elnero
Headphoneus Supremus
Or at least lifeless. I’ve had these for a couple of months now and even with the addition of a Cmoy I just can’t seem to really dig these things. There are times when I love them, mostly with more acoustic music like Sarah McLachlan and Nathan Wiley. With those there is a certain magic that just draws you into the music, low level detail retrieval is amazing, but on just about any other style of music that I listen to I find them rather slow and plodding. It’s like transients are rounded off and the bass is a bit behind the beat. Mix that with the recessed midrange and midbass hump, which I find quite distracting a lot of the time, and I just don’t think these are the phones for me.
I also have a pair of 280’s that, paired with the D25S and Cmoy, I really quite like. They’re not perfect by any means, while I find them to have a fairly flat frequency response, my personal taste would be for a slightly smoother treble and a bit more bass and more low level resolution. I do really like the better pace and drive, more upfront presentation, and overall detail is great.
So I’ve been thinking about selling the 580’s and picking up something else. I guess what I would be looking for would be to mix the best parts of the 280’s and the 580’s.
I know a lot of people will recommend a cable upgrade and/or a new amp but I have limited funds and I feel that in the long run, even with those improvements, the inherent nature of these phones won’t change and I would be wasting my money. (Even though I know there will be a significant improvement I really do have a hard time with the idea of spending more on a cable than the phones are worth.)
The phones that have intrigued me from reviews on here are the Audio Technica ATH-A100Ti’s or maybe the ATH-A900’s or the Beyerdynamics 770-250’s or 250-80’s. Grado’s I’m reluctant to try because I really don’t like anything overly bright. The 280’s can be a bit aggressive when paired with the wrong equipment and bad recordings so I wouldn’t want to go more in that direction.
Based on all this does anyone have any ideas on which might better suit my needs? Is there anything else out there that I’m overlooking?
I also have a pair of 280’s that, paired with the D25S and Cmoy, I really quite like. They’re not perfect by any means, while I find them to have a fairly flat frequency response, my personal taste would be for a slightly smoother treble and a bit more bass and more low level resolution. I do really like the better pace and drive, more upfront presentation, and overall detail is great.
So I’ve been thinking about selling the 580’s and picking up something else. I guess what I would be looking for would be to mix the best parts of the 280’s and the 580’s.
I know a lot of people will recommend a cable upgrade and/or a new amp but I have limited funds and I feel that in the long run, even with those improvements, the inherent nature of these phones won’t change and I would be wasting my money. (Even though I know there will be a significant improvement I really do have a hard time with the idea of spending more on a cable than the phones are worth.)
The phones that have intrigued me from reviews on here are the Audio Technica ATH-A100Ti’s or maybe the ATH-A900’s or the Beyerdynamics 770-250’s or 250-80’s. Grado’s I’m reluctant to try because I really don’t like anything overly bright. The 280’s can be a bit aggressive when paired with the wrong equipment and bad recordings so I wouldn’t want to go more in that direction.
Based on all this does anyone have any ideas on which might better suit my needs? Is there anything else out there that I’m overlooking?
