Quote from: Deep Funk on October 05, 2014, 05:10:12 PM

The old PX100 and PX200 II should receive an honourable mention if you ask me.

PX100 surprised me and I kind of agree. Very large sound for something so small and unassuming. Can do late Romantic symphonies, if you don't mind all the extra bass or are outdoors.

PX200 is really mediocre. I keep it around to remind me what mediocre sounds like.

The PX200 II is mediocre as it misses extension in the low and high end. Thing is, it pulls off Jazz, Classical, Metal and Psy-Trance in a compact design that isolates you more than you would ever expect. I consider the PX200 II one of Sennheiser's under-appreciated feats of headphone engineering. The DT1350 did not work completely for me, flawed design features the PX200 II neatly addressed in a fold-able package.

For the design feat of the PX200 II I take my hat off for Sennheiser.

Mine started having intermittent loud and soft episode in one or both ears after about 3 months, and on inspection, it looks like the strain relief on the TRS jack has given out. That said, it sounded to me remarkable (for its price) while I had it working.

I agree it is on the warm side, but one of the more coherent sounding iems I have heard and a no brainer for $50. I now have the Ostry KC06 to use as my cheap walkabout headset, but I have to say I prefer the sound of the Tenore by an appreciable margin. The Tenores to my ears has much better soundstaging and is one of the easiest iems I have ever fitted and are inherently tunable in the sense that if you prefer a more neutral less bassy sound, you can fit them with shallow ear insertion and when you want the boom boom you can push them in a bit for a deeper insertion and the bass response goes up accordingly without apparently losing its soundstaging or coherence.

They are so comfortable when inserted that even with the purported reliability problems I am seriously considering buying a couple of extras ...

They would be my first choice to recommend to people for their first upgrade, if it were not for the fact that I would be afraid they would become addicted to the sound so they can't go back to their stock buds and then curse me if it fails after a couple of months.

should we drop them? $50, but still shouldn't die that quickly. anyone else have a QC issue?

I really dig jerg-padded HE-500 and Slants... It's the FR I was looking for. Is there anything else PLANAR that I should consider buying (for up to 1000USD), sounding similar tonally-wise?

From what I can come up with, Koss ESP950 looks nice but I don't quite like the lack of deep bass and certain 1khz emphasis (I didn't like that on Audeze LCD-2 rev1 and both pairs from Tyll's measurements have it). HE-560 most probably too bright (impossible to get rid of that upper mid emphasis completely without EQ it seems), HE-400i not as good as jerg-padded HE-500 in terms of FR for me. Audeze are out of question for now (tried LCD-2s twice, the rest is too expensive, also very uncomfortable to wear for me). Stax SR-007 mkI unfortunately too expensive and no warranty/replacable drivers available (AFAIK). I was looking at some old Stax Lambdas as well but I am not sure about (Lambdas in general) in terms of 1-2khz emphasis (I just want my vocals natural, not emphasised) and overall FR (maybe too bright).

... any ideas? I could have missed something, that's why I am asking here  Thanks in advance, really

HE-6 would require mods to have a similar tone, but more neutral. I don't think it would ever be as warm as HE-500 or Slants.

PM-1 or PM-2 alt pads would have most similar FR to HE-500 and Slants. You may enjoy them quite a bit.

Speaking of Oppo. I nominate PM-2 with alt pads. Anyone here free feel to destroy me with that recommendation.

Thanks for your responses... The problem with HE-6 is that it is very difficult to drive and maybe too expensive to buy knowing I would have to mod them extensively to achieve a good balance. HE-500s were cheap so it was not a big deal at all - also I knew there is the potential already from Changstar graphs and from several personal auditions.

Well, I dig the HE-500's slightly brighter response more than that of Slants (even though both headphones are very very similar and Slants do quite a few things better). I could maybe try to trade the Slants for the HE-6... But again, I would need to buy a speaker amp as well (btw, we are talking about budget amps... not Ragnarok or other uber expensive choices... therefore not sure whether it's worth it to try the HE-6 with my limited funds). 

Just to add - I am looking for a natural-sounding headphone... Technical quality of performance is not as important. HE-500 and Slants are good enough technically for me but of course, if I could get something even more natural and with better technicalities, why not!