šŸ”¶ Emotiva GR-1

I’ve thought about either them or the 58X

yeh…I guess the 58x would count, especially if you got the 6xx and the new 560s.

By and large, yes.
However, there are products that punch above their weight. The two biggest ones, in my experience, are the HD58X’s and the Liquid Spark. To me those are cheapies that punch above entry level.

But again, this is just my feelings on categories and in no way a rule. I am not sure why you take my thoughts so seriously. In this hobby $299.00 is pretty economical for a big chunk of forum regulars.

Of course for the general public, $299.00 probably seems an obscene amount for headphones so everything is relative.

indeed…a lot of recent stuff punches above their weight. it’s a great time to get into audio!

another that hits above it’s price is the Zen DAC. wicked little unit!

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That trio has me really torn… The 6xx and 58X have both gone up $20 from their starting price($220 and $170 respectively), and the reviews seem… confusing. From DMS’ review of the 58X, he liked the fact that they where tonally nearly identical to the 660s (with some caveats) but recommended the 6XX more. In his comparison of the 6XX and 660s, he claimed them to be at most 8% different. I’ve owned the HD559 and… Didn’t care for it too much, mostly because they where uncomfortable, particularly for longer periods… The thought wars go on, but maybe I’m being too picky again.

find someone selling a used pair of the one’s you want :slight_smile:

Any idea what a decent market price for a used 58X or 6XX should be(as there’s no way I’ll see a 560s used, since retailers still have it listed for pre-order).

I would say you should pay $30 - $50 lower than list price.

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I bought used HD58X’s for $200.00, shipped. That turned out to be a SUPER deal.

Must be the second wave of pre orders because I got mine awhile ago

Are you in Canada? Because I think Shane means 200 cad

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US





(for whatever reason Crutchfield has one that is $10 off open box)
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Must be a return.

Really nice headphones for sure. Pretty stiff competition with things like the 880 and sundara but I think it competes.

These are basically Sivga Phoenix but they actually fit my head.

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interesting as I was curious on the phoenix but I have ear sizing issues… Guess I will need to look into this regarding soundstage and sound signature

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They look sharp man :+1: - congrats

Do the pads attach to the cups the same way as the phoenix?

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Hmmmm… then @ZeosPantera will probably love them, though @DMS… that may depend on if they answer his complaints. I see he would probably say the headband would be better, though don’t know about pad depth as I don’t have either ^^

Yes and they’re a pain in the ass to take off and put back on

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Have you tried any other pads on them? I’m wondering if larger BW or dekoni would fit the plate

Review after 20hrs of listening:

Comfort - Not too bad but not that great. Ear pads are a bit shallow and my ears do touch the ear cups but my ears never started to hurt. What did start to hurt was the top of my head. The headband stretches out flat putting all the weight on the top of my head creating a hotspot there. Nothing Dekoni nuggets wouldn’t fix.

Build - Very well built. All metal except for the earcups which I believe are wood.

Sound signature - Warm with vocal intimacy

Bass - Not as bassy as I was expecting. It’s about the same in quantity as the Tygr 300 r, gr1 has a bit better extension but doesn’t slam as hard as the tygrs, it slams like a bass boosted 4xx but the 4xx is faster and more detailed in the bass. Maybe they need to be broken in a little bit more.

Mids - Pretty forward and intimate. Vocals sound really nice on this headphone. Almost Sennheiser like. Electric guitars have a nice weight to em. Pretty full sounding.

Treble - balanced with the midrange. Can get sharp at times but for the most part it’s very smooth and stays in the background.

Pad swapping - The pads come off the same way as the Sivga Phoenix. The first pads I tried were the BW angled pleather. Those made them more v shaped. Had more bass rumble, treble was a bit shaper, mids were recessed. I also tried the BW angled hybrids and those had a more neutral tone. Was clearer sounding compared to stock but lost its fullness and vocal intimacy. Was also a bit too bright. I’m curious to know how the upgraded Sivga Phoenix pads sound on these.

Soundstage - doesn’t get very wide but is not super narrow like the Sennheiser 600 series. It’s about in between a hd58x and dt880. Despite sounding more in my head they have pretty good instrument separation.

Imaging - decent accuracy. On letter by yosi horikawa his pencil starts from front left then goes behind my head then stops at front left. Like if he drew a smiley face.

Conclusion - A fun sounding headphone but thankfully doesn’t over do it. It has a sound signature that you can listen to for hours but the comfort issues may prevent you from doing so. Dekoni nuggets could help with that. The build alone is worth its asking price and fortunately its got good sound quality to go with it. It is worth checking out. This may actually be a true upgrade to the X2HR.

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