Grado headphones. I've heard that they are good, so I decided to pick up a pair with my last order from B&H. The only one they carry is the iGrado, their low-end, but it has the same driver as the next one up.
Conclusion? These are the best headphones I've ever heard, but they have the cheapest, least comfortable, completely nonadjustable headband and shortest cord I've ever seen. What a piece of crap. I've never had something be both so good and so bad all at once. Now of course, I'm compelled to buy a more expensive product from them because their product is crap. What a conundrum.
Man, what is it with you boneheaded Windoze/IntelSSD/Grado guys? Techgeek, hardly...more bland, middle of the road conservatives, who don't bother ever trying anything "new" (beyond the typical limited scope)
Best hp u ever herd? Then u haven't heard much...not sayin much either
Did we have this discussion in the old hp thread?
Already, go spend a few months reading over here:
Then get any kind of DAC/amp for your budget.
I have a craptastic 1st gen Headroom 2aa powered portable hp amp. Bought the last pair of Sony pretend 'studio monitor' hp @BestBuy BF, door buster @$10, cause I pulled the cord one 2 many times on the old Senn 437's and lost a channel. Those Sony's are for the most part a $10 retail pair of earbud drivers stuck into the cheapest of earpad, tiny, plastic hp you could imagine. Sound out of my laptop sucks so bad, just terribly flat, thin...that and I can put those on my hot ear lobes for more than 15min b4 I have to take them off. But with the HR amp, they can be driven to pretty decent levels with slightly less muddy sound, definitely an improvement.
The appear to have stopped making the very light weight succesor to the Senn HD437, now called 457. U can buy them new for $25. They don't have an ear 'cupping' pad, just an oval flat piece of 1/8in thick foam covering the drivers, so zero sound isolation...which can be a good thing if you need to here something like the phone ringing.
Plug those into a decent hp amp and you have good sound. Nowhere near as enveloping and deep bass or range as the HD600, but seeing how they cost 1/10th the HD600's (which I gave to my mother after she got lung cancer many years ago, that I paid $300 for back then, and they still cost that today, if not more).
Senn HD457's on Amazon
^ these are super lightweight, and hence very non-fatiguing to wear, plus large ovals mean less pressure, wide distribution compared to smaller/lighter weight models with formed earcups/pads. I might order a 2nd set, since they seemed to have discontinued the design.
I"m going to buy the DAC/amp E7's when they come out, most likely, $100 is a good price (yeah Fu, they have a built-in non replaceable Li-Ion bat, just like the iPhone...deal with it). What I haven't ever considered is if the USB 1.0 ports of my laptop output audio, as a way to bypass the 3.5mm hp jack, and laptop's own crappy DAC?
Another thing I can tell you, the HD600 will whip the Grado 60's (sure, they should for the cost) silly, even w/o amplification, unless you have super finicky ears. Poorly driven, unamped HD600's still sound
amazingly good compared to lower cost models. But you do need an amp if you want to go the xtra mile for a boost in sound quality. My mother probably can't tell the difference...unless you do a side-by-side A/B comparison. I can tell, but it's not a HUGE difference. But enough of a difference to make you
*always* want to use an amp, whenever you have the choice.
Ok, the HD800 are currently the world's best, but I can't fathom $1,300 (on sale today for Cyber Monday deals Stereodude, what are you waiting for, jump on it
) for any hp's or IEM (inner ear monitors
).
do my hd650's need an amp
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f133/do-my-hd650s-need-amp-406261/
Best Portable amp under $100??
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f105/best-portable-amp-under-100-a-457105/
FiiO E7 (due out next month)
^Interesting u can get the E1's on dealextreme.com 4 $20 now, shipped.
Inline super cheap amp (can't drive much current, will do little to up a current hungry hp like the HD600) for your iPhone/iPod's, needs no batteries...meh, $20 seems like something I should buy for those $10 BB doorbuster Sony's
FiiO E1 + E7 (speculation-no-more) *now guest-starring: E9
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f105/fiio-e1-e7-speculation-no-more-now-guest-starring-e9-436942/
^oh wait, they just added E9 rumors this morning. artist renditions of the e7's in this thread, delayed until Jan at least.
*edit* 999 posts, that's like upside down 666? :evil: :diablo: