Having only recently fallen in love with the level of warmth and balance that my newly acquired Sennheiser HD600 headphones provide, I must say, that I was not anticipating these cans to provide me with much more than they already have.
I do love being wrong.
I've just recently recovered from a bad flu and ear infection, so, I have obviously been absent from my normal listening habits. During this illness I figured that I wouldn't punish my lovely HD600's, so I feed them a constant diet of tunes during my absence. Finally feeling better and thinking that any burn-in in most certainly accomplished by now I set out to select my choice for the evening.
The album is entitled "Kind of Blue", but these words couldn't be further from how I'm feeling right about now. So, I'll just dive into it.
The very first thing to strike me was the absolute beauty in the bass. Throughout the entire record the bass walked along so full and detailed. The attack and decay was so shockingly real. Close listening revealed such a vivid image of the fingers snapping the thick strings. The notes resonated just as they should, thick, deep and with an amazing echo, in fact, the echo is my next observation.
By echo, what I'm really saying is that the sense of air around each instrument was superb. There was just beautiful space for each note to bloom and wilt. Here is where my eyes could not find it within themselves to remain open. Over and over again I found myself lost in the music with a remarkable feeling of being just a few tables back.
Nowhere was the timbre represented as truly as in the horns. It was almost effortless to hear the air displacing with each escaping note. I'm not certain that I've experienced such a realism to the reproduction of horns before. I was literally blown back a bit. This was best heard when Miles gave me what he so gloriously was offering. The saxes bit just right. Sharp! I must have been butter to these horns.
All of these observations would have been nice, but not as fully experienced without the soundstage that was thrown out. While the sense of space around each individual instrument was superb, the overall staging was not very wide, but this matters not. The layering is where it gets ya' here. The stage was wonderfully layered. The piano, bass and absolutely glorious percussion just a bit back, leaving the horns imaged perfectly just a few feet in front. Also, the left/right layering was wonderfully accomplished. Every instrument made its spot known and stood its ground.
One last remark. Brushes on a snare drum are incrediably difficult to reproduce. A lot of the time you get a light "swooshing" sound that may have one wondering what they are hearing. Not here though. The brushes on Blue in Green, and at every point of use really, were represented soft and just right. Just as you hear the wood against the ride cymbal throughout the recording, the brushes make themselves known up and down the snare almost eerily soaked in realism.
As the music finally left me I kept my eyes closed to take in what I just experienced. I reached forward to set down my glass of merlot and cigar, opening my eyes to only find that my hands were empty and only my equipment in front of me. This was my only real disappointment.
I'm not sure what this album was meant to sound like, but I do know that if the intentions were for one to cover the ears with a pair of HD600's, close the eyes, smell the smoke, see the haze, feel the hall resonate each hit, loud and soft, and leave the listener completly lost in a world far away...well, you get me.
Every now and then something just is right.
Man, this was just right.
-Tom
I do love being wrong.
I've just recently recovered from a bad flu and ear infection, so, I have obviously been absent from my normal listening habits. During this illness I figured that I wouldn't punish my lovely HD600's, so I feed them a constant diet of tunes during my absence. Finally feeling better and thinking that any burn-in in most certainly accomplished by now I set out to select my choice for the evening.
The album is entitled "Kind of Blue", but these words couldn't be further from how I'm feeling right about now. So, I'll just dive into it.
The very first thing to strike me was the absolute beauty in the bass. Throughout the entire record the bass walked along so full and detailed. The attack and decay was so shockingly real. Close listening revealed such a vivid image of the fingers snapping the thick strings. The notes resonated just as they should, thick, deep and with an amazing echo, in fact, the echo is my next observation.
By echo, what I'm really saying is that the sense of air around each instrument was superb. There was just beautiful space for each note to bloom and wilt. Here is where my eyes could not find it within themselves to remain open. Over and over again I found myself lost in the music with a remarkable feeling of being just a few tables back.
Nowhere was the timbre represented as truly as in the horns. It was almost effortless to hear the air displacing with each escaping note. I'm not certain that I've experienced such a realism to the reproduction of horns before. I was literally blown back a bit. This was best heard when Miles gave me what he so gloriously was offering. The saxes bit just right. Sharp! I must have been butter to these horns.
All of these observations would have been nice, but not as fully experienced without the soundstage that was thrown out. While the sense of space around each individual instrument was superb, the overall staging was not very wide, but this matters not. The layering is where it gets ya' here. The stage was wonderfully layered. The piano, bass and absolutely glorious percussion just a bit back, leaving the horns imaged perfectly just a few feet in front. Also, the left/right layering was wonderfully accomplished. Every instrument made its spot known and stood its ground.
One last remark. Brushes on a snare drum are incrediably difficult to reproduce. A lot of the time you get a light "swooshing" sound that may have one wondering what they are hearing. Not here though. The brushes on Blue in Green, and at every point of use really, were represented soft and just right. Just as you hear the wood against the ride cymbal throughout the recording, the brushes make themselves known up and down the snare almost eerily soaked in realism.
As the music finally left me I kept my eyes closed to take in what I just experienced. I reached forward to set down my glass of merlot and cigar, opening my eyes to only find that my hands were empty and only my equipment in front of me. This was my only real disappointment.
I'm not sure what this album was meant to sound like, but I do know that if the intentions were for one to cover the ears with a pair of HD600's, close the eyes, smell the smoke, see the haze, feel the hall resonate each hit, loud and soft, and leave the listener completly lost in a world far away...well, you get me.
Every now and then something just is right.
Man, this was just right.
-Tom
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I got this when I had a sudden interest in Jazz after seeing a documentary about Miles and others. I really like Miles Ahead too.
