Headphone recommendations for listening to Linda Ronstadt please.

Won't help him. Some Linda Ronstadt recordings were mixed with the Aphex Aural Exciter system, and it has audible artifacts. The best sounding Linda Ronstadt record of all is Long, Long Time, engineered and mixed by the late, lamented Lee Hazen, at Woodland Sound Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Many Linda Ronstadt recordings, especially those mixed by Val Garay suffer from less than stellar sonics. Due to his heavy overuse of processing. So they are what they are.

 

By chance I saw your thread today right after listing to “ El crucificio de pieda “ from Mas Canciones by Linda Ronstad. Her voice was so pure and incredibly real. You could hear the emotion and her gasping for air! She has a range and purity which is exceptional! I had never heard her before like this on my gear and it is because of some crucial updates I had done ( Sparkler DAC and a Quantum resonator- Details in my profile). They are not mainstream products, so it was a bit of jump into deep, which turned out well for me!
Sorry I don’t have a headphone recommendation for you but perhaps the upgrades might interest you to get the last bit out of her recordings.

 

Its the Kikuchi CDs I am playing. Glad to know my speakers are good, they were a great buy.

Those Linda tracks without bass are better, but Linda steel seems placed behind on some tracks of my original CDs & disappointingly MFSL versions.

This is only up to & including "Simple Dreams". The master tapes were..used for remastering only, not remixing?

Kikuchi's remasters try to make all earlier albums sound like "Living in the USA". Softer subtler song tracks are not so hot, but I find the louder ones better, as Linda's singing is put to the front, more on-mike & more comparable to a live recording/concert where people pay to hear Linda sing. She does have to yell in "Live in Hollywood" to get heard, her band in that concert was playing too loud, not my favourite Linda listening

 

I love both Canciones & Frenesi. They all sound great! Linda at her peak for those.

 

Good thread for checking out some more recordings of her. My upgrades dig so deep into her voice, made me realize that she must be one of the best singers around, says me an Ella and Aretha fan.

 

Without being privy to what you are driving the6XXs with (that means "FILL OUT YOUR PROFILE!!!), I would suggest the first step would be to increase the quality of the amplifier driving your headphones. I mean serious high quality amplifiers that can drive 300 ohm impedance headphones. You will be surprised at what those Drop headphones are able to do.
I'd suggest an SPL Phonitor, Burson Conductor 3 Reference, Fidelice/Rupert Neve Headphone amplifier as starters (from my experience).

 

Multitrack master tape reels are what the master mixdown tape is mixed from. And the Kikuchi attempt to make every LP sound like "Living In The USA" is very misguided. Linda Ronstadt is a very skilled singer of diverse musical material spanning many genres. Each album needs individual mastering attention to bring out their special qualities.

 

I saw her back in the old days at the Troubador when Henley and Frey were in her backing band. That was something to see and hear. I use Grado SR80e headphones on the rare occasions I use headphones and only have one of her albums so no help there, sorry. But I like to brag about who I got to see back in the day as I was in a local band myself called The Reasons Why (that went nowhere) and worked a few of those clubs on occasion. Didn't meet or know these people, just got to see them perform.

 

OP is getting Senn 560s and a Loki mini +, please close thread.

 

No Lokis anywhere in the UK

I would like to try 600s someday. 6xx are like budget 650s? 660s are way too expensive.

 

So you still haven't decided on what to get that's in your price range?

 

No, they are 650s in a different guise and with a shorter cable.

Sennheiser x Massdrop HD6XX Review / Preview - Head-Fi TV

Massdrop HD6XX Review - Headfonics.com

 

Once again... fill your profile!

 

That is the real problem. People who buy $400 headphones aren't usually planning on buying a $2000 amp to make them sound good.

 

It's not to make them sound good, but to extract all of their performance. This applies generally in audio.

 

HD-660 were supposed to be a newer, better ‘650, but they ended up being....not so good.

HD-600 and 650 trade between strengths. 600s can be a little more aggressive up top but pretty accurate bass. 650s fix the top end but have a bit of mid bass thickness. I’ve owned 650s for a few years and enjoy them quite a bit. They hit a sweet spot of doing enough things well, although they might not sound as impressive as some other phones in certain areas. But that’s what makes them so easy to live with.

You absolutely must use a decent amp with them. Even a Schiit Magni/Modi is sufficient without being too much money. I also agree that a Loki is a good plan. I use one among several combinations depending on what I’m in the mood for.

 

Agreed - they already sound good - it's that they scale up when driven by better amplification.

 

Yes, but budget in price only. The same otherwise, or with "improvements." Someone may know the details better than I. It might be discussed at drop.com.

 

Went to my profile page, no hi fi info form there. So where?

 

Loki decided, 600 pretty much. Its availability new that's the problem.

For 600s, any advantage of old v new, or vice versa?

 

It's really hard to beat the Sennheiser HD650's if open back headphones work for you. You can spend a hundred bucks on a Schiit Magni 3+ headphone amp and have plenty of juice to drive them. Most of my listening is done using headphones and I definitely keep a pair in the collection.

 

That's a great documentary. I saw Linda open for Neil Young in 1973 and I was fan ready but man, to hear that voice coming from the petite woman standing there was amazing. We were like 4 rows back center stage and she looked fabulous in her Cub Scout uniform. Neil wasn't too shabby either

 

Top right of the page you are now on - look for your forum name there - i.e. click on heartbreaker. Then "Personal Details" and fill in to your heart's content.

 

I have often had headphones on when my wife was playing Linda Ronstadt in the other room, if that helps.

Sure helps me.