I listen to music a lot on headphones. I have Sennheiser HD800S and Beyerdynamic T1 V2 for serious listening with my main system. I mostly listen to cutting edge Jazz, and it is here that I have found something curious.
My favourite headphones are the HD800S, they seem very accurate for acoustic music, whilst the Ti is a little less impressive. I downloaded the new Theon Cross live album in 24Bit the other day. It sounded pretty awful on the HD800S. Something was lacking. So I switched over to the T1. these more bass heavy cans, brought the album to life. I found a similar thing with the new Theo Croker album.
It seems to be something to do with the mix of these two albums. They need a bass heavy pair of headphones or speakers to reveal the music. It seems pretty common for a lot of the ânewâ London jazz. Whilst most other Jazz sounds much better on the HD800S
How many of you have different headphones for different types of music? What is going on?
I have several headphones and regularly switch to match them with the music I am listening to. My favorites are Hifiman Arya and Sennheiser HD800S. Both connected with balanced XLR to a Burson headphone amp. I sometimes use Focal Elear with my Naim system.
Different moods for sure, perhaps different albums. ZMF Verite Closed are classy. They sound balanced across the frequency range, albeit with a generally warm presentation. ZMF atrium slightly more neutral and have great pace and timing and are a bit more âfunâ if not quite as technically impressive. Some of this is probably due to comparing open and closed designs but I like the Atrium for a bit more casual listening and energetic music. The Verite for a really concentrated listen.
I use them interchangeably with my Atom HE 2nd system and the Trilogy 833 on my main system.
When I audition headphones I am always struck by the differences in style and character between models. The most expensive arenât always the best choice, or the most enjoyable across all genres. I think this is why many people have lots of different pairs.
I have sort of âpeakedâ with my speaker based systems development; I am unlikley to spend much on them now unless something broke. I have enjoyed exploring headphones though and may not have finished yet. I am contemplating trying some planar models just now in fact!
I owned the gen one T1 for couple of years and still have a HD800 with the SDR mod both cans are excellent. However they both have the same big Achilles heel in that their performance can vary vastly depending on the amplifier used.
The three headphones I swap between now are Oppo pm3 for general use. Then hd800 and Hifiman HE6 (another very amp picky headphone) for more focused listening Iâve owned both for close to ten years. Some of that time the he6 didnât get used as I had a really great hd800 set up and I parted with the amp that I used to drive the he6 and listening to the he6 on a mismatch amp is sole destroying when you know what itâs capable of giving. Fortunately a couple of years ago I found amp that will drive both the he6 and hd800 fantastically.
I matched my H800S to a Lehmann Audio headphone amp. I read on another forum that Sennheiser demo their headphones on Lehmann Linear headphone amps. I am pleased with this setup.
Curiosity got the better of me and I have just bought a well discounted Bstock Heddphone 2GT.
It will be interesting to have three cans to play with, and if their unique construction makes a difference.
Tone controls.
There is a strong argument for having them to âcorrectâ music that tge tge listener is wrong or lacking in sone way (as opposed to correcting for a poor system). In my view it would be better as a DSP box programmed for the purpose than having to find headphones (or speakers) to do tge job for you.