[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NelsonVandal 3. Philips SHP895. Screaming upper mids and highs. Boomy bass. Impossible to enjoy music with them. I was about to throw them away as well. Now I've done some serious tweaking and they sound great. Like PX100 they're now without the **** in front of the membrane, and I got rid of the mids/highs issue. Lower density foam homemade earpads, Blue-Tac and lamswool damping got rid of the boomy bass issue. A bit like Beyer DT 990. Very enjoyable.

Wow, quite an extensive mod. Got pics by any chance?

 

[facelvega]

about ten months ago, I spotted an auction on ebay: one of those electronics wholesalers with a dozen pair of HD555 priced really low, something like 60 bucks shipped. A friend and I dove in and ordered; so did a lot of people, evidently as all twelve sold within an hour. The person realized he'd priced them too low and canceled all the orders on the barest of pretences, and even closed his ebay store.

This was my worst headphone disappointment, at least for awhile, when I finally got to hear the HD555 and 595. Since then I've been eternally grateful to that crooked seller for saving me from such awful headphones.

 

[Rick Hunter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Langrath Sometimes I have bought headphones that were a big disappointment. I had expected better. My biggest disappointment until now was Sennheiser PX200. How could Sennheiser produce headphones nearly totally clean from bass? What is your biggest disappointment of headphones? Georg

Dude, I perfectly agree with you: PX200 was my biggest disappointment: sounded muffled, excessively laid back, very veiled, sometimes a bit muddy too, and getting a good seal was almost impossible. Bad cans. Period.

 

[TopShelf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by facelvega about ten months ago, I spotted an auction on ebay: one of those electronics wholesalers with a dozen pair of HD555 priced really low, something like 60 bucks shipped. A friend and I dove in and ordered; so did a lot of people, evidently as all twelve sold within an hour. The person realized he'd priced them too low and canceled all the orders on the barest of pretences, and even closed his ebay store. This was my worst headphone disappointment, at least for awhile, when I finally got to hear the HD555 and 595. Since then I've been eternally grateful to that crooked seller for saving me from such awful headphones.

I think if you compare the HD555's at lets say 149.99, and the HD650's at 400 or 450, I would place the HD650s as a dissapointment. BUT If you take the HD555s away from the debate, the 650's are fully acceptable.

I owned both, and I just havnt been able to find the (2 to 3 times the price) difference. BUT I also have not used a DAC yet, so I am going off of (just a CPU as a source, and a X-Canv3

 

[leqin]

Etymotics - I don't think I have moved so fast selling some purchase off on eBay and I was ashamed to ship them to the poor bloke who bought them because he could very well hear what I heard which personally I thought was ghastly - oh yeah detailed so much it was like listening to a hologram, but musical? - nope afraid not according to my ears and my ears know a whole lot better than all the so called learned opinions round here.

But thats life and everybody's ears are different and they really are if you take a long hard look at any 2 or more pairs of custom made's. But then thankfully I discovered Ultimate Ears just shortly afterwards and listening to portable music suddenly became fun fun fun and the horrible ghastlyness became a dim and distant memory.

 

[Dhw]

My biggest headphone disappointment was probably the HD580. I reeaallly wanted to like it, and found so many things admirable about it (price in particular!), but I just felt like it took too much focusing for me to be captivated by its merits...I wanted a phone whose merits reached out to pull me in. The K701 did that for me to a much greater extent, but I ended up selling it along with my m^3 in order to upgrade my speaker system's amplifier (which I'm glad I did, though I miss having a headphones rig...probably why I'm poking around here again lately).

I guess my overall greatest headphone disappointment has been the fact that I've been able to appreciate the 'phones I've had, yet found myself continually wanting to try more. It's like what I imagine wine-tasting is for some people (who have more developed tastebuds than I do)...sure, having the same great wine to drink everyday is probably seen as a good thing for such people, but it's having new bottles to drink from time to time that becomes fun and addictive (and as with here, expensive). I suppose that is the case for so many other hobbies though...anything with the potential for modding or upgrading (cars, computers, or my other problem-hobby: guitars).

The realization of that addictive aspect of audio equipment (to which head-fi serves double-duty as an enabler and support group) was quite disappointing, along with the fact that I never really gave much thought to recording quality prior to my entry into hi-fi (more arguably mid-fi) land, and probably could enjoy recorded music a lot more readily back then. Becoming more aware of this aspect of recordings did not only mean gaining a new attribute to get excited about when hearing a well-recorded CD...it unfortunately also meant gaining a new attribute to become disappointed with when a CD is poorly-recorded. This especially hurts when going back to your old favorites after the "recording quality epiphany" and finding they're not up to snuff.

Sometimes I honestly wish I had just spent all of the money I've spent on equipment on music instead...*

*or jeans...I always get holes in my jeans...#$%@ jeans...

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

Mine were the HD465's, although I have managed to live with them for quite a while now. This was supposed to be my first big full size Sennheiser. Especially after hearing everyone rave about the Sennheiser brand and what not..pity I just bought it based on the sennheiser website and a good deal and I didnt bother to do any research at all!!!

Especially after owning the KSC75's which kick $$s for under 20 bucks, the first time I put the 465's on, I went What!!!

Then after reading stuff on burn in and EQ and amping etc etc, it improved, but its still too muddy and bloated. Only acoustic and Jazz songs sound good, Rock and metal are terrible, and comfort wise also, starts out good, but ears ache after about 2 hours.

Watin for my K81's now, hope they make me go WOW!! FINALLY!!!

 

[mrarroyo]

My biggest headphone disappointment was the Grado GS1000

Man, I had such high hopes thank God I did not sell the RS-1. Basically the GS1000 (mine were S/N 107) were all bass and treble with the mids missing. No amount of burn in helped. Eventually I returned them.

 

[DRSpeed85]

MY biggest disappointment was the crappy $20 sony clip-on the university electronics store ripped of me. I tried to return it but they refused. Determined to find a good sounding headphone I ended up here. Now I have a GS-1000.

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari Senn HD-600 - didnt match up to the hype

x2

 

[norseman8485]

um1. My experience with headphones is rather limited and um1 brought me into the world of headfi. I loved them at first, but since getting other cans i hate their lack of treble more and more. They just sound so boring now and I only use them for bus rides and walks to college.

 

[Little J040]

I'd have to say the SR 125's. Uncomfortable, no bass, shrill highs. eeck. Like many have said, I wanted to like them and tried to but, alas im too used to senn sound.

About some peoples questions on er-4s comfortability, I'll have to agree at first they did hurt my ears. You just gotta really give em a chance to be de-virginized. lol After about a year or so of use, i hardly even notice there in my ears anymore.

 

[goorackerelite]

shure e3c. Where was the treble? the bass was okay, the mids were pretty good though, but the treble sounded like it was in the next room.

 

[freakmax]

Shure E3c.
I sold it after purchase for a week.
It's my first IEM.
I felt extremly uncomfortable in my ear. There is no bass at all.
(It's not that shure e3c is bad but it's not just for me.)

Right now I got the er4p's my 2nd IEM. coundn't be happier.

 

[saturnine]

Most recently, the Bose Triport OE. I actually kinda liked the original Triport (now named AE), but the OE is just too muddy & veiled for my taste and actually sounds worse than the AE. For $179, I expected better sound quality