Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Headphones

Thanks for all the posts.

I have been looking at the Sennheiser HD580 headphones., but they have an open Acoustic Seal. I believe that I want the acoustic seal closed so that the headphones are quite. Is this correct? Or am I misinterpreting the meaning of the acoustic seal? (Could not find the 570, is this the 580 with a closed acoustic seal?)

If I cannot find the 580 in a closed seal then I will probably get the 280 pro. (At my age I probably could not hear the difference between them anyway. LoL

Thanks again for all the posts, take care.

Del D

The HD580s are of an open design, the HD280 pros are closed.

Hi DelD,

I don't use any closed (circumaural) headphones because of the "sweaty-ear" syndrome and comfort factor, which doesn't rule out some Sennheisers recommended by others (I have not tried those). The following are open-air types.

The great bargain headphone, which I find extremely comfortable with nicely balanced sound (perhaps a tad too much bass) is the Koss PortaPro, also available in a slightly less clunky looking version called the SportaPro. About $40.

I've also used the Grado SR125 for years. Excellent sound and quite comfortable. I'm currently evaluating several inexpensive and expensive "earbud" style ear-canal phones. Will report later.

Regards,

On the topic of headphones. . . Is anybody out there utilizing Dolby headphone? I noticed that Marantz is offering this on their receivers and I have heard a couple of demos that are fairly impressive sounding.

I end up doing a lot of night time listening so any input would be nice.

Try some ALessandro MS-1s

They are Grado SR125s modified to be more neutral, which many prefer, and in addition, are $50 cheaper than what they were modded from! And come with the "comfy" grado pads. Can't ask for more.

Ya know, Thasp, you bring up an important point when you mention the "more neutral" issue!

I had been doing some listening tests using the three sets of earphones that we have here lying around the house, and interestingly, all of them produce tons more bass than my mains do.

Shouldn't come as much of a supprize I suppose, I mean, talk about "near-field"

Guess I just never noticed anything in the earphone adds or spec sheets(such as there are)that talked about the over-all sound of the earphones.

I had even thrown out a suggestion that Axiom may want to source an "Axiom-Sounding" earphone set so that us Axiom types could purchase a set and be relatively assured of getting 'phones that at least sound close to what we listen to the rest of the time!!

Think I'll take a closer look at those MS-1s as well as Alans 125s!!!

Strongly recommend the Sony MDR-7506 or the MDR-V6, they're very easy to drive....only rated at 63ohm so you don't need any headphone amp, though they're very accurate and sound amazing. Google them and look at their reviews

I have Senny HD212 Pros for work, 280 Pros for the computer room, and 650's for serious listening. The 212 and 280 models have enormous "bang for buck" upsides. Both are closed. The 280 would be a great all-around closed phone for the price. The 212 sound great but is a little "bass-y" (note to Craig: Bup bup bup! We're talking about headphones here!). The 650 has been called by some "the best headphone money can buy." They are "open." You can get pretty good deals on all of them here. And if I'm in the mood I might be talked into building you a set of high-quality upgrade cables for the price of the materials.

Thank you for the replies.

I have not decided which brand of headphones to get, but it definitely looks like the Sennheiser brands are well liked. I was really only considering one set of headphones when I started the post, but it appears that the highest quality are the open style. So I may end up getting a set of each, open and closed. (Although, paying $300 plus for the 650 is more than I am willing to pay for headphones, so I will probably go with a different brand. The Grado SR125 at half the price of the 650, is a bit more to my liking and I will not mention what the wife has to say about either price….)

Please excuses my ignorance, but what are the benefits of upgraded cables versus the regular cables that come with the headphones? You can use the Sennheiser 250 as a reference, since those are probably the ones I will buy to use with the computer.

Thanks again, take care.

Del D

It is unlikely that upgraded cables will get you anything. It's just an electrical signal. Others will undoubtedly disagree with me.

However, a bad cable can be a pain in the butt! My 570s had a bad cable, and the right ear kept going out. Replaced it, no problems since!