More information is always better. I have so many people telling me different things and while it makes it harder to choose it ultimately makes it easier. I think I want 325x with a DAC but would be better off with the gw100.

Yikes. Looks repairable tho. Fit the sliding headband parts back together, glue where necessary. Than slap a ZMF leather headband wrap on it, or perhaps a cheaper neoprene wrap (velcro). I avoid pleather everything. Better than before.

This is where I'm at, cycling between sr80x, 325x, gw100x and any other brand that's supposedly way better for the same cost. I emailed Grado asking very specific questions about the GW100 sound and all I got back was "the GW100 is very, very good" 😂. I'd be happy with any of these. Public transit not an issue but I do want to ride my bike with these, cables or not, I'm that guy lol. The 325 I probably wouldn't take outside.

Double check Amazon to make sure they didn't charge you for those.

I have a pair of Focal Clear OG. To me, they sound great. I use them at home powered off Topping E70/L70 AMP/DAC stack. At work, I use a Topping DX3 Pro+. They are comfortable, sound fantastic, and can be picked up for a decent price.

I also have a pair of Hifiman Edition XS. While the Hifiman sounds good, I prefer the Focal Clear sound to the XS. They seem to be more versatile when it comes to genres.

> the driver itself doesn't make that much of a difference,

It matters for how much distortion is produced.

Nah, bruh… That’s not natural wear and tear. This is natural wear and tear.

Crinacle messed up and sent you the wrong pair, I mean they're truly better, so consider it a happy mistake.

Just ordered a a pair of Chus for my partner. Fingers crossed lol

While I don't have the other cans, I'm on the koss side for the cost to fucking excellent sound ratio that the kph30i have. And you don't need an amp for them. $30 and you're done.

The kph40 is my next buy. Or the ktxpro. They use the ksc75 drivers, so I'm on the fence.

Anyways if I ever get something more powerful than my cx1993 then maybe I'll get the Hifiman's and hope the qc don't suck

Snake oil lol

So the Red LED now is replacing the electrical blue one or what ? What LED is used for no signal ?

I might be wrong but this looks like a Keychron K2 to me.

Oh sorry- totally spaced on these I keep forgetting they exist. Oppo PM3. $399 on Amazon.com (you have to click them then click see all buying options and there's only one seller).

I used to have these and had to tragically sell them when I ran into financial trouble BUT this is the one planar magnetic headphone that you can run off pretty much anything and it sounds good. You can even run them off those little 3.5mm to USB C dongles. That's not ideal, and I'd still suggest at least a dragonfly, but they sounds pretty damn good straight off a phone, and they will definitely get loud with no clipping. You get most of the planar benefits that would come with the 400SE/400i/4XX with less drawbacks (better build quality, closed back, smaller driver is quicker and doesn't get muddy, better bass). The only place I'd say the 400SE beat the PM3 is in smokey female vocals, which most music doesn't have, but if you were Dianna Krall's number one fan I'd stear you to Hifiman or LCD.

Sorry for 3 posts in a row. I'd say my 2 best recommendations that are the most bulletproof are Momentum 4 and PM3. PM3 is $100 more but sounds like $300 more, but is also not wireless, and you really ought to consider the Dongle DAC. Momentum 4 is $300 one time and done.

I agree, but I think for anyone possibly reading this without the financial means to go whole hog on buying multiple flagships as I had, can also recognize that they can likely have an enormously satisfying journey without breaching the $1000 mark, and hopefully feel minimal FOMO.

There is so much capability and choice, while certain flagships might be someone's bag, I think it's important to acknowledge there is loads of high performing mid-fi available that may be more than enough to satisfy some people.

I really agree it's I'm important to start small, jumping on the wrong flagship could be a waste. i.e., I had the Beyerdynamic T1 flagship when it was brand new. I auditioned them with limited listening experience. I though they were good for a minute, then realized fairly quickly I absolutely hated them with large portions of my music library.

I tried out 16 pairs of Mid-fi, and some flagship level pairs. In the end my favourites were the modest Audio-Technica R70x, HD600, Grado SR-60 and Koss KPH30i. I sold the rest and feel great with what I have for the last 6 years ish.

For brand to brand comparison from my favourite pairs, I had the Sennheiser (HD650, HD800), Grado (SR125, PS500 and flagship) and Koss ESP-950 electrostatic flagship.

I'm not saying I disliked them these by any means at all, they were all quite impressive, especially for their time, but the ones over $1000 didn't necessarily connect with me any better... personally. So not even escalating by brand made the difference for me.

I tend to desire, dare I say prefer in my experience so far nothing more than Entry/Mid-fi tuned to my tastes. Where others may absolutely love certain pairs over $1000 they connect with. There may also be some I haven't heard, but would like.

My point is, exactly as you say, if I had had more understanding of my tastes back then, I may have avoided dropping big money on certain flagships that ultimately wouldn't connect with me, and could have better assessed headphones at any level more regarding my tastes.

Even then, I've heard much of the current increasingly megabuck level flagships, properly amped, my own music, time to listen, and just had no interest in the things I heard. Not one I've heard illicited the emotion and physical response I have listening to the R70x especially, or any of my other favourites.

The fact I can still jam out to my very first pair of Grado SR-60 and just get absolutely lost in the music, yet feel absolutely meh about bleeding edge $6000cdn headphone (before the cost of the amping them), probably speaks to just how personal the whole experience is.

Cables 💀

These look tight as fuuuuck.

I gotta get me a pair of kph40's. I was gonna get me an open box Hifiman he400, but I think the kph40 would be the better buy.

Great job

Another thing that I think is worth mentioning is that, depending on what you're looking for and how far you want to stretch your budget, bluetooth headphones have gotten gooooood in the last couple of years. Really really good. All the ones that are worth buying are $300 USD and up, BUT, you have a few advantages on hand. 1) You buy ONE thing and you're done. They sound right out of the box because they are self amplified. No need to buy any dongles or anything which means more junk to stuff in your bag or pocket. 2) No cables! No more getting tangled in cables or snagging the cable with your leg and ending up with headphones on the floor. 3) They always sound right. No fiddling with "Should I get THIS dongle DAC or that dongle DAC. But so and so said it sounds better with XYZ. It's a pain free experience.

My personal favourite full size bluetooth headphone that I own is the Sennheiser Momentum 4- but it's firmly in basshead territory. It has classic veiled Sennheiser upper treble and very prominent and tight sub-bass- but not in a way that makes the mids sound crappy. These headphones are phenomenal for electronic music IMO and they do vocals in a very pleasing way. Battery life is up to 60 hours and they charge fast on USB C. Call quality on these is the best regular phone call quality I have ever heard absolutely anywhere. Idk how they do it but they make crappy phone audio sound like a skype call. It's magic. Also if you're walking downtown in high wind with trucks driving past the person on the other end can't hear shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit it's spectacular. I will say that if you're going for Bluetooth headphones, make sure your phone supports at least BT 5.0 and AptX. That's going to give you the best experience. The Momentum 4 are $300ish USD and very worth it. If you're even a bit of an audiophile don't even look at the Sony's. Do look at the Bowers and Wilkins PX7S2 and the PX8 but those are starting to get into the big bucks. I also have the Focal Bathys which is the second most expensive bluetooth full size after the Mark Levinson 5909. Bathys is worth it but I only have them because I'm a curious single loser with no wife or children and I can buy stupid things that I don't need. If you can afford the Bathys they're delightful but you don't need to go that extreme coming from SR80s. I think the Momentum 4 might be ideal for you in terms of cost effectiveness and providing what sounds like an upgrade coming from your Grados.

Having said aaaaaaaaalll that, if you LIKE Grado (Grado sounds great I just hate the way they look. I've had SR80/125/225 myself) and you want good grado, Get SR325's and pick up a decent quality Dongle DAC. That's going to put you above the Momentum 4 price wise but will arguably give you better detail and a more natural sound, which might be good depending on what you listen to. Still open back though so hard to blast loud on public transit etc.

that's what you told the wife, you don't need to trick us...

That's a catastrophic failure. Was there anybody hurt?

That is true but given the OPs context the headband issue would still be at play. To be clear, the Clear is a phenomenal headphone and I am currently looking for a Utopia to add to my collection but that is the only part that gives me pause. Although I did just see a post of someone retrofitting the headband with the Sundara headband and it looks legit. If I was buying a replacement I would grab the Arya headband but that is what they had on hand and it worked

Go to Aliexpress and search 40mm headphone driver. You'll get so many options at different prices. There are differences.

I'm a beginner and impulse bought an elear that was like new for 260 with tax and shipping. I only have a dt770 as a reference and have been looking everywhere online about focals headphones after buying.

Wtf why are so many hifiman headphones having issues. I joined the sub not two weeks ago, but the amount of hifiman QC posts really make me feel like never buying them now. Sennheiser rules

Are they good?