Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Received Some New Headphones Today

A couple pairs of headphones arrived in the mail today . I have only taken the AD700 out of the box to inspect them due to the damage on the box - they are fine, they are purple , they are huge headphones and they are very comfortable. Time to do some listening now .

I'm jealous.

If you're jealous now, then just wait until he reveals that it's one pair for Regina, and one for him.

I've had my SH840's for a few weeks now. Got them from RMC Audio for $129 shipped. GREAT DEAL, but I had to order in July and wait until last month for delivery.

Lots of detail and solid bass. My Grado HF2's have a bit more clarity but that's an unfair comparison. BUT the 804's come w/ an extra cable, 1/4" adapter, and a bag. Great deal and easy to drive.

I have put them through an initial quality assurance test.


The Shure SRH440 are very nice looking headphones and have rock solid build quality. The build quality in this price range ($100) is very impressive. They also come with a detachable coiled cable, 1/4 adapter and a leather type material carrying case...nice touch Shure. I find these cans very comfortable, more so than my MS-1. Sound quality delivers as well. Nicely balanced, detailed treble, great bass. Oldskoolboarder, the fact you got the SRH840's for $129 is an unbelievable deal, what a steal , these are very nice closed headphones for the price.

If you have glasses, how's the comfort for long term? I love my AKGs, but my head starts hurting if I wear them for longer than 15-20 minutes. My Senn HD280s are better, but still painful after about an hour or so.

The Audio Technica AD700 are unique. They are purple and have a very unique design. The build quality is very good but not as rugid as the Shure. These headphones are massive and are so comfortable. If comfort is your thing, these would be one of the headphones to consider. The AD700 also have very good sound quality but are different than the MS1 and 440. The treble is not as detailed but they make up for it in soundstage. There is a lot of hype about the soundstage on this headphone and they are correct.

I've heard that the 840's aren't comfortable w/ glasses. I think the 840's hit the temple/glasses and just the wrong place.

Yeah, I know, $129 was WAY too good to pass up, especially considering I had already ordered my Grado HF2's. Which, BTW, are the best headphones I have. VERY close to the Axiom sound.

Are at the AT bigger than the Shure's? I was hoping to use my 840's for travel but I look like a moose w/ them on, they're massive. But the sound isolation is SO good I could ride a plane next to my kid and not hear them during the entire flight. Good for me, not so much for my neighbors.

I can't answer your question because I do not wear glasses. However, I have read some people complain that they can be uncomfortable if you have glasses on.

The Shures have a much more compact and elegant design. The AD700's are big and bulky, I consider them massive in size for a headphone but they are soooo comfortable.

I forgot to mention a feature on the Shure SRH440 is that the design can "collapse" for storage and portability. Each headphone has a low impedance and high efficieny with the Shure at 44Ohms and 105 db sensitivity. The AD700 spec at 32 Ohms and 98 db. I have tried these headphones on a Cowon D2 and SanDisk and they sound awesome with plenty of power to give. Any reputable MP3 player will power these. I also have a tube headphone amp, but have not tried using that yet .

What tube headamp do you have? I LOVE my Bottlehead S.E.X. I used to have the LD I+ but was able to 'upgrade'.

Yeah, it is nice that the Shures fold, but w/ a case, my HF2's are still a little more compact. But they don't isolate well for travel use.

I have a LD MKIII. I find it to be a great budget amp with excellent build quality. Been very reliable so far and I use it almost everyday. I purchased it based on experiences/recommendations from a few members here about the product and service. Very pleased with it.

Where do the Grado HF2's fall within their lineup. I assume it is one of their high end models?

HF2 is a special edition done for Head Fi and TTVJ.com. It's above the 325i for sure. Some compare it to the RS series, and like it better, but I never heard those.

Vs the 325i, which I've since sold, the great highs/mids are there but it's more tamed, not as fatiguing in a good way. There's also more bass and WAY more soundstage. Only 500 were made so the used prices are some times ridiculous. MSRP is $425 but I've seen some in Europe already sell on ebay for over $1K US. Crazy. And these were only shipped a few months ago.

Interesting, did not know that. So is the design all its own or is it spec'd off a certain model and tweaked? Like how Alessandro designs their headphone lineup but in this case Grado doing it to their own brand?

It's a custom tweaked design, tweaked by John himself. My box even has his signature. Yeah, appears to be how Alessandro did it.

They had an HF1 a year ago or so that was $200 and looks based off the 125i, though I could be wrong. People LOVED those, sometimes resell for double because of the limited run.

At the risk of cross posting, but in case any one is interested:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/grado-hf-2-review-comparison-thread-426905/

Thanks for the link, i'll definitely check it out. Its cool that they were limited in production and will probably have great resell value if you were so inclinded to sell. Must feel good to own a custom, limited edition pair.

Yeah, I was psyched that it would have great resell value. But the more I use them, the more I realize they aren't going away. I could see these as the cans I hand down to my kids as I teach them what REAL music should sound like.

You should find a lot of feedback on the Sony MDR-7506/V6 and the Audio Technica ATH-M50 if you are looking for a more comfortable closed model. A lot of "in the industry" folks use the 7506/v6 for studio use. I would love to try the M50's myself

I met a friend for lunch today for our own little headphone meet. I brought 2 portable amps, Bottlehead, iphone 3G, Macbook, Grado HF2 and Shure 840s. He brought his MiniDisc (yes I said MD) and Senn HD650 and another Senn that he said he liked. (Suffice he didn't like it that much after I showed him the Grados...)

I met w/ him because he complained that his HD650's didn't sound right connected to his older Denon AVR (2805 I think). Sigh, oh those newbies...

What didn't he like about the 650's when they were powered by his Denon? Did you take any pics of all the equipment and headphones together at the meet? Its late and a little headphone porn is in order .

Sorry no pix. His Denon AVR doesn't have enough power via the headphone jack to power his 300 ohm HD650's. My RSA Green Hornet wasn't a very good match but the iBasso D10 was slightly better. In both cases, the volume was cranked all the way up for a not so loud volume. He liked it best connected to the Bottlehead S.E.X.

Then I showed him why I like my easier to drive HF2's and 840's. He could tell the difference. I also warned him to make sure he brought good source material. I listened to his Minidisc and complained of hiss which he didn't notice, until I pointed it out. Then I played a Jack Johnson track (which always seem well record for some reason) from iTunes and he could tell the difference. I told him to listen to his CDs to make sure he wasn't ripping poorly mastered CDs into lossless format. Garbage in, garbage out.

Good advice. Hiss is never a good thing. He should maybe look into a budget headphone amp and budget source like the Sansa Clip+ which has expandable memory or a Nano. I know the LD tube amps MKII+?, MKIII have 3 gain settings which can be set to match the the impedance/sensitivity of the headphones. Might be a good amp to power the 650 with? Source material is very important as well, was the hiss present at all times, was it still there when the MD was connected to an amp?

It was only on his MD player, either line out or headphones, amped or not. He was complaining that it was a $400 MD player but I told him that it could easily be the CD that he ripped.

For lack of a better place to ask the question thought I'd continue with this thread for you headphone experts.

I am wondering if there's such a thing as good quality wireless headphones? I have absolutely zero experience in this area so thought I'd start by asking our resident experts. More worried about sound quality than price, but obviously a good cost to performance ratio is desired. This is mostly for short range (i.e. not whole house), say within a 15 foot radius from source transmission. Thanks for any opinions out there.

I have no experience with wireless headphones. This would be a great question to ask Alan Lofft about. I would think there would be some drawbacks to wireless headphones and that price/performance would be much harder to achieve. I know Axiom was developing a wireless bookshelf speaker at one point so they might have some insight into this technology. I know great sounding standard headphones (open, closed, portable, circumaural) can be found on the cheap $<150, some even at prices much less than that.

The couple of Bluetooth ones I have tried (owned none) seemed to have issues if you walked around too fast. Might have just been that particular brand.

Thanks Doc. I'll see if Alan chimes in here, otherwise I'll PM him in a day or two. I am thinking of this for office use where cables constantly interfere with rotating my chair or crossing the room for filing cabinets etc...

I have heard Alan say before that he checks every subforum except for The Water Cooler. Odds are he will not see this thread. Probably best to PM him or start another thread in another subforum on wireless headphones. JohnK might also be able to shed some technical insight into wireless headphones.

No wireless experience. But if you get anything that's using Bluetooth (2.4GHz) or Wifi (2.4GHz), you'll be plagued by wireless interference. Read, it won't sound good at all.

I just went onto ebay and bought a 25' headphone extension cable for $30 made w/ Belden cable and Canare connectors. Even comes in colors, mine is purple.