bagwell359
Headphoneus Supremus
That's true.I should probably have clarified. I didn't mean to suggest that bass rolloff is universal, since it obviously isn't. By "inevitable," I just meant that the longer you're in the hobby, the less you will be able to avoid it.
If you are a fan of the HD-600 than isn't timbre the main thing? The HD-600 has 4 weaknesses IMO. If its your only source then after awhile its not nearly as apparent. I'll leave the order up to each individual.Bass takes center stage for me. Much more than the high treble ("air" region), it is the bass that establishes the size of the soundstage.
* sound stage (3 blobs on gear that doesn't deliver enough current at 300 ohms including my Rag 1, but goes to 5 blobs with the Violectric V-281 and my BHCs)
* bass heft/dynamics
* spikes around 3k and 6k
* lack of overall detail (the newest one I found) which I found in spades vs a ZMF Auteur on a Liquid Platnum a few weeks ago. I actually had to cut short the demo vs my 600 was so weak in that regard - that I pit the ZMF against my HE-6 SE (which it generally nailed) and his HEK Stealth which it also beat overall (Aune S17 Pro for those comparisons). It's younger relative the HD-800 (any version) has what many consider a great soundstage and it lacks bass heft too. Too bad for the 800 that w/o PEQ it's timbre isn't a match for the HD-600. My two other main cans - the HE-6 SE and HE-500 both have average soundstage - well better than the HD-600, and both have esp with bass PEQ much more heft than the HD-900, and they can't soundstage anywhere in that league.
End of digression. I wasn't talking high treble, which most consider 10k and above, but all treble which I put at 3.5k and above. I consider mids to be 320 Hz-3.5k which is where the music primarily lives.
I don't think bass under 320 Hz establishes sound stage. If present, it underpins the stage certainly, but is not the only factor in its size.
Planar/estat/open baffle speakers certainly are omnidirectional into the treble, and even my box speaker with the ribbon tweet that has one direction has very healthy dispersion up to 180 degrees well into the treble, and considerable output beyond 180 in the mids. Does a violin quartet or a solo female soprano have no soundstage? The layout of the mics has a lot to do with it too, not to mention other processing after that.As Esperanza Spaulding once said in an interview, "The bass lays out the dance floor." That's true for me while wearing headphones as much as it is while listening to loudspeakers. Sub-bass especially. Must be something to do with the omnidirectionality of bass.
See comments in main body of my text.This is an area where the HD 600 lacks for me. They communicate bass just fine, but they don't give me a sense of "space" via bass the way that other headphones do.
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