Picked up M-Audio Q40 - WOW - Page 3

I would give 9.5 to Q40 and HTF600 maybe 8.2. They do leak some as they don't appear to be fully closed, the openings are small so it doesn't leak at lot, but yea there's some, not sure how much of an issue at normal listening volume in an office, leaving them on a table at normal/slightly loud listening volume while the cups are lying against each other I hear them faintly in a quiet room up to about 3~4 meters away.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadhairCut 

Hmm, I think I'm leaning towards the Panasonic's due to the dirt cheap price, and I wouldn't be using an amp. Would you say the Q40's leak more or less than the Panasonic's?

HTF600 leaks more and barely offers any isolation from outside noise too. Q40 has noticably better isolation from outside noise but it lets out a bit more than it lets in I'd say. It still beats HTF600 both ways but there's more drastic difference regarding how good they isolate from outside noise.

Q40 still sounds good ampless too but improves noticably by amping too which HTF600 doesn't but HTF600 has a bit better price/sound quality ratio though, if I was to put a pricetag based only on sound quality they deliver then the HTF600 would be like 90~$100 (3x its price) can and Q40 $150. HTF600 sounds quite muddy/smooth and a little warmer and less detailed in comparision to the Q40 which has a very neutral sounding balance despite it offers a boosted bass response, the way it handles the bass so well doesn't make it seem like a typical bassheavy can despite it is because unlike HTF600 the bass doesn't bleed into mids whatsoever, I can even boost the bass on ZO2 amp or use EQing to Q40 and there will still be very little/no noteworthy amount of bass bleeding into mids. The Q40 definitely wins by a huge amount with all headphones I've heard so far when it comes to being able to output headpounding bass ala XB500-style (with a very little help of amp bass boost or EQing) but still stays so controlled and doesn't bleed into mids.

I wonder how the leather vs velour DT770 pads compare like soundwise, I definitely wouldn't want any more treble compared to stock. When I stuffed paper underneath the stock pads to make them deeper it actually tamed the peak around 8kHz slightly which I found welcome. Without doing that I might have had to lower the 8kHz slider one step but not now, it's suitably bright for my taste after putting the paper underneath the pads and it had some holes on the underside of the pads which also got covered which might also have to do with the very slightly tamed brightness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jupitreas 

With the stock pads, I find them a little too dark, IMO the Beyer velours add a welcome sparkle to the treble. But then again, I'm a big fan of the Beyerdynamic DT880 and 990 sound. I like for the treble to be nicely emphasized and airy.

I prefer the highs to be neutral~very slightly recessed as I like a very slight warm sound and dislike V-shape sound (I prefer mids a very tiny bit higher elevated than highs), I boosted also 500Hz especially a bit on the EQ to increase the warmth sound of it. The Q40 is still the headphone with the most sparkle in the highs that I've kept and didn't sell after 1-2 weeks of use. (others I had to boost tiny bit in the highs, Q40 is good like it is for me, what I'd concider neutral).

Quote:

Originally Posted by josheil 

Does anyone know HOW TO remove and replace the pads? I have replacement pads that I want to try and it says just to use a dull/blunt knife to lever the current pads of but I attempted to do so and am afraid to break them.. Has anyone done this before/know how to? Ive never don this before.

It's really enough to pull them off without using any additional tools. Easiest is to grab it with the thumb on the outer side + index (pointy?) finger from the inside and pushing it a bit from the inside and just drag it off and then it will easily come off after that.