preproman said:

What The...  Man you are complicated.  The source is a CD player 

 


Just joking..  

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Geesh guys...stop fighting. in my opinion best way is just clear out all extra equipent between source/amp and headphones..no dsp thingies or eq thingies whatsoever..use high quality cables..also powercables!..keep the rig on for a night...get up..eat breakfast..so u brain has the time to equalize to being awake..and then sit down on a comfy chair and then listen..i believe no matter what electronics u use to determine whats best with graphs..ur mind and ears know best..i even found myself changing the balance on my 337 (has independent volume u for both channels) then an analyser measured as db's being best balanced volume levels...so that means my ears are a bit off in hearing the right balance..what i wanna point here is..at the end its ur ears that will make the decision..if u dont believe that then ur mind is fooling u..like placebo effect..u read the graphs so ur mind tunes itself into thinking its best..i know from own experience that that ****ed up mind of ours can sometimes be a factor of how u feel,hear or even taste things..check the tests of i think from pavlov and his controlled tests with giving food to dogs when using a lamp..at a certain moment the dogs showed saliva just because of the light..so eventhough he didnt smell or tasted the food..he reacted on the light...he did these tests also with kids..same result..soo..he proved that ur body can be tricked by ur mind. Sooo..imho..just listen and then feel the music..the sound that makes u smile the most..or in my case..after a long days work to relax me..well..u know the answer then

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pp312 said:

 
I've no doubt that most people's headphones sound fine to them, otherwise why would they own them? Unfortunately that doesn't mean they have a balance in any way resembling live music.
 
HE-500 and LCD-2 (Rev1) are phones I own. Neither is bright or I wouldn't own them. HD650 I used to own--quite a balanced phone just a little rolled off. As for the stock T50RP, to me it sounded like something I would buy in K-Mart for $9.95. I don't know if I got a bad pair or what, but it sounded so horrible I couldn't bring myself to believe that any amount of modding could rescue it. I do agree with you that it had something going on in the mids and highs that the HE-500 doesn't have. That was the problem. 

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Well, nothing is perfect and although in some ways the bright cans like DT990 are flawed, they are also great in other aspects. For example, while the highs are somewhat excessive on DT990s, the mids are actually nice and flat and sound very natural on their own, and the quality of the sound is excellent from lows to highs with no troubling resonances or excessive impedance swings. So "if cooked and served properly" so to speak, these can be very, very nice IMO, and quite natural sounding too.
 
I agree that T50RP has some bad stuff going on with the sound too - there are lots of audible resonances in the bass and mids - but at the the same time, at least my ears could still detect the surprising clarity and timbre coming through which leads to believe that the driver in these has potential.

zoom25 said:

I didn't vote as I haven't heard the Paradox. Although you can't go wrong with the HE-500 because it sounds good with any genre I have listened to it with ranging from rock, pop, hip hop, rap, electro, house, dubstep, ambience, indie, psychadelic trance, trance, progressive etc. The other good all rounders I have are D2000, but the HE-500 is a far better all rounder. I've also heard the LCD-2 and Funktion One rigs multiple times and find the HE-500 up there with them. I find the bass quite good on the HE-500, not fully up there with LCD-2 but still very pleasant to listen to, especially for a long time. The one thing that HE-500 does have over LCD-2 is that it sounds more natural regardless of genre and it has better width, although LCD-2 got more depth. Regardless one can be happy with either of them. I initially was thinking of buying the HE-500 because it was cheaper than LCD-2 but worried about the bass as I primarily listen to electronica. One day I found a good deal on HE-500 so bought it, but felt sad about missing out on the bass. When I first heard them, the bass concern went right out of the window. Instantly liked them more than my D2000.

So while I don't know how the Paradox compares, I can only offer you how the HE-500 fits in with the other top range material. Hope this helps

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+1 for saying the he500 is one of those phones which is good at almost sort of music u like

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preproman said:

There's some good discussions going on here.  
 
Lusi said it in a previous post.  What kind of sound signature are you looking for?  I picked the 500s.  Only because to me they are more enjoyable to listen to.  However, If I want to analyze the music or do some comparisons on different amps I would pick the Paradox.  The reason is they don't put any emphasis on anything.  I can really tell how much bass or treble a amp is putting out.  
 
The Paradox defiantly has a permeate place in my stable.
 
I did a compression with the 5LEs and the 500s - I picked the 5LEs because I found it to have a better tonal balance and a tad bit warmer up top which I happen to like.  I guess that's why I also like the LCDs, 650s, and other "warm" sounding headphones.  
 
Needless to say my top headphone at the moment is the HE-6.  Some may say these are bright headphones.  Not to me on my speaker amp.  They come off with a almost perfect tonal balance with being a tab bit tilted towards the bass.  But not like LCD bass.  The HE-6 don't extend down as far but they hit harder and is tighter and more accurate IMO.  I heard a older pair of HE-6s. That was a different headphone than the current one I have. (in the bass region).
 
Bottom line:
 
What sound sig do you like..

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Was about to answer, before the thread went out of control lol, I love neutral with a small treble emphasis, existent bass, just there, not overwhelming nor overdone, overall 2-3db under neutral, smooth mids with a little bump at 5k for fun. I mainly listen to classical jazz, acoustic, and a little dubstep (ridiculous right?)

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headphonatic said:

Was about to answer, before the thread went out of control lol, I love neutral with a small treble emphasis, existent bass, just there, not overwhelming nor overdone, overall 2-3db under neutral, smooth mids with a little bump at 5k for fun. I mainly listen to classical jazz, acoustic, and a little dubstep (ridiculous right?)

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Take a look at the Mad Dog.  Sounds like what might be looking for.  
 
Check out post #126
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/633956/the-t50rp-paradox-review-mini-tour-impressions/126

I have the Sony z1000 which some people like, others not so much. I like it myself but even some people who like it as well seem to hear the headphone differently than I do. So again proof that people hear things differently?

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reddragon said:

I have the Sony z1000 which some people like, others not so much. I like it myself but even some people who like it as well seem to hear the headphone differently than I do. So again proof that people hear things differently?

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It is for sure people hear differently across the frequency spectrum + they prefer different sound signatures related to their favourite genres + ...
 
If you like them, it's all you need to be happy

Quote:

headphonatic said:

Was about to answer, before the thread went out of control lol, I love neutral with a small treble emphasis, existent bass, just there, not overwhelming nor overdone, overall 2-3db under neutral, smooth mids with a little bump at 5k for fun. I mainly listen to classical jazz, acoustic, and a little dubstep (ridiculous right?)

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HE-500 written all over it. The bass on HE-500 fits naturally with the music so no need to worry about that.

Also as I said before, you can change between pleather and velour pads for different treble response.

mhoe said:

It is for sure people hear differently across the frequency spectrum + they prefer different sound signatures related to their favourite genres + ...

If you like them, it's all you need to be happy

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Yep exactly my point

zoom25 said:

Also as I said before, you can change between pleather and velour pads for different treble response.

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There is another difference between using the pleather and velours..with pleather the sound gets more headphonisque and the bass is a bit deeper then with the velours who gives more air and wider soundstage and higher treble note..

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hifimanrookie said:

There is another difference between using the pleather and velours..with pleather the sound gets more headphonisque and the bass is a bit deeper then with the velours who gives more air and wider soundstage and higher treble note..

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headphonsique - okay I have no clue what that means lol - do you mean more closed?
 
Velour does have wider soundstage, more and higher treble range. Agree with that completely/ Although the bass is relatively the same on both. It might seem different due to the treble at first but both bass extension and impact remain unchanged. Although before I used to think that the velour had better bass extension, which is opposite to what you said. However, after months of changing around with them and listening to bunch of electronica, I would say they are the same.

zoom25 said:

headphonsique - okay I have no clue what that means lol - do you mean more closed?

Velour does have wider soundstage, more and higher treble range. Agree with that completely/ Although the bass is relatively the same on both. It might seem different due to the treble at first but both bass extension and impact remain unchanged. Although before I used to think that the velour had better bass extension, which is opposite to what you said. However, after months of changing around with them and listening to bunch of electronica, I would say they are the same.

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Yep with headphonisque i mean more closed..

Quote:

pianist said:

 
Well, nothing is perfect and although in some ways the bright cans like DT990 are flawed, they are also great in other aspects. For example, while the highs are somewhat excessive on DT990s, the mids are actually nice and flat and sound very natural on their own, and the quality of the sound is excellent from lows to highs with no troubling resonances or excessive impedance swings. So "if cooked and served properly" so to speak, these can be very, very nice IMO, and quite natural sounding too.
 
I agree that T50RP has some bad stuff going on with the sound too - there are lots of audible resonances in the bass and mids - but at the the same time, at least my ears could still detect the surprising clarity and timbre coming through which leads to believe that the driver in these has potential.

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I admire that you can appreciate one aspect of a phone's performance despite another being flawed. I'm afraid I can't separate the FR into sections like that; if one area is wrong to me the whole thing is wrong. I could never review a phone in terms of Bass, Mid, Treble etc; to me they're all interrelated and all affect each other, so that if there's say a huge bump in the treble it's going to mar one's perception of the mids. I could never say, 'The treble's over the top but the bass and mids are fine'. I guess I'm just different that way.
 
There's no doubt the T50RP has potential or there'd be no Paradox and Mad Dog. I'm afraid my pair just didn't show enough of it.