Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Brief history of my experience with good headphones (and it's really brief because I have practically none): Last summer I bought a pair of Grado SR-60s after reading such positive reactions from people and because of the low price. These were the first quality headphones I'd heard, in the past I listened to my Walkman, ipod, etc with budget $15 junk. Until recently I didn't really use them much. Now I added the Grado RA-1 headphone amp and have started to really enjoy the SR-60s. Plus I kept them plugged and with music on 12+ hours a day for about 5 days, and that seemed to help.
Here are the various sources I'm using with the headphones/amp:
Rega Planet CDP (slightly older model)
Nakamichi BX-100 cassette deck
Both of the turntables in my signature, though I've been playing with my older Pro-Ject Tube Box phono preamp for fun.
All interconnects I use are high-quality, the likes of Kimber, XLO, etc.
Back to the headphones. Of course, having a headphone amp made me want to experiment with something higher up the Grado line, and after some deliberation I decided to just shell out the money for the 325i.
They got here today, and I let them 'burn in' for about 4 hours before listening to them.
I was surprised to find them quite comfortable after reading so many complaints about comfort with Grado headphones, and also because when I took them out of the box and briefly tried them on, I thought the design was strange and would probably be pretty uncomfortable. But I'm wearing them right now and so far I find them more comfortable than the Sr-60s.
I'm impressed with the build quality. Real leather! I don't typically like gold but this is a softer gold and I happen to think they look quite nice.
As I type this I've only been listening for about 45 minutes, but so far I'm happy with what I hear. I was really concerned about the complaints that these are too bright, so I figured the first thing I would do is play "Open" from The Cures' Wish album, which has lots of layered effects-laden guitars. While I did notice a bit more sibilance than usual on the vocals, the higher frequencies were hardly "piercing," as so many have described it.
What I enjoyed right away is the same quality for which I adore Grado's phono cartridges: imaging; the sense of depth and arrangement of instruments, and the way each instrument has it's own air around it, and can be more distinctly heard than with lesser equipment. [I happen to think that's a big part of what people are hearing when they talk about the great midrange of Grado; it's not that the midrange is actually louder or particularly pronounced, but you can hear everything that's going own more clearly due to the strong imaging characteristics].
My only complaint so far is that the bass seems to be a little lacking, which surprised me. However, the biggest difference in the SR-60s after I let break in was in the bass, which was louder and just better overall.
If anyone has these, what kind of break-in period do they require to really open up? What changes after that?
Any other thoughts or comments you'd like to add to this would be nice. Picture below.
Dave
Here are the various sources I'm using with the headphones/amp:
Rega Planet CDP (slightly older model)
Nakamichi BX-100 cassette deck
Both of the turntables in my signature, though I've been playing with my older Pro-Ject Tube Box phono preamp for fun.
All interconnects I use are high-quality, the likes of Kimber, XLO, etc.
Back to the headphones. Of course, having a headphone amp made me want to experiment with something higher up the Grado line, and after some deliberation I decided to just shell out the money for the 325i.
They got here today, and I let them 'burn in' for about 4 hours before listening to them.
I was surprised to find them quite comfortable after reading so many complaints about comfort with Grado headphones, and also because when I took them out of the box and briefly tried them on, I thought the design was strange and would probably be pretty uncomfortable. But I'm wearing them right now and so far I find them more comfortable than the Sr-60s.
I'm impressed with the build quality. Real leather! I don't typically like gold but this is a softer gold and I happen to think they look quite nice.
As I type this I've only been listening for about 45 minutes, but so far I'm happy with what I hear. I was really concerned about the complaints that these are too bright, so I figured the first thing I would do is play "Open" from The Cures' Wish album, which has lots of layered effects-laden guitars. While I did notice a bit more sibilance than usual on the vocals, the higher frequencies were hardly "piercing," as so many have described it.
What I enjoyed right away is the same quality for which I adore Grado's phono cartridges: imaging; the sense of depth and arrangement of instruments, and the way each instrument has it's own air around it, and can be more distinctly heard than with lesser equipment. [I happen to think that's a big part of what people are hearing when they talk about the great midrange of Grado; it's not that the midrange is actually louder or particularly pronounced, but you can hear everything that's going own more clearly due to the strong imaging characteristics].
My only complaint so far is that the bass seems to be a little lacking, which surprised me. However, the biggest difference in the SR-60s after I let break in was in the bass, which was louder and just better overall.
If anyone has these, what kind of break-in period do they require to really open up? What changes after that?
Any other thoughts or comments you'd like to add to this would be nice. Picture below.
Dave
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