580s might sound much different now. In a way it would have been nice if I kept them to a/b. In a way I think that all headphones that sound great to the member are king. I just never knew that down the road I would get a much better source or a much better amp. I always seem to think this is it with what I have at the time.

 

[elnero]

Lou,

And then you come back here and find all new ways to spend your money. I guess we were all given fair warning.

 

[bangraman]

It's going to be hard to top the A1000 using even a 'cabled' HD600 I think. The more I listen to these the more I appreciate them. Although I don't know what the Cardas cables do, with my sources the HD600's were very good. However the A1000 is better to me... especially for classical music you can almost taste the resin on the strings

Whether they are really better for you or not, it's easy to say that the A1000's reveal far more than the HD600. After all I didn't notice a ground loop on my amp with the HD600 that I pinpointed straight away with the A1000!
It opens up the whole open vs closed debate once again but for my environment, and my listening tastes, the A1000 is considerably superior to the HD600.

 

[Kieran Comito]

Quote:

Originally posted by bangraman It's going to be hard to top the A1000 using even a 'cabled' HD600 I think. The more I listen to these the more I appreciate them. Although I don't know what the Cardas cables do, with my sources the HD600's were very good. However the A1000 is better to me... especially for classical music you can almost taste the resin on the strings Whether they are really better for you or not, it's easy to say that the A1000's reveal far more than the HD600. After all I didn't notice a ground loop on my amp with the HD600 that I pinpointed straight away with the A1000! It opens up the whole open vs closed debate once again but for my environment, and my listening tastes, the A1000 is considerably superior to the HD600.

I agree. The A 1000 and I'm the W 1000 are definately phones that are in the same leauge as the HD 600s, and in my opinion is better than the HD 600. As a matter of fact, it seems like everyone on Headfi who has heard the A 1000 likes it better than the HD 600. That should stand for something shoudln't it?Granted, I have not heard the HD 600 hooked up to the very top of the line Headroon amps, but I have heard it hooked up to an MG Head OTL and a Sugden Headmaster for the better part of a year. So on comparable equipment, the A 1000 is better. I lost the adaptor to my A 1000 so I could not plug it into my amp for my listening session last night. I had to go with the HD 600. After two songs I stopped listening. I just can't go back to thier sound after getting a taste of the A 1000 for the last 3 weaks. I ended up watching tv instead. I still have not found my adaptor, but I am going to keep looking until I find it.

 

[gdahl]

Recently I had the W-100, HD600 and W-1000 available all at once for extended listening and comparison. I enjoyed them all. Eventually, the HD600 was returned to its owner. I sold the W-100 and kept the W-1000.

There is no question in my mind that the W1000 is an improvement over the W100. 'Refinement' is an excellent word to describe the difference. The W1000 has better performance at the frequency extremes, better tonal balance, and holds together over a wider dynamic range. I wouldn't criticize A-T for such an accomplishment!

There are probably several factors leading to the "chain" of headphone designs from A-T. For one thing, the woodwork is crafted by hand, in batches. The cosmetic match between units within a batch is quite impressive. When it is time to make a new batch, the next piece of wood is probably different. Instead of trying to make them the same, the opposite approach seems to be taken, and with it comes a new model. I would imagine the makers take some pride in their results, and enjoy the opportunity to create new variations.

Another factor is probably the nature of the Japanese market, and the way "new" is valued. Just a guess, but we certainly know that A-T doesn't market them in the US.

Anyway, I think the choice between the W100 and HD600 is more a matter of personal preference than the inherent superiority of one over the other. One must also consider that the two units make different types of demands on the amplifier, which means in some cases, a big portion of the difference you would hear would be the amp's reaction to the headphone. The A-T's will draw more current: can the amp meet the need without strain? The HD600 requires its amp to drive a high impedance, also a task that causes some amps to fall short at times.

For me, the W1000, outperformed both the W100 and HD600, significantly enough to put it a step higher than the latter two units.

I hope to hear a modified/tweaked HD600--perhaps that will change my rankings. But I can only compare units I have actually heard!

 

[amdrulez]

Quote:

Originally posted by stan23 I fully agree. Thats why I tend to look into the posters profile right after they make a comment on a phone.

I don't think that someone's profile by itself is an accurate way to judge the validity of a comment. A lot of people on this forum have heard good cans that they don't own, and often times those cans are never mentioned in their profiles.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by amdrulez I don't think that someone's profile by itself is an accurate way to judge the validity of a comment. A lot of people on this forum have heard good cans that they don't own, and often times those cans are never mentioned in their profiles.

Alas, the profiles only mention the cans we own now. There are a good number of headphones and amps that some people have owned and sold, and are well-qualified to speak about, that can only be determined by going through their posting history.