Senn HD480 any good?
Nov 6, 2008 at 5:17 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 2

gjw397

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A recent move and newly arrived children have left me with nowhere safe to set up my speakers. As an alternative, I've been looking into getting a decent pair of headphones.

I've got Sennheiser HD480s which I've had since the age of 11(!) and more recntly PXC250s, which I use at work.

My plan is to move towards a streamed FLAC system (using something like a squeezebox), with a seperate DAC and headphone amp at the front end, which leaves me with one or two questions:

- I've been fortuante enough to have a reasonable pre/power amp set up with floorstanding speakers for a while (Hafler/Musical Fidelity and Triangle respectively). How much am I going to have to spend on a headphone/amp setup to get into a similar performance league? Any recommendations?

- Does anyone remember HD480s? I'm assuming that things have moved on a bit in 20 years and it's worth getting new phones first and then adding a DAC/amp later as funds allow? I quite liked the sound of Senns when I last listened around, and had been looking at HD650s, they seem to be a resonable balance between price/performance - is it worth spending more/less?

Sorry to post so many questions in one go, but I've been reading up for a few weeks now and thought that putting it all into context would help.
 
Nov 7, 2008 at 12:17 AM Post #2 of 2
Quote:

Originally Posted by gjw397 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Does anyone remember HD480s?


Yes. Had them and the HD480II in the early '90's. Still have the HD480. Very nice tonal response in the midrange but lacks bass extention and treble is very hooded and lacks sparkle. But for Sennheisers, you'd probably have to go up to the HD555 to match or surpass them. If on a budget, you might want to consider the PX100. It has better bass and treble than the 480 (but I don't think it's midrange is nearly as good as the 480). If you like those, then you can move up the Senn ladder.
 

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