The Watering Hole

I've started to really enjoy the K240s headphones I have. Slow learner.

I started checking out some other phones and came accross this....

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphones/full-size/akg-k-240-mk-ii.php

Seems the 240s are discontinued as AKG changed their line of headphones. I'd like to try these, and will later I guess. (the new ones) However, the price is a little high. Horrible timing with the economy in the shitter. However, you can still get the old 240s at the same price. Around 100 bucks.

I just ordered a pair of Grado sr80's. I've read so many good things about the damn things I just have to give them a try. ;D  Seems everytime I read about really good headphones in the hundred dollar range these come up. Be nice to give them a shot. Yes, I'm a headphone freak. ;DJust thought this was interesting! :)

Shit, man. Three fucking years later you're still whining about headphones?  :o

Merry Christmas, man... Good to see some things never change.

No, I just like em. Got a problem with that?

Fuck you. :)

You must be a real happy person. ;D ;D Or should I say a real happy camper. ;D ;D

Merry Christmas to you. For real.

Hook, those Grados are supposed to be really good.  There's one other pair around $100 (can't remember off the top, but my be a set of Beyers) that are supposedly the best two in that range.  I've never got around to trying either yet.  

I have had my AKG's K240's since my first studio back in the mid 1980's, the only time I use them is for recording vocals (or any other miked up track) They have not been on my head for more than 10 hours in all those years. (when I had my analog studio I had four pair of the 240's, I gave one pair to my son Geno, and sold the other two at a flea market in St Augustine Florida in the early 90's)

AKG K240DF are great  headphones.

Takes time to work them as a lot of "music" sounds shit with them.

But anything decently recorded and played sounds great - which is what they are for.

Well, I've read many so-called expert reviews and they mostly say the Grado's are great and mabe the best headphone for under $100. Their were many comments about how they had really good detail and that they even made bad recordings really stand out...sound worse. But with good recordings they were unbeatable in the $100 range.

Now if you read the user reviews they are all over the place. Some love em some hate em. Some say they have good base response, accurate, some say they have way to much base. Can't tell shit from the users. I always check Headrooms reviews on this type thing as they have been pretty right on so far. They say the less expensive sr60's are better, I think. One step down from the sr 80.

I've become a headphone junky. I travel for work and at night in hotel rooms, I listen to music and stuff. (Porn) ;D ;D Not really. But I use them at night at least 4 times a week and I've gone way overboard with the shit. It's become a hobby, kinda. I enjoy it! I just don't buy anything over $100, except a pair of Shure se210 in ear phones. I like them pretty well.

I guess I need to quit posting about headphones. I don't think to many people give a damn about them like I do. And I certainly wouldn't if I didn't travel so much. :)

Hooky should be looking for some Headcase Phones.  :D ;D

Got em. They don't work. ;D ;D

Hook, over the last 2 weeks I have bought 3 pair of cheap headphones and realized that, at least so far, most really cheap phones are unuseable. I don't know how people get by with them. I thought "How bad can $20 phones really be?" and found out.... bad. I had a pair of Optimus Pro 155 phones that weren't the best I'm sure, but they sounded very crisp, clear and detailed, I liked them, paid around $100 a couple years ago, but now the left side has a short and comes in and out depending on how I position myself while wearing them.

I tried a cheap set of Sennhiesers, I tried some other Radio Shack "reference" phones and I tried some $25 Sony's from Walmart. All of them sounded as though there was cotton in my ears, I mean REALLY bad.

So I am reading your phone posts with great interest, going to just save for some  +/- $100 phones.

Roy,

I think we all have interest in headphones.  Some more than others, yeah, but I have a lot of interest in them.  

Well, when I get the Grados in I'll give you my opinion. I'll pretty much compare them to the AkG 240s. Of course, I like to simply listen to music and get as much detail as possible. That's where my interest are for the most part.

As of today, the Senn PX100 phones for $50 bucks are outright a steal as far as sound for the money. They aren't a reference type phone, but great to listen to music on MP3 players are anything else. The 240s, of course, blow them away for sound quality.

I should have the Grados by the 2nd of January. ($95) I'll listen to them and see what I think. Let you know in a few weeks. :)

Cool.  I'll be watching.  

I still dig my 11-year-old Sony MDR-7506 phones...they still sound great. They still sell them - I think they're about $100.

The only issue with them is that they can get hot on your ears.
Tripper

Well, got the Grados early. Very impressed!

Compared to AKG 240s.

My opinion.......

This is what I've been looking for in a headphone. The sound is more open. More forward. I found myself having to listen hard for detail with the 240's. Almost to the point of having to concentrate, so to speak. The sr 80's sound is right there at all volumes. You hear every instrument effortlessly. Even at very low volumes. The akgs sound is muffled compared to the sr 80's. On sound, hands down I prefere the grados to the akgs.

Now I guess I don't understand a reference headphone. If I were recording, I would want to hear every instrument in my recording and the akg's just don't do that as well as the sr 80's. I just can't understand how one would prefer the akgs if your wanting to hear every detail of the recording. And, my comparison was done on a mp3 player, not even a cd player. So the music quality isn't even cd quality. The music on my player is at a bit rate of 256. I think it's called a bit rate, I may be wrong on that. But whatever it's called it's at 256. ;D

The reviews were right about the cheap build quality of the grado's. Very cheap build. Plastic crapy looking stuff. All the money on these headphones went to the cable and speakers in the cans for sure. But they are o.k. as far as comfort goes. However, they are much easier to drive than the akgs and don't require a headphone amp as the reviews seem to suggest. However I do use a amp because the I bought one to enhance the sound of the akgs.

So, the grado's were a good buy and the sound is better than I expected. I'm keepin em.

This is my mp3 player and the headphone amp I use. The source is very important when listening to headphones, imo.

Amp......
http://www.practicaldevices.com/xm5_pictures.htm

MP3 player......
http://www.amazon.com/Cowon-iAUDIO-Portable-MP3-Player/dp/B000TB0RY4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230834125&sr=8-1

If anyone is looking for a mp3 player, this one is a damn good one. The sound quality is excellent and has a fully custamizable eq, not just presets. I paid $169 for mine about a year or so ago and now the price has dropped to $107. You'll trash your ipod when you get this! It's that much better sounding!

I'll have to check them out when I get some coin.  

Where did you get yours?  

Got the headphones here.........

http://www.jr.com/grado/pe/GRA_SR80/

They are pretty much the same price everywhere.

Keep in mind that if you try a pair of these, when you get them....you'll likely be like me and say, look at this piece of shit..... ;D

.....then you'll hear them. They spend the money on the headphones, not build quality or looks. Check out Grado's site and read about the company. :)

http://www.gradolabs.com/

You'll see this isn't a huge company. Very focused on sound alone. :)

I know all about Grado.  I have had one of their phono cartridges for years.   Just haven't heard hardly any of their headphones.  Thanks for the link.  I'll check them out.  

DreamTheaterRules — Jan 03, 2009I have had one of their phono cartridges for years.  

What's a "phono cartridge?"

CraigBert — Jan 03, 2009What's a "phono cartridge?"

You are too young for that info. You needed to be born 20 years earlier.

desertbluesman — Jan 03, 2009[quote author=CraigBert link=1230157465/0#18 date=1230984977]What's a "phono cartridge?"

You are too young for that info. You needed to be born 20 years earlier.

Nah.  I'm way old enough to know about them!  (I was a DJ from '80 to '83.  ;) )

I'm also old enough to remember when our phone numbers had a word to describe the first two numbers (ours was "homestead" where the "h" and "o" equate to 4 and 6).  I also remember party phone lines and where you could ask the operator to politely interrupt a phone call if the line was busy (sort of an old school call waiting - heh).  :)

No shit... And you could dial our home number with just five digits. I remember moving to Jersey in the late 70s and mom being annoyed because we now had to use seven digits to dial. Imagine the fun with mom once local dialing with area codes became mandatory.

I'll never forget how confused I was when the family went to my grandparents house and you'd pick the phone up and hear someone already on it talking. ;D I use to pick it up real quiet like and try to listen to the conversation when I was a kid. ;D Damn, that was a long time ago. :) Had to wait for the neighbor to get through talking before you could use the phone. ;D

I remember when you picked up the stalk like phone in one hand and the held the ear piece in the other while rattling the lever saying "operator".
Good old days. :)
Phones were user friendly in those days.

Just shout operator.
and hit the bell to call in the drinks.

And they call it progress

:)

Hookbender — Jan 02, 2009Got the headphones here.........

http://www.jr.com/grado/pe/GRA_SR80/

They are pretty much the same price everywhere.

Keep in mind that if you try a pair of these, when you get them....you'll likely be like me and say, look at this piece of shit..... ;D

.....then you'll hear them. They spend the money on the headphones, not build quality or looks. Check out Grado's site and read about the company. :)

http://www.gradolabs.com/

You'll see this isn't a huge company. Very focused on sound alone. :)

I remember using a pair of Grados that looked a lot like that at WHS II.  I was unimpressed, especially when FB told me the price. I'm surprised you like them that much.  Maybe the fact that they are nearly useless in a room with instruments was coloring my opinion... quiet and really unlistenable over the room sound. In an actual studio environment, they would be useless.  The great thing about AKGs is that they sound really good, and you can throw them on while tracking or while listening back to a session, and you don't have to hear all of the outside world.

charger — Jan 05, 2009[quote author=Hookbender link=1230157465/0#16 date=1230915068]Got the headphones here.........

http://www.jr.com/grado/pe/GRA_SR80/

They are pretty much the same price everywhere.

Keep in mind that if you try a pair of these, when you get them....you'll likely be like me and say, look at this piece of shit..... ;D

.....then you'll hear them. They spend the money on the headphones, not build quality or looks. Check out Grado's site and read about the company. :)

http://www.gradolabs.com/

You'll see this isn't a huge company. Very focused on sound alone. :)

I remember using a pair of Grados that looked a lot like that at WHS II.  I was unimpressed, especially when FB told me the price. I'm surprised you like them that much.  Maybe the fact that they are nearly useless in a room with instruments was coloring my opinion... quiet and really unlistenable over the room sound. In an actual studio environment, they would be useless.  The great thing about AKGs is that they sound really good, and you can throw them on while tracking or while listening back to a session, and you don't have to hear all of the outside world.



What?????? You can hear stuff with AKG's too. Are you talking about using them with a band playing right behind or in front of you? They both are not made for that, to start with. I can see you trying them in a gym with a band playing. ;D ;D They both are open ear headphones, your gonna hear the outside world with either. You don't see to many drummers use either headphone in a live set. ;D ;D

I would prefer these hands down in a studio setting. The detail is amazing for the price compared to the same price AKG 240s. If you were to sit in a room, (quiet room) and compare the two you'd be able to hear what I mean. I know you have an ear for music. The detail is far more impressive than it was on the 240's.

In a studio enviroment they would be much more detailed. Any flaw would be heard far easier than it would on the 240s. The 240's are to bland to catch some flaws. As a guitarist, I'm surprised you didn't like them because the guitar, even the rythem guitar is heard easily and precisely. You don't have to strain to hear the little stuff in the background and it sounds neat! I'm listening to a lot of blues now and the rythem parts sound great. It reveled a lot of stuff I never herd before. I'd love to try the real expensive grados to compare the difference, if any.

And you'd have to be impressed with the Grado's I would think as they sound similar to the 240 but are far more reveling in every way. They don't have to much base and all thayt stuff.

However, they are ugly, made cheap with the exception of the actual speakers and cable, and could be more comfy. But detail.....they have it! Iwould think that would be a huge benefit in a studio setting.

And let me add that if your listening to a bad recording, these sr 80's will definetely let you hear that fact!