For over a decade I've been an SR60 fan. Two weeks ago I decided, out of sheer curiosity, to find out what an upgrade might sound like, even though I'd long figured the 60s couldn't be surpassed in my open-backed headphone needs. (I also own the Shure e500's, or whatever they're calling them, these days.) So I found myself in a local Seattle dealer, Experience Audio, where I happily bought the 125s, even as I saw from the corner of my eye the golden glint of the 325i's.
Well, I adored the 125s; from the 60s, and even from the e500s, it was the difference between listening to "just a song" or "just some music" and hearing a professional recording. So entranced was I that within days I had to know what the 325i's sounded like.
Even though the proprietor of the shop I'd been to was out of town on a family emergency, he still answered the v-mail I left him and arranged for his friend to meet at the store to make the purchase (for which I am quite grateful -- even in a populous area like Seattle/Tacoma, it's the rare Grado dealer that has the 325i's actually in stock).
I don't know if I can adequately articulate how impressed I am by this pimpin'-gold rig even straight outta the box (I call 'em my "gold bugs"). They are every bit the leap from the 125s as the 125s were from the 60s; it's like having a bitchin' pair of high-end speakers tethered to your head, as opposed to merely wearing headphones. The detail is amazing, the mids liquid, the highs pronounced but refined, like seeing the Milky Way band in the country sky when previously you’d only seen the night sky from the lighted city (although I’d somewhat gotten this with the 125s, also). And the bass is what I loved about the 60s but taken to the next level; more of a tectonic rumble than a thumpy-punch, a supporting character played by a veteran character actor, refusing to hog the spotlight but lifting the rest of the cast with its performance nonetheless. While I do consider myself something of a basshead with lesser models, these leave me wanting for nothing.
Can I go on? Yes, I can! Listening to these babies at a moderate volume level is like driving a Ferrari at 65 mph; you know there’s plenty of power left to really open things up, but then that would tilt toward the irresponsible. The 325i’s perform at sub-earsplitting levels with an assured breathlessness while delivering a level of detail that almost leaves me breathless. Case in point regarding the detail: heretofore, I had not realized that the opening swoopy “buzz” of the first 20 seconds of NIN’s “A Warm Place” from The Downward Spiral included background voices. But with the 325i’s, I can hear the vocals in spades.
I think the thing that really floors me about these cans is that they can deliver a level of detail and articulateness for critical listening even better than my e500s, yet include a healthy dollop of forwardness and fun and, yes, sheer poetry that lifts them far above the description of monitors, even though they could be used as such quite ably.
So far as gear, my setup is rather humble. A 5thG 80g iPod mated with – settle down, now – one of those Wow Thing boxes the folks at SRS Audio had put out some 6 or 7 years ago. Why such a meager setup? Well, I’m about 3/4s deaf in one ear, and the surround sound psychoacoustics of the SRS technology not only fills out the stereo field for me, but actually gives me the illusion of near-full stereo hearing, a particularly handy effect for my collection of 60s music. Instead of hearing instrumentation in my good ear and only garbled vocals in my bad ear during, say, “Eleanor Rigby,” the Wow Thing convinces my brain I can hear the Paul’s voice and vocals plain as day. Not as fancy as other rigs (I’ve tried the Total Airhead with its crossfeed in the past, but it wasn’t as engaging as I’d hoped), but it makes me happy, and I can still hear what a stellar set of cans the 325i’s be.
So far as burn in – well, I’ve played these things for about 8-12 hours a day for close to 3 days now, and I think they’re settling in. (I notice that Ultrasone, which markets to the professional, has suggested burn-in times of 12-48 hours, depending on the model.) These are, with no reservation, my cans of choice.
