How revealing are Grado sr-60s'?



I just bought a pair of these last month and overall they seem like decent headphones, but im still having problems with the overall sound of my system. I dont know if its the phones, or my electronics but im getting a somewhat bright, grainy sound. Electric guitars seem way too thin and dont flow smoothly enough ( cant think of the correct term).The bass seems sort of weak too, with a focus on treble. My amp is an Onkyo TX-8511 and a Toshiba SD-3950. My gear is not high end by any means, but do i really have to buy a $500 cdp and headphone amp to get good sound out of $70 headphones?
dave123456a1b3

Showing 2 responses by dirtyragamuffin

Grado SR60s are very good phones for the price but the bass improves quite a bit as you move up the Grado line. Bright and harsh I'd say you're hearing a cheap headphone amp. I love Grados but they don't flourish if not plugged into to good gear. Also, make sure you give the Grados a good hundred hours to break in. I agree Senns sound more laid back, but again, good headphones are only as good as the headphone amp you are plugging into. I personally think the highest end Senns are the only ones worth looking at. A friend has Senn HD280s and I wasn't all that impressed with them. I also feel that Senn's headphone cables are shoddy.

I see that you have MTX speakers. May I humbly suggest you are used to hearing hyped bass.

BTW I own Grado SR80s and 225s and have several friends with 60s so I am familiar with them all. Also have a friend who used 12" MTX floor speakers for quite a while.
Oh, and I also agree with the person that said many digital rock transfers aren't the greatest. I do find that some can be thin or grainy, especially digital recordings from the 90's. Hey, I love rock from hard ass metal to more laid back stuff. The heavy stuff in particular is mastered very hot and sometimes recorded with unacceptable amounts of clipping--check a nice, refined, good recording against some of the music you are having trouble with and make sure you are not simply hearing the reality of the recording/mastering quality.