Gramophone Dreams

I ordered the Elear from Todd the Vinyl Junkie. Nice friendly guy BTW. I wanted the Utopia, but at this point I decided I'd try the Elear first, on the premise that I'd be sharing my experience with at least a few people, whereas with the Utopia I figured I'd be all alone. If the Elear isn't convincing enough, I'll send it back for the Utopia, and that's what I'd like to read more of on the subject - i.e. people who bought the Elear and then decided they needed the better (or more neutral?) Utopia, and how that worked out for them.

Um no. Not really.

What's wrong with the AKG 812 and Stax 009?

What's wrong with the Sennheiser 800?

I lurv cans and agree that they're going off like a cracker on Guy Fawkes night. Cans is where it's at in hi fi at the minute, and they are drawing a much needed younger demographic to it. That said, the rapidly escalating prices for each new flagship headphone release runs the risk of blocking their entry.

I totally disagree. Headphones are unnatural compared to speakers. Simply put the image is always in your head unless you do binaural recordings. Headphones will never impact like speakers. The bass is always focused in your ears and thus there is no visceral impact on the body. Listening to speakers with your eyes closed and you can literally be fooled into thinking your transported into the environment of the performance. Although I respect headphones for their clarity as the music is focused directly to your ears; but even that is somewhat unnatural as there needs to be some sense of sound dissipation and reverberation as one would get in a live event. I am sorry for the rant but I am annoyed by so many comments stating headphones are a better way to listen to music. They simply aren't. And if you don't have the discipline to listen to music without being distracted, then you shouldn't spend your time and money on this hobby.

These are very good when we stay on bed using organic bedding and listening song from this. It's so cool.