There must some guys here who had a chance to hear some of the headphones i’m thinking about, and i was wandering how do these headphones stack up against today flagships. Headphones i have in mind are AKG K1000, Sony Qualia 10, Sony mdr-10, Grado HP1000, Stax SR-Ω, Sennheiser he-60 I’m wondering how are these headphones in comparison to today’s totl headphones.
I haven’t tried a lot of the unobtamium vintage, but I have tried a lot of very legendary stuff.
Most vintage electrostatics, proper electrostatics and not electrets, can still go toe to toe with even modern hi-end. Very, very few dynamic and planer magnetic hi-ends can beat electrostatics. The only one I heard that could was the HD800. Of course modern electrostatics can beat out their vintage counterpart but even then we’re talking about the absolute hi-end.
As for dynamic headphones? There’s a few I heard that definetely still earn their legendary moniker. DT-48 for instance was back in the day an EXTREMELY expensive headphone yet even a 60s pair can beat out most modern totl on resolution, detail and utter ruthlessness, albeit at the expense of sub bass and soundstage.
Most of the legendaries in my opinion still deserve their place in the best of all time. Especially the Japanese with their bubble era insanity.