hyperdetailstereophileitis and genre matching

[ethebull]

I guess I'm in the minority here but one common theme all over this site is the use of different headphones for different genre of music. Or this amp works for classical better than rock, or what’s the best speaker for… etc.

I’ve always strived to buy products that satisfy and deliver for everything. Outstanding headphones are far more affordable than speakers, so I can understand multiple pair ownership. Changing things up offers variety and I guess adds to the fun factor for many. But for me, I’ll invested my time and money to carefully purchase complementary products and build a system to my satisfaction - creating my personal reference system.

Sound production preferences and quality in the 2000 CD’s and LP’s I own encompasses the full spectrum from dreadful to spectacular. I’ve heard many “audiophile” products that leave me cold. Ultra revealing components can lead to listening fatigue and render poorly recorded old favorites un-listenable. I find having one or two tube components in the chain helps avoid hyperdetailstereophileitis.

Taking the all purpose approach some will say results in a jack of all trades master of none package. Frankly, that’s exactly what I seek. A neutral system that lets me experience the differences in recording technique, variety in sound stage presented, depth, brightness, etc.

Your thoughts?

[MaZa]

Have you tried AKG K601? Good detailing, yet not pronounced anywhere. Actually slightly on the laidback side, but not Sennheisery. Very balanced in my ears, it doesnt go over the top ANYWHERE (like I feel that K701 does, weightlessness and airyness and bit faked soundstage and so on...) , yet it doesnt have any glaring faults that might distract the listening either, like the veiled and hollow uppermids in other jack-of-all-trades Sennnheiser HD595.

[ethebull]

I'm not so much seeking opinions on what particular products achieve this nuetrality. I'm curious why people feel genre matching is nessessary or a good thing. A great pair of speakers or headphones or... should portray what's there - period.

What sounds right is open to everyone's personal interpretation. I like listeneing to all genre through the same system and cans so that I hear the differences on a level playing field.

[paulb09]

I find (and hear from other's opinions) that audio equipment is often "coloured" to some degree, as in it leans toward a particular style of sound rather than being "neutral". Then again, defining neutral is another issue all together, as interpretations of neutral can vary too.

People like choice because they all have different opinions on how music (on several different levels) should sound. Some find a particular set-up they like enough to use for all or most types of music and recordings, whilst others search endlessly and never find a set of equipment that always sounds perfect whatever is thrown at it.

To be honest I am not massively surprised about that, because every music artist has a different idea on how their music should sound when they create it, and coupling that with the user's idea on how it should sound, the user can end up with so many different set-ups that they prefer for different genres (or even artists, albums, or individual songs, although I cannot say I have ever heard anyone use one set-up only for one of those three, but who knows?). It is important for them to have music sound as they want it to at the time, because they can then feel whatever emotion (or whatever else you can describe obtaining from the listening of music) they wish.

I can't help imagining it would be cool, though, to have audio equipment that automatically (or semi-automatically at least) changed depending on what type of music you put on, or what type of mood you wanted to feel, reducing the amount of equipment you would need to cover everything.
I think I am fortunate in that I have found a set-up that fairly well covers how I want several types of music to sound, but it is for sure this won't be the set up I use forever

[MaZa]

Originally Posted by ethebull

I'm not so much seeking opinions on what particular products achieve this nuetrality. I'm curious why people feel genre matching is nessessary or a good thing. A great pair of speakers or headphones or... should portray what's there - period.

What sounds right is open to everyone's personal interpretation. I like listeneing to all genre through the same system and cans so that I hear the differences on a level playing field.

Ah, then I misunderstood your post. I thought you were trying to find as neutral headphone as possible.

Unlike with speakers, headphone drivers have to produce all the frequencies. For single driver, this is quite difficult to do all that properly, so some corners do suffer. Its hard to find a headphone that is perfectly flat AND sound good at the same time. Genre matching is mere taste subject, some headphones do some things better than another and might enhance some aspects of some music genres, but might mismatch others. Oh, and peoples definition of neutral also does vary, as does how some ears perceive different frequencies differently to other ears. Neutral isnt necessarily same as flat frequency response in headphones.

[onvn]

As with all discerning hobbyists (did I spell that right?), we so-called audiophiles seek perfection in our hobbies and we happen to seek aural perfection.. Not all people can afford multiple sets of headphones, or they simply wouldn't spend..

Also, an obvious explanation for this, simply put, may be that people like buying equipment.. They itch if they don't.. I'm not saying this is a bad thing.. If I had endless money, I'd get a headphone suited for every single song I listen to!

[Uncle Erik]

Try a Sennheiser HD-600. It covers the bases pretty well.

[nickchen]

All a question of expectations, listening habits and experience. Of course you can listen to everything with everything. Things might don't sound optimal, and you just don't have a clue and stay happy anyway.

First "real" fon I bought was the boomboom DT770 in spring 2005, and I was really shocked how good things sounded in comparison to my 150€ speakers. I even listened to stuff like Handel's Messias with this redneck fon, that was the best Handel I had ever heared until then (and my wife agreed).

Everything would have been fine if I just had stayed there and left headfi & similar nerd forums. But so...a friend's DT880...a new bought MS1...ummhhh...there seems to be something severely wrong with the Boombeyer...upgraditis...

[dizzyorange]

Originally Posted by ethebull

I'm curious why people feel genre matching is nessessary or a good thing. A great pair of speakers or headphones or... should portray what's there - period.

The problem is that different genres of music are mixed for different audiences, with different presumed means of audio reproduction. A common example is the Red Hot Chili Peppers's album Californication. Here is an album that is intentially mixed so hot that it distorts. Why? Because a small amount of distortion is needed to give that music the "edge" it needs on iBuds. When listened to on a hi-fi system, it's almost unbearable. But 80% of RHCP fans use iBuds 80% of the time.

Many popular and rock recordings are mixed this way, and are only enjoyable to my ears with a warm, lush, bass heavy system. But if I want to hear some opera or orchestral music, I want all the neutrality, treble extension, and airyness I can get. The majority of orchestral music doesn't sound so good on iBuds, because 80% of orchestral music fans don't use iBuds 80% of the time.

[TopPop]

My experience with my speaker system re: this issue went from good, to bad, to worse, to getting better.

Allow me to explain...

When I first fell in love with high-fidelity music reproduction, I was enormously happy with every upgrade I made in my budding low-level entry system, and enjoyed how it made all of my favorite music sound better. Good beer, and music I loved... amazing nights.

Then I started comparing my system more and more with the gear I heard in the big-boy shops, and became unsatisfied with the quality of reproduction of my own system, so I started upgrading more. At the same time, I started listening more and more to music that allowed me to test the new gear, and really hear its potential, whether or not it was music that I listened to for fun.

Eventually, as my obsession grew worse, and my gear became better (within my modest budget), I was solely listening to music that would make the system shine at its "hi-fi" best, and left the music that really got my blood flowing for the time spent in my car.

Bad news.

Then I got a tube preamp.

The detail I wanted, the finesse I sought, and the ability to allow me to begin to forget about only spinning the "good stuff" when the big rig was turned on. Music just sounds like music now, regardless of the recording quality.

The tendency is still there to revert to my old ways... but it's getting better.

[appophylite]

Originally Posted by ethebull

I'm not so much seeking opinions on what particular products achieve this nuetrality. I'm curious why people feel genre matching is nessessary or a good thing. A great pair of speakers or headphones or... should portray what's there - period.

Every one of the companies that designs headphones has a different idea of what the ultimate perfect sound is. As such, they tweak the driver they are working with to change the sound until it feels right for them. Making the driver wider or narrower and adding more windings will change the impedance and frequency response of the headphones, because capacitance and inductance will change within the system. This frequency response change could be anything: A large hump in the bass causing significantly boomier bass response or a spike in treble that adds more sparkle to the music because it clarifies instruments like the cymbal a bit better than headphones without the spike would. These changes to the frequency response allow us to perceive different records differently. This is what causes some people to state that a particular headphone is good for a particular genre (Hip-Hop/Ra, Rock, Classical)-because it enhances our ability to enjoy that genre with its subtle differences. That being said, I don't think there is a single headphone (at least from the ones I've tried or owned) that can't do all the genres and do them well: it's just that some do some genres better than others.

[ethebull]

Excellent input guys.

The wide range of production values in recorded music can be troublesome. This is been true for decades. Seems we are returning to the old “AM radio mix” aesthetics in recent years - everything gassed to the max with little dynamic range etc. It’s great when bands buck the trend. Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky comes to mind as a recent example.

[ethebull]

For me, the main reason I wouldn’t consider multiple headphones is the acclimation factor. I find I’m sensitive to much less dramatic changes like how a new amp might effect a system. It will take a week or so for my ear/brain to readjust and assess. “Upgrades” don’t always have a net positive in the end. If I were to switch cans on a daily basis for genre matching (I listen to a wide assortment of stuff) it would be very unsettling to me.