my 4 year old grado SR60 sounds much better than my new SR80i

[Ruron]

hi everyone,
i want to be careful before judging but today was my first day with sr80i and when compared against my still functioning four year old sr60 it just sounded considerably worse: harsh trebles, lower volume, overall flatter sound, and a smaller "stage".
I don't know if the "burn-in" will make a difference, i would like to be patient and give a chance, but i was expecting much better performance right out of the box.
just to be clear: the issue is not "in my head". when i had others compare the two set, they always picked the 60 over the 80. there is quiet apparent difference between the two.
does that overlap with anyone else's experience?
can burn -in make such a significant difference: will after 50-100 hours, the 80 will sound better than 60? i find this difficult to believe.
thanks

 

[kmhaynes]

Time, burn-in, etc will improve the sound of the SR80, some but not tons.  But lots of people love the SR60 over the rest of the Grado line.  Sometimes less is more.

 

[KT66]

along with the ATH-ES55 both criminally underrated

 

[Ruron]

thanks for your response.
well...interesting....i may be one of those i guess. or maybe it is a matter of getting used to the new sound (i think the ear needs to burn in more than the earphones) but i also asked few others in the office (who are not familiar with neither) to try them. and 60 was the preferred sound for all.
 
the 80 is much brighter and edgier...(so far)
the trebles are very disturbing to my ear.
i will report back.
i wasn't expecting miracles with a 20 dollar upgrade, but at least to hear something as good would have been fine. the 80 is so far a bit disappointing.

 

[mark_h]

That's because the 60's of old are excellent headphones!

 

[Ruron]

Quite amazingly, they have indeed improved....i still prefer the 60. But the sr80i is much less edgier than it used to be when compared right out of the box.
The first obvious difference is the volume. Believe or not the sr80i is now as loud as the 60. Out of the box, sr80i was 70-80% of sr60.
The 60 still sounds more natural to me.
Again, to make sure that this is not just in my head, I have asked colleagues at work to compare them. Their observations were similar.
So far I have played it around 10-15 hours...