[MuppetFace]

Quote:

I've been looking into getting some of these for a month or so now, mostly for Drum & Bass / Dubstep / RnB but also, well most music types but i'm guessing reading from the posts in here that they arn't too good for what I want them for?
 
I've never really owned any decent headphones before, mostly in-ear ones - ipod earphones (lol), some Sennheiser inears that I don't know the model number off - although I do have somewhere a pair of AKG earphones from the early 80's that resembles the AKG K 142 HD.
 
would I be better looking elsewhere?

Drum and bass with the K550 gives me a headache just thinking about it. I'd suggest looking at some of the offerings by Beyerdynamic, Denon, or Ultrasone for those genres.

 

[OriginUnknown]

Quote:

Drum and bass with the K550 gives me a headache just thinking about it. I'd suggest looking at some of the offerings by Beyerdynamic, Denon, or Ultrasone for those genres.

 
 
could you explain the headache comment a bit more please?
 

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

 
could you explain the headache comment a bit more please?
 

Underwhelming lower end, tinny and thin sounding middle, and glaring highs would make for a very unpleasant listening experience when paired with the sharp, angular patterns of drum and bass. The K550 is a very, very poor choice for the genre in my humble opinion. It's really best suited for acoustic and smaller-scale instrumental music.
 

 

[DVDRey]

 
Quote:

Underwhelming lower end, tinny and thin sounding middle, and glaring highs would make for a very unpleasant listening experience when paired with the sharp, angular patterns of drum and bass.

 
 
it was exactly what I thought at the first listening.
 
Still in burn-in process, but I'm not sure I'll find a good type of music to highlight the K550. For the moment its liveless.
 
The best AKG build, but the sound doesn't seem to follow the construction.

 

[MuppetFace]

I didn't think the K550 was that bad given its price. But then I tried the Shure SRH940 which retails for roughly the same amount. The SRH940 absolutely crushes the K550 in just about every area one could think of, save for the design and build.

 

[DVDRey]

 
Quote:

I didn't think the K550 was that bad given its price. But then I tried the Shure SRH940 which retails for roughly the same amount. The SRH940 absolutely crushes the K550 in just about every area one could think of, save for the design and build.

 
For the moment yes, i ll see with 100-200h of burn-in and a dozen amp,lol, but its currently not very reassuring.
 
I feel that the huge K550 soudstage completely drowns all frequencies in a sort of shapeless paste,lol.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

I didn't think the K550 was that bad given its price. But then I tried the Shure SRH940 which retails for roughly the same amount. The SRH940 absolutely crushes the K550 in just about every area one could think of, save for the design and build.

I agree it's not that bad of a headphone, but doesn't sound like a $300 headphone. Depends on requirements and what music someone prefers. The one thing the K550 does better is that it has a larger soundstage and it felt like it had better bass, but I didn't compare the two. I'd probably prefer the comfort of the K550 over the SRH-940.
 
If it wasn't for the KRK KNS-8400, I'd probably be raving about the SRH-940 like everyone else. It sounds better than the 940 and K550 and half as cheap.
 
Seems that all these companies are now selling $300 headphones with sound quality comparable to something that should be $150 worth of sound quality.
 
 
 

 

[DigitalFreak]

So could these cans do straight up hard rock and metal OK or are they really that bad?

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

Seems that all these companies are now selling $300 headphones with sound quality comparable to something that should be $150 worth of sound quality.
 
 
 

 
Or maybe KRK is selling $300 worth of sound quality at $150?
 
I tend to just compare different products with price in mind, and from my experience, the SRH940 sounds better than a lot of $300 headphones on the market. If the KRK sounds even better for even less, that's definitely great. From my own experience however, it would be more of an exception, and so I wouldn't feel comfortable deriving any general conclusions from that.

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

So could these cans do straight up hard rock and metal OK or are they really that bad?

The thin midrange and glare up top that makes it a bit too shrill and unpleasant imho. Lighter or more mellow rock is alright. Really anything that has limited distortion and weight, ie. acoustic music.
 
Just my personal opinion obviously.

 

[MuppetFace]

Just took a look at the KRK KNS 8400 frequency response.... yikes.
 
I suppose I'll have to give them a listen though. Graphs are only part of the picture.

 

[CantScareMe]

Wait, I've heard the shure 940's
 
Theyre not better than the akg k271. close, but not better.
 
And excruciatingly uncomfortable. Very tight clamp, nasty pads, stupid dumb 'tall' bumps on headband.
 
 
I've ordered the k550 btw, and well, we'll see whats what!!!

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Just took a look at the KRK KNS 8400 frequency response.... yikes.
 
I suppose I'll have to give them a listen though. Graphs are only part of the picture.

If you're referring to the Headroom graphs, just ignore them. I won't say they're wrong, but they make them out to be some sort of bass monster, which they're not.
In fact, they're close to being bass light. Overall they're very well balanced and more so to me than the SRH-940 and K550.
 
Here's some better graphs:
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/KRKKNS8400.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/KRKKNS6400.pdf
 
Found here:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/headphone-data-sheet-downloads
 
The 6400 is the one that sounds like it has a slight mid-bass hump and the 8400 doesn't, but has more sub-bass and more treble.
 

 

[CantScareMe]

id never heard about the KRK KNS-8400 untill you'd mentioned it.
 
So it's the best (or along with the KRK KNS-6400) closed headphone you've come across?
 
I don't rate the shure 940 much at all. Far too much of a sibilant and emphasised high end and even more of an anemic low end than the k271. Anyway, it surely isolates more than the shure. Does the KRK KNS-8400
also isolate more than the k550?
 
Would it have the smallest and most congested soundstage of the bunch? Or the biggest and most spacious?

 

[MuppetFace]

 
Quote:

 
I don't rate the shure 940 much at all. Far too much of a sibilant and emphasised high end and even more of an anemic low end than the k271.

 
If you find the highs of the SRH940 sibilant and the lows anemic, just wait until you hear the K550.