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Posted (edited)

http://www.sonicsense.com/blog

 

I tried some different comparisons on this site.

 

The AKG K702 vs Sennheiser HD650 was definitely revealing.

 

They use a you-tube like linkand they play excerpts of the reference track and the headphone reproduction as recorded from their dummy head alternately.

 

The 3 I listened to were :-

The AKG K702 vs Sennheiser HD650,

The Ultrasone ED8 vs Fostex TH900, and

The AKG K812 vs Beyerdynamic T1 vs Ultrasone ED10 vs Sennheiser HD800.

 

As I was using one of my HD600's that was connected to my computer, I found that in the first one the HD650 part sounded quite noticeably laid back compared to the reference portion of the comparison.

 

In the second, the Fostex TH900 sounded richer than the reference portion,

 

In the third, my HD600 were not filtering enough plankton to discern any real difference between the K812, T1 and HD800.

 

What was very noticeable though was that both the Ultrasones sounded abyssmal, especially the ED10 in their respective tests.

 

Happy comparing, dudes.

 

btw, Tyll may find their method of setting up the headphones for the comparisons interesting..

Edited by wink
Posted

Hey all, glad you found our comparisons! Thanks for checking them out and for your input. 

 

For the momentums, that was actually a mistake. If you look on the old image they're categorized in two spots, one was incorrect. We do agree that the momentums don't belong in Audiophile Reference headphones and have moved them to "Mobile Devices" Quite the change eh?

 

As for the Grados, they may not be flat and balanced, but some people enjoy them for referencing in the studio to see how mixes translate to other systems. 

 

Check out the fixed image here. What do you guys think?

Posted

Is this Mark?

 

Edit - I see it isn't.  Sonic Sense has come a long way from being 1 guy selling smart packages for tapers on phish tour...

Posted

Could do without the brand smattering, title could be across the top blah blah

 

tags for categories of headphones could be more uniform in placement

 

interesting infographic otherwise, but there's probably something with a website front that might provide more utility. If you are claiming that "momentums don't belong in Audiophile Reference headphones and have moved them to 'Mobile Devices'" then maybe there is merit in using the proximity to the regions of overlap to specify a degree of how "audiophile" or "reference"  a headphone is

Posted

Is this Mark?

 

Edit - I see it isn't.  Sonic Sense has come a long way from being 1 guy selling smart packages for tapers on phish tour...

Hey Grawk,

 

Marc is still one of the owners and is still around here at Sonic Sense. Small world that you've come across him before! Were you involved in any taping yourself?

Posted

As for the Grados, they may not be flat and balanced, but some people enjoy them for referencing in the studio to see how mixes translate to other systems. 

 

Check out the fixed image here. What do you guys think?

 

That's the thing, your descriptor for reference/monitoring is flatter frequency response for critical listening, and then you acknowledge them as not being flat.  I understand that John Grado's HP1000's are very accurate for monitoring (one of the best), but none of John Grado's creations are really all that accurate for monitoring.  I pretty much only have Grado headphones, so there is no negative bias.  They are fun, that's why I like them.  But let's not classify them what they aren't.

 

How about this:  Put the HP1000 under the reference/monitoring section, and put something like the RS-1i or PS-1000 in the audiophile section.  No sense in putting one of their bottom rung phones on a list with ones that are in the thousands.  You might have to tweak the comfort remarks though ;)

Posted

That's the thing, your descriptor for reference/monitoring is flatter frequency response for critical listening, and then you acknowledge them as not being flat.  I understand that John Grado's HP1000's are very accurate for monitoring (one of the best), but none of John Grado's creations are really all that accurate for monitoring.  I pretty much only have Grado headphones, so there is no negative bias.  They are fun, that's why I like them.  But let's not classify them what they aren't.

 

How about this:  Put the HP1000 under the reference/monitoring section, and put something like the RS-1i or PS-1000 in the audiophile section.  No sense in putting one of their bottom rung phones on a list with ones that are in the thousands.  You might have to tweak the comfort remarks though ;)

Good point! I see where our graphic can get confusing now because of that description. We almost need a category in between mobile device use and reference / monitoring to compensate for this. We won't want to tell people to use open-back headphones for mobile use on the bus, train, or airplane because of isolation issues. Yet these headphones don't belong in reference, audiophile, or DJ. At the end of the day, picking four categories to classify all headphones in definitely created some dead ends like this. 

 

We'll add in those nicer Grado's in the proper spot and see what we can do about the other pair. A slight tweak to our reference / monitoring description could help clear this up a bit as well. 

Posted

Good point! I see where our graphic can get confusing now because of that description. We almost need a category in between mobile device use and reference / monitoring to compensate for this. We won't want to tell people to use open-back headphones for mobile use on the bus, train, or airplane because of isolation issues. Yet these headphones don't belong in reference, audiophile, or DJ. At the end of the day, picking four categories to classify all headphones in definitely created some dead ends like this. 

 

We'll add in those nicer Grado's in the proper spot and see what we can do about the other pair. A slight tweak to our reference / monitoring description could help clear this up a bit as well. 

 

I think you are making this more complicated than it needs to be.  HP1000 in the reference section because it is dead accurate, and the RS-1i and PS-1000 (or whatever upper end model you choose) in the audiophile section, because they are aimed at audiophiles.

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