bangraman
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2002
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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.
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.