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Replacement for Grado SR80's

David_NC

David_NC

Super Member
I've had a pair of SR80's for around 15 years or so. Most of their use has been with a now 10-year old Pioneer Elite AVR and an old Marantz 1060. They sound really nice on the Pioneer and great on the Marantz. I don't have that amp or receiver with me at present, so I've been using them with a Luxman R-115 and Sony V333ES. These headphones honestly sound really bad with the Luxman. The treble is so intense that it almost causes pain after a few minutes, and there seems to be minimal bass. Turning down the treble helps, but then they sound muffled. They sound quite a bit better on the Sony, but not good enough for me to want to use them for any amount of time. They actually sound better connected to an iPhone or iPad. The Luxman and Sony both sound fine when played through my speakers (ADS L780/2's).
I've reached the point that I think the best thing to do is to just get new headphones. The SR80's are not particularly comfortable to me, either, so something that's not an on-ear design would be good. I've been looking at some different models on Massdrop. I'm looking at Sennheiser HD 6XX ($220 now), Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee ($160), and HIFIMAN HE4XX Planar Magnetic ($170). I know it'd be best to try them first, but I'm not sure that's an option.
It'd be best to know what sounds good to me, and my ADS speakers with a powered subwoofer sound really good, and I can listen to that combo for hours. I'd like something as similar to that as possible, though I certainly don't expect them to sound like speakers. I guess I'm looking for experiences and suggestions on these and others. The 6XX's are at the upper limit of my budget.
 
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If you buy the HiFi Man planars from Amazon you can easily return them if you don't like them.
 
JoeESP9 said:
If you buy the HiFi Man planars from Amazon you can easily return them if you don't like them.
Click to expand...
The Amazon reviews for the Hifimans don't get as many good reviews as I'd like. The Sennheiser HD 6XX get great reviews, but are about $100 more than those from Massdrop. I see a couple pair of HD 6XX on Craigslist for 20-25% off the Massdrop price, so I think I'll check those out. ;)
 
IME headphone reviews on Amazon have very little to do with how something sounds to me. For me, reviews from Head Fi carry a lot more weight.

Perhaps you should wonder why there are so many used Sennheisers for sale.
 
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JoeESP9 said:
IME headphone reviews on Amazon have very little to do with how something sounds to me. For me, reviews from Head Fi carry a lot more weight.

Perhaps you should wonder why there are so many used Sennheisers for sale.
Click to expand...

LOL On the local Craigslist, there are 9 pair of non-wireless Sennheiser headphones for sale in a county of 3.2+ million people and 12 pair for sale in the adjacent county - LA County - with 10.2 million people. 21 Sennheiser headphones for sale on Craigslist out of 10.4 million people isn't really a lot.
I do agree, however, with Amazon reviews. The issue is that the model I was looking at on Massdrop is significantly pricier on Amazon. On audio / heaphone sites (Head-fi included), the HD6xxx seems to get better reviews as well (I've been reading reviews on both models). The 6XX's seem to receive better reviews, but not by much... not enough for me to be swayed either way. I'm still researching them and haven't made a choice yet. Thanks!
 
I am biased toward planar magnetic or electrostatic headphones. My main system uses either planar magnetics or ESL's. With 7 pair of headphones to choose from, the ones I like the best are the IEM Monolith M-300's (planar) I bought for use with my AGPTek portable player.

If my financial situation was to radically change I'd buy a pair of Stax ESL's in a heartbeat. No headphones I've ever heard in 50+ years of listening come close to Stax ESL's
 
Headphone outputs on preamps/amps/receivers are vary widely in quality. Many are just a chip added as an afterthought, to advertise an extra feature and increase perceived value that isn't there.
 
I bought a Portable Headphone Amp off of Amazon and it improved the sound quality on every set of headphones I own vs the built ins that are in my receivers. Like @bimasta said headphone jacks can be just an afterthought.

A dedicated Headphone Amp might be the way to go.

Mark Gosdin
 
bimasta said:
Headphone outputs on preamps/amps/receivers are vary widely in quality. Many are just a chip added as an afterthought, to advertise an extra feature and increase perceived value that isn't there.
Click to expand...

mgosdin said:
I bought a Portable Headphone Amp off of Amazon and it improved the sound quality on every set of headphones I own vs the built ins that are in my receivers. Like @bimasta said headphone jacks can be just an afterthought.

A dedicated Headphone Amp might be the way to go.

Mark Gosdin
Click to expand...
That's a good thought. I wonder if the headphone amp used by Luxman in the R-115 is of poor quality. I used the SR-80's last night with my Denon AVR-X4000 for watching a movie on Netflix without bothering others, and they sounded fine. Granted, this is not a good test of music. I'll have to patch the same source to the Denon and see how the Grados sound on that receiver. Being an AVR, I'd be a bit surprised if the headphone amp was much more than an afterthought, as mentioned above. At least it's an upper model, so maybe Denon did it right.
 
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