Having gone through this long and expensive headphone journey, I still get joy out of rocking out on my kph30is sometimes
I was looking at those AGAIN today.
PS: I ordered them yesterday.
I’m sure you do, as do I, on my Porta Pros.
Koss jr gear - So basic, yet so timelessly relevant.
Is that the Little Dot Mk9? How do you like it and what headphones do you find yourself using with it the most? If that is, I have a buddy who owns a Mk9 and he raves about it constantly.
Yes sir, it is. For the last day or two it has been doing nice work with my new Bee’s, although it needs the help of the Schiit Loki.
I normally use my Grado’s and Focals with it.
Nice collection! Though your Grados called and asked for new pads. Seriously though, are those the new iBasso SR3 or are they the SR2 and how do you like them.
They are the SR2’s and I Really like them. Strong bass and forward mids.
The Grado pads are nice and squishy. Super comfortable.
I was kidding about the pads thing because the back on one of your Hemp’s pads appears to be torn. Thanks for answering about the SR2s. The more I read about the SR2s and the SR3s the more it looks like I’m gonna need to give one of them, at least, a try.
The Hemp pads are Shipibo. It is just how it is sown. It does look weird in the pic.
The iBasso’s are a great addition to the collection. I love horns and ladies that can wail. Sometimes, with my Grado’s and even the Focals, that can get a little shrill or piercing. Especially the trumpets.
SR2’s have some added bass and the highs are a bit muted at the very extremes. When Miles is just going flat out, it is a more comfortable listen.
Someone loves Focal amazing collection, man / thanks for sharing
Thank you! I do have to scale back the Focal share. Probably going to move the Elex’s on to a new home.
Awesome! Your comparison to horns has me sold. I’m just gonna have to grab a pair because that sounds like a presentation I would enjoy very much. I have actually been finding myself moving towards some bassier transducers lately too. Nothing really basshead or anything, but just things with a bit more kick and rumble than I have preferred in the past. Looking for headphones along those lines is how I stumbled across across reviews and posts about the SR2/SR3 in the first place. You wouldn’t happen to have heard the SR3s as well, would you?
No Sir, I have not. The biggest difference is that the impedance has really been jacked up. The SR2’s are 16 Ohms. You can run them easily off your phone. They are too efficent to run on my LD MK9 tube amp. If it was me, I would look for a good sale on the SR2’s as the SR3’s are just fresh out.
I have no idea where you could compare the two. I bought mine from Shenzhen Audio.
Not much out yet, but here are the threads from Head-Fi, in case you haven’t been following:
And of course there is the SR2 thread:
I’ll have to do a little thinking on it. Since I’m out of the country right now, I’ll probably wait until this summer to pick up a pair unless I run across a deal that is too good to pass up or something. Thanks for all your help, bro!
Hi,
my recommendations, don’t hesitate to buy either one.
The SR2 is extremely easy to drive but it does have a bit of a problem with higher output power from various amps, making it sound a bit dark and ‘fuzzy’.
Of all my DAC/amp combos, I find the Audioquest DragonFly Cobalt the standout pairing, amazingly.
Natural sound reproduction and fantastic imaging coupled with clean and punchy bass and solid speed make the SR2 one of my favorite mid-range headphones in this Audioquest pairing.
The SR3 can do all of that, just a lot less amp-dependent, plus a touch more clarity in the upper frequency range and thus slightly more detailed spatial imaging through better separation of the respective voices and instruments.
PS.:
Both are among the most comfortable headphones on the market
In my opinion, the two iBassos in the middle price segment are only surpassed by the following product in terms of comfort, sound purity and variety of genres:
Wow! Thanks for the info. I’m very happy to hear this as I was thinking I’d prefer the higher impedance SR3s given most of my favored audio chains currently and I was hoping they would be similar. You’re now the second person who has said that both are great and to mention the increased treble clarity. That sounds like something I would probably appreciate.
Edit: BTW, those 109s are so sweet lookin’. How do you like 'em?
In my opinion, the SR2/SR3 are the most essential and complete mid-range (premium consumer) headphones in the market. I genuinely tried to explain my reasoning in my SR2 review, and I hope that it doesn’t get taken as “hyping” these up, because that’s not what I am doing. I see true value and qualities in them that justifies my statement.
I have both, and I will be comparing the two. Do note, there are sound differences between the two, even though they are almost identical. If I understood correctly from Paul, they used a slightly different voice coil for the SR3 because of the higher impedance spec.
I touched on the differences between the two here (also provided their FR graphs):
The differences between the two are audible. It’s not as if they are worlds apart, but they are different enough to say that they are two variations of the “same” tuning.