[HarleyZH]

Simply grab yourself something that is a good but forgiving can. I personally would never be able to give up on good music due to album mastering - sure better recordings are certainly desired but it doesn't dictate my music taste. 

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Simply grab yourself something that is a good but forgiving can. I personally would never be able to give up on good music due to album mastering - sure better recordings are certainly desired but it doesn't dictate my music taste. 

Doesn't dictate my musical taste at all; however it does influence what I listen to. For rock I will typically use my speaker rig, and even more so, my portable rig. Personally I found the craptastic nature of most rock masterings (modern rock/metal) has helped me broaden my musical horizons quite a bit and in turn discover some excellent music along the way. I have spent close to 4 decades listening to tons of rock and metal and gone to more concerts than I can remember so it isn't that I don't still really enjoy rock, it was the soundtrack of my youth after all. We used to actually have records so waiting for the new Iron Maiden or Metallica albums to come out was the bomb. I just can't listen to a great deal of it with revealing headphones. Regardless of my age, the quality of the sound always mattered. When I was young my father came home with a nice enough Pioneer receiver (from the vaunted SX family) and some very nice Celestian speakers (eventually we had some bad ass HPM 100s). My older brother also purchased some Sony headphones so from the time I was about 10 decent musical reproduction was important.
 
Back in the day even a bad recording by todays standards still had dynamics left in it so you could still crank it up nicely. That is also another factor that today prevents me from enjoying rock music with revealing headphones, I like it loud, and if you want to hear just how "wall of sound/noise" rock recordings today often are listen at the levels I do and I think you might have a little sympathy for my position. Doesn't stop me mind you. Today on the bus to work I played Dream Theatre, Tool and Chevelle. Tonight at home with my 560s, it will mostly be Steely Dan, Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears and some yummy electronica which sounds amazing with the 560s so even some modern music makes it for me there.

 

[HarleyZH]

I apologise, I did not mean to come across snarky, attacking your method or anything - I agree with you about the recordings themselves and we seem to agree with a more forgiving method of listening.
 
I made the comment in general (more in reply to the fellow who just got his HE560 and had the mastering dilemma) as I've seen a few people give up music they enjoy completely, sometimes to the point where discussion about albums only related to sound quality and not the music. Not saying he was going to stop listening to rock, but getting a can like a HD650 or something similar to go with a revealing HE560 wouldn't be a bad idea to divide his albums up.

 

[Sonic Defender]

  I apologise, I did not mean to come across snarky, attacking your method or anything - I agree with you about the recordings themselves and we seem to agree with a more forgiving method of listening.
 
I made the comment in general (more in reply to the fellow who just got his HE560 and had the mastering dilemma) as I've seen a few people give up music they enjoy completely, sometimes to the point where discussion about albums only related to sound quality and not the music. Not saying he was going to stop listening to rock, but getting a can like a HD650 or something similar to go with a revealing HE560 wouldn't be a bad idea to divide his albums up.

No need to apologize, I didn't think you were snarky at all. I like your general thought and I agree with the substance of your post. It is easy to get caught up in the technical ability of our gear and start only enjoying music that makes it shine. Truthfully, to a certain extent I am caught in that game, but I do force myself out of that mode as much as I can. I was so surprised to hear how good some Pearl Jam (Vs. and Ten) were through the 560 as well as some old school Black Sabbath. So no worries mate, your point was well taken.

 

[conquerator2]

Yall took it the wrong way I think.
I have no issue with my music at all. The treble sounds great, the midrange is superb, the separation is top notch. On every recording, good or bad, the 560 performs exceedingly well! I have not had any sibilance with it yet, even with my less stellar recordings, or stridency or harshness.
I was merely pointing out the bass deficiencies.
Does that mean I enjoy them not? No! Slightly less? Yeah, perhaps. Sometimes.
I don't need a Sennheiser HD800 level of resolving headphone and the 560 is not, by a significant amount. All my music still sounds good with it.
And that said, if the 400i offers similar levels of performance while being for instance slightly less resolving and a tint warmer, it might be the can of choice for me. I'll still appreciate the things the 560 does better of course but if the 400i happens to cater to my preferences betrer without any major deficiencies, it just might beat it then...
Regardless of my choice, I want to keep it to the 400i/560 and to Hifiman in the future. It's a company I'd love to support for the time being.

 

[HiFlyMan]

Well, I've had my 560's for three weeks now and here's my first impression: I don't know if it's electronics burn-in or brain burn-in, but I'm loving these more every day.

Never in my life have I ever been able to listen to any phones for more than 30 - 45 mins without suffering listening fatigue. Previously, my best quality phones were B & W P-5's, but I now realize that I'm in a whole different league. After 3 weeks of rummaging through many hundreds of songs on Spotify Premium 320kbps, I finally narrowed my playlist down to 4 hours of the best sounding material I could find. Last night I went through the entire 4 hour session non-stop with no fatigue and was actually disappointed when I reached the end of my playlist! Better yet, this wasn't even on my premium home set-up (Oppo 105 and Lyr 2). Just an iPhone, Sony PHA-2 DAC/amp and the 560's in a hotel room on business trip.

Looks like It's time to get back to Spotify to search for some more gems for my travel playlist

The Happy Traveler

 

[TMRaven]

I don't like using only 'audiophile recordings' for listening to or evaluating gear, because they sound good on any headphone you listen to.  It's average or subpar recordings that bring out the flaws in headphones.  

 

[tinyman392]

I don't like using only 'audiophile recordings' for listening to or evaluating gear, because they sound good on any headphone you listen to.  It's average or subpar recordings that bring out the flaws in headphones.  

They bring out the flaw in the recording. Lol.

 

[defguy]

 
Doesn't dictate my musical taste at all; however it does influence what I listen to. For rock I will typically use my speaker rig, and even more so, my portable rig. Personally I found the craptastic nature of most rock masterings (modern rock/metal) has helped me broaden my musical horizons quite a bit and in turn discover some excellent music along the way. I have spent close to 4 decades listening to tons of rock and metal and gone to more concerts than I can remember so it isn't that I don't still really enjoy rock, it was the soundtrack of my youth after all. We used to actually have records so waiting for the new Iron Maiden or Metallica albums to come out was the bomb. I just can't listen to a great deal of it with revealing headphones. Regardless of my age, the quality of the sound always mattered. When I was young my father came home with a nice enough Pioneer receiver (from the vaunted SX family) and some very nice Celestian speakers (eventually we had some bad ass HPM 100s). My older brother also purchased some Sony headphones so from the time I was about 10 decent musical reproduction was important.
 
Back in the day even a bad recording by todays standards still had dynamics left in it so you could still crank it up nicely. That is also another factor that today prevents me from enjoying rock music with revealing headphones, I like it loud, and if you want to hear just how "wall of sound/noise" rock recordings today often are listen at the levels I do and I think you might have a little sympathy for my position. Doesn't stop me mind you. Today on the bus to work I played Dream Theatre, Tool and Chevelle. Tonight at home with my 560s, it will mostly be Steely Dan, Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears and some yummy electronica which sounds amazing with the 560s so even some modern music makes it for me there.

I know exactly what you mean, in the car, it's pretty much straight rock and metal. At home with the speaker system it might be Supertramp on vinyl, Jesse Cook on cd or other well recorded stuff. Having said that not all rock recordings are terrible. Tool is usually pretty good, the new Chevelle album is a little off. My only difference is that I can't properly enjoy the well mastered stuff as much if I'm out and about because it loses so much when it's not reproduced well. I don't have too many unlistenable recordings, but a few for sure

 

[TMRaven]

They bring out the flaw in the recording. Lol.

 
No, they bring out the flaw in the headphones.

 

[garunamodi]

   
No, they bring out the flaw in the headphones.

 
The best headphone for a track is one that makes the track sound as good as it can, regardless of mastering. The best headphones are the ones that make the best masterings sound their best.
 
It's more a case where you can't blame a headphone for poor mastering, but you can praise a headphone's ability to make not-so-well mastered music sound good.

 

[TMRaven]

You can definitely blame a headphone if it sounds terrible on poorly mastered tracks.  Tons of 'audiophile' headphones have elevated treble , to give the impression of more definition and clarity on recordings.  If a track is mastered every-so hotly, then the elevated treble of the audiophile headphone will come out in brutal force, and not only is it the song's fault, but it's also the headphone's fault.
 
As I hinted at earlier, I have literally not found a headphone on which an audiophile recording sounds bad.  They're poor tools on which to ultimately judge headphones by.

 

[tinyman392]

No, they bring out the flaw in the headphones.

If the headphone reveals a flaw in the recording, can you blame the headphone? Forgiving headphones tend to color and make good recordings sound worse than an unforgiving one.

 

[TMRaven]

If the headphone reveals a flaw in the recording, can you blame the headphone? Forgiving headphones tend to color and make good recordings sound worse than an unforgiving one.

 
You need to look at it both ways.  Poor recordings can also review flaws in colored headphones.  Almost everybody on head-fi seems to have this misconception that a forgiving headphone has to be a colored one.  The truer statement is more along the lines of:  a forgiving headphone is one that isn't so colored.  

 

[YtseJamer]

The new Opeth album sounds totally awesome on the 560!  You can stream the entire album here : http://pitchfork.com/advance/519-pale-communion/