Oakville Meet (3-26-06)

[aerius]

Biggie hosted an Oakville meet today. I'm still working on my impressions file but here's the quick summary. Lavry Black is good, but not as good as tubes. HF-1 is better than last time, probably amps & break-in. My tube amp needs more work or better tubes. The Senn 650 at this meet has way more bass than the other 2 650's I've heard in the past. The K701 doesn't have enough bass. The 2 pairs of K340's are getting closer in sound, but still rather different. The PS-1 still remains my favourite headphone. The SR-60 is the best headphone for the price ever. People who say "Grados have no soundstage" need new batteries for their hearing aids, or they need hearing aids in the first place.

[PFKMan23]

The K701 doesn't have enough bass.

Heh.. with my amp the k701s have plenty of bass, almost a bit too much, and it looks like the farher they get along with burn in more the bass increases or so... Sounds like you need to get your ears checked too..

[aerius]

Enough bass for me is defined as "similar in quantity to the PS-1", which means most headphones don't have enough bass. There is no way the K701 comes anywhere close to that. With either one of Dido's albums there's a fair bit of deep filling bass that's missing with the 701, the bass should rumble & fill the entire soundstage but it barely fills the front-centre area unless I wing the volume control wide open. Then there's the opening to "The Waitress" by Tori Amos, where once again, I get some impact but no filling rumble, and same thing on "Space Dog".

Other problem is the dynamics are kinda lacking except from the midrange on down unless the volume's cranked to levels which'll make my ears ring, and then there's the 3-blob effect with the soundstage, it's not seamless like with the K340's and Grados. The mids, while better than my Senn 580, aren't K340 or PS-1 nice. Too airy & spacey, there's not enough density & solidity to the mids, kinda like see-through ghosts instead of live solid people.

I really wanted to like it, but given my preferences it's just not going to work for me.

[PFKMan23]

There you go then. Aside from the PS3ks (or a really tuned EQ) I doubt anything would have the PS1s type and quantity of bass.

[tkam]

Not true the L3000 have similar bass quantity as well

[PFKMan23]

Not true the L3000 have similar bass quantity as well

Probably. The L3000s are bass behemouths, making the 650s bass quantity look like nothing.

[Dusty Chalk]

Not true the L3000 have similar bass quantity as well

They do? I don't know, the PS-1's I heard had a bit too much bass, and the Leatherheads I heard did not...I don't see how that can be called similar...Hirsch? Do you still have the PS-1's?

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

I thought the akg701's were pretty crappy. It sounded like akg's version of a senn hd650. If you want a senn, buy a senn and go have fun tweaking it with cables. My impressions mirror Aerius's on this headphone.

Also talking about the bass quantity of each headphone is tough because you arn't talking about the same back end to each headphone. I've gotten my ps-1's to have huge fat bass that intruded on the midrange. Anyone who has heard ps-1's like this either hates them, or loves beyer 770's.

Biggie.

[xand1x]

Interesting impressions. I hope you guys had a great time Was it a general consensus that the k701s were a tad bass light (obviously in comparison to ps1s)? But how so relative to k340, hd650, hf-1, etc. (besides Aerius ty for your impressions!)

[philodox]

Enough bass for me is defined as "similar in quantity to the PS-1", which means most headphones don't have enough bass.

Nah, the PS1 has too much bass... at least at the volumes I listen at.

[philodox]

Just posted this at that other forum... s'pose it should be here too.

LOL, I love that picture of Jamie and the Senns... I think that needs to be someones avatar or something.

Quick impressions, more later.

The PS-1's are the only headphone I have heard that do imaging as accurately as the K340's. They don't have as large of a soundstage, but their soundstage has the same quality and is quite large for a grado. A fair bit bigger than the HF-1's, which have a very nice soundsage themselves. They are definately bass monsters, but it's not incoherent. Quite nice with most music... Tribe Called Quest and Massive Attack sounded amazing on them. They had a wee bit too much bass for Tori Amos though. If I had to have only one headphone [and could afford them], the PS-1's would definately fit the bill. They combine most of the qualities that I like about the K340 and the HF-1 with few comprimises. The comprimises are there however and I am quite happy with my pair of headphones for now... though you'd better believe I'll be keeping my eyes on the F/S forum.

Jamie's tube amp is quite nice, though I think doesn't sound too much like a tube amp. If anything the Lavry sounds more tubey and it uses transistors! That said, his source and amp mate perfectly with the PS-1s. They were definately missing something on the Lavry.

The K701 was the other headphone I was really itching to hear. They were slightly dissapointing... though only because I already have the K340's and they fell short in a few areas. They seemed to share some of the soundstaging issues that Sennheiser headphones have and their mids weren't what I would expect from an AKG. Quite neutral and I can see how some would love them, but not for me. All in all I would say that they came across as a slightly handicapt K340-Light. And as far as the styling... what were they thinking!?!?

I also got a chance to hear the Hornet and the SR-71. The Hornet seemed to suffer from a severe lack of soundstage... very forward sounding. Ok with the Grados, but not the best portable amp I've heard. The SR-71 was quite a bit better in this regard though seemed to have less drive. I could be happy with it as a portable amp.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Interesting impressions. I hope you guys had a great time Was it a general consensus that the k701s were a tad bass light (obviously in comparison to ps1s)? But how so relative to k340, hd650, hf-1, etc. (besides Aerius ty for your impressions!)

It had less bass then all those headphones. I think it was the boring mids, disjointed soundstage and thin sound that got me more then the bass. They weren't that smooth either.

Biggie.

[philodox]

How do you find yours in comparison to your K340's Matt?

[aerius]

More impressions...The Senn 650 was also kind of odd, this pair had way more bass than the other 2 pairs I've heard in the past. I can now see why people are making those comments on the 650's having boomy bloated bass. Problem is that unlike the PS-1, the bass is slow, and low notes blend into each other in both pitch & time. Fast individual low notes played on piano like the left hand part of "In the Springtime of His Voodoo" by Tori Amos end up sounding more like chords than individual notes, and the electric bass blended into the piano. Which is really odd since the other 2 sets I've heard didn't do this, well, they did but not nearly this bad. Then there's the 3-blob soundstage & fuzzy imaging. So far I've only heard one good pair, and that one has extensive modifications, balanced cables, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Biggie's setup. I wanted to check out the amp to see how my own DIY amp is progressing in terms of sound. Well, it needs more work. They have similar characteristics but Biggie's setup has more speed & refinement, better imaging & soundstaging, and more blackness between notes. I'd hit a point recently where further improvements in my amp were pretty much indiscernable with my K340, so it was nice to use the PS-1 to find out where I'd come up short. I'll have to go hunt for more tubes and possibly do a complete redesign at some stage.

The PS-1. More bassy than last time, but damn is it ever fun & groovy. Fucking hell, I need to win the lottery so I can buy one, I think the Super 7 jackpot's at $15 mil this week...I need to get some tickets.

The HF-1, better than last time, not as warm & slow as before, not sure if it's break-in or amps, probably both. At the Hamilton meet it had nice tone, but it was just sluggish and didn't get up & boogie like a Grado. I liked jazz, and refused to rock. Fortunately, that was cured, and it didn't die when I made it play Gn'R and Metallica. Speaking of which the PS-1 has dethroned the 225 as the best rock & metal 'phone, I made it play Slayer, and it was fucking fierce. Back to the HF-1, before I thought it was pretty much a side-step from the 225, now I feel it's an upgrade.

On a side note, I think my word of the day at the meet was "dickwad".

[xand1x]

How do you find yours in comparison to your K340's Matt?

I still haven't received my k701s yet. I am getting them this week along with a demo pair of k1000s so I should have lots to report on soon

[philodox]

Sounds good, can't wait.