bifcake
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2002
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I just came back from the meet at Grado Labs, which was organized by Bozebuttons and hosted by John Grado. I wanted to share my impressions of the various equipment I got to sample at the meet as well as general impressions.
First and foremost, John Grado is a really gracious host and a hell of a nice guy.
Bozebuttons has got ALL the toys!
Now on to my impressions:
1. After comparing Clou Red, Clou Blue Equinox and Cardas cables with the Sennheisers 580s and 600s, we had gotten a general consensus that the Equinox are the best sounding of the bunch. Clour red is uneven in its frequency response, clou blue is a modest improvement over the stock cable and the Equinox is the best balanced sounding cable. The Cardas is between Equinox and Clou Red.
2. Cary Integrated Amp is the superior headphone amp beating out Headroom Max and Blockhead. It's the most musical, sweetest and non-fatiguing sounding. We did an A/B comparison of the blockhead and Cary from a Sony DVD player serving as a transport and a Levinson 36s DAC. Cary amp is AWESOME!
3. Grado phones are faster than Senns. They tend to be on the bright side though. Senns are more mellow sounding, with better sound stage and deeper bass. I can see why people like Grados though. If you like your music a bit on the bright side, they're terrific, fast and effortless. It's easy to tell that a lot of love goes into producing the Grado phones. Many people wrote that Grados are uncomfortable. I didn't find that to be the case at all. They were light and sat on my ears well.
4. Meta 42 (almost all out) and Creek OBH-11 sound very much the same. There are very subtle differences, and it was difficult to say which one is better.
5. Corda (not portable) is a nice little amp. It sounds almost as good as the Sungen for half the cost. The Sungen is a bit fuller sounding.
6. Grado RA-1 is a nice amp as well. Very neutral, clear and fast. I would have to do an A/B comparison with the Corda to say which is better. I didn't get a chance to do that.
7. John Grado built a pair of speakers (prototype) which utilize 74 headphone drivers in two towers, which use their own subs for lower frequencies. The speakers were to die for!!! Very clear, and mellow, non-fatiguing sound, lovely highs, beautiful midrange and seamless crossover. The bad news is that there are no plans to make them available for sale. Instead, John Grado prefers to concentrate on manufacturing and improving his phono cartridges. I believe we should threaten to storm the Bastille if these speakers aren't made available to the general public. Vive l'audiophile!
8. NYChead has GREAT taste in classical music.
9. Grado SR40's are now my standard for portable headphones. They easily beat out Koss ksc-35's, which are quite good. The SR-40s provide good isolation, terrific midrange, good highs and decent bass in a nice looking set of portable phones (not a traditional Grado design). Best of all, they go for $40. Terrific value!
10. I didn't particularly care for the AT 2002. They were too bright, too thin and paled compared to Sennheiser and Grado offerings.
That's about it for now. That's all I can remember for the moment. There was other stuff that I'll write about as it comes back to me.
First and foremost, John Grado is a really gracious host and a hell of a nice guy.
Bozebuttons has got ALL the toys!
Now on to my impressions:
1. After comparing Clou Red, Clou Blue Equinox and Cardas cables with the Sennheisers 580s and 600s, we had gotten a general consensus that the Equinox are the best sounding of the bunch. Clour red is uneven in its frequency response, clou blue is a modest improvement over the stock cable and the Equinox is the best balanced sounding cable. The Cardas is between Equinox and Clou Red.
2. Cary Integrated Amp is the superior headphone amp beating out Headroom Max and Blockhead. It's the most musical, sweetest and non-fatiguing sounding. We did an A/B comparison of the blockhead and Cary from a Sony DVD player serving as a transport and a Levinson 36s DAC. Cary amp is AWESOME!
3. Grado phones are faster than Senns. They tend to be on the bright side though. Senns are more mellow sounding, with better sound stage and deeper bass. I can see why people like Grados though. If you like your music a bit on the bright side, they're terrific, fast and effortless. It's easy to tell that a lot of love goes into producing the Grado phones. Many people wrote that Grados are uncomfortable. I didn't find that to be the case at all. They were light and sat on my ears well.
4. Meta 42 (almost all out) and Creek OBH-11 sound very much the same. There are very subtle differences, and it was difficult to say which one is better.
5. Corda (not portable) is a nice little amp. It sounds almost as good as the Sungen for half the cost. The Sungen is a bit fuller sounding.
6. Grado RA-1 is a nice amp as well. Very neutral, clear and fast. I would have to do an A/B comparison with the Corda to say which is better. I didn't get a chance to do that.
7. John Grado built a pair of speakers (prototype) which utilize 74 headphone drivers in two towers, which use their own subs for lower frequencies. The speakers were to die for!!! Very clear, and mellow, non-fatiguing sound, lovely highs, beautiful midrange and seamless crossover. The bad news is that there are no plans to make them available for sale. Instead, John Grado prefers to concentrate on manufacturing and improving his phono cartridges. I believe we should threaten to storm the Bastille if these speakers aren't made available to the general public. Vive l'audiophile!
8. NYChead has GREAT taste in classical music.
9. Grado SR40's are now my standard for portable headphones. They easily beat out Koss ksc-35's, which are quite good. The SR-40s provide good isolation, terrific midrange, good highs and decent bass in a nice looking set of portable phones (not a traditional Grado design). Best of all, they go for $40. Terrific value!
10. I didn't particularly care for the AT 2002. They were too bright, too thin and paled compared to Sennheiser and Grado offerings.
That's about it for now. That's all I can remember for the moment. There was other stuff that I'll write about as it comes back to me.