Hi guys,

I'm looking for a new set of headphones and Sennheiser HD477 seem to fit my budget perfectly (if bought from US, Canadian price is 45% higher). But so far I only found 1 place that sells them and ships to Canada. HeadRoom: Sennheiser HD477 However I also noticed that the customer rating of HD477 is one of the lowest among all Senn products! Since HeadRoom doesn't seem to actually list user's comments, I was wondering if people around here could explain the low rating, and perhaps point me to a good review (good meaning detailed and not too biased, it's ok if it gives bad rating), since all I find is rather dubious personal opinions with little-to-no back up for comments such as "this sounds poor" or "this is awesome".

Also, other places in US that ship international and to Canada in particular would be appreciated.


Thank you very much!

While the frequency response is more difficult to interpret for headphone do to reasons not relevant here, the bass response is not nearly has hard to interpret. With this sort of resonant bass response, I don't know why you would the HD477:

http://headroom.headphone.com/graphs/showG...php?graphID=225

-Chris

I was gonna go for those for 2 reasons:

1) I have good general opinion of Senn stuff
2) those are my max in terms of price $

I someone could recommend something better not going over $50 USD, I'm all for it!

/EDIT: Oh and btw, I don't know what a "good" graph should look like, so I wouldn't know if that one is good or bad

http://www.4compuelectron.com/applications...-497&mpn=HD-497

Cheapest price for HD 497 found with Froogle and I think I saw a Canadian flag at the corner of that site

Look around for Sony MDR-V6 refurbished(around 50-60 USD). Not teh MDR-V600. The MDR-V600 is inferior to the MDR-V6 and is a completely different phone.

As for the graph: broad 10dB peak in upper bass = BAD.

I'm not really fond of recommending headphones. However the MDR-v6(also known as mdr-7506) I find is a very accurate(tonally) headphone when monitoring a live feed from a flat response measurement microphone, standing at the same distance as the mics, comparing to the live acoustics. This is according to me and by John Dunlavy. I would offer a DBT result, but I don't have a clue how this testing could be done for a comparison such as this.

Note that accuracy is not necessarily the same as enjoyability. Personally, I use a different headphone for casual listening.

-Chris

But that's subjective? Several (respected) highend headphones have peaks and dips in excess of 10dB and they aren't usually considered bad.

oh once I saw both headphones you guys suggested, I remembered the third reason I was going for HD477 the phones are covered by a soft fabric, and not that leather-like stuff, my skin doesn't react good to that.

I was specific. Please refer to my previous post.

I can not immediately think of ANY audiophile 'grade' (i assume you mean priased models on forums such as head-fi) headphones that have a braod, high amplitude peak such as this in the bass spectrum. This is an extreme low frquency coloration.
This abberation is about the same as if you pushed up one of the mid-lower sliders all the way up on a non-constant Q graphic equalizer. While I won't claim that not a single person will like this, I would contend such an extreme resonance in this area would not be preferences by many users who care for anything that resembles a tonally balanced representation.

-Chris

But Grados have extreme treble coloration!

Try the Koss Porta-Pro. The Senn HD280 (closed) is an often recommended cheap headphone too, I think.

Yippee! WmAx makes multiple TOS #8 violations!
Making statements about sound quality without double blind tests. Supported by statements about the frequency response graph only. Subjective audiophile-speak about "tonal accuracy" too!
(The only way in which headphones can be ABXed validly is if they are identically shaped so that they feel the same - and without such tests sound quality comparisons cannot be made on this site.)
Now I've wanted to do this since that Head-Fi battle!

Hmh, maybe you could leave it up to the moderators here who commits TOS violations in here and who doesn't.

Thank you very much.

Since you are so keen on abx tests I assume you can provide us some valid abx results of this statement of yours : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=231094

Hmm. I carefully qualified the statement. I bet you've been trying to find something to bust my chops over since that headphone amp dispute a few months back. :-)

-Chris

In regards to you implication that my claim was unsupported by the specified resonance on tht FR graph of the HD477 would cause signicant devation in accuracy: Refer to JNDs of resonances established by DBT testing:

The Modification of Timber By Resonances
Floyd Toole, Sean Olive
JAES, Vol. 36, No. 3., March, 1988

-Chris

Damn; you wormed your way out of that one. I haven't been lying in wait for you really!

My vote also for the Sony V6. Very accurate phones. I also have the Senn 280pro's. A little bass heavy if you ask me, but still very good phones.

Oh, and I also have the Sony V600. They suck compared to the V6. Suck being a technical term