Here's my impressions:
SR225 & woody - these were the first phones I listened to of the evening. I spent a good deal of time A-B'ing the SR225 and SR225 woody's on Xanadu's PPA. Going into the meet, I had pretty much decided the 225 or 325 would be my next headphone, but this changed later. The 225's are an already excellent phone and has the Grado sound, which I really like and have listened to the most (SR60 though). I liked the woody mod so much better, it brought out the highs a bit more (which is a LOT of highs) and solidified the bass. I really liked it overall, and I kept comparing them to other phones the rest of the evening.
HD600, HD650, and HD600 woody - I also heard the HD600, HD650 w/ cable upgrade, and HD600 woody for the first time at the meet. For me, I was really annoyed at the Sennheiser's lack of 'grado highs.' The SR225 woody really ruined Senns for me, the treble was too spoiling to my ears
Although I loved the detail in the lower mid and better bass of the Sennheisers, the treble was just too recessed for my tastes on many of my selections. I would definitely consider getting a pair of HD600's and cable upgrade or the full woody upgrade, but they wouldn't be primary phones for me. I would probably use them for classical and some rock.
Woody mod: I was really impressed with the HD600 woody over the stock HD580, stock HD600, and a HD650 w/ cable upgrade. Larry's cable does an excellent job of improving the range. The whole setup seemed to extend the range both of treble and bass, and was a bit more agressive overall. I liked them much better than stock in every aspect. I expected converting them from mostly open to partially enclosed to kill the imaging, but it didn't.
The biggest surprise of the night was listening to the Flaming Lips track "Fight Test" with the
HD600 woody's and Xtreme's mu-follower tube amp. The amp seemed to really drive those senns well, it was probably the best matchup of the night. The amp's tube warmth really sweetened up the Lips guitar and vintage synths, it was simply beautiful. The imaging was excellent, unlike anything I had heard before for that track.
As a final note, I don't think I could ever listen to a stock Sennheiser without a cable upgrade. My recommendation to anyone buying HD600's is to factor a cable upgrade or Larry's full woody mod into the planned cost.
K1000
This was probably my favorite overall headphone of the night. I don't know how to describe them, they have a wonderful range both in treble and midbass, decent bass. The imaging is phenomenal, very close to electrostats. In fact, it was so good, I just had to throw in my favorite Juno Reactor CD "Bible of Dreams" and listen to half of it because the imaging simply blew me away. This was the first time I feel I heard the limitations of the mastering in that recording! Every time I listen to any of the Juno Reactor cd's on better phones, its like there's another dimension in the imaging and secondary melodies I couldn't hear before. If there was a perfect headphone, I think this would be it (at least for me). I don't think I'd buy the HE90 or Omegas over the K1000 if they cost just $500 more. For what I listen to, the K1000's are every bit as good.
Orpheus vs Omega
Sennheiser HE90 all the way. They just image better, and are -sweet- with electronic stuff. Not much else to say here, except that maybe I was expecting more. The K1000's stole the bacon for me on electrostats.
Audio Technica ATH-A900
Ah yes, I had never heard an audio technica phone before, and was intrigued. The first thing I though was "these don't sound closed." The treble was much better than my regular closed phones (sony v6) and approached Grado's. They were nowhere near the SR225 woody for treble, but I liked them better than Sennheisers. The bass was nice and tight. I'm used to closed phones sounding a bit sloppier from resonance in the bass, and it was an improvement over the HD280 and Sony V6 in my opinion. Overall, these phones really suited my ears well, and sounded wonderful for my electronic selections. At $199, I think these are going to be on my desk at work for their sound quality and an excellent overall closed phone. I -really- want to hear an upgraded cable on these.
and V6 is NOT a 7506 - I was a believer that they were the same. They most definitely are not. The 7506's sounded much clearer, especially in the treble. I listened to the 7506's first, and they sounded better than what I remembered of my V6's. I then dug out my V6's and A-B'd them on 2 or 3 tracks, and the 7506's were noticably clearer on every track. These are NOT THE SAME PHONES.
