Hehe, I've listened to this song hundreds of times to mark the differences in the speed and intensity of a headphone's presentation of the music. This song also spotlights treble harshness because despite being poorly mastered, it does have some dynamic range and at some of the most intense parts towards the end it will absolutely scream treble into your ears. Of the headphones I've heard my favourites are the Hifiman He-500, Fostex TH900 and Sennheiser HD800, as all three have a significantly different presentation and bring something unique to the table.
HE-500- First of all, these sound the best of the three at lowest volumes, retaining the most dynamics of the music and vocal clarity thanks to that famous ortho transparency. They also have the least harshest treble at high volumes and the nice weighty mids help divert attention from the synth and strings which can dominate the presentation of the song to its detriment (the K701 exemplifies this problem) as these are undeniably the worst arranged parts of the music. The HE-500 are easily fast enough to cleanly separate the instruments while having richness to the sound and a wide soundstage. The bass is a little indistinct and tubby yet has a pleasant physicality to it, a touch of EQ from the 30-60hz regions makes it more enjoyable to my ears. Overall, these need the least EQ'ing to sound good and can be listened to the longest.
Fostex TH900- DAT BASS. A fantastically brutal and physical presentation while retaining a sense of scale and grandeur thanks to its great soundstaging. The highs are actually the harshest and most present of the three no doubt due to the v-shaped freq. response and unevenness in the treble relative to the other two. But man, those drums are sure fun. All the precision and clean impact of the HD800 with great rumble and slam added on top. My scalp feels like its been given an intense workout after one listen (hell yes do I EQ up the subbass!). Very energetic presentation with a very clean midrange that feels a little distant sounding on the vocals which is actually not a bad thing because they are not particularly distinct or clear in the song itself, but this does draw attention more to the massed strings. Great for an intense, short listen with liberal use of EQ to tone down the 4-8khz region by 3-4db or so.
HD800- Obviously the huge soundstaging and 3D imaging are the draw here. The scale of the music is all-engulfing and the sense of dynamics feel tremendous. Fast and effortless, the midrange itself feels like well, like it has more range to it. These also require EQ from 4-8kz and a solid 5db boost to the subbass. From 3:20 onwards on loud volumes the treble will be a shrill clatter of compressed sound which is actually painful to listen to (I dread to think how the HD700 would handle this part). The imaging is very precise, which is to say the music has very little imaging information and the HD800 will clearly show you this. Ultimately its a majestic if contemptuous performance, the HD800 is bored by this music and will show it for the artificial and compressed blob of noise that it is, yet the unhurried presentation is strangely addictive. Good for a few listens if you like to sneer at modern mastering techniques.
