Hi Funky. I thought it was you. And Chris!!!! Blimey, it's getting busy on here.
This is like a little island between the big USA site and the little UK site. There are surely some wandering sharks in between eh?
Since you two know me, then you'll know that I like the K550 in spite of the problems that come with it. Then again, lots of headphones have problems, but the K550 does quite a lot nicely imo.
The mids are a little more present for me than the HD250 II. They also go lower than you'd think at first listen. You just have to get those huge cups in the right place. The fit for me is fine, but I think some have problems either with ears touching the centre or there's a gap that some are unaware of at the back so they get a nasty bass response.
The funny thing with the K550 is that I feel sometimes that they have an edgy top and so swap to something else. Then returning to the K550, I feel that actually, they're better than the pair I swapped to!!
Getting the sound to click into focus I think is quite important with them and then go no further up in volume or else they have the potential to turn really edgy.
I got a real surprise with them and the K601's though when I had John's DAC's. Both bloomed into something quite special. I have no idea why, but it was then that I felt that they do a lot more than I first thought tbh. The bass in particular seemed to really blossom and has me now thinking much more about the source. My CD player isn't shabby, but they really became something else on my computer setup.
BTW - the T1 is doing a similar thing.
So, in spite of the problems with the K550 stated on here, I enjoy them a great deal. The graphs published are really good and they are useful in pinpointing what you could be hearing with a headphone but there's more to I think than just a graph and the lugs are telling me that I need to look further back from the headphones.
However, I do think Purrin (I think it is) is doing a great job with the measurements and it gives us something solid to lock onto while listening to headphones. It can help us focus on those areas that his graphs pull out as perhaps being a bit dodgy and see if it's annoying enough for us to want to move on to something else.
Sometimes, I listen to a headphone and think that it's really not quite right and can't pinpoint where it is. One that I heard and actually identified a problem was the K701. It was a long way up, but I think I was aware of something wrong and then saw it on a graph later. So I quite like looking at these graphs and also use Goldenears quite a bit nowadays as well.
The BBC seem to favour the DT770's in the broadcast studios. I even like some aspects of them as a closed headphone, although the bass can pound away a bit too much for me. I often wonder about their potential with mods to control that bass a bit more, but as yet, I haven't really found a closed headphone that I'd settle absolutely for.
The Fostex has me interested. Pity about their looks, but from what Solderdude has said about them, they look to be a good buy.
Nice to see some familiar faces.
I also notice quite a few familiar names from the USA site too .....
