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Headphone Recommendations for Commuting |
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Ash
Senior Member Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Location: Dorset Status: Offline Points: 4334 |
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Keep looking on ebay.de every so often and you might be able to get spare 540ii bits. You'll have to put £100-£200 aside for it though and offer to pay the extra postage.
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miT
Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 890 |
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Apologies for my "speedy" reply. I did not receive email notifications for this thread again.
In recent weeks I have been doing A LOT of research (including listening sessions at home, finally!) about headphone options and learned that ex AKG staff (since Samsung's takeover) have now started Austrian Audio. They are bringing out some closed headphones soon so that could be a new option to try under £300. I am unsure what Sennheiser peddle to their "Pro" customers but Beyerdynamic seem to be one of the few mainstream manufacturers in both markets. My knowledge is far too limited to be reliable but I stumbled across a website that measures the performance of headphones and uploads the results in a graph (http://en.goldenears.net/index.php?mid=GR_Headphones&search_target=title&search_keyword=Beyerdynamic&page=1&division=-57326&category=275&document_srl=10634 if you are interested). They appear to have stopped their work a few years ago so most models are slightly older but after reading the graphs of literally everything, the HD540 are in an extremely limited group of <10 [tested] headphones that have a outstandingly neutral response. The Beyerdynamic DT990 versions seem to be one of the few cheap options, albeit still not closed. Other notable mentions are the Beyerdynamic T1, Grado PS1000 and Sennheiser HD800 (which has been updated and re-tuned in recent time) so it seems a long demo is definitely on the cards in the not-too-distant future... Since listening again to compare my existing headphones and QC my ears, I have rediscovered the beauty of the HD540ii. My AKG K701 need to be compared to them again (when I find them!) but this rediscovery of forgotten truths has re-educated me in what I am looking for. The differences between my DT880 and HD540ii are vast enough to highlight them clearly but without focussing too deeply on the actual SQ, the transparency of the Sennheisers is sublime. They somehow disappear from the experience which draws you into the music, but they do it in an unpretentious way (hard to explain). Yes SQ tweaks could be made but as a starting platform, they got it so right! They do not make enough fanfare to stand out to today's general market though so while still hopeful, I cannot see them being matched in the by anything less than audiophile choices costing many £1000s; the customer base who spend less won't appreciate them. This has now made my search a lot more difficult!! As a side point, has anyone found that the Bitzie was enough to run them or would an additional amp dig out even more?
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miT
Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 890 |
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I wish I had got myself a set of HD250 while they were still available but I have never had the need for them. Until now. I agree that you have to use them, hence future-proofing them by having multiple sets is so vital on something I cannot readily replace. And I also agree that solid build quality used to be a basic requirement in the past; not so much now sadly. This would all be much easier if progress was an acceptable business plan! I have zero experience with closed headphones so I am not sure how this works but do the HD250 have an expansive soundstage? I'm not sure if that is even possible from a technical viewpoint...?
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miT
Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 890 |
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Focal weren't as popular when I did my last demo, but they have quite a few models now.. Worth a listen, thanks.
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miT
Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 890 |
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I will keep an eye out, thanks Ash.
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discrete badger
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jul 2009 Status: Offline Points: 479 |
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With the usual caveat that everyone's ears are different....
I am familiar with, and dislike, the usual claustrophobic feel of closed-back headphones, so the discovery of the very-open Grado SR series was a revelation to me, although I grew to dislike the sound leakage which limited listening levels. I do not know how, but the HD250 somehow manages to avoid the closed-back boxiness without leaking very much sound at all.
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miT
Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 890 |
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Grade SR80 were my first proper headphones, but they took uncomfortable to another level... The PS1000 (or GS?) were sublime from memory though. This is why I cannot forgive Sennheiser for turning their backs on the achievements they made with both the 250 and the 540ii. At what point did "progress" become moving backwards??
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