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In Reply to: RE: Sennheiser HD650 - Grado Equivalent posted by alcon on December 04, 2014 at 20:32:59
Depends on what you mean by "equivalent", but the two brands have totally different sonic signatures for the most part. Having owned both, I'd say that there is little or no sonic equivalency between the two, both sound equally good to my ears but both have different sonic presentations.Grado's design philosophy is pretty unique amongst headphones being made today. The design of the HD650 is very different from any Grado headphone within it's price range.
Price-wise, the HD650 occupies a spot between the price of the Grado SR325e and the PS500e.
Edits: 12/05/14 12/05/14Follow Ups:
I would add that Grado headphones are very high sensitivity, low impedance headphones that can work well with minimal amplification. HD-650's are reasonably high efficiency, not so efficient headphones that like a reasonable amount of amplification.
and listen for, headphones that have the same sonic characteristics I enjoy in speakers.That is not to say that a headphone will ever sound like a speaker, but it is possible to listen for things like colorations, balance, cohesion that one favors in speaker presentations.
Since I am a devoté of small-medium-size two-way speakers, I don't find the new flagship headphones I've listened to (just a few) as favorable to my tastes and experience as the older flagships. My choices are also influenced by the fact that I have a DHT SET headphone amp and 2/3 of my speaker amplifiers lie in that category, as well.
One last thing: I don't think soundstage is a good term to use with headphone amps. What I hear is channel separation, not the various qualities of imaging that speakers can do, especially the minis. Personally, I find that some "modern" headphones have far too much channel separation to sound like actual performances of a single orchestra. It's more like listening to several marching bands strung out over a narrow city street lined with tall buildings. (I am reminded of this experience as described in Lake Wobegon).
Observe, before you think. Think before you open your yap. Act on the basis of experience.
Edits: 12/06/14
My favorite "flagships" (based on what I've listened to so far) are three of oldest and most popular flagship models. There are several new flagship models that I have not listened to and I'm not particularly anxious to audition them, truth be told. I'm quite satisfied with what I'm using right now."Soundstage" is a nothing more than a convenient term to use, at least for me. "Headstage" is perhaps a better word, but the better headphone systems are better at creating the illusion that the sound is coming from outside of the head - to one degree or the other. Not only are the better headphone systems more musically involving, but they are better at helping us forget that we're not listening to a pair of loudspeakers or a real musical event.
It is important that our headphones fit our heads comfortably so that we can more easily forget about them. Our imagination must be free to soar so that we can more easily forget, at least temporarily, that headphones are not a perfect way to listen to music. The fit of our headphones must not be noticeable as a constant distraction.
Channel separation seems more unnaturally pronounced on lesser headphone systems than they do on better headphone systems, IMO. With better headphone systems I find that my mind is, to a certain extent, tricked into forgetting about the formal aspects of headphone listening. Once again, the better headphone systems let me concentrate on the music in a way that is more more reminiscent of the way I concentrate on the music when listening to a loudspeaker system.
I'm also a proponent of "genre-specific listening". To my ears, each pair of headphones (or loudspeakers) has a unique sonic presentation. These unique sonic presentations simply work better with certain types of recordings and/or music genres than they do with others. So, "The right tool for the right job" has always been one of my favorite mottos here.
My ultimate goal? To allow the headphone or speaker system to "move out of it's own way" as much as possible, so that I can more easily concentrate on the music rather than the gear.
Please note that when I say "better", I'm not necessarily referring to *most expensive*, *high-end*, or *latest and greatest*. Better is always that which sounds that way to me.
Edits: 12/06/14 12/06/14
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