[Deolum]

For me the totl tier didn't really improve over the last 10 years. You have more options to choose from, that's for sure. Planars emerged and brought more robust, less maintenance totl to the market. But soundwise...

I think the mid tier is way more interesting. Think about Sundaras with any capable Chinese dac/amp. You basically get a full fetched, 90% there kind of experience for 600$ now.

But Sundaras are not better than 20 years old HD600/650.

The only thing modern headphones improved drastically in is in low impedance models and mobile use.

 

[DuncanDirkDick]

But Sundaras are not better than 20 years old HD600/650.

Depends on the perspective. Bass response is way better on Sundara and I tend to prefer that. They EQ well, too. But I can see people preferring HD650.

 

[number1sixerfan]

I agree that the prices are insane and ridiculous, 100%. But I'm not aware of a single headphone from 20 years ago that can do what the Sr1a (in comparison, the K1000 for example is just nowhere near as good) or TC (I can't even think of a headphone to compare this one to) can. Susvara reminds me a lot of the HD650, but it's extremely better than it was. It's also better than the HD800.

So yea, I wouldn't agree at all that the offerings aren't better today than they were back then.

 

[iamoneagain]

I had the Grado PS1 for a number of years way back when. I loved them except for the fit. They felt quite heavy and the pressure of the pads hurt after an hour or so. And didn’t have this issue with the Grado RS1.

I eventually sold them for the L3000 because I was looking for the best closed headphones that sort of had that Grado sound. I thought they sounded great and even got the matching wooden panel amp. The strange thing is some people that heard the L3000 hated the sound and found it too colored. For the type of music I listened to, the PRAT was amazing. I kept these headphones for about 13 years or so. The only reason I sought out new TOFL headphones is I picked up a pair of Grado SR225 for work and made me realize that I missed open headphones. Just more air to everything.

I decided to sell off the L3000 and amp and try the Focal Utopia’s, without ever hearing them before. I even ended up with a Chord Dave/mscaler combo to try and get the best out of them. I found them much better than the L3000 on details and airiness. Vocals were noticeably better. Only from memory would I say they were probably closer to the PS1 sound than the L3000. Everything is very fast and punchy. Very engaging. I eventually realized I didn’t need the Chord combo behind them and got a Naim Uniti Atom HE. There’s something about synergy. This gives them that PRAT type sound I got with the L3000 but with the improvements the Utopia’s bring as far as details and resolution.

After this 20 year span, at some point I think I might need to try the Grado RS1 again. Not sure how they’d hold up but that’s really the first high end headphones that caught my attention. I started with the Sennheiser HD650 and they were very lush but too relaxed for rock music.