Audiophilia

[azuriel07]

SC's have good design though. XD

I'm not sure with the sound. I've used average SC's before, but not those with bass amplifiers.

How about Sennheiser HD 205?

[Fox]

Good advice though. Pretty timely too, as i was thinking of getting a pair of Skullcandy headphones next payday, since my regular pair of earphones are starting to fall apart. Guess i'll start combing TPC for reasonably priced Sennheisers then.

[Goat]

I'm thinking of getting either getting a Grado SR80 or one of the better Sennheisser earphones.

HD800 also seems good from what I've read, but I wouldn't prefer to pay 1399 USD for that unless I get a high-paying job or something! Currently the stuff I only have are PX200 and a Bose Triport IE and they're breaking apart gradually. D:

[Shintetsu]

I have a pair of Grado SR80's (they're awesome) if you'd like to try listening to them sometime. For gaming and sound isolation I've been using ATH-m40fs. For portables, I use the ATH-FC700s. The FC700s were surprisingly good for their price.

Are there stores here that sell the ATH-FC700? I saw a pair at eBay at just 1.4kPhp, but I guess they might be fakes. Link.

I might prioritize getting a pair of these over a bass guitar :|

Edit: Can any of you recommend a good pair for me? Any pair between 1.5k-2.5k is fine

[Sforza]

There's one in Powerplant mall, in one of the audio shops on the top floor near the cinema level. Forgot the name of the shop, but my dad mentioned that they do sell Grado headphones.

I passed by the shop earlier while my mom was looking at Eclipse tie-in watches by Swatch (...)

ANYWAY. The SR60s are about 5.7k and the SR80s are 6.2k. They have 125s and 225s in stock, as well as the reference series Grados. Didn't ask the price anymore.

There's a full sized Grado headphone amp for 24k, and a few portable NuForce Icon Mobile headphone amps (pretty good quality) for 5k or so. They're basically a hi-fi hardware (full size speakers, amps, players) store and not a headphone store.

If you ask me, the price is fair enough considering the tax you'd have to pay if you imported it over Amazon.

[Shintetsu]

I'm going to get my own pair at Singapore this November instead. Definitely getting that ATH-FC700.

[Sforza]

I'm going to get my own pair at Singapore this November instead. Definitely getting that ATH-FC700.

If you need advice on where exactly to find them in SG, just ask me over ym or something.

[Grim]

I passed by the shop earlier while my mom was looking at Eclipse tie-in watches by Swatch (...)

ANYWAY. The SR60s are about 5.7k and the SR80s are 6.2k. They have 125s and 225s in stock, as well as the reference series Grados. Didn't ask the price anymore.

Thanks Jake! I'll definitely work that into the budget. No SR60i though?

[Sforza]

Thanks Jake! I'll definitely work that into the budget. No SR60i though?

Ah sorry I forgot to mention that all new Grados being sold now are SR-xxi models. The non-i models have been phased out because the difference is quite significant. Basically has to do with the wiring and the padding for the phones.

[Grim]

I'm listening to music now through a pair of Grado SR60is. My officemate was kind enough to bring a pair to work so I could borrow them.

I'm happy to report that they live up to their legendary status. The details are very crisp, even at the higher ranges, and the bass is ever present but never overpowering. They're pretty comfy too, the foam pads are large enough and the headband isn't too tight that the cups start to pinch on your ears. Plus, it looks like a cool, steampunk version of modern day headphones (even though it is a modern day headphone).

And even though I knew about it going in, in practice having an open-backed headphone will take some getting used to. I guess it's really one for listening to music at home, at a comfortably high volume, relaxing on your couch. It's surprising to both the wearer and the other people around him/her to suddenly be hearing what he/she's listening to.

EDIT: Took it for a listen to some rock, jazz and R&B tunes. Pero nangibabaw yung Somewhere Over the Rainbow ni Katharine McPhee. Haha.

[Sforza]

EDIT: Took it for a listen to some rock, jazz and R&B tunes. Pero nangibabaw yung Somewhere Over the Rainbow ni Katharine McPhee. Haha.

A bit off-topic, but my favorite versions of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" are by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (ukulele), and Eva Casssidy Try giving those a listen.

They've both passed away by the way

[Sforza]

I bought a FiiO E5 headphone amplifier and LOD (line out dock) for ipod yesterday. Glad to say that it makes a ton of difference when listening to music from your ipod. I also found out that my laptop (the G51) already has a pretty good sound card, and doesn't need to be amplified at all when using the SR80s with them.

The biggest difference however when using the E5/LOD combo was with the ATH-m40fs phones, probably because they''re studio reference cans and need more power to drive them(?). They sound great now, and have a bigger soundstage than the Grados (with audio quality being not far behind).

[Sforza]

Just bought Shure SE310 earbuds. I bought them because I needed buds with good sound isolation, since my room's aircon is old and sounds like a plane propeller (slightly exaggerated). The other reason is so I'll be able to study in peace at school. College kids can be amazingly noisy/loud. Quality is awesome, I never knew earphones could sound as good as these.

The SR80s still sound better because of the sound stage, cleanliness and definition, but then I can't listen to anything properly on them with the aircon on and they're for home use only.

Edit: Why is no one posting here D:

[NiX]

It's kinda like my menswear thread. We all have our own sub-geekeries.

[Sforza]

(Still in Hong Kong at the moment) This review should probably go on Head-fi and not here, but I might as well post it here too.



Anyway, went to Kingsound Audio in Mongkok yesterday and bought ATH-ES7s. They're a great shop as they let me audition almost any headphone I wanted, including the AKG701, Senn HD-555, Beyer 235, ATH-AD700, ATH-ESW9, D2000, Alessandro MS1, etc. I ended up staying for 2 hours or so

Address for the record:
九龍旺角洗衣街39號金雞廣場12樓1217室(乘3, 4號升降機) ,歡迎光臨參觀選購!! 地圖
Unit 1217, 12th Floor, Golden Era Plaza, 39 Sai Yee Street, Mongkok, Kowloon.

Based on the initial research I did on the ES7, they need a lot of burning in (around 200 hours). So far I'm up to 20 hours. I bought them because the hinge on my ATH-FC700s broke, and I don't really like the way they rest on my head. In other words, I needed new portables.

Right now (20 hours burn in) they sound slightly better than the FC700s because of sound staging and the bass strength. I don't really like the midrange, the highs are nothing special. Compared to the Grado SR80s in rock music, they're nothing to be impressed about. At all. The Grados have much better sound separation and tonal range, considering they're both supposed to be forward sounding and bright. The bass of the SR80s also have a warm, solid feel to them, while the ES7s bass is strong but all over the place. Of course, it's not really a fair comparison since the SR80s are open backed and not in the same quality category. The Shure SE310 IEMs also sound way, way better in rock music but then the Shures are known for their midrange but characteristically lack the bass of headphones. For some reason I like how the ES7s sound when it comes to classical music, piano concertos mostly.

All in all, they're OKAY. Fair value for money, great looking headphones. People will tend to exaggerate their sound quality because of all the positive reviews on the net. As portable headphones they're pretty awesome, but then the cheaper Beyerdynamic 235s I auditioned yesterday were pretty good (and cheaper too). I'll most probably continue to bring around the Shure IEMs on a daily basis, but would probably prefer the ES7s for extended use when I'm not at home or to look "cool".

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Edit after a day: After more burning in, they're VERY much improved. Great with classical and jazz or anything simple, preferably with female vocals. Really not so good for rock. It's quite typical for a lot of other Audio Technica headphones, has to do with sound signature.