The worst headphone you've ever heard!

Almost 8 years (or more?) ago, I fell for a heavy, uncomfortable, noisy piece of plastic shite.

Just FUCKING NO!

For me it was the Nuemann NDH20’s. Oh man, hatred. I can hang with warm headphones but not Dark. ugh. The Monoprice retros are also dark. sound like cheap bad heaphones in the 80’s. The Aeolus was also a little dark for me. till i switched the pads to the Suede

don’t like dark? so no Audeze?

Do headphones with uncomfortable ear pads count? I vaguely remember but this was one of the early headphones that I used to own, sounds were like meh for me but the pads from this, MAN not really comfortable overall.

American Audio HP550s

ive never heard a audeze, but i heard they were warm, not dark. i heard the LCDX wasnt so warm

my experience is that Audeze house sound is dark…while HiFiMan leans towards a more balance if not bright.

Hifiman typically leans toward almost a bright v shape a decent amount of times

Also yeah like half of the audezes are dark

This… could be it actually. I got my T50RPs a few months ago and I sometimes listened to bass way too loud. Like it’s a drug or something. “Fun, with terrible side effects”.
Some people may like Beyerdynamics and Grados for the “treble slam” rather than the “bass slam” of planars for example. :neutral_face:

Will sell my Grado SR60e’s. I just can’t use these. Someone already said “what’s funny with Grados is the cheaper ones are the best ones, the other ones only get brighter and brighter”.

Zeos said the cheaper ones are good in their class, and Grado is rarely good at mid price range. They excel in making good headphones in the low range and the high end range. The middle is a very mixed bag, usually not good I guess.

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The SR80e Grado are lot better than some of the other mid tier Grados. I haven’t heard the more expensive ones but if you want to listen to a pair of Grados I wouldn’t go above the SR80e unless you really like their house sound.

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At some point I’m going to try the SR60e and the SR80e and compare them. I may or may not like their sound, I usually like a V shaped sound with good bass and detailed treble, but not sharp. I hear from many people they are sharp in the lower treble area and they don’t have much bass, but who knows? Maybe I would like to have something different for certain types of music specifically.

Grados are perfect for me because I listen to a ton of acoustic music (bluegrass, new grass, instrumental folk, jazz, chamber music, etc.). For me, once I heard that kind of music with Grados most every thing else seemed veiled. I’ve haven’t demoed high-end cans in a long time but something like an HD650 would never work for me.

I have ~20 year-old SR-225s and they still make me smile with the right music. For pop music? Meh… I’d rather listen to speakers or IEMs.

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I could see how senheisers would sound veiled to some

I mean, that’s because you got used to Grados, which, for most, sound too bright. :stuck_out_tongue:
Anyway, to each their own obviously. :man_shrugging:

The same can be said for the DT 990s, but I love them.

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Yeah, I also make electronic music sometimes, so, bass.
I also listen to my music loud, and the louder you listen to music, the more the treble can sound harsh. I like the ability to crank up the volume without hearing harshness/sibilance.

So, Sennheiser HD58X are just the perfect open-backs for me. That’s what I would have wanted my SR60e’s to sound like. All the clarity in the world with none of the pain… for me. :stuck_out_tongue:

The topic of Grado headphones seems to be a very controversial one here in the forum.

In addition, it seems that for some people graphic curves are so important that they either base their purchase decision on it or think they can evaluate a headphone based on these measurements.

It may be difficult for me to understand both.
Because some manufacturers deliberately create such a sound image in order to do justice to the original purpose.

A Grado in the middle and higher price segment, for example, is certainly not intended as a workhorse on a PC or as an occasionally usable headphone, it is too extravagantly tuned for that.

When I have the time and muse and either test a headphone or put on my own collection of headphones to enjoy my music collection.
I switch on my Audiovalve Luminare and let it warm up, in the meantime prepare a glass of wine, then sit down in peace, plug in the headphones of my choice and listen to the music of my choice in dim light and beeing completely relaxed.
And suddenly some impossible frequency curves make sense.

In this situation I don’t need an exorbitant bass or raised mids, but a coherent sound.
Because in this case I want to be shouted at by the artist, nor should the low frequency prevent me from enjoying the rest of the music.

For such a situation, a Grado PS2000e or a number smaller, an RS2e, for example, is extremely enjoyable.
Suddenly the concept of a Sennheiser HD820 makes sense, which, I can confirm, is simply too flat as headphones to function as a sidekick.
And headphones, the heights of which are described as detailed and room-opening in a quiet environment, often seem annoying to us if we perceive other things on the side.
This is related to our multitasking ability and is just a natural control in the brain.

Sorry, the psychologist in me gets through. :man_shrugging:

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The grado sound just works well with older people tbh. For old people by old people lol. That’s not saying they are a bad headphone, just something that isn’t really designed for modern music, nor people with sensitive ears to fatigue. That boost in the fatigue range really helps out those with reduced capability in that range, and also caters to a specific sound for specific genre of music, just a more specialized product

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Then call me Grandpa :rofl::man_with_probing_cane:

I’m definitely not a fan of all grado’s, but especially these two meet my taste from the collection that I had the pleasure of hearing.

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I own a pair of 400i and they have zero bass without EQ.

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