Cost no object - best closed headphone, past or present?

[909]

Under quiet listening conditions and constants (better if it

[ojnihs]

How hard is it these days to even get your hands on a L3000? I understand that they may be the shit when it comes to closed headphones, but I'm not personally the type to sit around waiting for a pair of headphones to pop up on the market. There's better things I can do with my time.

[deepak]

My impressions with the Original setup wasn't too far off from the real high end...

Every high end headphone is sensitive to downstream gear (in my case I feel the K1000 is most sensitive with amp and source). But I feel with the time I spent with the L3000 I was able to get an idea of what they sounded like.

It's not like evaluating subtleties in amps and sources, differences between headphones are very large IMO.

How hard is it these days to even get your hands on a L3000? I understand that they may be the shit when it comes to closed headphones, but I'm not personally the type to sit around waiting for a pair of headphones to pop up on the market. There's better things I can do with my time.

I had a chance to snag a pair for $1800 which sat around for a couple of days. Mostly because the owner attempted repair on the drivers himself when the bass defect presented itself twice.

I was still tempted to get them just based on their looks, it's certainly a very nice conversation piece.

[ojnihs]

I had a chance to snag a pair for $1800 which sat around for a couple of days. Mostly because the owner attempted repair on the drivers himself when the bass defect presented itself twice.

I was still tempted to get them just based on their looks, it's certainly a very nice conversation piece.

Seems like I see a lot of L3000's with some sort of driver defect.

[deepak]

TheSloth:

I know they aren't a closed pair, but if you can audition a properly fitted Qualia I would try and do that (if you're still in NYC it shouldn't be too hard).

IMO they were incredibly resolving and got out of the way of every genre of music. I hope I can say the same about the Grados that are on the way.

[TheSloth]

TheSloth:

I know they aren't a closed pair, but if you can audition a properly fitted Qualia I would try and do that (if you're still in NYC it shouldn't be too hard).

IMO they were incredibly resolving and got out of the way of every genre of music. I hope I can say the same about the Grados that are on the way.

As far as I understood the Qualia, even with a good fit, has a pretty weird FR which some will love and some will hate. Me, I need a pretty neutral FR. Despite what people say about the 650, it's FR is in the region of neutral for many ears. Yes, the dips at 5 and 15k (I think) are a bit too large and bass can feel a bit bloated but overall I find it represents recordings with similar tonality to the very best speakers I've owned, as well as my experience of acoustic instruments in real life (and I have just a little bit of that).

Maybe that is just a question of fit, but that seems a little far fetched that it could go from thin and weird to spot on just with a slight difference of fit. Perhaps one could experiment by using silicone sealant to seal them to someone's head and see if they reported an improvement .

It's a shame I don't really get on with the DT880 because at least that offers some isolation. Not much, but quieter background noises are definitely less obvious. But that peak at 8k is way too big and I can't listen to it.

So overall, people have mixed feelings about the L3k and R10 (headphile is going to be selling one soon), and negative feelings about the CD3k. Which leaves the rather unknown ultrasones but judging from the proline 750 and 2500's, both of which sound pretty dire to me, I see no reason why the Edition 9 with basically the same driver is going to be better.

So that leaves custom IEM's or the Stax 4070, though if it sounds anything like a lambdas again the peaky upper midrange is going to bother me. Such a hard customer!

[Dusty Chalk]

I've heard both newer and older R10's -- the newer ones is an improvement on the old ones in the bass department, and I don't feel they compromise audibly in the high frequency and detail department.

The Qualia doesn't just need a good fit, it needs a monsterly good amp, So: "correct fit and well driven".

Dude, what you need is a custom DEQX.

[aerius]

Don't you think pretty much all headphones take work to tune and amp right not just the K340? I've heard the K340s, but they didn't impress me during my first listen on a few different set-ups even ones that could drive them extremely well. I need to hear them again and in a better setting beside a meet.

Of course they all need work with equipment matching, but let's recall the adage of polishing a turd. When the sound is fundamentally flawed, no amount of tweaking and equipment matching is going to fix it. You can shine a turd all you want, but in the end it's still a piece of shit. Nothing you can do to a stock iPod earbud will make it sound like a Shure E4. There's no way to fix the sound of a CD3000, R10, or W100 so that they'll sound good to me short of ripping them apart and rebuilding everything from scratch.

[saint.panda]

R10 for me. 4070 was very nice, too, but comparing 4070, R10 (and the Omega II) side by side, the later production R10 is the best I've heard yet, closed or open. Unfortunately I didn't pay close attention to the 4070 due to the presence of other cans but it was very good as far as I remember. The L3000 was thrown into the mix but that headphone just sounded plain weird to me (only heard them for a minute so the impressions aren't really meaningful). Amp used was Corda Opera, Mapletree Ear+ and the headphone out from my Apogee Mini-Dac. (4 person-)meet conditions apply.

The Ultrasone 750 given some acclimatisation is pretty good for the price although not quite as good as equally priced open headphones. Certainly not neutral, especially in mid-treble, but the soundstage depth and bass (extension, linearity and impact) are pretty impressive. Excellent for pop, rnb and some eletronica. Vertical soundstage is only mediocre and the treble sounds rather unnatural compared to HD650. Not my cup of tea for classical and jazz.

CD3000, owned them twice, never did it to me due a strong metallic touch in the treble. Again, not so great for classical music.

just my 2c

[HiWire]

I thought the CD3000 was fuzzimified... it certainly doesn't have an audiophile sound. It's very warm and diffuse... sadly, it reminded me of my best friend's Bose QuietComfort 2's.

[deepak]

I thought the CD3000 was fuzzimified... it certainly doesn't have an audiophile sound. It's very warm and diffuse... sadly, it reminded me of my best friend's Bose QuietComfort 2's.

Maybe thats why so many people that haven't heard any better like it