Quote:
Originally Posted by gsferrari
This is not yet complete...SA3000 will be in my hands soon and it will be time for a three way shootout.
I dread that day
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I'm looking forward to it
I actually got my SA1000's partly on the positives mentioned in your review, and enjoy them quite alot. Sure they are a bright headphone, but one can always put a veil over the driver mesh, and they beat my SR60's for looks, comfort, build, and sound quality across the board, although the SR60's have a warmer midrange, true to the Grado line.
Also, I recently got the opportunity to test the SA5000's-three pairs, actually- at the 6-18 Portland Meet, and was quite impressed with the performance of the SA5000 in comparison to the SA1000 for everything but bass. On some tracks I played with ultra-low frequency elements, a certain floppiness was apparent, something reminscient of a whoppee cushion opening, but very very deep.
I tried the same stuff with some Cardas'd HD650's, and although the 650's lacked the definition of the high end, I found them to control bass with more authority. The SA1000's were somewhere in between, but I did not find them to be lacking in the least, perhaps because my ears are used to bright cans. At some point, I'll try some foam backing or something and see if that helps yield some control the presence of the SA1000, but I'll be waiting on that for a while.
Also, I've had my theories as to exactly what is/is not metal in the SA5000. Everything you've confirmed as metal is dead on accurate, and your suspicions about the earcup frames being plastic is too, as from my observation I think I know why the SA5000's have an initial metallic feeling on their plastic parts, and only one thing comes to mind: Powdered aluminum finish.
Basically, a clearcoat or whatever is regularly used in the silver painting of SA1000's(for example), but with a base that is comprised of powdered aluminum(or possibly powdered magnesium if that is viable) instead of a standard silver base to be added to a thin clearcoat. This would result in a metallic feel, but less metallic feeling than real metal, because the core is plastic with surrounding aluminum particles- plastic feels warm to the touch, metal is cold to the touch, so mix the two and you get something in between, the SA5000's earcup frames. I've seen this powdered aluminium paint type used in the Discovery Channel series "Mythbusters, so perhaps a search there might turn up better info than I've elaborated.
'Till then,
,
Abe