Spyronight

Spyronight t1_je9mivp wrote

I should have made it clear that I only gave those recommendations based of sound quality + same price bracket, not on build quality. The Ananda stealth is built way better than the L300 that’s essentially plastic with a weak headband. Regarding the focals mine only creak if I move around alot but I get were you are coming from. The pads for the clears are available for $80 I believe. I dont think you can find a headphone ~$500 in the pricerange of the 3 I mentioned with that quality of sound, Maybe a Beyer T1?

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Spyronight t1_je8q8rp wrote

Highly suggest you go to a store and test some headphones, only a couple headphones have wowed me that I decided to keep. You may have not been driving them properly with a decent amp or maybe they didnt fit your head. I have sone decent cans, not the best but I think you will be wowed by a set that will fit ‘YOUR’ parameters, not anyone in this subs if you try some.

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Spyronight t1_je8py3x wrote

had the ananda stealth and sold it. Better alternatives Focal Clear OG (better tone, slightly better detail retrieval, worse soundstage [ananda stealth had a “tall” soundstage) or the Stax L300 setup with srm 252 energizer (severely lacking without eq, peace eq has a great auto eq feature, I think I use the headphoneanalyzer eq for the L300). Nothing else matches it from the stuff I tried at that price range.

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Spyronight t1_je7izoo wrote

I would love to try speakers, but I dont want to spend money in speakers just to see they sound bad in my room. my room is essentially a square with a long hallway in the middle with the roof shape going up and down. I listened to my friends polk audio speakers with a yamaha amp in his living room, my god they sounded horrible. The bass was boomy with no slam and it drowned out all detail (Im not sure if this is because Polk speakers are bad or if his living room wasnt good for the sound). I also listen to 80% classical and soundtracks so I would need a good speaker setup that gives me the detail I want which can be expensive. Also with headphones you can compare easily. Im looking at the Aryas right now and I could find a hundred posts of people who have both the Arya as well as one of my headphones giving me a good breakdown. Headphones allow you to own multiple sets. While I didnt delve in the world of speakers much Im sure not everyone owns multiple sets of speakers. Not to mention room acoustic of one person will make the speaker sound different than the room Acoustic at my house, so it kind of ruins the comparison.

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Spyronight t1_jdyq6uy wrote

I have a couple more expensive headphones, for anything badly recorded , mastered/mixed I use the hd 6xx since they smooth everything over. I love piano recordings made by players in their rooms but thats a bad environment to record compared to a professional hall with too of the line mics and engineers or something. Those bad recordings get butchered by my stax, focal and totl akg setup.

Now, I have another solution for you if you feel the need to spend a bit and get something better. The Audeze LCD-2 has great bass with warm sound, way less critical than many headphones and an enjoyable listen. Just a bit of eq needed (the amount of eq needed is exaggerated by people, my stax setup needs more Eq, I can even share the eq profile with you if you get the lcd-2s). They should do well with your preferred Genres (Although I prefer other things for Acoustic (Grados) or classical (all my other headphones as thats what I listen to 90% of the time) but the LCD-2 does well enough).

Goodluck on your choice.

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Spyronight t1_j9dm1y2 wrote

how good is the Andromeda? only heard the bassy Honeydew from then and was not impressed in the slightest. I have the Blessing Dusk, AKG K5005 and the Fiio FH7. Wonder how it ranks against those.

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Spyronight t1_j6j95jk wrote

It depends honestly, you find out what he likes and apply to what you like and find the differences, then use him as a guide to what would work best for you. My preference is close to his ideal target but with more bass and less treble. Was easily able to find my favorite IEMs by using his list and rankings. It works best if you have similar tastes as the reviewer though.

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Spyronight t1_j60onmu wrote

neither of these need an amp, the dusk sounds better, isolation wise I dont remember since I had the shure 535 with them that blew these 2 out of the water in that department, but the Dusk I kept has decent isolation. I remember the 7hz sounding musical with good details but had worse soundstage and detail retrieval than my AKg N5005 which I kept. The Dusk that replaced the AKG did almost everything right and is great with all genres (Still smaller soundstage than the N5005). Just my thoughts.

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Spyronight t1_j5u3nla wrote

Dont know about that one, only had the 225e and the RS1e but I heard the signature is the same in the whole lineup, they are the single most “fun” cans I have. Depending on the song they can sound bad OR punch above their weight. I feel Grado are a luxury item, not very versatile cans but man, nothing beats them on acoustic or small assemble jazz with alot of energy.

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