i’ve had a pair of HDJ-1000 - even two pairs.
they’re certainly one of the best headphones i ever had, sound-wise. i loved the bassy sound, the punch and the fact that you could virtually not overdrive them.
so i really can’t share the opinion that these cans are only good at dj’ing… it’s the same as it is with every sound monitoring device: you just have to know it really good.
if you heard hours and hours of well-mixed and mastered professional audio on these cans, you also know how it’s supposed to sound with your own stuff.
but of course there was a catch:
the first one broke after 3 weeks and i got an gurantee exchange.
the 2nd pair lasted for 2.5 years until it broke at the same place again.
i didn’t even do any serious DJ’ing - i ONLY used them for home-listening and composing… so i used them as studio cans actually.
so half a year ago, i was looking for something more robust, but with an equally good sound and strength in the lower frequencies.
after weeks of reading numerous tests, reviews and user opinions, i ended up ordering three headphones:
Sennheiser HD-25 C II
Sennheiser HD-650
Denon AH-D2000
the HD25 is more a less a counterpart to the pioneer, as they’re poth advertised as dj-cans.
however, the hd25 stands no chance against the pioneer… the sennheiser way metallic, untransparent and flat sounding.
next was the totally praised HD-650, which admitably, was way better than the HD-25, but it failed to convince in the bass region and also started to distort quite early.
besides that, it had a very “distanced” sound… it was way less direct than what i was used to from the pioneers.
so as you might already assume, i ended up keeping the Denons. it’s probably the most pleasant thing i’ve ever heard through a headphone. highly detailed, transparent yet lush and deep sound and a comfy fit on the head with hours and hours of listening pleasure.
they need a bit of “burn-in” until they finally settle to their actual sound, but once they did, you don’t wanna look back.
i also have a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-880 of which i always loved the mid and treble, which made them great for classic stuff, but they unfortunately failed at displaying bass-rich music like dnb, house or techno.
the DENONs seem to combine every positive aspect from the beyerdynamics and the pioneers.
they got the bass and the directness of the pioneers and the high resolution of the beyerdynamics.
if you have the money, you can’t go wrong with’em.
even though i’ve never owned / listened to any grado phones (which are regarded to be the creme-dela-creme), i heard about a lot of users, which sold their grados in favour of the D2000 or D5000 denons.