[lbholde]

Hi,

First, a brief history. Back in the late 70's / early 80's, I had what I considered to be "really good sound." After undergoing several upgrades, I ended up with a Technics top of the line turntable, a Shure top of the line cartridge (I think it was a V 15 type 4 or something like that), a Layfayette receiver and a set of Koss Pro-4aa cans. I used to lose myself in the lush sounds of Kansas' Point of Know Return and Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast. I had "good sound!" But over the years the equipment has moved on. The turntable is in storage and all my vinyl albums are gone. I gave the receiver to my father. To this day, I really don't remember what happened to my Koss phones.

Fast forward to 2006: I came here 8 months ago as a result of Googling on what would be a good choice for a 1G mp3 player. After reading for a while, I realized that in addtion to my new mp3 player, a set of IEMs is just what I needed (bus, noisy gym). So I ended up buying a Cowon iAudio G3 and the Ety ER-6is. I was truly astounded at how good the sound was. I felt like I finally had better sound than I had with my old gear. I had sonically "arrived."

More recently I've been reading here about the "wonderful" Grado sound. So I took the plunge and spent $95 on a pair of SR-80s. I love 'em! They sound even better than my Ety's! As I sat at home the other day listening to my SR-80s (still listening to Kansas and Iron Maiden, only now on variable bit rate mp3s of "remastered" CDs

) I realized that I'm hearing detail in the music that I never knew was there. Punchy bass, crisp, clear keyboards and guitars, great vocals. I love these Grados!

Now that got me thinking: people here regularly spend 5 or more times the cost of my SR-80s on a set of cans. Is the sound... could it possibly be... 5 times better than what I have? Well probably not 5 times better. But what if it was just twice as good? Twice is good is a lot! Or even if it was 50% better? 50% better than my SR-80s would sound really, really good! What am I missing out on??? Do I need to upgrade???

I've been bitten by the Head-fi bug! And it's all YOUR fault!!!

- Lowen B. Holde

 

[Vul Kuolun]

. sorry, wrong thread.

 

[003]

The differences between the grados as you move up the line are subtle, until you hit the GS-1000 which has a totally different sound signature. Yes, sometimes the difference between a headphone that costs $100 and one that costs $500 is very big, other times not. If you were to stay with grado, the next step for 5 times the price would be an RS-2, and it is better, but the differences are not so much differences, but refinement, for example everything the SR80 does the RS-2 will do better, but not necessarily different, and a lot of times different is mistaken with better. Now if you were to spend around $500 on a headphone of a different brand, it probably depending on what you got would be better and different.

 

[digitalmind]

A typical case of upgraditis. You are not alone.

No, it's not 5 times as good, but the (large) increase in sound quality is worth it, for me. Only way to find out is either go to a meet, borrow a pair, or plunge into the deep and just grab one from the FS forums here. Luckily, second hand headphones rarely depreciate, you'll most likely only be out of shipping costs if you don't like your buy and choose to sell again. If you can miss the money for awhile, I highly suggest you buy a nice pair of good headphones to see if you'll like it. Before you know it, you'll skip out on vacation to be able to afford this hobby.

 

[003]

There ARE headphones that would sound 5 times as good, or even more, but they will cost a lot more than 5 times the price

 

[Meyvn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 There ARE headphones that would sound 5 times as good, or even more, but they will cost a lot more than 5 times the price

Honestly, I think it depends upon what you value as good. I wouldn't say anything had 5 times the detail, 5 times better bass, 5 times better mids, or 5 times better treble than the SR80s. I would say perhaps the K1000 has 30 or so percent more detail, 20% better mids, 10% better treble and bass it's just different. Soundstage is not even comparable, so in that department maybe 5 times better. Imaging, and other minor areas it's better but I wouldn't say any of those things constitutes a five times better headphone. I honestly don't think even the K1000, the GS1000, or the SR-007 would be five times better than even the KSC-75 in overall sound quality.

 

[fewtch]

Utterly subjective, IMO. If a person listens to classical music for example, tiny changes can make a *huge* difference in the overall perception of the sound. So "5 times" or "two times" etc. is in the ear of the be-listener and depends on preferred musical genre(s), among other factors.

 

[Lavalamp]

In my opinion, you get a substantial increase in performance when upgrading your high end audio gear up to a certain point. You then discover that upgrading an item for one that is 5 or 10 times the price only yields a 10% increase in performance.

Obviously some people are very happy to spend this amount of money to get a 10% improvement. Others are quite happy with the level they have reached.

 

[Nick Christy]

Lo and behold

,


Of course you need to upgrade, just as curiosity killed the cat, upgradeitis killed the audiophile.

However, as youre just getting into this, mabe instaed of say blowing $500 on some much better cans, experiment with a few other things to see how they change the sound of your setup. Work out what you like, THEN blow the bucks on that stuff.

Some ideas:

Spend nothing and just increase the bit rate you have been ripping your songs at. See if you can hear the difference.

Spend $100 - $200 on a headphone amp. See if that bumps up your SR 80's (i'm thinking it will be enough that you will be bitten by the amp bug as well as by the phone bug)

Spend $50 - $100 on some better cables / interconnects from your player to your amp, again, see if you can tell the difference.

Send $100 on a different headphone manufacturer, Beyer, Sennheiser, AKG's etc. To see if you prefer the sound of those over your SR 80's.

That will give you lots more to play with and lots more combinations of sounds for less or the same amount of money.

On the other hand you could save yourself years of pain and just walk away now.

Nick

 

[ken36]

This is a wonderful hobby. You never have to leave the room. Can't get in much trouble, except possibly with the credit people. Beat's bun-gee jumping, IMO.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 This is a wonderful hobby. You never have to leave the room. Can't get in much trouble, except possibly with the credit people. Beat's bun-gee jumping, IMO.

That's true, it's the perfect hobby for agoraphobics

. And people who dislike socializing... heheh. I guess the meets take care of the other contingent tho.

 

[F107plus5]

I'm happy with the "sound" of my MS-1s; so the MS2i is "my" obvious upgrade. And, I have read in a number of threads that the $300 MS2i is like 90 or 95% of the $700 MS-Pro. So for only three times the price of my MS-1s I can get a refined version of my MS-1s which are 80 or 85% of MS2i.

The RS-2 is a "little" bit better than MS2i, but is lighter weight and has a slightly different sound signature....but, IS lighter weight and has a padded headband and has those gorgeous wooden housings!!....for almost twice the price of the MS2i.

......I've been looking at MS2i and RS-2 very closely since late March. I've looked at K701 and DT880 and MS-Pro and RS-1(as well as others)and keep going back to the MS2i and RS-2 for reasons best understood by only me!

Gads! I love this hobby!!