Whats the best Classical music can?

[calaf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder A little over hyped? So far, I've read they better the K1000, Sony R10, HE90, Senn 650, etc. I've read that they are the best headphone on the planet. hahahah - I may get some because I imagine they sound good for their price, but come on.

you know in the end headphones are like coffee: you like the brand you are used to. My first cans were K501 and when I moved "up" to the DT880 I missed the sweetness, the musicality of AKG mids. That's why I spent lots of time and not a little money restoring my K340. Finally we AKG fans have found an affordable headphone on a par with the boring Senns, so will you please cut us some slack, and let us brag for a while? When the HD700 will come I promise I'll shut up (perhaps

)

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calaf you know in the end headphones are like coffee: you like the brand you are used to. My first cans were K501 and when I moved "up" to the DT880 I missed the sweetness, the musicality of AKG mids. That's why I spent lots of time and not a little money restoring my K340. Finally we AKG fans have found an affordable headphone on a par with the boring Senns, so will you please cut us some slack, and let us brag for a while? When the HD700 will come I promise I'll shut up (perhaps )

OK... brag all you want

. I'm loving my headphones atm, the K701 are just icing sugar on the icing on the cake! That said, I love my icing sugar and they are an integral part of a nice cake?! I probably wouldn't be able to afford the HD700 when they come out anyway

... Sigh...the never ending chase for the "perfect" cans never stops. For a while, I though the HD650 + SR325i was the perfect combo. I was wrong.

 

[neilvg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 Very good explaination Neil - I agree - the K1000's should be in an ear speaker category and really not compared to typical cans. For the HE90, I should have read further "Originally available as part of the $15,000 Sennheiser Orpheus system, a few pairs of HE90 headphones may be still available from various retailers at a price of $6000 and up." - maybe one day I will have. Thanks!

Yeah, I've been searching for 'the' phone for a long time, and for me, I totally found it with the HE90's and balanced 600's. Together these cans do almost any type of music I want to listen to justice. I guess I just love the Senn Signature. Oh, the HF-1 is nice too

Neil

 

[needmoretoys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 you know in the end headphones are like coffee: you like the brand you are used to. My first cans were K501 and when I moved "up" to the DT880 I missed the sweetness, the musicality of AKG mids. That's why I spent lots of time and not a little money restoring my K340. Finally we AKG fans have found an affordable headphone on a par with the boring Senns, so will you please cut us some slack, and let us brag for a while? When the HD700 will come I promise I'll shut up (perhaps )

This is my opinion only. There are no best cans - it all depends on the type of music a person likes or their likes in sound. I started with Sony and then got a pair of AKG K240. That was at least 20 years ago. I thought they were great at the time. I then started listening to speakers exclusively. I then got the HD590 a few years ago and realized how much detail I was missing with the K240. The HD590 were much better in my opinion. I now have a pair of DT880 and the detail is better than the HD590. I still like the HD590 for relaxed listening and the DT880 for serious listening. I expect that I would very much like the K701, but I have no reason to try them. I also have no reason to try the HD580/600/650 at this time. I am happy with what I have and prefer to enjoy them instead of being on a quest of the perfect sound, although it can be fun. We are so lucky to have many excellent headphones, sources, amps to enjoy. No one of them is best - it's just a matter of opinion.

By the way, I started with Maxwell House, then went to Folgers and now Starbucks Verona. I have no loyalties to coffee either.

 

[elan]

I really love my HD590s for classical. My headphone experience is quite limited, though, so what do I know?

 

[raisin]

Balanced R10's are soon to be heard contenders for top honors, till then it's the HE90's thru the es-1.

 

[granodemostasa]

i call an blue dragoned or equionox one of the top three for classical, on the stock, cardas, silver dragon, and zu cables it sounds.... well like it's made for the baroque era. Balenced, it has to be second..... and of course the orpheus is ontop.

 

[Connectz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calaf indeed where are they? For chamber music (which apparently is what connectz likes to listen) the K701 are every bit as brilliant as the DT880. With vocals, the K701 for me have the clear edge. We don't know what's connectz budget, if he can afford a Stax Omega, or a K1000, but for regular-size wallets, the K701 are really hard to beat for classical music...

I am a guy. I prefer at this time to stay under the $500 mark for any one piece of headphone equipment.

Right now, one of my favorite classical pieces is Debussy's "Danses Sacree Et Profane" (my favorite part of this piece starts at about 1:40 sec. into the song when the string orchestra comes in) (Wood Harp and String Orchestra). And a good example of the piano pieces I like is Charles Gounod's "Fantasy In D MInor K 397" and Beethoven's "Fur Elise" and "Moonlight Sonata".

I really like the laid back stuff. I am not to familiar with classical music sub-genres and how to place different peices into the different categories.

 

[mikeg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 $15K headphone system is the best? Good - it shows that you actually get something for the extra thousands you spend. There is justice in the world.

Not $15K. My HE90 was about $5.2K and the McAlister amp. was about $750. Total cost was thus <$6K.

 

[mikeg]

Oh boy oh boy, my K701 are probably going to come tomorrow! I will finally get to listen, first hand, to what all this hype is about. My guess is that they are a little over-hyped... Quote:

A little over hyped? So far, I've read they better the K1000, Sony R10, HE90, Senn 650, etc. I've read that they are the best headphone on the planet. hahahah - I may get some because I imagine they sound good for their price, but come on.

I've heard them a couple of times, as was disappointed. I really liked the HD580 better. The 701 seemed to lack "body/fullness" (i.e., the sound seemed thin and edgy) when listening to orchestral classical music (e.g., Beethoven and Tchaikovsky symphonies and concertos).

 

[Fafner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Connectz I love listening to Classical music (matter of fact, I am listening to some "classical chillout" right now), especially the laid back, relaxing pieces. My question is, in you guys opinions, which can best reproduces classical music? I am still waiting for my DT 880's to arrive at Sam Ash so I can pick them up and I hear they are great for classical music. I was wondering was there any difference in SQ over different cans.

I can't do comparisons, but all I can say is that my Marantz SA-17S1 coupled with my HD650 look like a beautiful combination for classical music.
I was thinking about trying the new K701 or even the MDR-SA5000, but according to what people say these could be not quite ideal for my tastes. Not being a musician but one who attends live symphonic concerts at least once a week, I'm very fond to Sennheiser's laid back presentation. I don't like music to sound as if I were conducting it.
Abbado's Lucerne Mahler's Second sounds quite impressive with this coupling, although DG's recording is far from being perfect (I can say this having been in the audience during that concert

).

 

[Patrick82]

With K1000 you are part of the orchestra instead of sitting in the audience. Violins, flutes, chorus and drum decays are great at 768 kHz upsampling. But soundstage width is lacking, speakers are required for that...

K501 is fine for classical as well (if you use crossfeed). Mids are smooth which makes violins sound sweet with a 44.1 kHz source, with K1000 it sounds too harsh.
Trombone sounds great with K501, with HD590 it is too muddy.

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fafner I can't do comparisons, but all I can say is that my Marantz SA-17S1 coupled with my HD650 look like a beautiful combination for classical music. I was thinking about trying the new K701 or even the MDR-SA5000, but according to what people say these could be not quite ideal for my tastes. Not being a musician but one who attends live symphonic concerts at least once a week, I'm very fond to Sennheiser's laid back presentation. I don't like music to sound as if I were conducting it. Abbado's Lucerne Mahler's Second sounds quite impressive with this coupling, although DG's recording is far from being perfect (I can say this having been in the audience during that concert ).

You should be proud of being able to go to live concerts all the time. However, one thing you have to bear in mind is the fact that what people look for in headphones is sometimes not the same as what people look for in live concerts. There is no way a concert hall can reproduce the same acoustic qualities that one demands of headphones. Not even listening to the Berlina live symphony orchestra in the Carnegie Hall will yield the same detailed sound that some audiophiles strive for. Funnily enough, the opposite is supposed to happen: headphones are supposed to reproduce live music. There is one catch with live music. In a not-so-good concert hall, the acoustics of live music can be horrible. Thus, there are mainly two types of people: those who listen analytically, and those who listen musically. Admittedly, headphones will NEVER be able to reproduce the MASSIVE 3D soundstage that not only comes at you from left to right, but from top to bottom. I am the type of person who would like to have both analytical and musical qualities in my music listening. I like detailed sound with a certain level of spatial (sonic) separation between instruments. I like to know where exactly a particular sound is coming from. However, if overdone (overanalytical), the music will lose its musical qualities; the orchestra will sound like they're playing as individuals, not as a group.

 

[needmoretoys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 With K1000 you are part of the orchestra instead of sitting in the audience. Violins, flutes, chorus and drum decays are great at 768 kHz upsampling. But soundstage width is lacking, speakers are required for that... K501 is fine for classical as well (if you use crossfeed). Mids are smooth which makes violins sound sweet with a 44.1 kHz source, with K1000 it sounds too harsh. Trombone sounds great with K501, with HD590 it is too muddy.

I don't know if you are saying that sounding like you are part of the orchestra is a good or bad thing, but it would certainly not be what I would want to hear. I want my music to sound like I am in the audience, not with disconnected sounds coming from all directions.

 

[Leopold]

I would appreciate if there was more complete references to *specific recordings* when you take up examples. There is much talk about "violins", "pianos", "choir", specific artist names etc, but very little that is helpful to me for relating to my own experiences with my humble Beyer DT250-80 (which is my only reference for the moment).

It is no news that all those different instruments and subcategories of the "classical" genre sound extremely different depending on how the recording was made, hall characteristics etc.