[F107plus5]

Somewhere between falling asleep last night(pondering the next set of cans to buy,) and awakening this morning; the "Truth" about headphones was finally revealed to me.

I have been attempting to determine my "One Best" decision for my "Final" set of cans and refering it as "The battle of the Twos."(MS2 or RS-2.)

As "you" all know; that's just plain SILLY!!

There can be no single "final cans," and the "Battle of the Twos" has to be the "Battle for the, AT LEAST, Two," "Final" sets of phones.

Has to be.

....you knew that.

Ok, I confess.

I have been looking at your sigs and seeing all these different sets of, three, four, five or more sets of cans listed, and I would think "how sad, they really should do more studying before wasting so much money on so many varried phone designs!"

Yeah! Silly ME!!

Now the "Battle of the Twos" becomes "The battle for Which Two." Which two cans, minimum; best fills the need for a "Rock" set of cans; and a "Classical" set of phones, and a "middle of the road" set of cans, and an "on the road" set of cans, and it goes on and on.

Yup, sorry 'bout your....our....wallets.

Really sorry.

 

[JazzyMac]

Wow, what a revelation.

 

[Old Pa]

Sounds like a personal rationalization. SAYW is really just concerned about low impulse control.

 

[ken36]

The word epiphany comes to mind.

 

[Vultch]

I know exactly what you mean. Am pondering an upgrade to hd650 or AT ATH-AD1000, very different cans and no local supplier for the ATs

I NEED more bass than my beautifil K501s have (and less than my TV cans HD212Pros)

Maybe I'll just stick to my elderly and a bit muddy HD565 Ovations...perhaps a pair of K340s would doo the trick... but them I'd probably have to upgrade my amp...

 

[ChaosCow]

I think HD650, E4c, and Koss KSC-35 cover the bases pretty nicely. For me, at least.

The big thing is, the major cost at head-fi isn't really the headphones. It's the amplification.

 

[F107plus5]

I tried to match my slightly foreward and a little bit bright speaker system with the right cans, and found the Alessandro MS-1s to be a pretty good test-case match and absolutely fabulous with rock! But now I need to find some classical-type cans that fit the slightly foreward side of audio too. The K701s seem at this point a pretty good place to start looking.

I can handle a bit of discomfort for rock, so staying with Grado/Alessandro(MS2 or RS-2)is a given,

But for classical and DVDs a more comfortable set of phones with excellent soundstage are a must.

The friendly MS-1s will be a great set of traveling companions!!

 

[db597]

Still cheaper than many other hobbies. For example, computers and digital cameras - it's like every 2 years down the road, the new headphones are SO MUCH better than the one you just bought that you have no choice but to upgrade. Or new CDs won't play anymore of old headphones

Thankfully, advancements are that rapid for audio. Hey, some people here even go for vintage audio.

 

[F107plus5]

Oh Yeah!! My old hobby of model railroading was a perfect and ghastly example.

You could add the price of a good set of cans by simply making an existing train just a little bit longer!

 

[lipidicman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vultch Maybe I'll just stick to my elderly and a bit muddy HD565 Ovations...

I have HD565, HD580 and HD650 and they obviously get better in that order. But I still like my HD565's. They are beaten and truly unfashionable (so 80's but it may come back) but they work easy in my laptop and ipod as well as my XCANSv2. Sometimes the 580's need too much juice so here the 565's are great. I would say they are 80% of what the 580's are, you hear the difference in detail but listened to in isolation I never dislike the 565 sound. I wouldn't be without them and I wouldn't have bought 580's and the 650 if it had not been for the silly prices I got through my old work.

I do wish that the 565 had a little more pressure though, much less secure than the 580

BTW I think 580's have been discontinued in the UK, is that correct? I thought I bought one of the last pairs senn chucked our way. Only 650 and 600 on the UK website.

 

[Ko Nectic Jazz]

Quote:

There can be no single "final cans,"

Oh yes, it does. For me, at least.
Its brand is Ultrasone. And it does will be my one, only and final headphone. My ksc75 will only become my guest headphone (or my girlfriend's one)
Why ? Because they do not sound like headphones.

I'm for now waiting one pair coming after a trade of my bassy DT990. This is nice to have lots of bass, but not in my head. With Ultrasone, I have them rumbling On my ears, and it's dawn much nice than any other bass that a classical headphone pair can give me.

I'm giving my 2 cent here, 'cause I've looking for the very same comparison as you were doing. And I know how it's going then if you're not going for the RS2.
Let me tell : you'll look for even more informations about MS2i and will discover than Grado did change the drivers (a bit) with changing the enclosure too. Alessandro didn't. So you'll understand that you're gonna have sr325 drivers and not sr325i drivers in Ms2i. At this point, you're going to look and compare sr325i and ms2i, a endless comparison. With sr325i, you have a true new model, but ms2i remains the cheapest with shipping costs included !...
And you'll try to find yourself thousands of good reasons to take one of those two.
If you want one argument that was going to decide me : some people said that the ms2i was sounding more like the rs2 than like the sr325i.

Now, I wish you good luck.
For me, I'll be waiting for my journey end on Head-fi to come from the postman...

 

[F107plus5]

Good points indeed!

I think I'll have a look at the products by our friends in Tutzing! I read one little negative thing about them months ago, but have to admit that I don't know that much about them. Time to find out more!!

....off on another search!!

 

[db597]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ko Nectic Jazz Why ? Because they do not sound like headphones.

Headphones are cheap compared to getting the same sound quality from speakers. Reminds me of Wilson Watt's designs. Dang, those make a Stax look like pocket change.

 

[Ko Nectic Jazz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by db597 Headphones are cheap compared to getting the same sound quality from speakers. Reminds me of Wilson Watt's designs. Dang, those make a Stax look like pocket change.

I agree. I would not compare Ultrasone to speakers, but they remind me speaker sound presentation.
I have at home some Celestion 3000, with band-tweeters, and some Davis Acoustic Cesar with 31cm bass speakers. I do know too that no headphone can match speakers, especially in general feeling.

However, I've been seduced by Ultrasone and their "soundstage" (this is the first time I'm less afraid to talk about "soundstage" on headphones).

 

[J-Pak]

See my sig. My final set of headphones. I always only have 1 high end pair of headphones at any given time. I guess I break the Headfi norm

The only thing I want to upgrade is the amp now.