[Russell Dawkins]

for another twist on headphone mania, see here:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=95921.msg1044014;topicseen#new

[guest1632]

1953. Newly arrived in Canada from England. 9 years old. Mounted a conical "horn" made of rolled up paper on the little flesh-colored cheap plastic piezo-electric earphone (singular) that came with my crystal set, in accordance with my father's guidance (he did similar in India for the men in the barracks to hear short wave news from Holland on his Philips Skyscraper radio).

Lo and behold, you could hear the output on the far side of the attic! I repeated the trick later in the classroom. Teacher was not impressed.

Totally analog, only two or three parts (one being the cat's whisker) between the antenna and the earphone. Still not exactly hi-fi!

As a result, when asked how long I have been "into" sound, it is tempting to cite this experiment!

Speaking of the ol' catwisker/crystal diode, I first started with a pair of headphones with the construction with a metal plate with a magnetic structure to vibrate the plate. I still have them somewheres around here. Then I bventured in to the building of crystal sets using that pair of phones. My actual audio experience begin with a pair of Koss Pro 4AA,. I did listen to there electrostatics back in the mid .70's, and then bought my first pair of Microsekie Headphones. I was told that Stax was better. So I bought a entry pair for then $200. I kinda think the Microsekis might have been better.

I use phones a lot with my computer. I had a pair of Sony MDRv6 until I sat on them and broke the one of the pins going in to the headband holding the phone in place. Oh well, so now, I just have a pair of cheap Sony's that I got from Newegg on sale. So that's been my headphone experiences.

I was down at Best Buy the other day looking at phones. wasn't to impressed with the new B&W phones for $400. The Boze phones for $150 were probably the most comfortable of the ones I saw, and didn't sound to bad. So ... that's it.

Ray Bronk

[guest1632]

1.  Christmas 1984.  Koss Porta Pro headpones.  I soon discovered that if I pressed them to my ears, the bass got much better.  I immediately wanted that bass all the time...

2.  Winter 2011.  Alessandro MS1i.  I bought them on a lark, for a desktop system.  It lead to significant amounts of time being spent on Head Fi, and the eventual purchase of some SR60i's that I modded.

3.  Spring 2011.  Audeze LCD-2's.  At a local Head Fi meet with some uber rare Hawaii amp or something.  WOW was that good.  The price for the combo was somewhere around a new car however!

I stuck with the modded SR60i's and am still happy.

Hi, Haven't heard the SR60's phones. Are they at least comfortable? What did you do to Mod them?

Ray Bronk

[charmerci]

charmerci - I think that now that you are no longer a poor student you should try again to get a listen to the 600ohm AKG 240DFs if you can.

No, I'm no longer a poor student. I'm a poor adult!    I'm happy with my Grados. Any step up would cost a lot more anyway. I have expenses coming up this spring (overseas trip!) so I'm desperately trying not to buy stuff for now.

[lonewolfny42]

Your First "Headphone Moment"

Back in the '70's...I used them with my Pioneer SX-1010 receiver....just like in the photo...still have them somewhere here...sounded pretty good back then...   

Pioneer SE-700....



>>>>> Link...

[dB Cooper]

Interesting; don't think I ever heard of those before. It would be interesting to see if Stereo Review, High Fidelity, or Audio ever reviewed them.

[dBel84]

I have been a headphone fanatic for many moons, I have to say that my real "headphone" moment came when I veered off the well beaten track of Beyer, Senn, Grado, AKG etc, and discovered vintage planar headphones. Not a big fan of the pioneer piezo , it still sounds like it belongs in the 70s, but Taket T2 sounds promising for that technology. The earliest planar magnetic headphone was the Wharfedale isodynamic, sold for 20quid and is one of my favourite headphones today. The yamaha orthodynamics are by far the closest thing I have heard to capture that "maggie" experience. I should add, I am not a fan of Grado. The original RS1 was special, but most of the others are voiced too forward for me.

I strongly recommend scouring eBay for a cheap yamaha yh2/hp2 , make some minor modifications and enjoy that planar magic.

..dB

[ajzepp]

I have been a headphone fanatic for many moons, I have to say that my real "headphone" moment came when I veered off the well beaten track of Beyer, Senn, Grado, AKG etc, and discovered vintage planar headphones. Not a big fan of the pioneer piezo , it still sounds like it belongs in the 70s, but Taket T2 sounds promising for that technology. The earliest planar magnetic headphone was the Wharfedale isodynamic, sold for 20quid and is one of my favourite headphones today. The yamaha orthodynamics are by far the closest thing I have heard to capture that "maggie" experience. I should add, I am not a fan of Grado. The original RS1 was special, but most of the others are voiced too forward for me.

I strongly recommend scouring eBay for a cheap yamaha yh2/hp2 , make some minor modifications and enjoy that planar magic.

..dB

"vintage planar headphones"?? That is the coolest phrase I've heard all day!

I am completely blown away by the concept of planar cans...I'm enjoying the Grado experience right now, but it won't be long before I have some hifiman or audeze phones in here, as well.

[ajzepp]

Back in the '70's...I used them with my Pioneer SX-1010 receiver....just like in the photo...still have them somewhere here..

You should bust out those babies and give 'em a listen, Chris!   Those actually look a little like BeyerD's minus the velour pads

[Mike Nomad]

The Koss HV-1.  I still have them and they work perfectly.

I had the Realistic LV-10 (Koss HV-1, made for Radio Shack). I can still remember what I played for the first listening session: Cheap Trick Cheap Trick, Aerosmith Rocks, ELO Face The Music & New World's Record.

Nobody's Fault and Fire On High just about blew the top of my head off. Ah, youth.

For the last couple of decades, it's been beyerdynamic DT 150. Very consistent with a wide variety of material across many different environments.

[mcgsxr]

I modded the SR60's by removing the thin white cover on the driver. 
I punched 10 holes in the rear cover over the driver. 
I also made my own east indian rosewood cups for them. 
I had them recabled with mogami wire, and a vampire 1/4 plug.

I had asked the same guy that made the custom headband for eclein for one, but he never got back to me. 

The pic below shows them with the mid sized foam, but I do prefer the huge over the ear ones for best soundstaging (at the loss of some bass).

[eclein]

Mark the mods we all did really tuned them up didn't they??? That was a fun time....

[ajzepp]

mcg: nice!!

I'm having some sort of weird thing going on with grados. Yesterday I took my Ultrasones to work and enjoyed them througout the shift. When I got home last night, though, I went into my bedroom and saw the SR80s laying on the bed. All of a sudden I just HAD to go back into the other room, get my iPOd/Fiio rig, and start listening on the Grados lol. I don't know why I'm having this love affair with them so intensely. It's very strange, but I do have say I'm really enjoying it.

I'm afraid what will happen if and when I get the PS500s in here 

Something I noticed about them last night, though, especially after spending so much time with the Ultrasones for the previous several hours...the Grados image like a BEAST. The separation among the instruments was really impressing me. I never thought of headphones being able to really image all that well, but they honestly do.

I had my Sennheiser 518s up on Amazon as a seller, and today I got the email that a buyer has grabbed 'em. So that's a little closer to the goal of upgrding to the 500s.

[dB Cooper]

I was down at Best Buy the other day looking at phones. wasn't to impressed with the new B&W phones for $400.

Ray Bronk

Me neither actually, despite the usually glowing reviews. If you are referring to the P5, I think they are $300, but still- they have high clamping pressure (uneven too; noticeably higher on the back of your ears than on the front).
I thought the voicing and overall frequency balance was quite good BUT the bass was very loose. In the off chance there are some Little Charlie and the Nightcats fans here, the bass line on "My Next Ex-Wife" (you can hear a sample on itunes) just doesn't hold together.

[yeldarb]

a buddy's Koss 4AA, Led Zep 2 and a certain illegal substance. 

[mhconley]

Two nights ago I had my latest headphone moment...

I listened to both sides of my 200g Quiex vinyl pressing of Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing.  It sounded different than I have ever heard it sound before.  "I Love You", the second song on the first side, is one of several songs I have found perfect for auditioning speakers.  It has a low, pulsating bass tone and Sarah is miced very close, she sounds breathy.  I have found the recording unlistenable on most metal dome tweeters as they emphasize the breathiness in her voice, most make it shrill and extremely fatiguing.  The low bass note is good for plumbing the bass extension of monitors.  Fritz's Carbon 7's make this song very listenable and reproduce every nuance, or so I thought.  On my Sennheiser HD 598's I finally heard the song as it was meant to be heard - she was whispering in my ear!  It brought goosebumps to my arms.  The rest of the album, one of my favorites, was amazing.

Vinyl through headphones rocks!  (It did however point out I need to invest in a real RCM.)

Martin

[Douger]

My headphone history goes back to 1971, Koss Pro4AA's and HV-1's. They served my R&R purposes until the late 80's when I bought
Grado SR60's and SR225's. I was happy with them for a good while, and simply modded them by cutting the centers out of the pads,
and damping the plastic cups with lead tape around part of the outside under the pads (increased bass).

Recently I discovered head-fi.org and renewed my interest... I have added ATH M50's and AD700's, Denon 2000's and 7000's, Grado
SR325i's and RS1's, and HiFiMan HE500's. Sorry about my wallet...

I have learned that the Grado's really shine after break-in, at least 40 hours. Very well worth it though. The HE500's are truly special,
and I feel that they are improving as I go.

My biggest moment  so far has been how the SR325i's became shrill and almost hurt, and then snapped into focus and great reproduction. The RS1's sound better from the start, but of course cost more.

[ajzepp]

Recently I discovered head-fi.org and renewed my interest... I have added ATH M50's and AD700's, Denon 2000's and 7000's, Grado
SR325i's and RS1's, and HiFiMan HE500's.

HOly hell that's awesome!!! 

Would you say the RS1s are a big enough jump in performance from the 325s that I could take both steps, or is the difference negligible and I'd be better off jumping right to the RS1 or maybe the PS500? It's not as much a money thing as it is the fact that Im really enjoying this journey and I'm sort of attracted to the idea of taking steps upward instead of leaps.

I've definitely had the HE-500s on my radar for a while now...Im dying to hear a planar headphone!

DAMMIT I love this hobby  

[ajzepp]

Two nights ago I had my latest headphone moment...

I listened to both sides of my 200g Quiex vinyl pressing of Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing.  It sounded different than I have ever heard it sound before.  "I Love You", the second song on the first side, is one of several songs I have found perfect for auditioning speakers.  It has a low, pulsating bass tone and Sarah is miced very close, she sounds breathy.  I have found the recording unlistenable on most metal dome tweeters as they emphasize the breathiness in her voice, most make it shrill and extremely fatiguing.  The low bass note is good for plumbing the bass extension of monitors.  Fritz's Carbon 7's make this song very listenable and reproduce every nuance, or so I thought.  On my Sennheiser HD 598's I finally heard the song as it was meant to be heard - she was whispering in my ear!  It brought goosebumps to my arms.  The rest of the album, one of my favorites, was amazing.

Vinyl through headphones rocks!  (It did however point out I need to invest in a real RCM.)

Martin

I just checked my iTunes library and I have Surfacing...I've added so much stuff in a short amt of time I didn't even realize I had it lol. I'm gonna listen to that song tonight...I don't have it on vinyl, so won't be the same magical experience as what you had, but I love Sarah and I haven't heard her on my Grados yet. Thanks for sharing your experience! 

[TONEPUB]

1973.

My friends Koss Pro 4AA's, Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs and a black light....