Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler What kind of headphones do you have?

How many have great headphones to go with their great speakers? I love my Grado 225's.

Walt

wow. i know another guy on oahu with those same grado's. Maybe he has the 325's i cant remember. I use the Grado SR125's for when im on the computer and sometimes when i want to listen to music late at night. Or couse, they dont compare to the axioms though.

I've got Sennheiser HD580s (with an aftermarket cable). I love em. Either of you use a dedicated heaphone amp?

I had a headphone amp made by a guy www.head-fi.com. Didn't necessarily need them, but the sound is just a bit clearer. I love the headphones, but so much nicer to have the room filling sound of the speakers.

125's, 225's, 325's, all excellent! You're right though - they're nothing compared to the speakers.

I'm a regular at head-fi. I've got a headphone amp made by one of the members, too, though it's a bit more complicated and advanced than most of the diy amps over there.

I have Senn. Hd570's and use a Creek OBH11 amp.I only use them when I'm not able to listen to my M80's.They(the 570's) sound better than alot of others stereos that I know, but the room filling sound of my regular stereo is so much more satisfing.

I have the AKG K-401's, and I built myself a cmoy amp. One day I'll build a PPA, when I have some extra money and time.

http://www.geocities.com/djchrono2001/Cmoy_and_K401.txt

Running Grado 80's through an old silver faced Pioneer integrated amp and a Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator. The Carver doesn't work for all pieces of music, but when it does, the effect is remarkable. I've never cared for the "in your head" soundstage created by headphone, but what can you do when the rest of the family is hogging the livingroom. The Carver helps expand the image horizontally and puts a bit more space between the instruments. Everyone else is right about preferring their speakers. Headphones are terrific with some forms of music (Radiohead, Pink Floyd) but they never provide the "You Are There" feeling of a live perfomance your speakers can provide.

I have to agree with you that some bands are better with headphones than others. Pink Floys is definitely a headphone band. That is, until you hear the DSotM surround-mix SACD on Axioms!

If you love your Senns, so much, how come you took my Denons again? I can't even tell these folks what model they are.

Hearing DSOTM on sacd surround is one of my life goals now. lol. Ive got the sacd, now all i need are 3 more M80's some more amps and an Sacd player.

I'm sure you can enjoy Pink Floyd on SACD without five M80's.

3 more M80s?! Well, sheeeit, boy. What's keepin ya?

If you do complete your system this way, I'm buying a ticket to Hawaii and crashing on your couch. You mind?

I was doing some comparisons with the Senns v Denons (AHD-950). The Denon's are a little smoother overall, but the midbass is very bloated in comparison to the Senns, plus the soundstage is very cramped. But they do have a little more impact for rock, so I can tolerate their shortcomings every now and then.

Chrono - do you frequent the head-fi forums? The PPA does look pretty interesting, though I'm not a diy-er. I've got a Gilmore v2, and it keeps me happy (though I'd like to try a tube amp sometime).

Hey, if i had the money why get some wimpy surrounds id want everything to be the same, that way it would sound even better!

Well I go to head-fi every once in a while. I used to go there alot more.

The cmoy was my first diy project, and even though I had no idea what on earth I was doing, I was able to make it work. and it actually sounds pretty good. There are a few problems though, it only runs on battery, its not very transportable, no volume knob, and the bass starts to distort when I really turn up the source.

If I do decide to make a PPA I will be relying heavily on the support of the diy board there.

Hmmm. It shouldn't be too hard to retrofit your cmoy to run off wall power. Just find a brick transformer with the same power output as the current battery provides and solder the corresponding DC input in place of the battery terminals.

Yeah.. I could do that. Save some money on batteries. Thanks for the suggestion

Walt, AKG 501s here, plugged directly into my receivers. Usually prefer speaker sound, even with all the room problems, to the clarity of the phones, but when I'm in the mood for some high-powered Rachmaninoff while I'm doing something in the middle of the night I'll use the 501s.

I had once written about my Sony MDR-F1 full-open-air headphones in this vintage thread. They are little known, but sound excellent to my ears.

Stax SR-Sigma electrostatic phones I bought long ago. These are the ones that angle the panels from the front rather than directly towards the ears, it sounds more like the real thing. If I seriously want to hear what is on a recording, I go to these. They make a fair bit of sound in the room and don't block much, but are fine in the living room for when our daughter has gone to bed. They make wonderful music.
Also I most often use Sennheiser HD-545 up in my studio, again for working on music after bedtime. Same problem of leakage, but they are reasonably well balanced and clear. I did not want to spring for the 580's.
I had the pleasure of visiting the headroom display when it traveled across the country (www.headphone.com). I wish I had spent a bit more and gotten the Beyer DT-250-80s. Great sound and they are sealed so better isolation. Best sealed phone I heard there.
Had the additional pleasure of hearing the Sennheiser tube headphone amp running thru HD-600s. Incredible. But it had better be for $12K. A friend of mine is working on a tube headphone amp design now. He says of the others out there - "They are OK but there are some things I think I can do better." Since he's designed a single space midi controlled tube guitar preamp, years ago in fact, and other cool gizmos, I believe him. But, who knows when it will be done?

Sony MDR-V6 Studio's (not to be confused with the horrible V600's, which is purely a consumer model.)

Sennheiser HD-580, but it collects some dust compared to the MDR-V6.

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Had the additional pleasure of hearing the Sennheiser tube headphone amp running thru HD-600s. Incredible. But it had better be for $12K.

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Actually... Their $15k USD rig is the Orpheus. It does not use the HD-600s at all (what a rip-off that would be if that were the case, as HD-600's can be found for $400 USD)... It actually uses an 1 micrometer thick electrostatic diaphragm and that is linked to their electronic tube (aka valve) amplifier.