About headphones

Carl,

You mentioned:

> Grados cause me blinding pain, so I can't use them.

What does that refer to, the *physical* attributes of the cannisters? I ask that because they went through a design change, about 6 or more years ago, and dumped the really bad foam 'rings' for a comfortable foam ear cushion, similar to many Sennheisers. I can't for the life of me imagine that it is the frequency response, so it must be the raw comfort - if that is the case, you should give them a try again.

(if we've talked about this before, mea culpa and no need to reply)

> I'm saving up for Senn. 600's

There ya go. I got some Senn. 280's because of their phenomenal ability to block outside sound - excellent for monitoring live recordings. There is also a fabulous set of phones (which I can't remember now!) that I listened to last year, but I gotta dig up the info. If I wasn't already overstocked I would have gone out and bought a pair immediately.

> And you don't have to spend $$$ on a headphone amplifier.

That is absolutely true, but I am pretty confident that my HeadRoom 'Little' is probably the best expenditure I've ever made for listening to music.

> We really live in an enlightened age. :)

No argument there.

Cheers,
Jon

> > Grados cause me blinding pain, so I can't use them.
>
> What does that refer to, the *physical* attributes of the
> cannisters?

Is that what cans stands for! Aha!

Anything which rests *on* my ear is fine for about... 30
seconds and causes blinding pain thereafter.

>I ask that because they went through a design change, about
>6 or more years ago, and dumped the really bad foam 'rings'
>for a comfortable foam ear cushion, similar to many
>Sennheisers.

I read about that change, but I'm not sure which side of
it the Grados I've tried were on. But the size of the
cans seems to mean that all Grados are on-the-ear, rather
than around-the-ear designs...

>I can't for the life of me imagine that it is the frequency
>response, so it must be the raw comfort - if that is the
>case, you should give them a try again.

Comfort is the No. 1 priority for me. That's why I chose
my Sony F1s over the Senn. 600s -- the F1s don't touch the
ear at all. The F1s obviously have a reliability problem,
and the 600s sound better and are acceptably comfortable,
IIRC.

> > And you don't have to spend $$$ on a headphone amplifier.
>
> That is absolutely true, but I am pretty confident that my
>HeadRoom 'Little' is probably the best expenditure I've ever
>made for listening to music.

HeadRoom's got a great price on 600s right now, and I plan
to use them with a Tascam US-122 USB interface and see what
happens.

After I knock off a few banks, that is. :)

-Carl

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:
> > > Grados cause me blinding pain, so I can't use them.
> >
> > What does that refer to, the *physical* attributes of the
> > cannisters?
>
> Is that what cans stands for! Aha!

Don't quote me, it's only IIRC.

> Anything which rests *on* my ear is fine for about... 30
> seconds and causes blinding pain thereafter.

Ouch. Well, that *does* knock out a lot of good phones, including the newer Grados I would imagine.

> HeadRoom's got a great price on 600s right now, and I plan
> to use them with a Tascam US-122 USB interface and see what
> happens.
>
> After I knock off a few banks, that is. :)

Yeah, true. That's why I hang onto the symphony gig!

Cheers,
Jon

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_6735.html#6737

> --- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:
> > > > Grados cause me blinding pain, so I can't use them.
> > >
> > > What does that refer to, the *physical* attributes of the
> > > cannisters?
> >
> > Is that what cans stands for! Aha!
>
> Don't quote me, it's only IIRC.
>
> > Anything which rests *on* my ear is fine for about... 30
> > seconds and causes blinding pain thereafter.
>
> Ouch. Well, that *does* knock out a lot of good phones, including
the newer Grados I would imagine.
>
> > HeadRoom's got a great price on 600s right now, and I plan
> > to use them with a Tascam US-122 USB interface and see what
> > happens.
> >
> > After I knock off a few banks, that is. :)
>
> Yeah, true. That's why I hang onto the symphony gig!
>

***Well, and you apparently *play well*... too... :)

JP