Do bassy HP's with neutral mids and highs even exist?
Mar 16, 2013 at 6:49 AM Post #32 of 36
No, that's not possible. If nothing is recessed then it's all neutral. A boost in bass is the same thing as a recession in mids and treble.


This.

Take or add something on one aspect of sound, sometbing else is added/taken away.

The closest thing I've come to a neutral sounding bassy can have been the vegan LCD2 I own which bass the same bass as the leather lcd2 I demoed, but the treble is more in line with the mids, whereas the leather's treble was more rolled off, giving the sound a warmer, less neutral tonality.

Even so, the vegan lcd2 is only bassy when a song demands it. Otherwise, it's well balanced.
 
Mar 16, 2013 at 7:14 AM Post #33 of 36
Quote:
This.

Take or add something on one aspect of sound, sometbing else is added/taken away.

In theory, yes. but on the other hand, when you use bigger sub for your 5.1 system mids/highs aren't actually getting changed, I was thinking about something like 2-way drivers or simply more advanced ones, so that bass would kick in only when it's being called and it wouldn't bleed into mids making them sound unnatural even on very bass-light songs. I mean, surely, bass can make other freqs a little bit more silent and it's very much a natural thing, but when other tones become distorted/unnatural as well, that's the problem with the drivers and not the chosen sound signature. 
Let's say we have 3-way speakers (one driver for mids, other for highs, 3rd - lows), adjusting EQ simply makes one of the drivers louder without changing the tonal response for the other one. When bass is set to sky-high levels and we are playing the song with no bass, it sounds the same as if EQ was off. Unfortunately, with casual HPs it's not the same at all, if we highly EQ bass, it's like mids are starting to get perceived as lows even if there are no bass in the background.
 
Mar 16, 2013 at 12:39 PM Post #34 of 36
Quote:
In theory, yes. but on the other hand, when you use bigger sub for your 5.1 system mids/highs aren't actually getting changed, I was thinking about something like 2-way drivers or simply more advanced ones, so that bass would kick in only when it's being called and it wouldn't bleed into mids making them sound unnatural even on very bass-light songs. I mean, surely, bass can make other freqs a little bit more silent and it's very much a natural thing, but when other tones become distorted/unnatural as well, that's the problem with the drivers and not the chosen sound signature. 
Let's say we have 3-way speakers (one driver for mids, other for highs, 3rd - lows), adjusting EQ simply makes one of the drivers louder without changing the tonal response for the other one. When bass is set to sky-high levels and we are playing the song with no bass, it sounds the same as if EQ was off. Unfortunately, with casual HPs it's not the same at all, if we highly EQ bass, it's like mids are starting to get perceived as lows even if there are no bass in the background.


I think you are comparing apples and oranges here. It is much easier, IMO, to find a "bassy" speaker setup that is relatively neutral, than a headphone. Logically, the drivers can be separated much better, and as you said you can have a subwoofer to give you that deep low bass that would otherwise be missing, giving you a "bassy" sound when called for. Unfortunately, not many headphones have been able to do sub bass properly without bleed into the rest of the frequency. Again, the limitation of a headphone is likely the cause.
 
Mar 16, 2013 at 12:54 PM Post #35 of 36
edited.
 
It's quite obvious that these limitations apply to casual HPs like I already said, and that's the reason why I asked the question in the first place... I'am wondering why not just take then 30mm main driver for highs-mids and put it together with micro-sub in something sized like HD555? Do something like this exist? It seems like a way to go...
 
Mar 16, 2013 at 1:00 PM Post #36 of 36
I accept the fact that 90% of headphones have some sort of coloration in their sonic signature - so I choose one that has the potential for my ideal sound, and achieve the rest by using EQ judiciously. I have a very high end theater/2 channel room that I use to A/B my EQ curve for headphones until it's just right. Not scientific, but the results have always been stellar to my ears.
 

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