MacGP
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2010
- Posts
- 23
- Likes
- 0
First of all let me say hello to everyone at Head-Fi. I’ve been reading the forum for a couple of months now and finally decided to sign-up and join the discussions. I’d especially like to thank Skylab for his one-of-a-kind work on Head-Fi. The amount of information he passes though the detailed reviews and his extensive experience with many different setups, definitively has helped a lot.
OK then, let get to the issue at hand. I’m a total newb in all things related to headphones. Although I have been working in the Home Theater custom installation business for over 10 years I never really paid any attention to headphones. Closest thing I got to using headphones was when the Sony walkman first came out but that didn’t last for more than a month before engaging some other youth related trend.
Some years ago I decided to buy an iPod and find out what the deal was with these portable media players. Little did I know it would grow on me and become an essential accessory during my commutes or while doing slow and repetitive work. As most people do, I used the iPod with the included headphones which started falling apart a couple of years later. Enjoying the earbud style for it would allow to listen to ambient sounds and hear if someone calls me, the failing Ipod earbuds got replaced with some cheap Sennheiser MX500’s which seemed to sound better than the original Apple headphones and their included volume control allowed for quick on-the-fly volume adjustments. Last year I finally decided to give another set of headphones a try. I got a new set of Sennheisers HD202’s and was blown away with their sound quality in respect to earbuds. I know the HD202’s are far from respectable in this crowd, but from someone who has never used closed type headphones they sound great. It sure did help me to rediscover all the music stored on the IPod and to start worrying about bitrates and even lossless formats. Last month I decided to finally upgrade the iPod to something that could play lossless formats. I finally settled on the Nationite S:Flo2 which is essentially a rebranded Teclast T51 sould through one of the forum sponsors, mp4nation. It will be arriving sometime later this month/early April.
Along with the portable media player update I decided to get a new set of headphones as well, something better than the HD202’s. I have narrowed my choices down to the Grado SR60i and the Audio Technica ATH-AD700, both of which can be found online close to 80 bucks. These are my 2 main choices after reading endless forum topics, buyer’s guides, reviews, etc. Since I’m currently working in Colombia (South America) I’m left with a very narrow selection of headphones, mainly cheap earbuds and DJ oriented cans. There is no way for me to audition the above mentioned models, so I have to take a leap of faith and pull the trigger on either one to have them delivered though my shipping forwarder in Florida. Cost alone on the cans will increase by about 25% due to shipping costs and customs duties. I plan to use the new headphones with the Nationite S:Flo2/Teclast T51, listening mainly to jazz, chamber music, lounge/chillout, and female vocals. Nothing really heavy and only a few occasional rock or pop titles.
I’d appreciate if some of you would take the time to share your experiences/suggestions with either model based on my (very) limited headphone experience, personal media player choice and musical preferences.
Thanks
Update!
The Audio Technica ATH-AD700's were delivered about 2 weeks ago. I've been breaking them in and will post some impressions in a couple of days. So far I really like them.
OK then, let get to the issue at hand. I’m a total newb in all things related to headphones. Although I have been working in the Home Theater custom installation business for over 10 years I never really paid any attention to headphones. Closest thing I got to using headphones was when the Sony walkman first came out but that didn’t last for more than a month before engaging some other youth related trend.
Some years ago I decided to buy an iPod and find out what the deal was with these portable media players. Little did I know it would grow on me and become an essential accessory during my commutes or while doing slow and repetitive work. As most people do, I used the iPod with the included headphones which started falling apart a couple of years later. Enjoying the earbud style for it would allow to listen to ambient sounds and hear if someone calls me, the failing Ipod earbuds got replaced with some cheap Sennheiser MX500’s which seemed to sound better than the original Apple headphones and their included volume control allowed for quick on-the-fly volume adjustments. Last year I finally decided to give another set of headphones a try. I got a new set of Sennheisers HD202’s and was blown away with their sound quality in respect to earbuds. I know the HD202’s are far from respectable in this crowd, but from someone who has never used closed type headphones they sound great. It sure did help me to rediscover all the music stored on the IPod and to start worrying about bitrates and even lossless formats. Last month I decided to finally upgrade the iPod to something that could play lossless formats. I finally settled on the Nationite S:Flo2 which is essentially a rebranded Teclast T51 sould through one of the forum sponsors, mp4nation. It will be arriving sometime later this month/early April.
Along with the portable media player update I decided to get a new set of headphones as well, something better than the HD202’s. I have narrowed my choices down to the Grado SR60i and the Audio Technica ATH-AD700, both of which can be found online close to 80 bucks. These are my 2 main choices after reading endless forum topics, buyer’s guides, reviews, etc. Since I’m currently working in Colombia (South America) I’m left with a very narrow selection of headphones, mainly cheap earbuds and DJ oriented cans. There is no way for me to audition the above mentioned models, so I have to take a leap of faith and pull the trigger on either one to have them delivered though my shipping forwarder in Florida. Cost alone on the cans will increase by about 25% due to shipping costs and customs duties. I plan to use the new headphones with the Nationite S:Flo2/Teclast T51, listening mainly to jazz, chamber music, lounge/chillout, and female vocals. Nothing really heavy and only a few occasional rock or pop titles.
I’d appreciate if some of you would take the time to share your experiences/suggestions with either model based on my (very) limited headphone experience, personal media player choice and musical preferences.
Thanks
Update!
The Audio Technica ATH-AD700's were delivered about 2 weeks ago. I've been breaking them in and will post some impressions in a couple of days. So far I really like them.