Specifically, now that you have moved onto shinier listening devices in your fancypants monitaurs and new headphones: I would like to hear what your current thoughts on the Sennheiser HD280s are.

Hmmm, this thread is relevant to my interests, as I am picking up HD280s pretty soon.

i'm also monocularly interested in such discussion, as i'm curious to see if the 280's have survived the singleminded and muscular midrange assault and battery of the grado sr80.

Last night I dreamt my gf and I were hanging out with the Snaxo, wandering around places that don't really exist.

I also dreamt last week that I went over to Chris' place, and a bunch of other older posters also showed up, with the intent of boozing.

I suppose I kind of admire our older posters...

I have had similar dreams before.. It is odd shit for sure. Kinda weird that my role models (as sick as it is to call some of you that) are a bunch of drunken or unemployed musicians.

But I suppose that is the rock n' roll way.

I am young (soon to be) college grad who is currently employed.




























So yeah, awful role model.

That would have been so much better than what i ended up doing IRL last night. I got so bored at one point that i actually found my self watching BASEBALL.

And i cannot put into words how much i fucking despise baseball. It may very well be the worst sport that man has EVER devised, and that is even including the real fucked up ones.

Baseball is only fun when you are at the game, getting drunk and not paying attention to the game.


Edit: I'm getting drunk tonight, everyone is invited!

No, it is not even fun then.

Unless you are under twelve years old. But everyone knows that kids that age lack any sense of proper judgement anyhow.

Well I was 17, so basically 12.

Also, the world is going to get pretty fricky when they figure out how to do teleportation. I wish they would quit slacking on that one.

Oh, they've already got it figured out.

Only the chosen few.

Well, then i hope they are using it for partying.

Definitely a different animal. The Sennheiser "house sound" seems pretty consistent throughout their range, at least, the big over-yer-ear 'phones. The hifi store near my house is both a Grado and Sennheiser dealer so I could A/B stuff directly, and I'm used to the Sennheiser sound. Hell, my housemate has a few pairs herself; I could ask to borrow the 201s for a bit when she's out and do a direct comparison.

The Sennheisers (studio has roughly a million pairs of HD280s) got used to track almost everything except bass, which was monitored live in the control room. As tracking 'phones, I recommend them without hesitation- absurd isolation, great low-end definition*, massive volume handling, and they're clear and revealing.

*- these muffhuggers go down looooooow. They do have a hole in the low mids which makes them seem bass-shy especially compared to a normal consumer system, and then you realize you're hearing stuff you didn't know was going on before. Depending on context, it could be a make-or-break thing for them. It's a bit of an unusual sound since it extends so low; the frequency response chart would make you think they're full of boom but that is not the case. The end result (I suspect given that the waves have no time to develop coming out of tiny drivers straight into your goddamn ears) is a picture of the low end you don't normally hear.

Compared to something like an AKG K240 or especially to the Grados, the soundstage seems narrow, and they do seem clinical and modern- you know you're on 'phones, isolated from the world, while the Grados sound like you strapped your uncle's hi-fi to your head. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and as a functional tool the Sennheisers have distinct advantages dependent upon context. (Like, say, drum tracking... I wouldn't choose anything else that I'm currently aware of.)

As an aside, I wonder why Grado doesn't market stuff toward the pro audio crowd? From what I gather they turn up often enough as engineers bring them from home. I do feel it's not as drastic a jump from my monitors to headphones given what I'm using lately in that they have similar characteristics in terms of midrange and spatial imaging, but I think I just got lucky there. The monitors sound "better" but they should considering the cost difference.

As far as the HD280s, they're a good 'phone and as far as I know are best-in-class at a couple things that are really useful in a home/project studio environment (low end, isolation). Whether you get on with the Sennheiser sound- and a lot of people dislike 'em pretty hard; there doesn't seem to be much "meh" on these- they're either great or sound like the operating table on a spaceship- well, head down to GC or a stereo store and try 'em, then go home and find someone selling a used pair on the cheap. I will say that I found a greater sonic difference between the Grados and the 280s than I did between 280s, 650s and 800s, which all still sound like a different iteration of the same thing.

My feelings are still pretty well the same- it's a good headphone, you can score 'em for under a hundred if you look around (or buy used), they'll take abuse and are well-suited to certain tasks and revealing sonically in certain ways. They definitely have their own sound to them; you may not like this. They do manage "modern" without sounding like you slapped the Master Of Puppets rhythm guitar EQ on them, which is interesting, or without being a boomy, muddy bass mess. Quirky, useful, see if you can try a pair.

Drunken under-12-year-olds playing baseball? Now that's a spectator sport!