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 1 response by listener57

I have listened through more than one pair of Grado SR-60's, and there should not be any sense of suffering when listening to a good recording through these fine entry level headphones. But, as Bignerd100 stated, you can hear too well the marginal quality of some recordings, and some headphone jacks. There can be some variations in perceived frequency response due to unit variation, shape of ears, or shape of foam earpiece covering. Just a little plastic surgery on the phones or the ears should correct all that :>)
Also, could any of your personal perception of sound have been modified by exposure to very high sound levels at live rock concerts, or high volume headphone listening, earlier in life?
Finally, there is a new product from dakiom.com to optimize headphone output from the simple jack output on any player. Although at $100 (home trial money back offer) it is more costly than your particular headphones, it is intended to demonstrate how much more unexpected sound quality there is waiting to be passed through any headphone output jack.