Your "reaction" toward your non-audiophile's comment - Page 3

I don't sweat it. It's the same as buying boxed wine vs. a $50 bottle. I'm in the wine catigory. I stay away from boxed wine, but I never pay more than $10 for a bottle. I know of 5 or 6 brands that are more than acceptable. Many wine aficionados think I'm nuts, and I respect their opinions, but I just don't get it.

 

haha, thats part of the reason why mine are going under plastic

I think audiophiles' bias against bass is rooted in genre preference more than anything else. It seems predicated on the assumption that bass-centric genres like "rap" and "techno" aren't even music. Certain genres sound horrendous and muddy with overt bass, while others sound wrong WITHOUT defined bass presence.

 

Drum and bass, dubstep and hip-hop are all valid genres. - and I'm not talking about garbage corporate rap or disposable club music. Frankly, rock music hasn't done anything truly innovative since around the 90s, especially compared to the gorgeous multilayered psychedelic mind***k production you'll find in the best hip-hop and electronic music.

I was using a pair of Sennheiser HD555s for the last five years as my exclusive headphones, and although the bass is adequate they definitely alter the presentation of bass-centric genres. I'm not talking about cranking the bass to the point where it overwhelms all the other sounds - but if a pair of headphones is incapable of emphasizing bass appropriately for a bass-centric genre, the sound balance is skewed away from what the producer intended to be conveyed.

 

I also think the average consumer tends to associate heavy bass with headphone sound quality simply because bass is the most noticeable aspect of sound that distorts on low end headphones. So huge bass = quality as far as they're concerned. As for other important aspects of sound like detail and clarity, people don't know what they're missing until they're exposed to better headphones. It's ignorance more than anything else.

Edited by moleface - 3/20/11 at 8:19pm

 

have you removed the foam tape that's behind the mesh? I feel it has added a noticeable ammount of bass, and sounds less congested after removing them.

Yep. :) I agree - I think the sound in general sounds a lot less "dampened" with those foam pieces removed. I feel that there's more treble presence too, though I might be imagining it. They're still not ideal to get the most visceral impact from bass heavy genres.

Hmm while I agree on a number of aspects, I don't think it's so much genre preference. I feel like most the people on this forum listen to at least one bass heavy genre. I certainly do, but then again the vast majority of my headphones have pretty heft bass XD. It would be very interesting to do a forum-wide poll of genre preferences.

To the people complaining about non audiophile only caring about the bass, have you ever considered that there are some musical genres where the quantity of bass is essential?

 

The solution seems to be obvious, make them listen to a song where is this no bass line, and very little bass in general, ethnic music, certain jazz songs... After that they tends to go "wow, I didn't how there was so much info in the music". Alternatively, put a track with a complex double bass line and ask them how well they can follow the double bass with skull candies and with your headphones.

You'll have the liking quality bass, mids and treble in no time.

I'm not an audiophile, but I completely understand the frustration that some in this thread experience.

 

I like to tune my car, refine boost control, completely rewriting the electronic motor management, installing gauges and so on. So when my brother just spends a couple of hundred bucks once to get an off the shelf tune and then proclaims his BMW is above all else it's pretty frustrating. I couldn't even show him the sweat, work, dedication and love I spend on my car getting it ever closer to perfection, because he just doesn't give a f***... He just assumes that I'm being stupid, messing stuff up on my car when in reality you could teach a masters degree on the knowledge required to do what I do.

 

He just opens his wallet and trusts that any rubbish he pays for is the absolute best. Lol, I just remembered: He DOES own a pair of those Dre headphones sold by the Apple stores, so that should bring it home for you audio-guys... :D

 

Kind of sad, since nobody in my family or even my friends could ever understand the kind of skill that took me to accomplish. Only a few car-buddies could even come close to understanding and appreciating.

i remember when i was in high school back in the day and judged headphones and players solely on bass.  ah, to be young and oblivious...

Now that I think of it, I haven't let many people who asked hear my headphones, not because I don't trust them with them or something, I just don't bother. So I haven't gotten many reactions as far as SQ, but I have on price. I could have my M50s that I payed $80 for, People would ask how much I payed and they simply go "geez" over a $80 pair. Then they ask me the stupid question "Do they sound good?". -_- "No, I bought them because I thought they sounded bad. Not to mention sound is subjective". The biggest critic though is my mom who doesn't understand why I have 8 different pairs of headphones, and always seems disappointed when I buy another pair. This is part of the reason I would have a hard time getting the LCD2s because my mom would say "You payed HOW MUCH FOR THOSE?" and I would feel like my mom would not approve, giving me a speech about how I should save my money... blah blah blah.

I also love on the occasions that I tote my E7 with me, I always get the question "what's that?". I explain that it's an amp. They then say "Oh, so does it make your headphones louder?" which I guess it technically can, but volume is not a mark of quality.

I do this EVERYTIME I demo cans for someone. My track of choice?

 

Riviera Paradise - SRV. There's bass...but not for most of the song. It's just so good. Amazing Piano, of course amazing guitar. There's no vocals...but it's just an amazing track...

And if they want vocals...Con Te Partiro - Andrea Bocelli. Kinda self explanatory.

 

To summarize. This is a really good idea. Play them a song with no bass and they realize what they're missing.

 

I was just talking about this earlier in the Headphone Sightings thread. I get a ton of questions about my E7, and THEN get asked about my headphones. Its the more...unusual things that get attention.

 

EVERYONE has headphones, so noone cares. But how many people carry an AMP for their headphones? That's when people get involved.

 

Quote:

 

I notice that most of the negative reactions here were aimed towards high end IEMs. Perhaps they simply didn't know how to fit them properly? I sometimes bring full-size cans to my class when I feel that my portable ones aren't enough to get me through the day (depends on what genre I'm in the mood for, I guess), so finding a proper fit isn't a problem.

 

So, I was in class listening to my K242 HDs (considering that they don't swivel and have a fixed 3m cord, I'd give them a 4.5/10 in terms of portability), when a friend of mine asked if she could try them out. This has happened to me so often with my portable cans that I'd learned to "cheat" a bit when letting others try out my portable rig: I use the bass boost on my Voodoo Sound-modded i9000, then crank up the volume a bit while playing a hip-hop song (I keep a few albums in my library for the express purpose of letting other people listen to music on my phone [though to be honest, the genre's grown on me a bit]). 

 

She freaked out— literally. She was laughing like a lunatic and shouting out the lyrics so that everyone in earshot was staring at her like a lunatic. After that, a lot of people asked to try them on. What really surprised me though was when one of the guys in my class turned off the bass boost, lowered the volume, and picked one of my personal favourites (The Beatles' Blackbird). Apparently, the mid-centered sound sig of the AKGs appealed to him, since he got a lower-tier model (I think it was the 518 LE?) the following week. 

 

Moral of the story: If you want to impress people, try lugging around a pair of full-size cans. If anything, they'll look impressive, and that might colour their judgement a bit. As a Psychology major, I kinda know how that'd work ;)