[Mad Max]

Oh wow, a really good open-back from Pioneer.  I had to hear it.  It shines best with a desktop amp.
The cable is too damn long, sheesh.  I might shorten it later.
I also dampened the backside of the baffles and the driver with Dynamat Xtreme for less midtreble harshness and a tighter, cleaner sound with improved imaging. Edit: someone else here did as well but added less and in a slightly different manner
I love the comfort, too.
I don't find it similar enough to HD650 in character to call it a $49 650.  I think the sound resembles a Philips headphone I once tried, but better and more open.
 
Bass and soundstaging should improve some more by stiffening the pleather inner side of the earpads, but doing that with plasti-dip is such a time-consuming hassle (add a coat, let sit for an hour, add another, let sit for an hour - repeat until six coats).  I've got some 3M 1080 matte vinyl car tape, but it is too soft to use to stiffen the inner side.
 
Anyone tried similarly-proportioned velours in place of the stock cloth pads?  Beyer velours are too small and my K601's velours would require double-sided tape to stay, plus they are too deep and boost the bass along with the upper mids and lower treble (~4kHz-7kHz).

 

[GearMe]

Was listening to them on a netflix movie via my AVR and they did a great job, so darn good for the price.

 
Yeah...great for Movies!
 

The cable is too damn long, sheesh.  I might shorten it later.

 
I thought so at first...but am keeping it at full length because I can watch movies without blasting the 5.1 setup.  It's my only set of headphones (without a cable extension) that can plug into the AVR and have more than enough cable to make it to the couch on the other side of the room. 

 

[Mad Max]

 

[actorlife]

^^How is that working for you?

 

[Mad Max]

Very well.  Takes the mild edge off of the treble and and tightens the sound.  No drawbacks, not with the way I did it.

 

[Nemeske88]

These are indeed an outstanding phones. I often check the product line at the local shop, and it has just arrived. I usually check the phones with my iPod nano 2g, and these are just sounds amazingly linear and live! I can't even imagine how would it performs with a decent amplifier.

 

[kcisobderf]

Hello,
 
My Beyer DT770s gave out and I was bummed. Mostly cause I liked them a lot, but also I couldn't afford, right now, to spring for a new set. So I went Googling... I saw this thread and took a chance. Mine cost 60 through Ebay. Maybe I could have gotten them $10 cheaper elsewhere but shipping was free and the cans arrived 3 days early.
 
Initial impressions were a mild midbass hump and boosted highs. But I was using crappy noise cancelling headphones in the interim and my tastes might have been corrupted. After a few hours, it 's getting better. The bass doesn't match the 770s, but I'll deal.
 
Enya sounds bloated, might be still a slight midbass exaggeration. Listening to "The Chain" from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, I hear ride cymbal and bass drum pedal hardware rustling, seemingly the "hearing the engineer" a past poster mentioned. The chorus *was* on the edge of irritating. My system is never turned off so the headphones will always get power. I made a special "burnin CD" with frequency swept triangle waves. I'll run that over night and see what happens.
 
But a new go-to track for demoing: Debbie Harry's Rapture. It sounds *marvelous*. 
 
I'm using a Firestone Audio DAC and matching power supply for source. A Creek OBH-11 amp drives the phones. And a Behringer subharmonic synthesiser and BBE effects processor are in the signal path. They may need to be adjusted.
 
Thanks!

 

[Mad Max]

  Hello,
 
My Beyer DT770s gave out and I was bummed. Mostly cause I liked them a lot, but also I couldn't afford, right now, to spring for a new set. So I went Googling... I saw this thread and took a chance. Mine cost 60 through Ebay. Maybe I could have gotten them $10 cheaper elsewhere but shipping was free and the cans arrived 3 days early.
 
Initial impressions were a mild midbass hump and boosted highs. But I was using crappy noise cancelling headphones in the interim and my tastes might have been corrupted. After a few hours, it 's getting better. The bass doesn't match the 770s, but I'll deal.
 
Enya sounds bloated, might be still a slight midbass exaggeration. Listening to "The Chain" from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, I hear ride cymbal and bass drum pedal hardware rustling, seemingly the "hearing the engineer" a past poster mentioned. The chorus *was* on the edge of irritating. My system is never turned off so the headphones will always get power. I made a special "burnin CD" with frequency swept triangle waves. I'll run that over night and see what happens.
 
But a new go-to track for demoing: Debbie Harry's Rapture. It sounds *marvelous*. 
 
I'm using a Firestone Audio DAC and matching power supply for source. A Creek OBH-11 amp drives the phones. And a Behringer subharmonic synthesiser and BBE effects processor are in the signal path. They may need to be adjusted.
 
Thanks!

 
The effects probably aren't helping.  Neither is the OBH-11's 220ohm output impedance.

 

[Baycode]

Hi, I read nearly every page of this thread. But I have seen an unanswered question from the fellow head-fier @kramer5150
 

Originally Posted by kramer5150 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
reading through all the hype... who here doesn't think these cans are on par with the higher end designs?
 
In what ways to they fall short of the HD650, K701 and RS1?  I am looking for direct comparisons and the likes.
 
thanks!!

 
So after all these efforts on the information shares are there anybody out there to answer this question?

 

[Mad Max]

  Hi, I read nearly every page of this thread. But I have seen an unanswered question from the fellow head-fier @kramer5150
 
 
So after all these efforts on the information shares are there anybody out there to answer this question?

 
They fall short in everything.  Detail, tone quality, bass response, every possible aspect.  Except in soundstage size versus RS1 and comfort - the A1000 are very comfortable, and depending on the person, possibly the best at that.
You didn't read my post that I said that they are no HD650, either in character or quality.  I own both and K701.
 
Bass response is worse, imaging is worse, and so on and so forth.  Out of the crappiest headphone outs or budget portable headamps, SA1000 will probably trump them (as generally happens when one wants to use very low-end equipment with inefficient high-end headphones), but after taking them all up some notches with a good desktop amplifier, the K701, HD650, and RS1 hopelessly outclass the A1000.
 
Nobody is ever going to sell cans that are on par or close to HD6x0 and K70x for $50.  At that price, the A1000 is a no-brainer for a quality open-back headphone, nevertheless.  Definitely not for treble lovers.  Or if you want something nice and open to experiment with for modifications and all, A1000 is an okay choice there, too.
I'm going to use mine for some vintage ortho drivers later when I get around to it.

 

[Ari33]

Received my Pioneer Se-a2000's just yesterday. My first foray into open headphones and I certainly don't feel short changed. For $55 they really do punch far, far above their weight. Very comfortable and Imo they seem to have a slightly V shaped FR? which I am a fan of.
 
I wouldn't choose to use them with my portable devices as they do benefit massively and can easily handle much more power without any distortion and my TF10's are just much better suited for DAP use for other obvious reasons. (Size etc)
 
My Xonar Essence ST's modded headphone amp section in high gain (64-300 Ohm) gives a slight hiss with these but really brings out the best in them and gives the bass a lot more oomph, You could do your eardrums some serious damage with these if you weren't careful and got sucked into it increasing the volume to pre distortion levels..
 
Really pleased with these so far and might even buy a pair for my son.

 

[Dylan43270]

Hey guys,
 
I have lurked in this thread for awhile with not a definite answer (read through about 40 of the pages).
 
I have the Pioneer SE-A1000's and I am looking for a good bargain pair of headphones to pair with these, for you know, the bassier stuff. I am not looking for something with nothing but bass, but I am thinking a closed headphone is what I am going to be going for. I currently own some Jlabs Bombora headphones (bought a couple of years ago in an Amazon deal of the day) and they have decent bass, but they are not really quality headphones. So far these are the ones that I am thinking may be a good choice:
 
Superlux 681 Evo
Monoprice 108323
Creative Aurvana Live! Headphones
Koss ProDJ100
Sony MDR7506
JVC HARX500
 
Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
 
For rap/EDM there's _______, for everything else, there's Pioneer SE-A100's.
 
-Dylan

 

[Mad Max]

You are right to include the Aurvana Live!, I think, I would go for the Aurvana Live! 2 instead if possible, but know that I don't know if that really is your best option at these price points.

Scratch 7506 off of your list, that's not a basshead can.

 

[GearMe]

  Hey guys,
 
I have lurked in this thread for awhile with not a definite answer (read through about 40 of the pages).
 
I have the Pioneer SE-A1000's and I am looking for a good bargain pair of headphones to pair with these, for you know, the bassier stuff. I am not looking for something with nothing but bass, but I am thinking a closed headphone is what I am going to be going for. I currently own some Jlabs Bombora headphones (bought a couple of years ago in an Amazon deal of the day) and they have decent bass, but they are not really quality headphones. So far these are the ones that I am thinking may be a good choice:
 
Superlux 681 Evo
Monoprice 108323
Creative Aurvana Live! Headphones
Koss ProDJ100
Sony MDR7506
JVC HARX500
 
Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
 
For rap/EDM there's _______, for everything else, there's Pioneer SE-A100's.
 
-Dylan

 
So...making an assumption of $100 or less since that's around what the 7506s go for.
 
Until I lucked out and found the Denon D600s for $150, my research was leading me to the M-Audio Q40s which go for $98 on Amazon
 
 
FWIW, BestBuy is clearing out the Skullcandy MixMaster DJs which have gotten some good reviews on Head-Fi for $89.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/skullcandy-mix-master-dj-headphones/4919325.p?id=1218577511888 
 
Tyll's review here:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/skullcandy-mix-master

 

[Dylan43270]

Thank you both for your quick replies! I ended up going with some Panasonic RP-HTF600's as they seem to be quite well regarded, as well as they were only $30. I also purchased me a pair of SoundMagic E10's with Comply tips, and a cheap sound isolation earmuffs for a cheap alternative to noise cancelling headphones for when I am drumming or just wanting to be isolated from the rest of the world. I will let you guys know what I think of my decisions later.