[autoteleology]

The Mixamp is only even rated to go down to 35Hz, and that's the new and improved version. It was probably just the Mixamp being pushed past its limit.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Guarantee you that it is. Oddly, it mostly happens with movies. You also may wanna leave the PS3's volume control at normal or less. Adding volume on the PS3's movie menus tends to make the bass even worse.

 

[autoteleology]

I think that the fact that the bass will only go down to a maximum of 35Hz, and that there isn't more complaining about the resulting distortion when you go past that, says a lot about Astros, gaming headsets, and maybe even video game audio in general.

 

[Vader2k]

Phew, glad to hear the Mixamp is my weak link.  Will backing off the volume output from the mixamp help to curb that in the future?  Also, if the mixamp is the cause, then using the Annies hooked up to my receiver should sound fine then, right?
 
Never heard of Sinegen, looks interesting.  I'll have to check it out. EDIT: nope, no DAC.  Wondered about that.  Oh well, I believe you. 

 
Do you think it could also be that Inception is DTS?  I had the PS3 set to bitstream mix over optical, so perhaps in converting the DTS, the low end got muddled?
 
Thanks for allaying my fears, though, and for the peace of mind! 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Nah, just that some movie's really exaggerate the frequencies of bass that the Mixamp can't hit (as stated, it drops off after 35hz). It's not often it happens, and I don't think there is much you can do to lessen it. I wouldn't worry about it. It's a rare occurence, from what I've experienced.

 

[Vader2k]

Quote:

Guarantee you that it is. Oddly, it mostly happens with movies. You also may wanna leave the PS3's volume control at normal or less. Adding volume on the PS3's movie menus tends to make the bass even worse.

 
PS3 has volume control during playback?  Huh, didn't know that.  If I've never touched it, it's likely at normal, but it can't hurt to check to be sure.

 

[Vader2k]

Quote:

Nah, just that some movie's really exaggerate the frequencies of bass that the Mixamp can't hit (as stated, it drops off after 35hz). It's not often it happens, and I don't think there is much you can do to lessen it. I wouldn't worry about it. It's a rare occurence, from what I've experienced.

 
Yeah, saw the 35Hz cut-off after I posted.  Makes sense then why it occurred.  
 
Quote:

I think that the fact that the bass will only go down to a maximum of 35Hz, and that there isn't more complaining about the resulting distortion when you go past that, says a lot about Astros, gaming headsets, and maybe even video game audio in general.

 
Yeah, good points.  I'd guess game audio in general probably doesn't usually attempt to go that low, otherwise there'd likely be lots more complaining.  Still, kinda bummed Astro didn't design the mixamp to go to 20Hz, just to give it the capability.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I may have missed your post. What receiver do you have, and does it do Dolby Headphone? If it does, I'd probably just use that for when watching movies.

 

[Vader2k]

Quote:

I may have missed your post. What receiver do you have, and does it do Dolby Headphone? If it does, I'd probably just use that for when watching movies.

 
I actually forgot to mention the receiver model earlier.  It's a Pioneer VSX-D811S.  Got it back in '02, so it's seen a few years!  Unfortunately, though, no DH, just stereo.  The receiver has some different sound processing modes, but I believe it disables them all once headphones get plugged in.  

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

n°154 at Home .
 
Well this is a K702 for Sure ... Or at least it remember me a lot my past K702 . 
 
First K702 (18xxx) didn't use angled pads , the second K702 used  clearly angled pads (33XXX) . And this ANV use another kind of pads as notified before (aka memory foam) .

 
I think memory foam is a great idea for headphone pads.
 
When the pads wear out on my standard K702s maybe I will try and get the ones for the Anniversary.
 
Getting the seal right between the pads and the head is very important on headphones and this may explain some of the sonic differences reported for the Anniversary headphones.

 

[HaVoC-28]

Hum i peraphs found a finition problem on my ANV or i am exagerating . The right capsule grille protection (the things with the K702 stiker ) seams not very well fixed (the left one don't move at all , but the right one i don't know how to say that , but move slightly when i touch it or do brutal head banging  the left one nothing) . Didn't remember that on my gone K702 . 
 
it don't alterate the sound at all , but i am not verry happy to have a "anniversary edition " highest attention to detail " , that seams to have a little lack of finition .(or i am just looking for a reason to send it back

) .

 

[keenween]

Quote:

Everything I listened to pre-Inception sounded great, post-Inception I did a bit of gaming, and set off some nearby explosions and fired guns and again it sounded fine.  I did back the Mixamp off a bit more to about 90% after the Inception distortion, but not really sure if that's the cause.
 
So, any ideas what's going on?  I'm wondering if I should hook the Annies right into my receiver (no DH, only stereo) and see if the distortion still occurs.  Any other thoughts?
 
Hoping I haven't killed my new phones...

 
Aside from the astromix issue, movie audio may contain strong sub bass and dynamic content. Some DVD players or processors contain dynamic range control which may help to limit issues like this. FWIW, there is a small snippet in Thor that gives my Denon D2000s a fit. Headphones are little full range drivers, and while they may play low, I do not think the designs are able to fully reproduce all the modern action movie effects.

 

[Salvatore]

Quote:

Hum i peraphs found a finition problem on my ANV or i am exagerating . The right capsule grille protection (the things with the K702 stiker ) seams not very well fixed (the left one don't move at all , but the right one i don't know how to say that , but move slightly when i touch it or do brutal head banging  the left one nothing) . Didn't remember that on my gone K702 . 
 
it don't alterate the sound at all , but i am not verry happy to have a "anniversary edition " highest attention to detail " , that seams to have a little lack of finition .(or i am just looking for a reason to send it back

) .

 
One forum member contacted me a while ago and asked if I had noticed any rattling sound coming off the grill. I personally haven't noticed anything like this but would suggest you to get your annies replaced if they are not in mint condition. Especially considering the relatively high price you paid for them.

 

[HaVoC-28]

Quote:

 
One forum member contacted me a while ago and asked if I had noticed any rattling sound coming off the grill. I personally haven't noticed anything like this but would suggest you to get your annies replaced if they are not in mint condition. Especially considering the relatively high price you paid for them.

Ok Thanks it's what i wanted to know 

^^ 

 

[Vader2k]

Quote:

 
Aside from the astromix issue, movie audio may contain strong sub bass and dynamic content. Some DVD players or processors contain dynamic range control which may help to limit issues like this. FWIW, there is a small snippet in Thor that gives my Denon D2000s a fit. Headphones are little full range drivers, and while they may play low, I do not think the designs are able to fully reproduce all the modern action movie effects.

 
Cool, thanks for the feedback.  I'm usually not fond of DRC, but I can see the usefulness. 
 
So, now that I have my bass distortion issue figured out, I'd like to share my thoughts on the Annies.
 
Comfort: Excellent.  Extremely lightweight, minimal pressure, melts into your head after a few minutes.  Earlier someone mentioned discomfort on their jawbone.  I noticed mild pressure there at first, and then a few minutes later I was like "Hey, wasn't I feeling pressure there?  Oh, guess it's gone!".  These are very unobtrusive, which is so welcoming.  Years ago I owned the Sennheiser HD-280 Pros and did not care for the clamp at all.  The Turtle Beach HPX-1s I used before the Annies had a similar self-adjusting headband and they were quite comfortable by comparison to the Senn's, but after a few hours, my head would start to get a bit sore from prolonged use.  I had the Annies on for almost 4 hours last night, and my head felt as fine at the end as it did when I started.
 
Sound: I decided to start my listening with the lowest quality I had and work my way up.

1. Laptop Headphone Out --> Annies
   No DAC at the moment (after last night, now I want one!).  Still, wanted to see how the Annies fared.  I loaded up Groovershark and played some tracks.  By the time the second track started, I already had three words to pick out what I was hearing: Detail, Separation and Harmony.  I was hearing tiny aspects in the songs that I hadn't heard before (and also encoding flaws in the lower quality tracks).  And I could pick things out easily from other sounds, but it didn't feel like all the elements were compartmentalized and left adrift.  Instead they were all there and easily identifiable while at the same working together with one another and blending back together into a cohesive whole.  I was very impressed.  The only downside was I could tell at times that there was a bit of fullness missing.  Increasing the volume sometimes helped, but I knew it could do better.
2. iPod on Dock --> Magni --> Annies
   Lots better.  That fullness I was looking for was more present.  My guess is a true DAC will continue to improve.  I listened to some tracks that I was hearing on Grooveshark for comparison and could tell the quality was better.  Then I was thinking about the mids.  One thing I kept reading about while researching headphones was that phones with good mids worked really nice for female vocals.  Most of my music is movie soundtracks/scores and video game music.  I was trying to think of some female vocal songs and the first thing that came to mind was the songs at the end of the Lord of the Rings movies.  So, I gave Annie Lennox's "Into The West" and Enya's "May It Be" a listen.  I don't really have a frame of reference for what "good" female vocals should sound like, and perhaps these two songs aren't considered good benchmarks, but I was very impressed with what I heard.  Especially on "Into The West".  So much clarity from Lennox's voice, like she was sitting right there.  And there were those details again.  It sounds weird to say it, but I could hear her mouth moving while singing the lyrics.  Kinda trippy.  Enya's "May It Be" was cool too because whereas "Into The West" felt closer and personal, "May It Be" gave off a sense of greater space that she was singing in.  Also gave a few Dark Knight Rises songs a listen.  Detail, Separation and Harmony back at work again.  Could've listened to the whole album!
3. PS3 (via Receiver) --> Mixamp --> Magni --> Annies
   It was time to move onto movies.  As long as I've been into home theater and surround setups, I've always used the speeder bike chase from Return of the Jedi to test my positional speaker setup.  So, RotJ: SE on DVD was my first test movie.  Really, really fun.  Can't go wrong with speeder bikes zooming around your head!  When I first started moving into headphones and away from my surround system (due to apartment living and not wanting to wake my kids), I didn't want to give up the surround effect from my speakers (which is why I bought the mixamp).  I can happily say that the Annies do a tremendous job of replicating the immersion I feel from surround speakers.  I kept forgetting a few times that I was listening to headphones and not the speakers, because I kept instinctively checking the receiver volume to make sure I wasn't going to wake the kids and then remembered "Wait, these are my headphones!"  After RotJ, I moved onto Inception.  Despite the bass distortion from the mixamps 35Hz cut-off, this sounded really great too.  One concern I had when I was considering the DT 990 Pros was how the slightly recessed mids would respond to dialogue in movies.  Knowing that the Annies mids were more forward made me feel better about getting them, and both in RotJ and definitely in Inception (obviously because it's newer with a better mix), I felt the dialogue to be nice and upfront and at the proper distance from where the characters were in relation to the screen/scene.
4. Xbox 360 (via Receiver) --> Mixamp --> Magni --> Annies
   It was getting late, but I wanted to get some gaming in.  I fired up Red Dead Redemption multiplayer and gave it a go.  Being a bit worried about the base distortion, I set off some dynamite and fired multiple rounds from different guns in the air to see how it fared.  Wonderful.  No problems at all.  The dynamite and big guns like the shotgun had a very full-bodied punch to them.  And then I heard thunder rumble in the distance and it was exquisite.  One of the things that really drew me into the game the first time I played it, thanks partly to the visuals, was the immersive atmosphere at work.  I was riding my horse along the road amongst fields of cacti and then a thunderstorm showed up and sounded so real... I just stopped and listened and watched the water puddle up and experienced the moment.  I, unfortunately didn't get to listen to a full thunderstorm off the Annies last night, but if the game could do that to me back when I first got it, I can't wait to hear it now.  I did jump into a few matches last night, though, and it was very satisfying to be able to pick out sounds around me.  Directionality was definitely improved over the HPX-1s.

 
Overall: In short, I couldn't be happier with the Annies.  To Mad especially, for both your Headphone Gaming Guide and your early reactions to the Annies, and to everyone else here who has given their thoughts and feedback, a sincere thank you.  My time spent researching my upgrade has definitely paid off.  Granted, I spent more than I intended to (and had to pass on Ecto-1A to make these happen 

), but I'm very satisfied with my purchase.  I can't wait to use the Annies again!
 
tl;dr I LOVE the Annies and would buy them again!