[munkong]

summary :
Senn 580 is the best budget headphone
but not better than HF-1
are you agree with me

 

[SaturnNyne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by munkong summary : Senn 580 is the best budget headphone but not better than HF-1 are you agree with me

Kinda...
No.

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AsuAmo76 hd25-1. Perfect fit - better than sr225 and worse than sr325.

curious as to where/when you came to that conclusion... not being facetious here, just really curious...

O from T.O.

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by munkong summary : Senn 580 is the best budget headphone but not better than HF-1 are you agree with me

I seriously doubt that.

 

[Patu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by munkong summary : Senn 580 is the best budget headphone but not better than HF-1 are you agree with me

Man how funny statements. How do you guys come up with these...

 

[twc5964]

Man I simply cannot hear any similarity between the 595's and Grados.Those two companies are polar opposites in sound.Personally, I prefer Grado sound but I do enjoy my 595's.

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by munkong summary : Senn 580 is the best budget headphone but not better than HF-1 are you agree with me

no

Quote:

Originally Posted by twc5964 Man I simply cannot hear any similarity between the 595's and Grados.Those two companies are polar opposites in sound.Personally, I prefer Grado sound but I do enjoy my 595's.

thats what Im sayin.

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 no thats what Im sayin.

I have to agree w/ RnB180. Owning a pair of HD 590's and a pair of 125's, I can definitely say that there are minute differences in the 'quality' of the sound, however there is no comparing Senn and Grado. One's sound signature is the way it is, and the other is the way it is... You can't compare b/c they aren't designed to sound the same! they aren't even designed to sound similar!

 

[Illah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jagorev There was that guy comparing it to the HD-650 with aftermarket cables...

You mean this guy?

--Illah

 

[chrisfromalbany]

HD555.. Think this is the right line up choice.

 

[zeppelin2]

I think people should cut some slack with respect to munkong's 'conclusion'. It's quite obvious that English isn't his first language.

munkong: your best bet would be to try out some of the different headphones already mentioned. If that's not possible, as I suspect you are going to order online, well you have a bunch of choices:

I'd think that a good compliment to the HF-1's would be either the Senn 5X5 series (HD 555 would be good, HD 595 would be better if you can afford them). Try those if you want a can different than the HF-1's, yet maintaining a more up front sound.

The other route while still staying the HF-1's class would be the HD 580's. Try these if you want a more laid back sound, and something more different sounding than your HF-1's. I have not listenened to the 580's however.

Either way, both of these choices have been already mentioned.. so it's now up to you to decide what kind of sound you are looking for. HeadRoom is a good place to start if you want to get some neat info on the characteristics of each 'phone.

Hope that helps!

 

[omedon]

I am a little annoyed at some (not most) of the responses I got to my original post in this thread.

I feel that I made every effort to mention possible bias and possible error in my testing giving both my opinion and the context for it.

And yet the cheap shots flow. I guess that is fanboyism (of which both Grado & Senn heads are guilty). It seems members of both groups hang around on these boards just to attack/flame their opposites as if having everybody agree with them will make their own phones sound better.

Anyways I digress, this post will hopefully clear up any possible confusion about my findings or how I came to them.

It is a little lengthy, so feel free to ignore it unless you plan on flaming me. In that case I ask you to read it very carefully as some people who responded with cheap shots to my original post seem only to have glanced at it.


Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 and you base your information on what basis? IMO that is highly unlikely.

You are welcome to your opinion and I to mine. I suggest you compare the two phones yourself and come to your own conclusions as I have to mine.

My basis is clearly stated in my original post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by omedon I am a grado guy as you can see from my sig. I have auditioned the HD-500's and the HD-650's each once against grados. I matched the 650's against the 225's & 325i's. The sennheiser didn't seem to sound better at all just different. On the other hand I can easily identify that the HF-1's sound better than the 225's. It may be, and probably is, an issue of familiarity. I didn't have a chance to get comfortable with the senn sound but I would guess that it would take a HD-650 w/ aftermarket cable to match the HF-1's. At least in an obviously noticable way. Now if I was more familiar with the senn's then it might be a different story.

The original poster states

"which [headphone]is in the same class (decide with sound quality) not price ?"

I take that to mean the poster wants to know what I hear and not is what is of popular opinion or politically correct on these boards. And I don't appoligize for sharing my experience.

My "basis" was what I heard. Not the price, the look, specs or anything else.

I auditioned the three phones at a high end store on a high end ($12,000+) system. The 325i's for ~15 minutes the HD 650's ~40 minutes and the 225's which I already owned and was familiar with for ~5 minutes.

I listened to all types of music (including, classical, female voice, easy listening, jazz, theatrical, chamber, rock, etc) and didn't find the HD-650 to be a definite improvement. It always seemed to take back as much, or almost as much, as it gave in every category and I found it was severely lacking when it came to playing pink floyd's the wall. So the 325i's & 650's I put roughly even. 325i did some things a little better, 650 did some things a little better, and 325i kicked 650's ass at the Wall.

That was my experience take it for what it is worth, however "highly unlikely" it may seem to you it can't be denied.

I also mentioned TWICE in my post that lack of familiarity was the likely reason why the 650 didn't do well in my audition as well as the fact that I likely have a grado bias since I am more familiar with/own those phones

I admitted that I may not have known what to look for with the senn and if I had more time to adjust to the sound the outcome may have been different. But in that audition the 325i's were very close to the 650's and in fact had a slight edge because of the landslide wall test.

I prefer the HF-1's to the 325i's therefore to ME and MY ears the HF-1 is a better phone than the 650's. Hence my suggestion that an aftermarket cable may be needed to bridge the gap between 650's and HF-1. I have never heard a 650 w/ aftermarket cable however so don't know what improvements it would make.

Now if I get a chance to do some more listening my opinion may change (who wants to lend me there 650's?) but from that test I have made these conclusions.


I felt that I made every effort, to state, bias possible reasons for my conclusions. I hope that this post clears some things up for people who may have been offended by what I heard with my own ears.

P.S

I object to price being mentioned when comparing how good a headphone sounds.

What does price have to do with sound? Some prefer HD-600's to HD-650's some prefer 225's to RS-1's. The HF-1 costs the same as the 225's, less if you include the $25 head-fi donation, yet most people prefer it to that phone.

 

[SaturnNyne]

well said. I think you may have gotten jumped on a little because you didnt drown your post in the usual imo iirc ime etc disclaimers that everyone here feels the need to cover their arses with. Youre talking about what brings you more pleasure, which is what really matters, as we all hear a dozen times a day here despite the emphasis on all out fidelity.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure I prefer my HD580 to the HD650 I tried, overall, though the 650 was pretty impressive with certain music. Perhaps it's just not a good match for the AKG bias of my ears, as its not a match for your Grado biased ears. Technological superiority isn't worth much if the sound just doesn't do it for ya.

 

[hentai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaturnNyne well said. I think you may have gotten jumped on a little because you didnt drown your post in the usual imo iirc ime etc disclaimers that everyone here feels the need to cover their arses with. Youre talking about what brings you more pleasure, which is what really matters, as we all hear a dozen times a day here despite the emphasis on all out fidelity. For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure I prefer my HD580 to the HD650 I tried, overall, though the 650 was pretty impressive with certain music. Perhaps it's just not a good match for the AKG bias of my ears, as its not a match for your Grado biased ears. Technological superiority isn't worth much if the sound just doesn't do it for ya.

Damn it . I was nearly condemned for prefering hd595 to hd650.

Btw there is a difference btn grado sound and hd595.

With grado , the vocal and detail are more upfront than hd595. The senn trys to be upfront yet retain some spacious aspect of hd6XX.

 

[SaturnNyne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hentai Damn it . I was nearly condemned for prefering hd595 to hd650. Btw there is a difference btn grado sound and hd595. With grado , the vocal and detail are more upfront than hd595. The senn trys to be upfront yet retain some spacious aspect of hd6XX.

Definitely true, the 5X5 series is closer to the Grado sound than the more traditional sounding Senns, but that's not saying much. Theyre a little more upfront, but they still have a very spacious sound to them, nothing like the much tighter and in your face Grado signature. I think too much is made of the 595 as a split the difference between Grado and Senn phone. It's not a Gradoized Sennheiser, it's a Sennheiser slightly de-Sennified. It's just that these two brands are considered polar opposites, so a more middle of the road model from one is automatically compared and contrasted with the offerings from the other.

Btw, I didn't care for the 595 when I very briefly tried it. I'm not picky about headphones as long as theyre decent (as you can tell from my variety of phones), but something about the 595 just struck me the wrong way.

Uh oh, my off-topic sense is tingling...