[btbluesky]

I've heard some good things about DT48. But man....faster than SA5K, and with better mid? That I have to try it out one of these days.
Too bad, I think I've used up my favors with my wife on my new stereo and computer purchases....maybe next year

 

[No_One411]

Wow, these Sony's must be really something else to be AS fast as Electrostatics. But from I read, they have very thin body and a sort of "anemic" bass. Has that bothered any SA5000 owners? Or does its speed more than make up for this?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by No_One411 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, these Sony's must be really something else to be AS fast as Electrostatics. But from I read, they have very thin body and a sort of "anemic" bass. Has that bothered any SA5000 owners? Or does its speed more than make up for this?

Anemic bass on the SA5000? Not that I've noticed. I like the SA5000 for electronic music for the crisp highs and solid lows. Mids aren't as good as other cans, but the SA5000 is hardly an anemic listen.

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by No_One411 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, these Sony's must be really something else to be AS fast as Electrostatics. But from I read, they have very thin body and a sort of "anemic" bass. Has that bothered any SA5000 owners? Or does its speed more than make up for this?

The bass is great on the SA5000.. Don't understand how anyone would say they have weak bass.

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by btbluesky /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've heard some good things about DT48. But man....faster than SA5K, and with better mid? That I have to try it out one of these days. Too bad, I think I've used up my favors with my wife on my new stereo and computer purchases....maybe next year

The 48s excell at Jazz and anything with a strong vocal presentation and accoustics.. They really excell at a few genres..Some times ebay germany has some used..Much lower then retail. They sound like nothing you ever heard from a headphone..That can be good or bad depending on your ears.. Very flat FR..These don't boogie, but 'keeps it real.' I played some dvds that I'm familiar with..With the SA5000 some dialogue comes out a bit smeared and muffled. With the 48's no smearing with crystal clarity. The mid range is not sweet, lush, or seductive. The mid range has a gritty realness to it..Very smooth and natural. And very hi resolution..Like telling if the lead singer was slighty hoarse, sore throat, or fighting a cold or infection. The 48s/K1000 are the best mid range I heard.

 

[TheGhostWhoWalks]

Actually, I do think the SA5K has weak bass. It's easily the weakest out of the headphones I have (yes, even more so than the R10). It's very fast and clean (like the rest of the presentation) but it has no body, depth or punch; and this is balanced with bassy tubes so I can't imagine it's just my imagination.

 

[btbluesky]

Thats right. I just tried out the SA5K with the ASL MG head III OTL amp (I use the T mode, not TL). And boy...its heaven!! It has better synergy with this old fashion tube amp than the expensive trafomatic due to the quieter background (however all the other high ohms headphones I tried are much better w/ the trafomatic...).

The richness in mid I feel is the perfect amount. And the speed and definition are so awesome, w. some jazz recording I can picture the shape of the mouth of the singer. This has NEVER EVER happen with any headphone, only my main system, with a 100w full tube amp.

And the high is just heaven....I listen to some Elizabeth Fraser and evanescence ...no sibling, harshness. just sweet high all around.

For the price I paid, this is a real bargain. I haven't tried high eff speakers yet, but I imagine it'd be of the same type of result: being high sen, low ohm, and ultra high speed, the realism is hard to beat.

SA5K + tube amp FTW!

 

[jfiveeight]

How about the SA5000s through solid state burr brown OPAs? i've been considering the K702, SA5k, and ATH AD2000s. I listen to a lot of different artists from radiohead, beck, kanye west, jay z, iron maiden, avengend sevenfold and some classical (really... baroque). I really like the punch and details of the Proline 750s, but i'm looking for something open as i think my sinus' are screwing up because of the sealed, closed back of the 750s. I know the 2500s are the open equivalent to the 750s, but i want to look around and see what's out there.

 

[btbluesky]

Have not try any highend phone w/ SS OPAs, but I just have a small theory: I'd think a low ohm ones will benefit from the low power req, but most of the good low ohm phone specialize more on speed, mid and high, which doesn't give out the best bass (well, except RS-1, sepctrum is all over the place, very exciting sounding). OTOH, a high ohm ones need the power headphone to sound their best.

 

[Azure]

The SA5000s didn't really sound anemic to me until I compared them directly to the D2000 and the DT990s. By themselves my ear got adjusted to their presentation and they didn't really sound anemic/thin and I swore by the SA5000s. However, I then got some D2000s and DT990s and did some direct comparisons, only to be shocked at just how anemic/thin/shrill the SA5000s sounded.

 

[donunus]

Azure, havent seen you post in a long time. I remember you having stax 404s. What do you think of those vs the d2000, dt990s, and your current cd3000s?

 

[btbluesky]

Is the DAC and amp Solid state?

I have not try it with SS gears, all my gears are tubes, including the DACs. And they work wonders w/ the SA5K. I understand it could sound shrill when using w/ SS because it could be too analytical. Also the bass can be improved upon.

But w/ the right tube gears, I think it beats any phone I tried: DT880, HD240, RS1 (amp:littledot MKV or Trafomatic or MG head III).

In comparison, the DT880 does have a thicker representation, but it sound a bit dull even pairing w/ a high price high power amp (my next phone could be the HD600/650)

You don't pair high efficient speakers w/ SS gears, that goes the same for phones like SA5K or Grados.

 

[Azure]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif Azure, havent seen you post in a long time. I remember you having stax 404s. What do you think of those vs the d2000, dt990s, and your current cd3000s?

Yeah, I've lost some interest in the whole Head-Fi thing, but I return occasionally to check out the marketplace (in this case I returned to once again buy the DT990s!).

The SR-404s were the bee's knees. The only problem was that they're completely open and leaked like no other (which wasn't so bad at the time, but now I'm in college and have roommates to take into consideration, so I had the future in mind when I sold them), so I had to resort to the CD3000s (which are wonderful, though the fact that they haven't been in production in years makes me feel uneasy about owning such an expensive pair of headphones in the environment I live in). Some songs just call for the kind of extra bass performance that the CD3000 and SR-404 (or in the context of this thread, SA5000) just cannot provide, so that's why I decided to pick up the DT990s again

 

[donunus]

hehehe I hate those damn 990s :mee za caant stazz ze cold sound of muzak

 

[eruditass]

i'm curious as to how you guys test for speed. I have some test cd's including this one audiophile one for speakers with specific tests targeted at stuff like transparency, transients, etc, and dt880 sounds great through them, drums very "taught", brass blasts distinct, etc. hiromi's Dancando No Paraiso sounds absolutely live, just about as good as my im716 and sr-5's. In addition, the dt880's look only a smidgen behind other top tier headphones with respect to transient analysis on headroom's new graphs, although they ARE balanced there. the only thing is its upper midrange is very polite, which gives the impression of less speed particularly for rock music and its distorted guitars.

what music do you use?