Sibilance dilemma, help.

All headphones play highs, so either fill your ears with cotton to dampen the sound or just bear with it.

Pro900's are about the best when it comes to bass without distorting overall SQ. The highs must be shown but they aren't what you read.

You're reading into reviews FAR TOO MUCH. When someone says sharp, your ears will hear dull.

Get a Pro900 with a FiiO E7+E9 combo

Because:

Best bass without distortion, short of Thunderpants or severely modded T50RP's

the pr900 don't need any fancy power or a certain type of amp. Fiio would suit just fine

Adjust your EQ on the FiiO E7 and with your source to dull out the highs. This will solve your problem.

the 80 ohm 770 is far less sibilant than the other versions that i have heard, including the 32 ohm, 250, 600 ohm 990 and 250 ohm 990.

If your in america the Beyer ebay shop has been selling refub 80 ohm for 90 bucks.  a bunch of people on here have purchased them and they seem to come in very good almost new condition.

BUT, if i had the money i'd probably give the ultrasones a shot

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadWaves 

BotByte - Lol yes, I confess to researching lots and reading into reviews too far. It's a vicious cycle and I end up not getting anything at all!

This always happens. Every headphone is created equal but excel in different areas.

The nice thing about the Pro900's is that they have a massive amount of bass that can be played with and the bass doesn't mess with the rest of the sound.

In my opinion, sibilance is considerably moreso a matter of the original recording, and not the headphone itself.  It's very possible to have orgasmic bass and good highs without sibilance, but you'll want the right recordings to begin with.

At the moment the closest I can think of to meet your needs is the HD650, but I'm not sure how much bass you'd like-- it definitely does not have the bass quantity of the Pro900, D2000 or DT770.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMRaven 

In my opinion, sibilance is considerably moreso a matter of the original recording, and not the headphone itself.  It's very possible to have orgasmic bass and good highs without sibilance, but you'll want the right recordings to begin with.

 

At the moment the closest I can think of to meet your needs is the HD650, but I'm not sure how much bass you'd like-- it definitely does not have the bass quantity of the Pro900, D2000 or DT770.

The problem I see is that bass and soundstage, with the taste of you amp and the music, but more so with the bass and soundstage.

When you have a Grado, which is about the worse, the highs are sharp in the lower SR level and way forward for you to notice them.

More bass would typically result in less highs and when combined with soundstage, resemble a less sharp sound.

Now, higher end headphones will not sound sharp. You can listen to Grado's and you won't hear that sharp sting of sibilance. That's just because of the cans. When added to music and amps, everything get's nice and screwy

I don't have much problem with sibilance because my amp is a little dark so my bright cans can be more balanced.

But the audio does make a difference. But I don't see bands produce a sound that people don't want to hear. So I see that the headphones you listen to cause the problems.

Example:

Vertigo by U2

I remember listening to this with earbuds years ago and the sibilance was horrid while there was WAY too much crowding.

About a year ago I dusted off the cd and ripped it. After a listen, I was lost in marvelous sound because my Grado played them amazingly well.

The headphones definitely aren't all of it.  If that were the case, I would have returned my DT990s by now, which a lot of people describe as some of the most treble happy, sibilance-incarnate pair headphones on the face of the earth.  Listening to a well recorded and mastered recording and you get no sibilance issues whatsoever.  Listen to any song off Eminem's Recovery album, and every S or T might as well stab you in the brain.

Even a recording with bad sibilance problems still has them when played back on a fairly warm set of regular speakers as well, and the treble isn't directly being pushed into your ear, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMRaven 

The headphones definitely aren't all of it.  If that were the case, I would have returned my DT990s by now, which a lot of people describe as some of the most treble happy, sibilance-incarnate pair headphones on the face of the earth.  Listening to a well recorded and mastered recording and you get no sibilance issues whatsoever.  Listen to any song off Eminem's Recovery album, and every S or T might as well stab you in the brain.

 

Even a recording with bad sibilance problems still has them when played back on a fairly warm set of regular speakers as well, and the treble isn't directly being pushed into your ear, either.

Listening...

HD598 on desktop setup

It's not bad. I'm running at 320kbps, my own rip and I hear nothing too bad.

Let's see...

Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn by The White Stripes

Which, they never had a good recording while also forced to compress massively.

Try that. Please no Youtube.

Yes, that song is pretty bad, through both headphones and speakers.  Arcade Fire's latest album has been pretty guilty of the sibilance issue as well, and it's too bad because I quite like them.