[IMAWolf]

Hmm, how are you guys amping them? So far the only thing i have planned for the coming months in terms of amping/source is the Centrance DACport since i'm getting a deal for them.

 

[ZenErik]

Just using a FiiO E10 for now. Probably not getting their full potential, to be honest. And I'm likely still in the burn in stages with the headphones at about 25 - 30 hours of use on them.
 
I've got a Matrix M-Stage w/ USB DAC coming in a few days. I'll let you know how and if the sound changes with that beast.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Sorry to bring up an old thread OP. Did you find what you were looking for? Only discovered Kalafina yesterday. Watching some of there songs on youtube, especially the live performances like "magia", all I can say is WOW. I've become and instant fan and my next headphone purchase will be based around this group. Mind boggling how good their vocals are. Can Kalafina and FictionJunction be considered audiophile music? 

 

[IMAWolf]

If you're one for vocals you may want to check out some of Sound Horizon's recent works.
 
Anyway, i eventually went for the HD598s from Sennheiser, they were great but the girlfriend hated the colour... so i got the W3000ANVs 

.
 
I found the HD598s a tad too romantic for Kalafina's work.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

ROFL! you jummped from the $200 HD 598's to the $800 w3000anv? Was there a massive difference? What do you mean by romantic? Were they too close? I thought Sennheisers were supposed to be laid back. And isn't the lack of air i.e closed back detrimental? I'm thinking of maybe going down the orthodynamic route. He-400 is the only one I can afford and the treble is said to be too rolled off.
 
Are sound horizon a group or composers like yuki kajiura?

 

[IMAWolf]

That's Head-fi for you by romantic i meant the bass was abit slow for some of the more upbeat songs from Kalafina, loose, if you will.

Sorry, i don't really know anything about orthos, my wallet begged me.

Anyway, Sound Horizon is a 'Fantasy band', its something like fictionjunction in the sense that one guy, Revo, does all the composing and gathers local singers to tour with him. What i found really cool was that each album tells a very complicated story that can be interpreted in a few different ways.

The main reason i recommended it was because you mentioned Kalafina vocals and some of sound horizon's songs share a similar style, if you're interested i can send you some links in a pm.

Meanwhile, let's let this thread die before we get banned or something.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

I think I know who you're talking about. I saw this one live performance video on youtube, it had lots of artists on board including Kalafina. At the end this really cool looking guy in a pirate uniform and Yuki kajiura sang the final bit of the song. I think the guy must;ve been revo. It was an awesome performance. 
 
**Edit : Found the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqTxwQCXPsA
 
Wouldn't mind if you throw some links my way. I was going to ask in the asian music thread for some more music of this type anyway as I want to expand my genre beyond the mainstream j-pop/rock music I listen to, and hopefully discover some audiophile material on the way.
 
You didn't mention how much of an improvement the w3000anv was over the 598. The W3000 would probably be my end game headphone. It's probably the best looking headphone I've seen from pictures, and the Japanese would coupled with the engraving "japan" just makes it extra special.
 
We can't get banned from this. We're still on topic but even if we derailed slightly, I've seen many other threads do the same.

 

[IMAWolf]

Yep, that's Revo. 

 
Comparing the HD598s to the W3000ANVs, the W3000ANVs are just much more dynamic, it somehow manages to produce very smooth, lush vocals yet maintain a high speed with the rest of the music. I found it a TREMENDOUS step up. It just sounds much more natural and involving than the H598s. I'm not really going to say much since audio-memory is by definition, horrible, IIRC, the HD558s and HD598s share similar traits, Headfonia compared them, http://www.headfonia.com/old-and-new-hd555-hd558-hd598/.
 
One point worth mentioning is that if you have glasses like me, it CAN get rather irritating after awhile as the pads press on the glasses, but that is true of any circumaural headphone, HOWEVER, i'm a head-fier, so i got contacts. 

 
I was looking around your siggy for something you have that i can compare to and.... you sold everything. 

 
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDF34082F211AF59D I liked tracks 5 and 7 the most. And for other music... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8ykQLYnX0,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhzJO34SCoc. 

 

[IMAWolf]

The W3000ANVs do tend to make me slightly paranoid though. *MUSTN'T....SCRATCH......BEAUTIFUL CUPS* 

 

[RayleighSilvers]

lol at £850 = $1347 I'd be pretty paranoid about it myself. Especially with no removable cable. Do you wear special snooker type gloves and have a separate wood cleaning kit? 

 
 
Which headphones could you relate to in my sig? I've sold the headphones because they just didn't do it for me, but I remember them quite well.
 
The HD 558's were my first step into audiophillia and complete dissappointment. The most I ever spent on a headphone for music was £20 for a pair of walkman IEM's, so when I got my £100 558's which was a massive buy, I was left thinking "is this it?". It was so boring and dull. Lacked any sort of energy. I don't know how anybody would/could like this headphone and I ended up selling it after a month because I couldn't cope with my music being sucked of their energy anymore. Headfonia seems to suggest that the 598 is a different pat for sennheiser because it's so bright compared to it's other models, so maybe the 598 would be the only headphone I would enjoy from the Senn range.
 
The Next ones were the CAL!'s. Congested, claustrophobic and overrated. A/Bing them with my panny's I could pickout slightly more detail, and they had more bass quantity, but the horrible comfort combined with the "stuck in a locked wardrobe" and the boomy bass that thickened the whole spectrum too much making it slow, I had to get rid of them.
 
The SR225i's were a bit of a breather for me after coming from the CAL's. Initially I thought they were great and the open back gave my music some air which I was desperately missing. Ironically the forward presentation didn't work very well with j-rock, especially Scandal. Rock is already loud and intense as it is, and grado's forward presentation and treble peak, everything sounded like a mess. It was too close in that you couldn't see the whole picture. The vocals and instruments were fighting each other to be heard, which resulted in none of them being heard properly. Overall quite an unpleasant and deafening experience. They seemed to work really well with j-pop though, which by nature is less harsh and in your face compared to rock.
 
One thing I did learn from the grado's, I have to have an open back sound. It just makes the music sound right to me, which is why I'm a bit surprised that AT's higher end models all seem to be closed back, like your w3000's for example. I would have thought the closed back sound would be detrimental to the music as it cuts out the air and limits the sense of space.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

I checked out the videos you recommended. No.7 wasn't really to my liking. Not really a jazz person. No.5 was cool. Although I don't speak Japanese I can appreciate the way he's trying to tell a story through his performances. No.4 was more to my liking, more of a rock theme. Is revo's music mastered properly? Once I upgrade my headphones I want to fill my library with more songs that'll make me appreciate what I've paid for. 
 
**Edit: Loving the pirate theme that seems to be prevalent in most of his songs. Especially No.6. What's the name of the Female singer? She's bloody brilliant.

 

[IMAWolf]

The female in 6 is Aramary.

The W3000ANVs don't really sound like closed backs to me, TBH. When i read through your impressions the only headphones that i can think of are the AD2000s, however, i don't have any experience with those. As usual, it would be best if you were able to find a place to audition headphones.

Hmmm, a thicker sounding SR225i.... If i were you i would've tried some damping and woody mods first. About the HD598s, i felt they were a pretty good bargain, but Sennheiser recently pushed up the price.

The AKG K701/702 were one of the first headphones recommended on here, the talk about their bass being anemic scared me off but you may want to give those a try too.

If i were you i'll find a place to try headphones, or an online store with a good return policy, sound is really subjective so i do feel a TINY bit queasy about throwing out recommendations.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Quote:

The female in 6 is Aramary.
The W3000ANVs don't really sound like closed backs to me, TBH. When i read through your impressions the only headphones that i can think of are the AD2000s, however, i don't have any experience with those. As usual, it would be best if you were able to find a place to audition headphones.
Hmmm, a thicker sounding SR225i.... If i were you i would've tried some damping and woody mods first. About the HD598s, i felt they were a pretty good bargain, but Sennheiser recently pushed up the price.
The AKG K701/702 were one of the first headphones recommended on here, the talk about their bass being anemic scared me off but you may want to give those a try too.
If i were you i'll find a place to try headphones, or an online store with a good return policy, sound is really subjective so i do feel a TINY bit queasy about throwing out recommendations.

lol don't worry about it. If you have any experience with any headphones you thought worked well with this genre then just throw them my way. I've learnt to take everything here with a grain of salt, and I know how much first hand experience is vital. The Denon D2000's for example. Gets recommended on just about every thread but I didn't find it anything special at all. My list of potential purchases has changed literally every 2 days with headphones that were previously on the list, going off and then coming back on with every comment or suggestion I read on these forums. There seems to be a lot of contradiction here, even silly ones like a headphone having "forward mids" and then  another person coming out and saying "recessed mids". The HE-400 currently tops my list at the moment, and I will be trying out the AD900 hopefully this week. My concern is the lack of bass. Kalafina's songs are very powerful and I love the feeling when the drums kick in, you can or rather should feel the vibrations.
 
There doesn't seem to be a lot of people who listen to similar genres like me so your experiences would be more relevant. 
 

 

[IMAWolf]

From my testing at Stereo Singapore i find that the AD900s are a very good match for their more upbeat songs like Magia and Red Moon,in fact, i preferred it to the AD2000s in some respects, like comfort. Something slightly thicker will be the HD600s with the foam mod.... And i do realize that everything i mentioned so far is way above budget. 

 
Blatant fanboying here but you probably won't go wrong with any of Audio Technica's offerings minus the AD700s. I'm currently waiting for a pair of ESW10JPNs to show up.
 
Just some thoughts, from my recent audition of the HE400s i find that it does everything really well, sound sig is quite suited for vocal-heavy music. But it weighs like a ton of bricks after the W3000ANV's wing system. 

 At the store (i spent like... 4 hours there before getting the W3000ANVs), everything was being run out of a Lehmann Black Cube so you should probably consider that. According to the sales guy the HE400s need a good amp to really shine.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Wow, you've actually tried a lot of headphones. More importantly the ones I am considering. I don't mind bias towards AT, I prefer to buy something Japanese to give it that extra special feeling. Problem with AT, everyone always say they were made for J-pop but they never mention which models. The Art series are said to have recessed mids, and the Air series have no bass. The M50 has a v shaped curve. The ESW10 look really nice but there doesn't seem to be any available. 
 
It helps that you actually tested the headphones with songs from Kalafina. Which headphones do you think pulled off magia and any other kalafina songs you tried off the best? I'm getting a mixed response from your feelings of the HE-400. Was it just the weight that dragged it down for you? And was the lack of treble a problem? The hifimans would probably be the top of my budget. I'm going to make a thread later to get some more opinions, but yours has been very helpful so far. Sorry if my questions are annoying you.