WARNING: AUDIO GEEK STUFF AHEAD
I’ve been somewhat of a headphone nerd since forever. I remember getting my first pair (Pioneer SE-30s) as a Christmas gift from my folks when I was a sophomore in high school. I only remember this exact timing because that was the year I first got into hi-fi gear. They were heavy, bulky, and crushed my head, but oh, wasn’t it a glorious thing to be able to listen to my music without disturbing the rest of the family.
The next set I purchased myself from LaBelle’s several years later. This was the Stax SR-44 electret system. It’s a system because it consisted of the headphones (or earspeakers as Stax is fond of calling them) themselves, which connected to an auxiliary box which then connected to the speaker jacks on the back of your receiver or amplifier. The difference in sound was like night and day between the Stax and the Pioneers and I was smitten immediately. Unfortunately, the earspeakers had very poor strain relief on the cords, and the wiring at that junction would peridically break and I’d be forced with some very fiddly soldering required repairs. After ten years or this nonsense, I finally gave up and tossed them in my car’s trunk to take to donation and completely forgot about them. Wouldn’t you know the car was broken into (street parking in San Francisco) and they disappeared along with everything else in the trunk.
I went without for a few years after that, finally replacing them with a pair of Sony “DJ” headphones that I kept until the faux leather on the earpads started disintegrating. I had no idea at the time these could be replaced, so they got tossed shortly before we moved to Denver in 2011.
I replaced the Stax SR-44 with a used system maybe five years ago and was surprisingly far less enthused than I was when I bought my initial pair back in 1978. Plus the cord that plugged into the auxiliary box was on the short side meaning I had to sit close to the amplifier (not practical) and yada, yada, yada. You get the idea. I still have them, but they haven’t been connected to anything in years.
I’d heard good things about Grado, so the SR60s were my next experiment in private listening. Everyopne said that the Grado sound was distinct and not to everyone’s liking, so I picked them up from Amazon, figuring I could easily return them if I didn’t like them. It turns out that I loved the sound, but after a nearly a year of daily use, the foam pads became so irritating that I couldn’t stand to have them on my ears for more than a few minutes.
I tried all of the online suggestions to alleviate the irritation problem (apparently I’m not alone) as well as buying the each variation of the earpads themselves that Grado sold. None of them were satisfactory. It was unfortunate because of all the headphones I’ve owned, I really liked the sound of the Grados the most. The cable, however, is another matter entirely, but I’m not going to get into that.
I finally gave up and got a pair of the Sony MDR-7506s a year ago, because I’d had a very good experience with Sony headphones in the past—earpad disintegration notwithstanding. In case you’re wondering, I also have a pair of wireless Airpods Pro that I use with my laptop and phone, but vintage CD/MD players don’t have Bluetooth so I need a wired solution.
Anyhow, the Sonys were like a breath of fresh air. They fit on my head well and didn’t irritate my ears at all—at least for the next year or so. Eventually, they too reached the point I couldn’t stand to have them on for more than a few minutes at a time. I put both the Sonys and the Grados away, and after trying several different brands from Amazon, I finally settled on some relatively inexpensive Vibes 202 IEMs that surprised me by how good they sounded. They don’t sit on my ears at all, which alleviates the entire problem of the irritation.
Out of curiosity I pulled both the Sonys and the Grados out of storage a couple weeks ago, hoping that the time away would allow my ears to tolerate one or the other again when I slipped them on. Sadly, even after buying a differentset of replacement ear pads (this time soft leather) for the Grados, I could wear them for extended periods. but the pads themselves affected the sound and all of a sudden everything was muddy.
Ugh.
So I tried the Sonys again. They were now beginning to suffer the infamous breakdown of the faux leather earpads so I ordered a replacement set. Let me say, between the Sonys and the Grados, I can tolerate the Sonys far longer. It’s still not ideal, but I can usually make it through a couple CDs now before having to rip them off my head.
I bit the bullet ordered the famous Sennheiser HD600s. and I’m awaiting their arrival. Hopefully they will sound as good as the universal praise lavished on them by headphone geeks worldwide, will fit my head comfortably, and most importantly—not irritate my ears so I can go back to extended periods “plugged in.”
But if not…I can always send them back. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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