Grado PS-1: Oh, my, goodness. I almost had a heart attack listening to these. Simply the most engaging headphone out of all the headphones I've ever heard. I've been ranting with glee and fury over the past few hours to a number of my Head-Fi friends. Gah, I can't believe how wonderfully beautiful they sound with female vocals (pop, rock, jazz, whatever)
AKG K701: I wanted to confirm whether I liked the K701 or not out of another amp and source. It's a great headphone indeed, but it just doesn't have the engaging feel to it. Good and balanced in my opinion. Lacking in musicality at times.
Audio-Technica ATH-AD2000: These were my favorite headphones (other than the SA5000) under $500. Today I heard them out of the Luna and the PPX3 SLAM 6SN7. I've changed my opinion regarding these headphones somewhat. They are smooth sounding indeed, but the tonality is a bit off; it's a little bit dark sounding and doesn't have enough PRaT for my liking. It's so strange, I was so in love with these headphones before. I enjoy the midrange bloat a little bit, but it had neither the toe-tapping nor the soul-moving ability some other cans have.
Sennheiser HD650 with Moon Audio Silver Dragon: I listened to these out of the PPX3 SLAM 6SN7. I am shocked by how good these sound. I had a HD650 before (before I had the SLAM), and they just sounded kind of lame and veiled. No more. The Silver Dragon and the PPX3 SLAM really lifted the veil. The timbre and tonality of voices and instruments was very enjoyable. I must say that recabling works wonders after all and what people say about the Singlepower-Sennheiser synergy is no joke.
Balanced Sennheiser HD650 Moon-Audio Silver Dragon: Balanced. Wow, what a difference. I listened to these out of the Moon Audio Luna balanced amp. So much more control, and some serious PRaT kicked in. Same as above (tonality and timbre were great) with the unbalanced. I love them. I'm now realizing why there are numerous people who have tried many headphones over the years and end up with balanced HD650s in the end.
Ultrasone Edition 9: I came to the meet wanting to hear these babies. But I never did. Wow, I don't know what I was thinking. I really wanted to hear these since I thought they might just be what I wanted. I could definitely see that the headband was on the tight side of things though.
Stax Omega II: Just as I remembered. Nothing wrong here. Great sound coming out of a great headphone. Music in, music out. However, also just as I remembered, it was not as engaging as I would have liked in a headphone.
Stax 404: Brighter than I had expected. (I heard these a while back but didn't remember them so top-heavy.) Not much weight down in the bass department, but it had good speed as expected. However, not as euphonic as I would have desired.
Stax Sigma Pro: Haha, these were my cans, and I had never heard them until now! So what to say? The Sigma Pros are one of the peculiar cans I have ever heard. The imaging and soundstage is creepily amazing as expected from a headphone where the drivers are mounted in front of your ears (sort of like the K1000). But unlike the K1000, the Sigma Pro is a bass monster! The rich bass and impact just flows into your ear while retaining typical electrostatic control. I found a certain degree of inner detail, which Spritzer had once mentioned to me about, in the sound of the Sigma Pro that I could not find in the 404 but was quite apparent in the Omega II. The Sigma Pro however is extremely hard to drive. I had to turn up the dial on the amp up. When the 404 was connected to the same amp, they were at deafening volumes. The highs of the Sigma Pro are rolled off and thus making the headphone sound somewhat dark but yet rich. I was going to sell these cans before ever having heard these, but Hirsch told me to at least give them a try; he likes them and thinks they have their particular strengths. Hirsch and a few others also told me that it takes a while for the Sigma Pro to charge up (much longer than any of the other electrostats), and indeed that was the case here. While the 404 sounded pretty good right off the bat, when I first put the Sigma Pro on at the beginning of the meet, the sound was weak and uncontrolled. When I put on the cans later on however, the sound had reached the control and precision associated with electrostats. Overall though, I can't help but say that I can't keep the Sigma Pro. It takes a nice electrostatic amp to drive them and I can't afford to keep both a dynamic rig and an electrostatic rig at the same time.
Stax SR-X MKIII Foam Removed: Hah. A lot better than my stock one. The PRaT and bass kicks in, and it sounds plain good. Timbre is flawless as expected. Simply one of my favorite headphones. I have to say though, the custom built integrated amplifier that was brought to the meet and was used to drive the SR-X MKIII was simply phenomenal. I was shocked.
Moon-Audio Luna: A wonderful amplifier indeed. Great control and very smooth sounding. I didn't spend much time comparing the amplifier to other amps, but I must say that I liked it. My listening experiences with amplifiers however is on the limited side of things, so I can't provide much in terms of in-depth comments.
