An excerpt from the very first Amazon review:
Quote:
As best I can tell, these headphones greatly enhance voice and the mid-range at the expense of bass response. I also played some collegiate a cappella. Suddenly I was transported back to the college quad standing under an arch listening to vocal harmonies. The voices were sharper and as advertised, sounded "live".
Country music didn't turn out as well. I decided to test a vocal-heavy artist by listening to some Taylor Swift, and I found her voice harsh and frankly unpleasant (whereas normally I enjoy her music). It seems that there is a bit too much treble response here.
My conclusion for sound quality is that the advertising is true - they really did tune these for a live sound, and perhaps one optimized for certain types of music. I tried a few other pieces and it seems that not only are these tuned for vocals, but only male vocals as female vocals sound harsh. I would say they are quite unique headphones and cool for some sounds, but not good all-around.
Hmm... although I've found no specifications of the Gratitude listed online, the above description seems to match the live preset I've encountered in the past, with media players such as VLC, where the bass is rolled off, the midrange is boosted, and the highs also boosted to a much lesser extent, with peaks here or there, I'm sure. Hence, I presume they sound great, where midrange vocals are concerned for instance, but not so great otherwise. jm2c, of course. In any case, I'll pass...
Edited by i2ehan - 1/16/12 at 9:37am