Big thanks to Joe Doe of Head Fi. com for allowing me the chance to demo these very cool little headphones! Essentially
"They're basically a Sennheiser PX100 driver housed in a Grado style cup." Joe's words exactly!
"They're basically a Sennheiser PX100 driver housed in a Grado style cup." Joe's words exactly!
As for the visuals, lets take a look!
Visually I love the look, simple leather headband nice metal accents and of course the gorgeous wood cups.
How ever, while they look amazing, the comfort is different. These are meant to sit on your ears, the most comfortable position, is the optimal one for sound quality.
Now let's move onto the sound
These are wired with a single 3.5mm Jack, that said I'll be using my iBasso PB2 Se out. The reasons being is my iBasso PB2 has been optimized for low gain headphones, with my NFB 10ES2 being better suited for Balanced Headphones or Low or High Gain.
For reference I'll be comparing it to my HE 4 out the NFB 10ES2 Balanced Out, my SE doesn't have quite enough power to drive them.
Power wise they aren't hard to drive, but they aren't too easy either. I'm sittin at about 2 o'clock on the PB2 SE out
A general over view of the sound would be aggressive and airy. These are very much a dry headphone, nice detail retrieval and impressive bass response! Speed is nice as well, the dynamics are about average as is the 2D and 3D sound stage presentations.
Let's get down to the finer details of the Sound
Bass: Mid bass has nice punch to it and very taut, sub bass though is some what lacking in body and attack though only mildly rolled off on that end.
Mids: Mids are the sweet spot for the SennGrado, it has a nice balanced of both attack and decay, with a lovely balance between both the upper and lower mids. Both Guitars and violins have a great tone to them. Male and female vocals are also breath taking! The mids sit a touch forward over everything else, and have a realyl wonderful tone to them! There is also a nice touch of intimacy to the mids as well.
Highs: Nice and airy, a touch of grain on the top end but overall very pleasant. Nice extension on the treble as well.
I would say overall, the bass is where the SennGrado is it's only con, the smaller driver lacks the sheer mass to move air like a full Size Planar can, or have the hit that a closed back has. How ever that said, there is a mild Mid Bass Hump that combined with lots of attack and little decay, makes for a pleasantly tactile bass.
On the positive side though, the Senn Grado has breath taking mids and does a really wonderful job with a wide Variety of musical genres. I think all in all for any of you who like to mod or are even curious about modding, the Senn Grado would be an excellent place to start! An if your like me and not into modding, head on over to Head Fi and have one of our more experienced Modders build you one!
