Dan Frakes wrote:
>
> Edward Gosfield III <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >I have a pair of Sennheiser 580s which play quite loudly on the 702, and
> Ironically, your Sennheisers can sound much better :-) [...] I've listened to a set
>of 580s on a 702, and
> then on a 702 with a dedicated headphone amp, and the latter delivered
> much better sound.
i agree. mine sound much better when i listen through the headphone amp
of my hi-fi than when i listen through the 702 headphone amp. It's a
similar case for the mike preamp. If you use a $1200 Grace preamp for
your mikes, and then patch that into the 702 (i don't) then you can make
some extremely nice recordings on your MD. Which has been done by a
number of pros as backup or alternate when using portable pro DATs for
location recording.
>
> Personally, I think the 580s are one of the greatest headphones ever
> made, but I wouldn't recommend them to someone with a portable.
They sound better on my 702s than anything else i have tried.
> I think
> that the Grado SR-60s will sound better to most people (though they're
> less comfortable) simply because they were designed to be driven by
> portables.
I can't say. i listened to the Grados on regular domestic stereo gear.
But i think the 580s would still be smoother. Somehow I don't think the
Grados were designed specifically for portables. Having met Joe Grado a
number of times during my days in the hi-fi biz, i think he is
interested in making efficient machines. If he found out they were great
on portables, of course, far be it from him to ignore a marketing coup.
He owns, for instance, the patent on moving coil cartridges. Expired by
now, i suppose. He knows how to make excellent magnetic transducers
cheap, at either end of the reproduction chain.
> >My standard of comparison for phones is a pair of STAX SRX-III
> >electrostatics.
>
> You're spoiled ;-)
well, i use Quad Electrostatics for speakers. Had them since 1975, see
no reason to switch. If i were a rich man (fiddle fiddle) i would buy
an updated pair of STAX, but the ones i have are 'good enough'.
> >Anyone using Etymotics on 702 or equivalent?
>
> Yes, I do. Like the Sennheisers, the Etys require a decent headphone amp.
>[...]You could also use a HeadRoom Airhead amp which
> runs on two AAs and provides a huge improvement.
If i were at home, i would use the MD with the Stax through the hifi.
If i were in the field doing serious recording, i might agree with a
headphone amp, along with an outboard preamp. And i agree that the
HeadRoom stuff is excellent (i haven't used it but a good friend in the
biz has/does). But for casual use, which is what i use the MD for, i
would feel encumbered by a headphone amp. Unless it were the size of a
cassette box. I find that i get used to the 580s soon enough once i
plug em in. perhaps i would get used to the Etys as well ;-) Nowadays
i find i spend more time listening to the music, and less time listening
to the sound. (this from a guy who bought an outboard Dolby unit to use
on a reel-to-reel back in the day). " When i hear the work 'audiophile'
i reach for my revolver"......My major pleasure from MD use is
portability, ease of editing, non contact playback system with "no"
software degradation, good frequency response, and silent background.
And optical/digital transcription from CD. I can live with less than
ideal phones as long as they don't annoy me, which the Sharps, and all
walkman style phones I tried have done so far.
>On the other hand, the
> new Etys that came out last month are supposedly much more efficient --
> they realized a lot of people were using them with portables, so the
> redesigned them to require less power to sound good.
sounds great. have to see how soon they show up on the Headroom
webpage.
thanks for your post
ted
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