Digital7
Aka: zardak
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
- Posts
- 99
- Likes
- 30
Hi people!
I'll start-out by saying I'm very disgruntled about the false hype surrounding these headphones, and the hype seems to have gained unjust traction, so i need to do what i can to debunk the misnomers.
This headphone has been, and is being touted nearly everywhere as supremely accurate, and i'm saying it's not true, and although having an initially endearing sound on first listen, they do not deserve the praise that has been heaped on them. Now why am i disgruntled? Because i'm sick to death of all the false reviews out on the net about these headphones.
What i'm seeing here with these dodgy reviews is that even so-called reputable reviewers will say anything just to keep the headphone for free.
They are misleading the public and creating hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-flow for Yamaha basically by talking out of their ass and deliberately misleading unsuspecting sincere people who are searching for a decent accurate headphone.
Here's Yamaha's own spiel about these headphones with my retort in brackets... "We've applied advanced technology and meticulous adjustment (meaning?) in order to deliver the clearest and most accurate sound (rhetoric designed to persuade the unsuspecting), all to complete the final and most important link in the recording chain - the sound that reaches your ears (vain assertion to cause emotive response from prospective buyers)
I am so incensed by the bullsh_t surrounding these headphones that i need to expose it so that no one else wastes their money like i did. I'm on a medium to low income, so i ain't got money to waste on companies and reviewers pushing their own agenda. A lot of us headfiers and audiophiles are not wealthy, we just take our audio listening more seriously than most, but that is no reason for these companies to talk bullsh_t and to make exaggerated claims and untrue statements about headphones.
Here's what Yamaha says on the box this headphone comes in... "When only the best will do. Yamaha's finest studio monitoring headphone with unparalleled performance. Yamaha MT series deliver faithful ultra-precise accuracy for today's high bitrate production enviroments."
So i'm here to debunk the mythical traction that the Yamaha HTH MT220 has gained, in the same way the Audio Technica ATH M50 managed to find itself miraculously in the limelight for many years and millions of dollars of sales later, apparently continues to do so.
Here is my own appraisal of the Yamaha MT220. It should give you some initial insight about the true character and performance of these headphones just to give you an initial heads-up...
1: Very dark sounding headphones, like you're listening inside a tomb or dungeon.
2: Mediocre soundstage bordering on non-existent, everything hangs around the center spectrum and not much else happening wide-out other than instruments in the mix that have been hard-panned left and right by the song mixing engineer.
3: Bass is reasonably articulate but ultimately boomy and swollen leaking into the lower mids and creating congestion that veils the sound
4: The treble range from 5khz upward has no air or soundstage at all, and is severely lacking the 'natural' snap associated with treble frequencies in this frequency-range
5: Any brightness that does exist sounds metallic, approaching shrill and harsh, but i can say there is no sibilance.
6 Upper midrange is slightly recessed and lacking transparency, which is not helped by the lack of air in the soundstage at the lower treble frequencies
7: Sound details are not as apparent as is touted, an no wonder when one looks at the frequency response charts for this headphone.
8: It is overly warm to the point of annoying, and that is with a neutral amp known for showing clarity and air
And yet at the Yamaha Pro-audio website they dare to claim the following... "They provide faithful, accurate reproduction of high-bitrate, all-digital sound, and with less noise. Specifically, the speaker drivers utilize a copper-clad aluminum wire voice coil. This combination of aluminum wiring coated with copper - features exceptionally good conductivity and light weight, reproducing high-resolution sound with maximum clarity over the full frequency range."
My response... That my friends is untrue! They say "maximum clarity over the full frequency range." It is so easy for them to spout these impressive words, however, based on my own steadfast listening tests with a neutral amp and music i am thoroughly familiar with, these claims are spurious and false.
To sum-up, this headphone displays an overall shrouded and slightly veiled tone with some quirky character flaws which deprive the listener of full listening pleasure regarding the actual tone of the source material, and also precludes the music from shining in all its glory. The sound of the Yamaha MT220 might impress an amateur on first listening (much like the Audio Technica ATH M50), but ultimately will disappoint any pro or audiophile that knows what they're listening for.
There was a comment here a while back in the forums from "HiFiRobot" that let us know in his post..."In the latest edition of the Swedish magazine Hifi & Musik, the Yamaha HPH-MT220 got 10/10 for it's sound, and were considered better than Sony MDR-1R, KEF M500, Onkyo ES-HF300, Martin Logan Mikros 90, JVC HA-SZ2000 and Philips Fidelio L2."
10/10 they say... LOL, they have to be kidding me.
Another Web review from "Audioappraisal" website says... "The Yamaha HPH-MT220 headphones are designed primarily for studio use – where a flat frequency response, maximum detail, low noise and low colouration are a must. Conveniently, these are the key principals behind Yamaha’s ‘Natural Sound’ approach to hi-fi design – each component designed to have as little impact on the music as possible."
He goes on to say... "These phones are indeed flat – something that is apparent from the get-go.
I say bullsh_t!
He goes on to say... "if you like to hear every detail in your music, these phones have it in spades. You can add to that a fantastic sound stage"
More bullsh_t!
He goes on to say... "Bring them into a studio environment, and the HPH MT220s deliver. They’re unbelievably transparent"
Total bullsh_t!
He goes on to say... "For studio use, the HPH-MT220s simply can’t be beat. They let you hear right into the heart of a recording; their accurate in the extreme."
And even more bullsh_t!
I can tell you people, these reviewers are taking too much amphetamines, because what they're saying is simply not true.
In fact, what i realized, was that the MT220 does sound similar to the Audio Technica ATH M50 (Have you noticed how the Yamaha has "HPH "in it's title? Similar to the ATH in the Audio Technica headphone title, especially when you pronounce it), and then i realized that the Yamaha company is probably trying to follow the M50 paradigm and jump on the bandwagon to get some easy cash.
Obviously Yamaha knows how popular the M50's are, but most of us know that the Audio Technica headphone is not what people think as far as true accurate and balanced audiophile sound. When i owned the Audio Technica ATH-M50 the sound-signature had become tiring to me very quickly, and the M50 was shrouding some details of the audio-spectrum, leaving me bereft of listening pleasure with it's skewed sonic portrayal, eventually leaving me high-&-dry, and that's what the Yamaha MT220 does. It is actually quite 'unbalanced' throughout the audio spectrum and quite colored with it's overly warm tone and small hump in the lower upper-bass/lower- mids, not to mention slightly boomy in the bass, and lacking air in the top-end.
I thought to myself that Yamaha probably imagined they could just follow the popular sonic formula of the MTH M50 and just improve on it a little bit while striking a similar overall sonic signature, and there could be big money to be made. Obviously the head design engineer at Yamaha for the MT220 wanted to make a name for himself with the CEO of Yamaha, so he just copied the ever so popular MTH M50 formula with some slight improvements and thought he couldn't go wrong, even though he knew very-well that the sound is not flat or accurate.
Here's someone's comments in the What HiFi forums about the MT220, which happen to align with what i have said... "The MT220 treble has very slightly less output overall than the mids, and it did affect the impression of soundstage."
zazex, from the headfi.org forums, said this... "They somehow seem like a slightly more refined version
of the ATH M50. They don't have that special 'thing' that makes you want to grab them and keep listening. These are not for me, anyway. I've returned the set I bought and that's not something I do very often."
H20Fidelity here from the headfi.org forums said this... "I find them a little warm in the mids compared to my regular IEM like the ER4S or full size MDR-V6, and personally a little bit mid-bass happy to my ears"
So, truly people, i just want to make it clear that the praise about this headphone is not commensurate with the actual sonic attributes of this headphone, and therefore maybe Yamaha need to go back to the drawing board and give us version II.
The fact is that i've spent many hundreds of dollars on headfi gear, and still haven't found a neutral setup. I simply want a clean neutral DAP capable of driving good quality headphones, and one pro-quality headphone with a flat and neutral sound signature with no obvious quirks.
I have access to nearly every well-known and high-end and esoteric headphone on the planet, that's not a problem (we have some of the best headphone stores in the world here where i live, believe me) but i just need some good advice on where to find a neutral headphone, and no the Sennheiser HD600 is not it!. Which headphone is neutral and 'ACCURATE' right across the audio spectrum and wont cost me an arm and leg, and don't say Ultrasone or Skullcandy or Beats by Dre, they're terrible!!
I'll start-out by saying I'm very disgruntled about the false hype surrounding these headphones, and the hype seems to have gained unjust traction, so i need to do what i can to debunk the misnomers.
This headphone has been, and is being touted nearly everywhere as supremely accurate, and i'm saying it's not true, and although having an initially endearing sound on first listen, they do not deserve the praise that has been heaped on them. Now why am i disgruntled? Because i'm sick to death of all the false reviews out on the net about these headphones.
What i'm seeing here with these dodgy reviews is that even so-called reputable reviewers will say anything just to keep the headphone for free.
They are misleading the public and creating hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-flow for Yamaha basically by talking out of their ass and deliberately misleading unsuspecting sincere people who are searching for a decent accurate headphone.
Here's Yamaha's own spiel about these headphones with my retort in brackets... "We've applied advanced technology and meticulous adjustment (meaning?) in order to deliver the clearest and most accurate sound (rhetoric designed to persuade the unsuspecting), all to complete the final and most important link in the recording chain - the sound that reaches your ears (vain assertion to cause emotive response from prospective buyers)
I am so incensed by the bullsh_t surrounding these headphones that i need to expose it so that no one else wastes their money like i did. I'm on a medium to low income, so i ain't got money to waste on companies and reviewers pushing their own agenda. A lot of us headfiers and audiophiles are not wealthy, we just take our audio listening more seriously than most, but that is no reason for these companies to talk bullsh_t and to make exaggerated claims and untrue statements about headphones.
Here's what Yamaha says on the box this headphone comes in... "When only the best will do. Yamaha's finest studio monitoring headphone with unparalleled performance. Yamaha MT series deliver faithful ultra-precise accuracy for today's high bitrate production enviroments."
So i'm here to debunk the mythical traction that the Yamaha HTH MT220 has gained, in the same way the Audio Technica ATH M50 managed to find itself miraculously in the limelight for many years and millions of dollars of sales later, apparently continues to do so.
Here is my own appraisal of the Yamaha MT220. It should give you some initial insight about the true character and performance of these headphones just to give you an initial heads-up...
1: Very dark sounding headphones, like you're listening inside a tomb or dungeon.
2: Mediocre soundstage bordering on non-existent, everything hangs around the center spectrum and not much else happening wide-out other than instruments in the mix that have been hard-panned left and right by the song mixing engineer.
3: Bass is reasonably articulate but ultimately boomy and swollen leaking into the lower mids and creating congestion that veils the sound
4: The treble range from 5khz upward has no air or soundstage at all, and is severely lacking the 'natural' snap associated with treble frequencies in this frequency-range
5: Any brightness that does exist sounds metallic, approaching shrill and harsh, but i can say there is no sibilance.
6 Upper midrange is slightly recessed and lacking transparency, which is not helped by the lack of air in the soundstage at the lower treble frequencies
7: Sound details are not as apparent as is touted, an no wonder when one looks at the frequency response charts for this headphone.
8: It is overly warm to the point of annoying, and that is with a neutral amp known for showing clarity and air
And yet at the Yamaha Pro-audio website they dare to claim the following... "They provide faithful, accurate reproduction of high-bitrate, all-digital sound, and with less noise. Specifically, the speaker drivers utilize a copper-clad aluminum wire voice coil. This combination of aluminum wiring coated with copper - features exceptionally good conductivity and light weight, reproducing high-resolution sound with maximum clarity over the full frequency range."
My response... That my friends is untrue! They say "maximum clarity over the full frequency range." It is so easy for them to spout these impressive words, however, based on my own steadfast listening tests with a neutral amp and music i am thoroughly familiar with, these claims are spurious and false.
To sum-up, this headphone displays an overall shrouded and slightly veiled tone with some quirky character flaws which deprive the listener of full listening pleasure regarding the actual tone of the source material, and also precludes the music from shining in all its glory. The sound of the Yamaha MT220 might impress an amateur on first listening (much like the Audio Technica ATH M50), but ultimately will disappoint any pro or audiophile that knows what they're listening for.
There was a comment here a while back in the forums from "HiFiRobot" that let us know in his post..."In the latest edition of the Swedish magazine Hifi & Musik, the Yamaha HPH-MT220 got 10/10 for it's sound, and were considered better than Sony MDR-1R, KEF M500, Onkyo ES-HF300, Martin Logan Mikros 90, JVC HA-SZ2000 and Philips Fidelio L2."
10/10 they say... LOL, they have to be kidding me.
Another Web review from "Audioappraisal" website says... "The Yamaha HPH-MT220 headphones are designed primarily for studio use – where a flat frequency response, maximum detail, low noise and low colouration are a must. Conveniently, these are the key principals behind Yamaha’s ‘Natural Sound’ approach to hi-fi design – each component designed to have as little impact on the music as possible."
He goes on to say... "These phones are indeed flat – something that is apparent from the get-go.
I say bullsh_t!
He goes on to say... "if you like to hear every detail in your music, these phones have it in spades. You can add to that a fantastic sound stage"
More bullsh_t!
He goes on to say... "Bring them into a studio environment, and the HPH MT220s deliver. They’re unbelievably transparent"
Total bullsh_t!
He goes on to say... "For studio use, the HPH-MT220s simply can’t be beat. They let you hear right into the heart of a recording; their accurate in the extreme."
And even more bullsh_t!
I can tell you people, these reviewers are taking too much amphetamines, because what they're saying is simply not true.
In fact, what i realized, was that the MT220 does sound similar to the Audio Technica ATH M50 (Have you noticed how the Yamaha has "HPH "in it's title? Similar to the ATH in the Audio Technica headphone title, especially when you pronounce it), and then i realized that the Yamaha company is probably trying to follow the M50 paradigm and jump on the bandwagon to get some easy cash.
Obviously Yamaha knows how popular the M50's are, but most of us know that the Audio Technica headphone is not what people think as far as true accurate and balanced audiophile sound. When i owned the Audio Technica ATH-M50 the sound-signature had become tiring to me very quickly, and the M50 was shrouding some details of the audio-spectrum, leaving me bereft of listening pleasure with it's skewed sonic portrayal, eventually leaving me high-&-dry, and that's what the Yamaha MT220 does. It is actually quite 'unbalanced' throughout the audio spectrum and quite colored with it's overly warm tone and small hump in the lower upper-bass/lower- mids, not to mention slightly boomy in the bass, and lacking air in the top-end.
I thought to myself that Yamaha probably imagined they could just follow the popular sonic formula of the MTH M50 and just improve on it a little bit while striking a similar overall sonic signature, and there could be big money to be made. Obviously the head design engineer at Yamaha for the MT220 wanted to make a name for himself with the CEO of Yamaha, so he just copied the ever so popular MTH M50 formula with some slight improvements and thought he couldn't go wrong, even though he knew very-well that the sound is not flat or accurate.
Here's someone's comments in the What HiFi forums about the MT220, which happen to align with what i have said... "The MT220 treble has very slightly less output overall than the mids, and it did affect the impression of soundstage."
zazex, from the headfi.org forums, said this... "They somehow seem like a slightly more refined version
of the ATH M50. They don't have that special 'thing' that makes you want to grab them and keep listening. These are not for me, anyway. I've returned the set I bought and that's not something I do very often."
H20Fidelity here from the headfi.org forums said this... "I find them a little warm in the mids compared to my regular IEM like the ER4S or full size MDR-V6, and personally a little bit mid-bass happy to my ears"
So, truly people, i just want to make it clear that the praise about this headphone is not commensurate with the actual sonic attributes of this headphone, and therefore maybe Yamaha need to go back to the drawing board and give us version II.
The fact is that i've spent many hundreds of dollars on headfi gear, and still haven't found a neutral setup. I simply want a clean neutral DAP capable of driving good quality headphones, and one pro-quality headphone with a flat and neutral sound signature with no obvious quirks.
I have access to nearly every well-known and high-end and esoteric headphone on the planet, that's not a problem (we have some of the best headphone stores in the world here where i live, believe me) but i just need some good advice on where to find a neutral headphone, and no the Sennheiser HD600 is not it!. Which headphone is neutral and 'ACCURATE' right across the audio spectrum and wont cost me an arm and leg, and don't say Ultrasone or Skullcandy or Beats by Dre, they're terrible!!
