looking at those graphs from headroom ... i can clearly see what jiggawho is going on and on about, and i believe i can actually jump aboard why the XB700's have any place at all without listening (pretty far-out first step eh?)
the XB700's bass stops at about 200hz ... the frequency response trails on at a lower output level.
this is clearly a frequency response that has had the bass frequencies boosted.
but
unfortunately, those frequencies are still way too high to be considered anything more than a child's play thing.
the XB500 is worse, because in the area between 100hz and 500hz .. the graph says those frequencies are still boosted, while the XB700 let them go.
i've been promoting the studio reference sound and leaving the problems of 'subjective' completely out of my way..
and with that said.. the 100hz to 500hz area is annoying when it is too high.
it is annoying because of what the octaves sound like.
there isnt anything in life that is obnoxiously loud at those frequencies, so when they are up and loud.. it sounds very unnatural.
besides.. when audiophiles say we want bass, we are talking about 40hz down to 15hz or even as gut-punching as 5hz
we know there is a subwoofer for 1hz - 40hz ... a woofer for 40hz - 500/600hz ... a midrange for 500/600hz - 4,000hz
but
they dont talk about the difference between 'woofing' and 'midbass'
it has been too ugly and i see at this moment it is going to be long if i talk about it.
old speaker's needed a midbass.. now the speaker's do midbass rather effortlessly, and they dont realize the woofer could be acting like the subwoofer too thanks to revolutions in speaker technology.
well back to headphones..
it kinda looks like the XB700 has the trimmed midbass.. and it would be the same thing as twisting the bass knob up higher.
and that is a righteous thing if you want more than the bass simply being there.
but like i said.. 200hz is still too high.
i kept looking at the chart and remembered i didnt get a chart for the last set of equalizer settings i did in 'game mode' on the x-fi soundcard.
so i went back to get a chart.
instead of leaving the real time analyzer running and letting the frequency response bounce all over the place, i used the 'forever' averaging to calm things down.
well...
what i seen was something i didnt particularly like.
it looked like this..
i seen a dip at 60hz that i didnt agree with.. but look at how low the midrange is compared to 30hz.
next thing i did was look at the equalizer settings, and i could clearly see there was TONS of room to keep boosting.
so i did the equalizer sliders AGAIN.. and kept using 'forever' averaging to clean up the analyzer results.
what does it look like now?
i raised 60hz a bunch, and then i went to attack the midrange and lift all of that area between 400hz and 2,000hz
now it looks like this:
it sounds better AGAIN.. because i was doing averaging by eyeball the first time.
that just means the TOOL does it better than i ever could.
you are complaining about something being too loud or not loud enough.. lQQk at the chart and see how everything is closer to eachother.
i cant raise 8,000hz because it wont go anywhere much.. raising the 8k slider raises ALL of the treble to obnoxious levels.
once again, these headphones sound like the new 'high-resolution' generation.. but the $79 price tag is showing itself each time i go looking for the floor.
i find it like jumping into shallow water.
but
at least everything is smooth in the small amount of water that is there.
i look at it like this..
if you connect a lightbulb onto the speaker.. moving the cone in or out is supposed to light up the bulb.
some speaker motors will make the light flutter, and sometimes the light bulb will completely go out as you are moving the cone in or out.
i dont want the light to go out at all.
getting dim is annoying.
but
the new generation of speaker motors will be following suit.
the light will stop going out, and the level of dimming will be significantly reduced.
it should be all one solid color.. and trust me, staring at that bulb for micro pulses has been the truth.
because if you are pushing the speaker in and the bulb is staying bright.. what if you suddenly pull the cone out?
chances are, the bulb goes completely out.. or the light gets very dim.
we dont want that.. we cant do anything with a dead bulb, because music is energy and we need the energy to be functional.
that means a bunch of headphones are gonna be sold for cheap, given away, and completely thrown out.
they've been making a huge movement about energy and recycling for the last two decades.
what they havent been telling you..
all those things that are not worth recycling.
jiggawho would probably be upset to hear the XB500 headphones with my equalizer settings.. because the bass is there like a 12 or 15 inch subwoofer over in the corner pounding.. but it isnt louder than everything else like when you are standing right next to it.
the point is.. if the woofer is there and pounding, if you can hear it.. it should be good enough.. because it isnt one of those towers with three 6.5 inch woofers TRYING to be a subwoofer.
i could verify.. it could pass as two 18 inch subwoofers pounding.. but from a distance of at least 10ft (and NOT by the wall)
i am the type of person to appreciate the bass sounding like an 18 inch woofer and not some tiny 10 inch woofer.
but
some people are too deaf to be an audiophile?
nope.. you can be going deaf and realize how much better it sounds by listening with my equalizer settings and looking at the before and after chart.
i swear..
the water that is there, it's cleaner than speaker motors of the past.
cleaner than the $500 headphones too.
add up the vocals, the reverb, the panning.. the late-er order of harmonics are missing again.
but finally.. the young-est harmonics are FINALLY there.
strings from an instrument demand fast response times from the young harmonics.
large chunks of air, like something from a tuba, require late-er harmonics.. but these headphones can do a tuba, and can probably do a tuba with an echo too.
i think the truth is, the speaker doesnt move in and out much when it does what it does.
getting these kind of results with extra long stroke would be the final stand here.
but
i think i finally got it..
the light bulb could be brighter when switching from cone in to cone out.
but hey, at least the light is lit up.
it reminds me of a signal to noise ratio problem, one that is eating away some of the slew.
and that brings me to say.. the distortion is less with these headphones than the many others.
i think the expensive headphones have more slew, but the distortion is higher too.. and nobody complains because the slew is there and they dont know any better.
i'm hoping the 'high-resolution' revolution will teach the followers a thing or two.
