Post 100 Hour Break In -
Ok, so I've listened to Yes, 'Open Your Eyes" several times since unboxing these and I can definitely say that the spectrum opened up a bit.
To check myself at the door, I'd switched back to my other cans just to compare my frame-of-reference.
I have some Pioneer cans that I pretty much use for Mono listening because they have a mono left-right channel combo switch.
They are great for LP's and portable listening but they are really "pulled back" compared to most everything else I've listened to or owned.
In any event, the Yes album mentioned before is certainly toppy and after 100 hours of break-in, the HP-150's showed more of that
high-freq content as well becoming more pronounced on the low end - but in a clean way. I'm not a big fan of bass emphasized cans.
The Pio's sound same same to me with the Yes as they usually do. It's also worth noting that my headphone amp has no eq adjustments.
So flat goes in from my preamp and flat eq is what you get out, for the most part. It does have adjustable dampening but I leave that
a center detent since most of what I own is 32 ohm-ish.
I also suffer from a really mild case of tinitus that headphones can aggravate. These don't, which surprised the sh!t out of me.
I'm guessing the upper spectrum roll-off is just right for my ears. Bonus!
So now I'm listening to Death Cab for Cutie's 'Codes & Keys',
which is a fairly recent release and is a really well mastered production.
Most notable is the percussion layers and the vocals spaces. The best way to describe these cans is they are fairly "accurate" with an oh-so subtle, non-fatiguing laid-back component while maintaining an uncolored presentation.
'Doors Unlocked and Open' sounds full and well balanced, with the percussion spot-on and vocals phasing clear & well placed. Much better than my MDR-V6's (which are high mileage) or Ultrasones (that are about 10 years old...), both of which tending to be a tad bit too bright on a lot of material.
I'm sticking to that "Koss sound" characterization on these HP-150's. Not bad for $149.
I need to delve into a lot more progressive rock & jazz material now, to really size these headphones up.
More to come ...
