[JaZZ]

If it's naturalness and neutrality you're after, you'll certainly find headphones matching these criteria. There are enough recordings with acoustic music around, the vast majority of them don't suffer too much from the duped arbitrary creativeness of the sound engineers. Dummy arguments...

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spike33 sa5000 is geared towards fans of grado seeking more comfort and less fatigue. 'Artificial excitement'? no. Drivers are just closer to your ears giving a more upfront sound, how is that artificial? You say 'built in fun' like its bad thing. I think alot of grado fanboys will disagree

Drivers are not closer to the ears than with any other headphone, but sound is tuned for more excitement than a more neutral sonic balance would offer (hence the term «artificial», also relating to Sony's artificial-soundstage philosophy). Built-in fun isn't a bad thing for some, obviously. Different strokes (approaches) for different folks...

 

[spike33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter Thanks for the laughs! That's a brilliant post!

Your welcome! Finally one of your posts make sense! You get a cookie!

 

[seeberg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by devwild Actually I was thinking the SA5000 would be an insane headphone if it could be woodied... unfortunately it's build does not lend well to that. I think the imbalances in the frequencies are caused at least partly by the strange can design (big surprise from Sony, eh?), which reports on the Qualias would seem to agree with. The driver has outstanding capability, it's just that sometimes it feels like the chamber could use a little tweaking. Of course, I feel practically the same way regardless of what cans I'm listening too, and the SA5000s are still the best suited-for-me headphones I've listened to. At the moment I'm working on amp matching.

I never even thought about that one, a woodied frame for the SA series... hmmm, could that even be done without ruining the original setup, and could it be done properly?

Amp matching, huh? I wonder if one of those DAC-1's I've heard about would work well with it(or an SR71)?
(BTW, since I have no frickin' idea, how much bank does a DAC-1 bleed out of my wallet?)

,
Abe

 

[KenB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ -- Major Snippage -- And BTW, such artificial excitement has proven to wear off rather quickly, so I expect to see a lot of SAX000s for sale the next few weeks. And the SA5000 to find its place in the FOTM chuchyard...

I don't know what "FOTM" means, but this prediction has certainly come true. As one who is attempting to sell a set, I have a lot of competitors and very little interest!

I think that Gerg's recent charts and this thread have tarnished much of the original excitement about these cans to prospective buyers. If I end up having to keep mine, no doubt they'll start sounding a LOT better. Hmmm...

KenB

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KenB I don't know what "FOTM" means...

Flavour Of The Month


Quote:

...but this prediction has certainly come true. As one who is attempting to sell a set, I have a lot of competitors and very little interest!

Sorry if I have contributed to this!

I will be in a similar situation. Maybe once the BOTM (Bugbear-of-the-month) stigma is volatized, it's getting better...

 

[KenB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ Flavour Of The Month Sorry if I have contributed to this! I will be in a similar situation. Maybe once the BOTM (Bugbear-of-the-month) stigma is volatized, it's getting better...

Thanks for the FOTM explanation.

JaZZ -- I don't think you contributed to this situation any more than me!

Happy News!

Another Head-Fier has new HD-650's that aren't ideal for his listening needs (too much bass and not enough treble extension or detail), so he offered to trade them for my SA-5000's. Since I was in the market for the Senn's anyway, we had the makings for an exchange.

I'm still new here, but I'm finding this to be a super forum for buy/sell transactions. Naturally, there is a cost associated with experimentation (depreciation, shipping, PayPal), but it's comforting to know that, with the variety of musical tastes/requirements represented, there's likely to be a home for most products offered.

KenB

 

[gerG]

I just posted an update.

Ken, sorry my data caused you a fright. Honestly it is really an ethical dilemma whether or not to share information when I know that it might spoil people's opinion of cans that they are happy with. That was not the case here. I started this thread merely sharing some info on a product that I was excited about. Once I opened the lid on the box I couldn't close it.

Hey Tyll, great to hear from you. Good luck with the world tour. No more grey elephants to herd around?

This thread has pointed out a lot of technical questions. I wish I could answer them all, but I can't. I could add more questions and a bunch of my own unproven hypotheses, but it would not help. My philosophy is that all measurements are wrong, but some are useful. No one measurement can characterize the behavior of headphones, so different approaches will reveal different aspects of the performance.

As far as my current technique goes, the reason that I settled on it is that it agrees pretty well with what I hear, except for the phase peaks and troughs in the upper frequency range. I can change the amplitude of those by moving the mic around. The rest of the curve stays solid, and has proven surprisingly repeatable. I don't regard the results as "correct", and neither should anybody else.

As for my target response and equalizing to that, I was skeptical myself until I tried it. It has taken my headphone listening experience to a level that no amp, cable, source, or headphone design was able to before. I think that is a good thing.

gerG

 

[ssportclay]

I have had the SA5000s for 3 weeks now and I am still having some sonic issues with them but as far as detail, soundstage,and especially depth perception are concerned,these headphones are the best that I own.People just need to hear them and decide for themselves.I think that all headphones have a fake quality to them and I believe that the the only way to eliminate this issue is to go with speakers.

 

[seeberg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssportclay I think that all headphones have a fake quality to them and I believe that the the only way to eliminate this issue is to go with speakers.

Normally hearing something like that around here would be fightin' words, or the basis of a flame war

,
Abe

 

[backdrifter]

edit

 

[SoundFreaq]

I have had my SA5000's nearly two years and I feel they are still smoothing out. They are not nearly as harsh as they were out of the box. I absolutely love them.