renlute
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2009
- Posts
- 170
- Likes
- 13
First off -- thanks a million to Voltron for a super organizing job!!
And to the friendly Head-fi'ers who let me try their phones and amps. This was my first meet, and it accomplished my purpose admirably in just a couple hours. I'd been wondering if I could hear the difference between my phones -- not bad ones (AKG K240S and K240DF) -- and more expensive phones with audio-quality amps. Sure enough. Now I know better what I need in the way of an upgrade.
For my purposes, which is primarily monitoring orchestral arrangements that I make in notation software and play back with sampled orchestral sounds, I need detail-oriented cans that let me focus on the source. To me the AKG K701 sounded best all round, though I was only able to sample a few of the several dozen cans on hand. Listening to the clarinet solo opening of Rhapsody in Blue, the instrument sounded warm, rounded, natural with the 701s, while with my 240 pair there seemed to be some slightly unpleasant distortion.
I also tried Beyerdynamic 990s, 880s and 770s, really dramatically different in themselves. The bass presence in the 880s was overwhelming after the AKG phones. A big, warm, enveloping sound that could probably please a pleasure listener, but not at all what I'm after. Then it was a shock to hear the 770s on the same piece (a Beethoven piano concerto). Too bright, almost thin in comparison. I wouldn't have guessed it was the same manufacturer. My impression was more positive after a couple minutes' listening. I began to get the idea that it may not be fair to any of these cans to make a definitive judgment after a brief listen.
After half a year of reading curiously on this forum about the Sennheiser HD800, I could finally spend a few minutes listening to the can of cans. Unfortunately ambient noise and chatter (the Laphroig had been flowing for quite some time by late afternoon......) interfered with objective judgment, but my initial impression was that these are a very impressive instrument that would reward a lot more listening than I had time for at the end of the day. I hope next time to be able to do with the 800s what I managed to do for the better part of an hour with the two K240 models and the K701 -- switch back and forth between them while listening to the same music.
The amp aspect is a bit more daunting than headphone evaluation -- so many boutique brands to keep track of. There were probably more different amplifiers than phones on hand, scads of them. Justin's GS-1 amp which I listened through for quite a while was clean as a whistle. I didn't manage to compare it with others, unfortunately. Thanks to jdmoorman for the comparison of solid state and tube amp differences (and to the Beyer phones).
So -- when's the next meet?
And to the friendly Head-fi'ers who let me try their phones and amps. This was my first meet, and it accomplished my purpose admirably in just a couple hours. I'd been wondering if I could hear the difference between my phones -- not bad ones (AKG K240S and K240DF) -- and more expensive phones with audio-quality amps. Sure enough. Now I know better what I need in the way of an upgrade.
For my purposes, which is primarily monitoring orchestral arrangements that I make in notation software and play back with sampled orchestral sounds, I need detail-oriented cans that let me focus on the source. To me the AKG K701 sounded best all round, though I was only able to sample a few of the several dozen cans on hand. Listening to the clarinet solo opening of Rhapsody in Blue, the instrument sounded warm, rounded, natural with the 701s, while with my 240 pair there seemed to be some slightly unpleasant distortion.
I also tried Beyerdynamic 990s, 880s and 770s, really dramatically different in themselves. The bass presence in the 880s was overwhelming after the AKG phones. A big, warm, enveloping sound that could probably please a pleasure listener, but not at all what I'm after. Then it was a shock to hear the 770s on the same piece (a Beethoven piano concerto). Too bright, almost thin in comparison. I wouldn't have guessed it was the same manufacturer. My impression was more positive after a couple minutes' listening. I began to get the idea that it may not be fair to any of these cans to make a definitive judgment after a brief listen.
After half a year of reading curiously on this forum about the Sennheiser HD800, I could finally spend a few minutes listening to the can of cans. Unfortunately ambient noise and chatter (the Laphroig had been flowing for quite some time by late afternoon......) interfered with objective judgment, but my initial impression was that these are a very impressive instrument that would reward a lot more listening than I had time for at the end of the day. I hope next time to be able to do with the 800s what I managed to do for the better part of an hour with the two K240 models and the K701 -- switch back and forth between them while listening to the same music.
The amp aspect is a bit more daunting than headphone evaluation -- so many boutique brands to keep track of. There were probably more different amplifiers than phones on hand, scads of them. Justin's GS-1 amp which I listened through for quite a while was clean as a whistle. I didn't manage to compare it with others, unfortunately. Thanks to jdmoorman for the comparison of solid state and tube amp differences (and to the Beyer phones).
So -- when's the next meet?
