Review: Denon AH-D1100 vs Sony MDR-XB500 - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roller 

Very interesting, those two headphones are closer in performance than I expected.

 

I know it's not really about those headphones, but since you tried both AKG K518 and ATH-M50, which ones would you feel to be more balanced headphones, as well as a better purchase?

AKG K 518 are also extremely warm sounding headphones very close to XB500 in that aspect (possibly slightly warmer even, need to do more comparisions), the bass is much stronger (punchier) than M50 and possibly the bassiest AKG headphone I'd say (I wouldn't be suprised if even stronger than the K 181 DJ). It sometimes lacks some very slight deep bass for my taste, nothing severe it's just the upper bass is much stronger. Highs are very dark/smooth sounding or a bit rolled off if you will, yet has quite decent quality to it, mids are so-so, they are quite forward tho which is good but they are quite "smooth" not revealing the finest possible detail, like you can hear them very well but they still sound "smooth" with no extra crispyness to them. The biggest issue is comfort and soundstage though. Comfort can be fixed with stretching, soundstage cannot, it's roughly the same as with M50, possibly tiny bit worse, feels very "cave-like" claustrophobic.

The M50 sample I tried must have been something wrong with (I'm positive as out of an Audigy 1 card the left driver crackled/distorted heavily all the time while right one worked perfectly with bass while it didn't have those issues using an Audigy 2 ZS, weird huh?) Also it was far from any bassy at all on the audigy 2 zs card so must have been something fishy about it, I've heard several people say it would be bassier than even D1100 but for me it was far from it and one of the reasons I sold it cuz it just didn't have enough bass. Anyway having said that, what I heard on that sample would be the bass was neither deep rumbling or punchy but very slight midbass hump and the lower highs, ie. 4~8Hz or so had some quite big emphasize so it made them sound rather harsh, not overly bright though as the upper highs were more balanced but there were sibilance present. Mids were actually very good I thought, detailed and crispy and clear, the soundstage wasn't any good though. The overall sound was like very clear I'd say out of those M50 were still better balanced but I'd love to hear an M50 that people exaggerate about being very bassy because I'm sure it's not what my sample had because mine sounds like it would have a lot less bass and more mids and highs, it was nearly as bright as DT770 Pro even.
 

Yea I think XB700 would satisfy you quite well, it doesn't have THAT much more deep bass, only a bit more but because it's lacking the upper bass found in XB500 it will seem like the deep bass is much stronger as the tonal character of the bass sounds different when the upper bass isn't as strong (just play around with 125Hz vs 62Hz slider on the EQ and you know what I mean), however when doing analytical listening especially for hardstyle tracks that have deep bass that often goes down to 40~50Hz, it wasn't much difference in deep bass, the XB500 always did hit harder with the bass though, XB700 was just slightly too soft for my liking, perhaps less fatiguing but there's no such thing as fatiguing bass for me personally. XB700 is however also a lot brighter and the mids will also because of that seem a bit more recessed. The XB700 have more of a V-shaped frequency response, XB500 is like a slanting slope from the lows to highs with a bit more forward mids but less deep bass and highs compared to XB700.

I don't know about M-Audio Q40. Between DT770 Pro/80 the bass quantity is about the same but the bass is of the opposite type. DT770 Pro/80 have lots of deep rumbling slow bass that's softer and lacks some punch/impact from upper bass while D1100 is the opposite and hits hard like you'd be hit by a hammer but the bass decays/rolls off quick and doesn't have a lot of deep bass presence. You can feel the bass on both but I'd say even better on D1100 because of the stronger punch.

I also think M-Audio Q40 looks quite interesting. I'm a bit worried about deep bass output and that mids aren't forward enough for my taste. Would love to hear an XB500 vs M-Audio Q40 comparision...

That song's bass is pretty intense on my XB500, it's got very big punch/impact to it so I can not only hear it but also "feel" it but at same time it doesn't sound overpowered at all as it fades away quick, very nice. I think for the electro part it would probably satisfy you a lot, I'm unsure about reggae, for that genre I'd imagine you usually wish a bit "crisper" sound, XB500 has these a bit recessed frequency dips at 3.5~4kHz or so and at 16kHz or so and for reggae I'd imagine it would be optimal with a bigger emphasize at those frequencies as the XB500 sounds a bit smoother.

Of course if you have access to a good EQ you can fix these issues but that's not an option for every1.

I don't know how to explain it easier as I don't want to lie to you by saying "yes it's good" and then maybe it isn't to you. ^^

I know I can't give any short explanations but it's because I don't want to lie to any1 either as sound is such a subjective matter we're dealing with. 

But I think XB500 sounds okay unEQ'd but sounds very good if you use an equalizer with it but depending on the equalizer you use, the result will vary. If you'd EQ it by emphasizing those frequencies that is a bit recessed (meaning the volume of them is rather low so instruments that lies in the frequency range won't be heard as clearly) it will sound better with a more wide range of music.