Posted about grabbing these at a great price in the ongoing thread. Had em 4 days. Tried em on the computer, very comfortable, just circles around each ear, dual metal bands providing light pressure clamping power over the head and a fake suede top of head band with dual rubber bands providing that support/positioning. Nothing touching the ears it those circles.
The drivers are mounted very open air to the circle frame at an angle just like ears sticking out a bit more toward the back. The driver support is only a 1.5 in part of the inner circumference of the over ear ring, the rest of the circumference is the open air. This piece is a nice magnesium casting and its movements are limited by the yoke which is part of the headband.
I don't do cans. Owned a set of Koss Pro600/AA back in the day driven by my Sony TA-2000 preamp. Then had a set of Koss ESP6 electrostatics, great cans but oh so heavy. Then a decade without any until I bought my first CDP, a Sony D7 and got a pair of Sony MDR-M77 to use with it. These were fine but not much bass being rest on the ear small driver assembly cans. One of the better ones they offered at about 80 bucks, I think. They outlived the battery pack of the cdp and became a diagnostic tool only. When they lost a connection between the sides, dropping a channel I started looking at headphones on CL while dissecting the M77s for repair. The MDR-F1s showed up last week and a quick review of the Google said at the selling price...Go Get Them, Right Now! Made contact and got em the next day.
Other than a brief computer trial, I have used these each night for 5 CDs powered by an HK Citation 25 preamp. Nice remote control system usually driving the NHT SB3 speakers with the Citation 22 200wpc amp. The 25 seems more than capable, plenty of volume. Ran em without tone controls until tonight. Bumped the 200Hz turnover (400 is the other offer) to about 2:00, I think. I don't know if I have a defeat on the pre I need to cancel. Anyway, I was happy with the bass but all the reviews made me want to bump it a notch just to see.
I don't know if these are as free and open as the Dahlquist DQ-10s in the main rig but I'm enjoying what I'm hearing. Bedroom listening is compromised with one ear in a pillow or the need to position oneself to be in the sweet spot for tunes from speakers. These cans eliminate that problem and I get a nice stereo image all the time.
These are not ESP6 clean and clear, nor are they ESP6 uncomfortable. These do provide a very nice image, one I'm not familiar with. Using speakers the wall of sound is out there in front of you! Height, width and depth. The headphones create a wonderful billboard of sound from beyond the left ear through head and out past the right ear. This bill board is as tall as my ears and sound placement in that 3D picture is enjoyable to experience. Tonight, replay of Donald Fagen, The Nightfly, The Future Sounds of London, Accelerator, Dire Straits, Money for Nothing, (did Communique last night), DB 10, Fleetwood Mac Penguin (did Mystery to Me last night). Also did some Allison Krause, Lamb, Neil Young Live at Massey Hall and Depeche Mode. The F1s sound great on the electronic, ambient, downtempo music I usually just pay through the house and don't sit and listen. So much going on that I don't see not sitting and listening to this genre, mostly new to me*. Cans are more sitting and listening as the sweet spot stays with you. All the other genres, so easy to see the performance since these image so well. As with good cans, hearing things missed using speakers, especially the beginning and ending sounds for songs. *Tom sent me his CD collection a few years ago and as a coder he listened to a good bit of electronic etc music. I like a good bit of it but it is new to me, not having added lots of music to the collection over the years. His 900+CD bump straightened things out.
Maybe I'll get these to the sound room and give them a listen vs speakers after I figure out how to do that since the separates don't have a phones jack. The CDPs do, the RtR does and of course the receivers do but they only visit the sound room. My speakers can eat receivers for lunch. I need to try them with one of the Luxman receivers and maybe some records.
I'm really liking these headphones, comfortable and a big, well-defined image and they look cool. Now if they had that electrostatic sound with the other pluses I might use cans more often.
The drivers are mounted very open air to the circle frame at an angle just like ears sticking out a bit more toward the back. The driver support is only a 1.5 in part of the inner circumference of the over ear ring, the rest of the circumference is the open air. This piece is a nice magnesium casting and its movements are limited by the yoke which is part of the headband.
I don't do cans. Owned a set of Koss Pro600/AA back in the day driven by my Sony TA-2000 preamp. Then had a set of Koss ESP6 electrostatics, great cans but oh so heavy. Then a decade without any until I bought my first CDP, a Sony D7 and got a pair of Sony MDR-M77 to use with it. These were fine but not much bass being rest on the ear small driver assembly cans. One of the better ones they offered at about 80 bucks, I think. They outlived the battery pack of the cdp and became a diagnostic tool only. When they lost a connection between the sides, dropping a channel I started looking at headphones on CL while dissecting the M77s for repair. The MDR-F1s showed up last week and a quick review of the Google said at the selling price...Go Get Them, Right Now! Made contact and got em the next day.
Other than a brief computer trial, I have used these each night for 5 CDs powered by an HK Citation 25 preamp. Nice remote control system usually driving the NHT SB3 speakers with the Citation 22 200wpc amp. The 25 seems more than capable, plenty of volume. Ran em without tone controls until tonight. Bumped the 200Hz turnover (400 is the other offer) to about 2:00, I think. I don't know if I have a defeat on the pre I need to cancel. Anyway, I was happy with the bass but all the reviews made me want to bump it a notch just to see.
I don't know if these are as free and open as the Dahlquist DQ-10s in the main rig but I'm enjoying what I'm hearing. Bedroom listening is compromised with one ear in a pillow or the need to position oneself to be in the sweet spot for tunes from speakers. These cans eliminate that problem and I get a nice stereo image all the time.
These are not ESP6 clean and clear, nor are they ESP6 uncomfortable. These do provide a very nice image, one I'm not familiar with. Using speakers the wall of sound is out there in front of you! Height, width and depth. The headphones create a wonderful billboard of sound from beyond the left ear through head and out past the right ear. This bill board is as tall as my ears and sound placement in that 3D picture is enjoyable to experience. Tonight, replay of Donald Fagen, The Nightfly, The Future Sounds of London, Accelerator, Dire Straits, Money for Nothing, (did Communique last night), DB 10, Fleetwood Mac Penguin (did Mystery to Me last night). Also did some Allison Krause, Lamb, Neil Young Live at Massey Hall and Depeche Mode. The F1s sound great on the electronic, ambient, downtempo music I usually just pay through the house and don't sit and listen. So much going on that I don't see not sitting and listening to this genre, mostly new to me*. Cans are more sitting and listening as the sweet spot stays with you. All the other genres, so easy to see the performance since these image so well. As with good cans, hearing things missed using speakers, especially the beginning and ending sounds for songs. *Tom sent me his CD collection a few years ago and as a coder he listened to a good bit of electronic etc music. I like a good bit of it but it is new to me, not having added lots of music to the collection over the years. His 900+CD bump straightened things out.
Maybe I'll get these to the sound room and give them a listen vs speakers after I figure out how to do that since the separates don't have a phones jack. The CDPs do, the RtR does and of course the receivers do but they only visit the sound room. My speakers can eat receivers for lunch. I need to try them with one of the Luxman receivers and maybe some records.
I'm really liking these headphones, comfortable and a big, well-defined image and they look cool. Now if they had that electrostatic sound with the other pluses I might use cans more often.