[BetaWolf]

What kind of equipment are you guys demoing these cans with? Store setups are usually not set up right. Heard eather an SR125i or SR225i in a shop on a Sony home theater receiver with a crappy Jazz DVD, and it sounded worse than my old setup with a gaming headset!

 

[kyuuketsuki]

Based on price:

Skullcandy skull crushers. I'm not sure they even played music. It is quite possible they just mislabeled a head massager.

I also just tried my stock earbuds from my galaxy nexus. That wasn't pleasant.

 

[marone]

The SONY MDR-NC6's that I bought ages ago to silence airplane travel noise are terrible compared to the 668b's. Recessed everything, a collapsed sound-stage, no bass, no treble, yuck.

That is without the NC function on.

 

[formula1]

Quote:

What kind of equipment are you guys demoing these cans with? Store setups are usually not set up right. Heard eather an SR125i or SR225i in a shop on a Sony home theater receiver with a crappy Jazz DVD, and it sounded worse than my old setup with a gaming headset!

 
Well, i hate when this happens. 
 
HT modern receivers are not good for headphone demoing in my opinion. They usually have a cheap/poorly designed headphone out. 

 

[marone]

HT modern receivers are not good for headphone demoing in my opinion. They usually have a cheap/poorly designed headphone out. 

I think this has been true for 50 years. Headphone output circuits were, at best, an afterthought until recently.

 

[dakanao]

AKG K540 straight out of the box. That thing sounded BAD.

 

[GREQ]

Quote:

What kind of equipment are you guys demoing these cans with? Store setups are usually not set up right. 

It was a professional hifi shop, so he could plug into his own device and listen to lossless files. No foul play here.
 

 Heard eather an SR125i or SR225i in a shop on a Sony home theater receiver with a crappy Jazz DVD, and it sounded worse than my old setup with a gaming headset!

That's the point - the Sony home theatre receiver isn't the problem. It's almost no different to using a headphone straight out of a phone or mp3 device. If the music is recorded badly, it will suck no matter what.

 

[WhiteCrow]

Quote:

He said that for him, the P5 was simply audio perfection - exactly what he was looking for, and we already agreed that everyone has differing preferences.
I just hope he doesn't stick to his guns because of pride, but an actual preference.
He listens to mostly heavy/thrash metal, so I think he thoroughly enjoys the super relaxed sound from them. 

But he was worried about sennheiser's being too mainstream....#nohopeforhumanitythankshipsters. Maybe introduce him to something like BeyerDynamic or Grado....yes Grado

 

[-xX-Mew-Xx-]

But he was worried about sennheiser's being too mainstream....#nohopeforhumanitythankshipsters. Maybe introduce him to something like BeyerDynamic or Grado....yes Grado :veryevil:

Yes Grado :veryevil: ahahaha

 

[GREQ]

Quote:

But he was worried about sennheiser's being too mainstream....#nohopeforhumanitythankshipsters. Maybe introduce him to something like BeyerDynamic or Grado....yes Grado

No, it was the SALESPERSON who said they were too mainstream - he discouraged my friend to even try them *facepalm*.
 
I doubt he'd like Grado. Sure there isn't much better for heavy metal, but it seems he wants his metal to be sung to him like a lullaby. 

 

[marone]

To contribute to the thread: the worst headphones I ever used were the generic $10 Panasonic earbuds you can find pretty much anywhere and come with that little round case the cable rolls up into. They were appreciably worse than the iPod earbuds, which I bought them to replace. I was in college and dead broke and still just threw them away.

How do they compare to the airline earbuds at your seat?

I want to pick up a pair of these just to see how they compare to my NC6's.

 

[fabio-fi]

Quote:

No, it was the SALESPERSON who said they were too mainstream - he discouraged my friend to even try them *facepalm*.
 
I doubt he'd like Grado. Sure there isn't much better for heavy metal, but it seems he wants his metal to be sung to him like a lullaby. 

 
Probably the guy listens to Lullaby power metal 

 
Its not good to be fooled by salespersons. 

 

[buttons252]

Quote:

What kind of equipment are you guys demoing these cans with? Store setups are usually not set up right. Heard eather an SR125i or SR225i in a shop on a Sony home theater receiver with a crappy Jazz DVD, and it sounded worse than my old setup with a gaming headset!

Hey, i use a sony home theatre for my headphone amp and I really like it.  Ive tried cmoy amp, fiio e10 and i prefer the sony str-de475 because i can add or remove treble / bass -- especially nice when switching between headphones or music genres 
 
I was thinking about selling my sony setup and trying one of them yamaha silent cinemas equipped receivers, but im not convinced id hear a tangible difference.  

 

[julian67]

I'm not including buds that came with players or airline freebies because it's too easy. It's also quite worrying that the iRiver buds I got with my H140 nearly a decade ago still work, as do the Sennheiser buds that came with my H340 a couple of years later. Meanwhile almost every IEM I have paid extra for since then has died.

My three contenders for worst purchased phones are:

Razer Protone M100 IEMs. These look absolutely identical to Sennheiser CX 300 and clones but it's the same kind of similarity as with a chocolate smoothie and a glass of filthy brown mud from a ditch. To be fair they were promoted as gaming phones and not something for enjoying music. And this evening, about 5 years after I bought them, I even used them for that and they were acceptable. It's playing actual music that reveals them as duds.

Klipsch Image X1 IEMs (amazon model identical to S1). Sound quality: boom wallow boom boom wallow. Ergonomics: silly shaped tips in silicone that is too hard, and any slight breeze causes whistling noises. Stick out so can't rest head against anything. Aaaagh. I bought something better and put the Klipsch el cheapo IEMs back in their case and forgot about them for many months. Recently I plugged them in and one side had mysteriously stopped working while unused and untouched. I didn't care.

Sony MDR-ZX700. Nice sound but died after just over a year. Very thin cable running into casket from headband routes by a hinge whose movement pinches the cable until eventully the bare wire is exposed and the sound stops. Dumb design, or maybe careless assembly, perhaps both.

 

[penmarker]

Anyone mentioned the SOL Republic on ears?