Post by mbzmike January 8, 2008 (1 of 8)
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Does anybody notice a difference when listening to sacd's through headphones? Better? Worse? No difference?
If yes, what brand of headphones are you guys using? Any suggestions?
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Of course, I notice the difference. I can listen to every detail of the recording. I mostly use an AKG K 701, but also own the K 240 Monitor and the K 401.
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Post by Claude January 8, 2008 (3 of 8)
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I listen to classical orchestral music mainly with headphones. I use a AKG K1000, which is very revealing, fed by a dedicated tube amp.
On that system, the main differences between SACD and CD (with good recordings) are the added smoothness on strings, more detail and transparency. It's very significant.
I haven't compared headphones recently since I consider the K1000 as "definitive", but if I had to buy one today (the K1000 are no longer made), I'd probably go for the AKG K701. The Sennheiser HD650, another top level headphone, sounds too warm for my taste, Grados are too uncomfortable.
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Post by Jonty January 8, 2008 (4 of 8)
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Try the HD600 from Sennheiser much better than the 650s. You will probably need a proper headphone amplifier for them although the Marantz SA15s-1 SACD player drives them just fine. I am not keen on the AKG 701s finding something rather odd to my ears about the cello tone but that may be system dependent as others like them. Stax tend to be on the cool side but are very good with their valve energizers.
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Post by raffells January 8, 2008 (5 of 8)
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mbzmike said:
Does anybody notice a difference when listening to sacd's through headphones? Better? Worse? No difference?
If yes, what brand of headphones are you guys using? Any suggestions?
I dont think anyone serious would not expect a difference when comparing two dis similair systems.
The headphones dont have a xover and also dont move the same amount of air that conventional loudspeakers do.
Its a bit like comparing surround and mono.
Having said this, I have never been keen on headphones even when recording I prefer monitors.
I agree with Claude that a dedicated amp is required and having just built one so the subject is a hot topic with me.I wanted it to listen to something when I remove my amplifiers for modification etc.Mine are Koss Porta Pro.Not the ultimate but excellent value for money.
Its also the one place I would consider tubes when there limitations dont matter.The warm up period was a problem for me and it was cheaper to use up spare compononts.
One mistake I made was designing even a quality volume pot into the head amplifier.This reduces overall quality compared with my normal vishayed resister pot which controls my main amplifiers.So if you want to keep the greatest similarity in sound then lateral thinking is required.
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Post by akiralx January 11, 2008 (6 of 8)
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I do most of my listening using a Stax earspeaker system - strongly recommended.
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Post by Julien January 11, 2008 (7 of 8)
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Jonty said:
Try the HD600 from Sennheiser much better than the 650s.
My guess is that you just spent a little time with a pair of not totally run-in 650s. And you found that the 650s had too much bass and weren't as natural sounding as the 600s. Am I wrong?
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Post by Jonty January 12, 2008 (8 of 8)
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Julien said:
My guess is that you just spent a little time with a pair of not totally run-in 650s. And you found that the 650s had too much bass and weren't as natural sounding as the 600s. Am I wrong?
You are right. A pop rather than classical balance. Something I recall Sennheiser admitting to.
I had them for about six months and gave them a good run in. Still preferred the 600s. My experience of running in for hi-fi is that if something doesn't basically sound 'right' from the beginning the elements I dislike won't go away although they may lessen. Of course, equipment matching comes in it as well.
So the 650os went and the AKG 701s are for sale should anyone want them.
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