[bangraman]

And why? This is one of those 'fun' questions which will probably degenerate into name-calling but hey, it's worth a post.


Out of the phones you own, which would you keep? If you have more than 4, you can keep two. If you have less than 4, you can only keep one. If you own one, then you don't count

What I'd keep:
Surprisingly not the Omega II but the A-T ATH-D1000, and the Shure E5. If I had these two, I wouldn't necessarily miss the others.


While the D1000 is not as technically capable as the Omega II's or the W2002 for that matter with more occlusion, inferior instrument separation and staging, it doesn't give up that much in those respects and it's lack of any capability to cause offense (although this phone is not neutral) is important to me. It's natural (not neutral) tonal characteristics and PRAT suit me down to the ground. The fact that it has a built-in amp and upsampler of respectable performance enabling me to use this from a huge variety of gear without any extras is another distinct advantage.


The E5 is really the only in-ear phone I'm willing to tolerate for any long periods of time. In-ears are useful for portable use, and used exclusively by me in that capacity. As such, useful isolation, portable tractability, comfort and of course an entertaining sound is my aim. While technically superior in a number of ways, ultimately I don't like the neutered pedantry of the Etymotics. The E3c is too closely matched with the Etymotics in overall product terms for me and I don't think I could live with it as a main portable either.

 

[ayt999]

do I have to?

then the ATH-L3000 and the PS-1 I guess. all others I have are similar enough to these that I don't really need them. I like collecting headphones though, so they are not for sale if you were thinking of that.

this may change once I get the Omega II... we'll see.

 

[swalker]

I respectfully disagree with Bangraman's opinion on the Etys and would pick the Etys anyday over any headphones I've heard so far if I have to choose just one pair of headphones to live with.

 

[tom hankins]

I've already gone through this for real. When I got the HD650/Zu I was sharing time between the Grado HP2, AKG K1000, HD600/Equinox, and the Sony CD3000. Within a week every thing but the HD650/Zu was up for sale. I wouldn't trade them for any two of the others back.

 

[DJGeorgeT]

I will keep my ER4P/S, and V6. I can live without the HD25, KSC-35, Shure E2, Shure E5, SR60, EX71

 

[minya]

I guess I do have two headphones right now, the Stax Omega II and SR-404. I think it's pretty safe to say I'll keep the Omegas, but I haven't gone back and listened to the 404s yet. I'm going to plug them in next week and see how they measure up.

- Chris

 

[Tyson]

I have:

HD600's
Beyer DT250-250
Shure E5's
Sensaphonics 2X-S (being re-fitted currently)

If I could only keep 2, it would be the 600's and the 2X-S since these 2 are much better sounding than the other 2. Plus, the 600's could be my "open" phones, and the 2X-S could be my "closed" phone as well as my "portable" phone.

 

[taylor]

I'd keep the V6s and get rid of the PortaPro 2s.

The V6s beat the PortaPro 2s in every way I can think of.

 

[TrevorNetwork]

Omega II's - Home
ER-4S - Portable

/Stax Mafia

 

[plainsong]

Well that's a tough question as I plan on doing some upgrades and sidegrades. That's the thing about headphones - lots of different sounds and they take up less space than speakers.

At the moment I'd keep the Senn 600s and ety 4p/s.

But then I eventually plan to get the HD650's...so if I got rid of the Senns it would only be for them. But I don't think I can get rid of the HD600s since I need two 300ohm headphones (I share the audio goodness). I'm enjoying the 600s fine, but do need another set of 300ohm headphones.. so why not the HD650s?

And I want to eventually move from the etys to some IEM's..

I'm not rude, I like my husband to listen in too, so that's two headphones right there. And the dt531 were for mostly computer use. And the IEM's would be for portable/isolation needs.

I can't do with less than 4. Maybe the impedence mismatch won't be too far off with dt531s and senn 650s. If that were the case, I could narrow it down to three.

But with my existing cans, I really need all of them.

 

[Edwood]

Tough question.

Since I have more than four pairs....


If I was travelling alot:

R10 and Ety 4S


If I wasn't:

R10 and K1000


If I had to pick one:

R10.

-Ed

 

[cosmopragma]

I would keep my Grados and the AKG K340s.
And I would donate all the others to my girlfriend, ending in visiting her more often than I use to do now.

 

[Orpheus]

sony mdr-cd3000 + sennheiser hd-600

 

[lindrone]

Surprisingly enough, the top two headphone out of my entire collection is the ProPhonic 2X-S and CD3000, but I wouldn't take the CD3000.

I would keep the ProPhonic 2X-S and Sony MDR-F1... reason being.. as good as the CD3000 is, I feel that the 2X-S is better in all areas of performance other than soundstage. If I need to keep one pair of headphone for both home and portable situation, it would definitely be the 2X-S.

Now, for those times when I'm at home, and I want a lengthy listening session where comfort is more important over the sound quality itself, ultimately the F1 is even more comfortable than the CD3000. Sound quality itself suffers, but if I want top sound quality, I could just go back to the 2X-S.

Not to mention, I can easily use the F1 with my home theater system and watch DVD's with them, plug them into my computer... it's more versatile for other "miscellaneous use" than the CD3000.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Considering I only have canal and earphones, Shure E5 is an easy choice to make