SP Wild
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Posts
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- 295
UPDATED 22/10/11
As many of us D7000 users will notice that the mids in this can sounds somewhat "recessed" and the bass at times can be overpowering. I have always suspected that the bass bloat and midrange recession was one and the same - I tried to EQ the bass down or the mid up - it alleviated the problem only ever so slightly.
(Actually no amount of EQ can correct what is problematic in the mids)
I always suspected that the the problem had everything to do soundstaging. The D7000 was a closed design and hence had no real soundstage in the midrange so to speak of. But the D7000 does have a soundstage unlike other closed cans. Yes, it does have a soundstage, but if you listen carefully the soundstage only starts in the border of upper-mid and treble and expanding as we move all the way to the highest treble. This is useless, as the midrange is where all the music is and without midrange SS there is no imaging.
(I agree, it had everything to do with the driver not accurate enough to track ambiance for staging cues in the mids)
At this stage I suspect this artificial staging was engineered by allowing air to leak through the cups - as they are not sealed. Therefore I believe that the D7000 is in fact a semi-closed design.
(I hate to disagree, but this is complete balony, the D7000 to me is simply a headphone that behaves well with the signal in those frequencies, so you can hear the definition up top, along with all the ambient cues that come with better definition)
It was by accident, when I was analysing my SE530 IEMs - when I was amazed by its technicality but completely let down by no imaging or soundstaging capabilities whatsoever. Where just out of curiosity, I wondered if software crossfeed could alleviate the claustrophobic character. The first crossfeed I tried out was the Foobar implementation. I never liked this implementation because it always restricted sounstage and altered the tonal character excessively - my opinions did not change.
Then I remembered the J Rivers Media Center had an implementation also. I never really cottoned onto crossfeed. I thought I'd give it a try - It worked!!!
The SE530's opened right up with real sounstage and imaging! It sounded exactly like an open can - it had the most coherent soundstage than any of my other cans - not the biggest, but the most coherent. What I mean by this is that most open cans that I have heard have a soundstage, but it is never coherent. The K701 had the largest SS in my collection, however it's at it's largest at the cup resonance, the upper mid / lower treble discontinuity is where the stage is widest, at the rest of the mid - the SS is in-fact smaller than the HD650. The HD650 on the other hand had its widest stage at it's cup resonance, ie, the lower mids. The reason a lot of people find the treble rolled off is because there is little upper mid and treble staging combined with a gentle treble curve.
(I'm pretty sure it was the resolution capability of the SE530 that enabled you to get the most out of the advanced DSP that are freely available for todays computers)
With the JR crossfeed the SS was coherent from top to bottom - treble, upper mids, center mids, and lower mids. As a result of this coherent SS, imaging improves massively. I was stunned! Now how on earth did I not notice this in the past? I plugged my K701 and HD650, using the subtle setting, nothing really changed. Using the maximum setting colours the sound (perfect for balancing the dark SE530) - but the maximum sounstage width is never enlarged, coherence might be altered, but the outright maximum width does not get bigger or smaller. That's why I dismissed it, at the setting that doesn't color the output - there was only a very slight change - I must have concluded that for the sake of purity - that it wasn't worth it.
This must be a good thing however, as the subtle settings neither changed staging nor tone - the Foobar implementation can not achieve this. But what we have here is a crossfeed that does nothing for open cans, yet for my closed SE530's - transformed them into leaders in imaging with a nice stage size and a coherent soundstage.
What will it do to the D7000? Using the subtle setting - a setting that does squat all for open cans - transformed the D7000! The sounstage was immense - equal in width to the K701. But where the K701 had a narrow frequency band where the stage was large, the D7000 now exhibited a wide band soundstage that was everywhere, from top to bottom, back to front, up and down and through the entire frequency band. In effect the D7000 staged increased in multiples compared to the K701 - I have never heard anything like it!
(Yeah, the D7000 did benefit...but once you try DSP with the LCD2, then you will understand how powerful these DSPs actually are, going back to the D7000s with DSP was no comparison, you don't realise half the benefits)
So I've establish that the subtle setting does not change SS or tonal balance in open cans. With closed cans, with the D7000, using the subtle setting gave it a SS the likes of what I never heard before. This has dramatic effects to the tonal balance of these cans. While sometimes the bass may be a little booming and the mids unable to delineate musical passages - not with an improved sounstage. The bass integrates seamlessly into the midrange and the mids, with its unleashed staging capabilities, is neither laid back nor recessed. It is bang on neutral - the bass no-longer overpowers the mids - they now work together.
(Perhaps, especially with the use of further EQ - but it is impossible to sort out the midrange with DSP or EQ, Even the humble PX100 out-resolves the D7000 in the lower mids, no joke)
Imagine a K701 - without the upper mid / lower treble flaw, with far superior SS and imaging and real bass impact and presence - not one bit overpowering. Driver agility has always been better than K701 so the speed is also far superior. There is also virtually no cup resonance - or "resonant frequency" as I incorrectly called it.
(Actually I question whether the D7000 is as resolving as the K701 in the lower mids, the D7000 definitely out-resolves the top end of the K701 by a significant margin)
I recommend the JRivers Media Center to all owners of closed cans. It costs 50 dollars - and to my ears have superior transparency than Foobar (with asio on both) in playback and crossfeed. There is the option to play music files from RAM. The most important thing of all, which is why I paid $50 for it, it has a theater view - so I can use a remote control to fully access my collection.
(This is debatable in light of my new findings)
The best upgrade to my SE530 and Denon D7000 cost's 50 dollars and no modifications are necessary. I have a new reference!
(You had a new reference, now you have a newer reference - DSP can benefit any headphone)
As many of us D7000 users will notice that the mids in this can sounds somewhat "recessed" and the bass at times can be overpowering. I have always suspected that the bass bloat and midrange recession was one and the same - I tried to EQ the bass down or the mid up - it alleviated the problem only ever so slightly.
(Actually no amount of EQ can correct what is problematic in the mids)
I always suspected that the the problem had everything to do soundstaging. The D7000 was a closed design and hence had no real soundstage in the midrange so to speak of. But the D7000 does have a soundstage unlike other closed cans. Yes, it does have a soundstage, but if you listen carefully the soundstage only starts in the border of upper-mid and treble and expanding as we move all the way to the highest treble. This is useless, as the midrange is where all the music is and without midrange SS there is no imaging.
(I agree, it had everything to do with the driver not accurate enough to track ambiance for staging cues in the mids)
At this stage I suspect this artificial staging was engineered by allowing air to leak through the cups - as they are not sealed. Therefore I believe that the D7000 is in fact a semi-closed design.
(I hate to disagree, but this is complete balony, the D7000 to me is simply a headphone that behaves well with the signal in those frequencies, so you can hear the definition up top, along with all the ambient cues that come with better definition)
It was by accident, when I was analysing my SE530 IEMs - when I was amazed by its technicality but completely let down by no imaging or soundstaging capabilities whatsoever. Where just out of curiosity, I wondered if software crossfeed could alleviate the claustrophobic character. The first crossfeed I tried out was the Foobar implementation. I never liked this implementation because it always restricted sounstage and altered the tonal character excessively - my opinions did not change.
Then I remembered the J Rivers Media Center had an implementation also. I never really cottoned onto crossfeed. I thought I'd give it a try - It worked!!!
The SE530's opened right up with real sounstage and imaging! It sounded exactly like an open can - it had the most coherent soundstage than any of my other cans - not the biggest, but the most coherent. What I mean by this is that most open cans that I have heard have a soundstage, but it is never coherent. The K701 had the largest SS in my collection, however it's at it's largest at the cup resonance, the upper mid / lower treble discontinuity is where the stage is widest, at the rest of the mid - the SS is in-fact smaller than the HD650. The HD650 on the other hand had its widest stage at it's cup resonance, ie, the lower mids. The reason a lot of people find the treble rolled off is because there is little upper mid and treble staging combined with a gentle treble curve.
(I'm pretty sure it was the resolution capability of the SE530 that enabled you to get the most out of the advanced DSP that are freely available for todays computers)
With the JR crossfeed the SS was coherent from top to bottom - treble, upper mids, center mids, and lower mids. As a result of this coherent SS, imaging improves massively. I was stunned! Now how on earth did I not notice this in the past? I plugged my K701 and HD650, using the subtle setting, nothing really changed. Using the maximum setting colours the sound (perfect for balancing the dark SE530) - but the maximum sounstage width is never enlarged, coherence might be altered, but the outright maximum width does not get bigger or smaller. That's why I dismissed it, at the setting that doesn't color the output - there was only a very slight change - I must have concluded that for the sake of purity - that it wasn't worth it.
This must be a good thing however, as the subtle settings neither changed staging nor tone - the Foobar implementation can not achieve this. But what we have here is a crossfeed that does nothing for open cans, yet for my closed SE530's - transformed them into leaders in imaging with a nice stage size and a coherent soundstage.
What will it do to the D7000? Using the subtle setting - a setting that does squat all for open cans - transformed the D7000! The sounstage was immense - equal in width to the K701. But where the K701 had a narrow frequency band where the stage was large, the D7000 now exhibited a wide band soundstage that was everywhere, from top to bottom, back to front, up and down and through the entire frequency band. In effect the D7000 staged increased in multiples compared to the K701 - I have never heard anything like it!
(Yeah, the D7000 did benefit...but once you try DSP with the LCD2, then you will understand how powerful these DSPs actually are, going back to the D7000s with DSP was no comparison, you don't realise half the benefits)
So I've establish that the subtle setting does not change SS or tonal balance in open cans. With closed cans, with the D7000, using the subtle setting gave it a SS the likes of what I never heard before. This has dramatic effects to the tonal balance of these cans. While sometimes the bass may be a little booming and the mids unable to delineate musical passages - not with an improved sounstage. The bass integrates seamlessly into the midrange and the mids, with its unleashed staging capabilities, is neither laid back nor recessed. It is bang on neutral - the bass no-longer overpowers the mids - they now work together.
(Perhaps, especially with the use of further EQ - but it is impossible to sort out the midrange with DSP or EQ, Even the humble PX100 out-resolves the D7000 in the lower mids, no joke)
Imagine a K701 - without the upper mid / lower treble flaw, with far superior SS and imaging and real bass impact and presence - not one bit overpowering. Driver agility has always been better than K701 so the speed is also far superior. There is also virtually no cup resonance - or "resonant frequency" as I incorrectly called it.
(Actually I question whether the D7000 is as resolving as the K701 in the lower mids, the D7000 definitely out-resolves the top end of the K701 by a significant margin)
I recommend the JRivers Media Center to all owners of closed cans. It costs 50 dollars - and to my ears have superior transparency than Foobar (with asio on both) in playback and crossfeed. There is the option to play music files from RAM. The most important thing of all, which is why I paid $50 for it, it has a theater view - so I can use a remote control to fully access my collection.
(This is debatable in light of my new findings)
The best upgrade to my SE530 and Denon D7000 cost's 50 dollars and no modifications are necessary. I have a new reference!
(You had a new reference, now you have a newer reference - DSP can benefit any headphone)
