[Dsnuts]

Quote:

I think it is your personal taste that makes you love your xb500 so much. I bought it based on your impressions and praises for it in the xb700 threads. I did a 100 hour burn in, tried it with different amps from lots of friends and my own, used all your EQ settings, and still I couldn't find it enjoyable enough. I kept the xb700 for its ocean type bass and crisp highs....not a perfect can either but wonderful to just jump around dancing every once in a while.
 
I would love to get these pannies but just for the fun of having some great sounding cheap cans with good bass, and a different sound signature. I love to have different sounding cans.
 
You should be happy that you found audio bliss in such an inexpensive and popular can like the xb500's are.

I couldn't agree with you more. Ultimately we all have our likes and dislikes in what we want to hear in our cans.. It is hard to find that even more so on a budget can. The reason why I got into this hobby of listening to various cans is that they all have different sound signatures. I think if all of them sounded the same we might as well not have a home like Head fi to discuss and point out differences in the sound signature.. I am at least glad that you tried them there RPGWizard.  I don't think there will be a headphone that will replace what you love about the XB500 for but at least you can have a variety of different sounding ones to get into once in a while... Who has just one can now a days any way.? Plus you just got them and of course they will be lacking in what you like over a headphone you have been praising for what seems to be forever..
 
There are guys on these threads that spend an ungodly amount of cash to try n find that one that will be nirvana of all headphones for them, you read about that all the time here. It would be awesome if all of us like you RPGwiz found the one in a $50 can...But for most it seems, something like that just simply don't exist. In the mean while I will try this and try that and just enjoy the cans for what they are.. Is there such thing as a perfect can? The resounding answer to that would be no. But you can find ones that meet your sound preference the most and if it doesn't break the bank. That is just a bonus. I say enjoy the Panasonics as a different phone and not as a replacement. After all you own both. Why not have a bit of a variety once in a while. Who likes just blonds and blonds only is my point.. There is nothing wrong with them brunet ladies.. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I think it is your personal taste that makes you love your xb500 so much. I bought it based on your impressions and praises for it in the xb700 threads. I did a 100 hour burn in, tried it with different amps from lots of friends and my own, used all your EQ settings, and still I couldn't find it enjoyable enough. I kept the xb700 for its ocean type bass and crisp highs....not a perfect can either but wonderful to just jump around dancing every once in a while.
 
I would love to get these pannies but just for the fun of having some great sounding cheap cans with good bass, and a different sound signature. I love to have different sounding cans.
 
You should be happy that you found audio bliss in such an inexpensive and popular can like the xb500's are.

Well I'm not buying that until I hear some1 that's tried it out with the exact same setup, Audigy 2 ZS + ZO Personal Subwoofer + XB500 so I could send over my kX Audio driver and foobar2000 settings.  There's a big difference in what EQ you use for example, all EQs don't work as great and might need slightly different settings to sound the same etc. ZO Personal Subwoofer helps the XB500 a bit as well. 
 

 

[idvsego]

Quote:

I often wish some1 else could listen to my XB500 setup here at my place to get some kind of confirm about it's not just me that think it sounds ridiculously great for the price or that isn't just my personal taste etc that's liking that sound so much etc. Perhaps I got an usually great sample or something or there's just excellent synergy with the source and amp and settings etc... It really bothers me, I NEED some1's else opinion badly but don't know of any headphone enthusiasts nearby either. 
 
But I will give the Panasonics a bit more time since I've started to notice a little more forward mids. But so far XB500 has a better ability to bring both strong skull shattering bass as well clear in-your-face mids at the same time... Panasonics depending on EQ/ZO setting seems to great at doing one thing but not both things, it's hard to get the mids lifted up from the strong bass response so that both would come through nicely.

I agree with the previous posters...be glad you have something you love, who cares what others think?
 
 

 

[Ouspensky]

Back when I got my first real can (mdr-7506), I did so because it seemed logical to me, that a headphone that has been around for well over 25 years must be doing something right. Today you see a lot of people praising the m-50. It almost seems like a cult

. A friend let me audition the m50 and I could not find anything that made them an upgrade to my 7506.....detailed highs? check, good bass? check, decent mids? check, build quality? check, carrying pouch? check. and its 50 plus dollars cheaper.
 
Do I care that people bash my 7506 and praise the shures, the m50 and say that its a jurassic can? Nope

.  I got a decent priced can that can last for decades, gives me great sound and is better with velour pads. My joy in audiophilia is having a good collection of different sounding headphones.
 
My reference will always be the 7506, if a headphone is cheap and sounds close to it, its a keeper, if it sounds better than it and its more expensive its a keeper. To hell with what anybody else thinks.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well I noticed it doesn't like being EQ'd that much so sounds almost better if not using my soundcard's EQ to it. But I tweaked around foobar2000 settings and got to a result I like very much.
 
If you want to try it out you can download it here (should be all preconfigured, only needs to be extracted somewhere as it's a portable install): http://www.mediafire.com/?bc201x10exd142b
 
Now it compares very well in terms of engaging and dynamic sound to XB500 at least as well as forward midrange, it's pretty much a tie in that regard. Maybe a tie overall too vs XB500! The soundstage is EXCELLENT with these settings too. ;P
 
Would appriciate some feedback of that foobar2000 config with the HTF600.

 

[spacemountain]

Quote:

Back when I got my first real can (mdr-7506), I did so because it seemed logical to me, that a headphone that has been around for well over 25 years must be doing something right. Today you see a lot of people praising the m-50. It almost seems like a cult

. A friend let me audition the m50 and I could not find anything that made them an upgrade to my 7506.....detailed highs? check, good bass? check, decent mids? check, build quality? check, carrying pouch? check. and its 50 plus dollars cheaper.
 
Do I care that people bash my 7506 and praise the shures, the m50 and say that its a jurassic can? Nope

.  I got a decent priced can that can last for decades, gives me great sound and is better with velour pads. My joy in audiophilia is having a good collection of different sounding headphones.
 
My reference will always be the 7506, if a headphone is cheap and sounds close to it, its a keeper, if it sounds better than it and its more expensive its a keeper. To hell with what anybody else thinks.
 

 
I had the VR6 waaay back in college and they broke my last year in school.  I haven't had a decent pair of hp's since.  I'm looking to get a pair and will probably go with another VR6 or try the RP-HTF600's.
 
Kind of excited...haven't had anything but Ipod buds since then, lol
 
 

 

[Assimilator702]

Quote:

Heya,
 

I have the D1100's, so I just compared. I agree with you, the sound stage of the D1100 is weird. I think the combination of their sound stage and the high treble spikes makes it a weird sound that isn't very musical, at least to me and kind of distant in some tracks (not all). When I put on the Panasonic, I feel like I have a good sound stage that wraps from ear to ear, but doesn't feel like just two stereo phones, and doesn't feel or sound like something bloated out artificial (if you recall perhaps my review of the SRH940 to the K701, I didn't like the sound stage of K701, so I sort of understand and have a similar taste on sound stages as you may have). The Panasonic has a little more sound stage than the XB500, but it's not artificially expanded to the point of being like the aforementioned headphones that do (AD700, K701, and to an extent the HD800--note to the random reader, clearly, I'm not comparing these headphones, please don't read into that). I think you'll like the presentation. It's enough to immerse you in the music, but you're still in the middle of it, not at a distant table listening in.
 

I'm very glad that you enjoy them. They are completely out of this world in terms of their musical nature.
 

My god, that's an explosion of praise. Give it a few more days.

But what you're experiencing is musical and warm with smooth presentation. Something that is not high fidelity, mind you. I stress that simply because there's a difference and not all tastes are for actual high fidelity. Some people just want pleasure listening, and that's what the HTF600 does. It envelopes you with pleasure. It's literally a headphone version of physical endorphins.
 
Very best,
 

 


Quote:

I think by tomorrow you should get a good taste of that booty licious BASS.. After that they should start sounding proper..
 
I threw on some 2 live crew earlier today..Now thats how you listen to some 2 live crew.
 
 

Thanks for reminding me I have a few 2 Live Crew CD's. I think I have 2 Rap CD's from the 90's and they're both 2 Live Crew. Will set up the burning station in the basement so it's ready to go when I get mine next week. Just ordered from Buy.com last night after DsNuts praised them so highly.
 
I have a feeling I'll get no Tracking info and they'll just show up at my door.

 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

a feeling I'll get no Tracking info and they'll just show up at my door.

 

Heya,
 
I've bought headphones from Buy.com and it gave me fedex tracking. I think it's something like "Click Go Buy" or something?
 
Very best,

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

No1 want to give my awesome foobar2000 config for the HTF600 a try? :s http://www.mediafire.com/?bc201x10exd142b (if you're already using foobar just extract somewhere else and open the exe file and drag some songs to the playlist or import your playlist to that foobar)
 
If nothing else I'd be interesting in hearing what kind of headphone would sound like this out of box (doubt there is any though). I think I like the Panasonics more with these settings, sounds pretty much phenomenal to my ears right now at least, something I'd easily pay 200 ~ $250 for.  

 

[Dsnuts]

Just tried it. It does sound more spacious.. Damn call me impressed.  Forward mids, highs dancing in the tune.. Wow. I like.!!  Engaging, sounds awesome actually.. You guys need to try this. I can swear the sound stage sound wider.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Just tried it. It does sound more spacious.. Damn call me impressed.  Forward mids, highs dancing in the tune.. Wow. I like.!!  Engaging, sounds awesome actually.. You guys need to try this. I can swear the sound stage sound wider.

Yea it's Dolby Headphone that improves the soundstage and positioning. I also applied carefully tweaked channel mixer (which affects how the soundstage will sound with Dolby Headphone) as well as Electri-Q EQ settings for this headphone, how it to my ears sounds optimally (in case you check the EQ settings it should be noted that Dolby headphone adds like +1.5dB to bass and like around -1.5dB reduction to treble range which was obviously taken into account with those EQ settings).
 

 
On some gear/sources the highs might need to be a tiny bit lower I'd imagine (probably 0.5~1dB reduction or so is enough). Digizoid ZO amp that I use adds some slight warmth to it.

 

[Dsnuts]

I am using this with my Titanium HD on my PC and it sounds great. I will have to tweek the eQ a bit as the Bass is not as full as I know it can be but if the sound stage is like the way it is using foobar.. I will have to listen to some more tracks and mess around with it more.. It sounded almost like a completely different phone when I first tried it..surprising actually.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

No1 want to give my awesome foobar2000 config for the HTF600 a try? :s http://www.mediafire.com/?bc201x10exd142b (if you're already using foobar just extract somewhere else and open the exe file and drag some songs to the playlist or import your playlist to that foobar)
 
If nothing else I'd be interesting in hearing what kind of headphone would sound like this out of box (doubt there is any though). I think I like the Panasonics more with these settings, sounds pretty much phenomenal to my ears right now at least, something I'd easily pay 200 ~ $250 for.  

Heya,
 
Trying this right now on my Panasonics with Velour pads.
 
It definitely adds to the sound stage, but to me, to it's detriment. This reminds me a lot of what the AD700 and K701 does to music (which I also did not enjoy), it expands a weird sound stage that doesn't sound like the recording anymore. I just put this through a torture test on some acoustic female vocals with Dian Krall and Ani Difranco. It worked out ok with Krall, because there's a lot of complex instruments, so it works. But for intimate acoustic with just a vocalist, both being one person, Difranco, it sounded like we were in an echo chamber and that there was something robotic added to her voice. Definitely a user preference thing here. I like the expansion on some music, but it takes away from some sound and makes it pretty artificial (this is merely to me though). Overall the sound effects added with the DSP on my end sounded more metallic, less organic. It started sounding like an Ultrasone... weird huh?
 
Anyhow, I can see how someone would like this. It does expand things out, definitely. But the quality is not there in my opinion. I just tested it on my Panasonics but also on other headphones including my HE-500 and it really just takes away the musicality and introduces this metallic tone to it instead, at least to my ears.
 
I can definitely see how you use this with the XB500 because when I apply it to the XB500, which is very dim and overly damp and warm on the mids & highs, it does bring them out quite a bit and the XB500 is so warm it can stand to get a lot more metallic without changing the signature in a bad way. If anything else, I think this shows the warmth of the XB500. For me, it was too much for the Panasonic, I suppose it's a lot more likely due to the Panny having more forward mids & highs to begin with, so it takes it too far for me.
 
Then again, all of this is subject to the circuit. It was being played from foobar2000 into my Matrix CUBE DAC and then out, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm hearing it differently than straight out of a sound card. Maybe I'll test this on a Xonar DG that I have in another machine...
 
Very best,

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I wouldn't use these settings on XB500... they'd have different EQ settings but yea like I said it might be too bright/metallic for some DACs/amps with the panasonic. Together with the ZO I use it's fine, no metallic highs, the right tonal character to it... I could tweak the highs and lows on the EQ a bit without using my ZO amp too (that's the problem in providing an universal config as it'll sound different on every DAC/amp).
 
Here's a slightly tweaked EQ setting when I turned off the ZO (bit more lows, and a bit less highs). http://www.mediafire.com/?dw74pzpcmg2e5zt
 

 

[lossfizzle]

RPG, I tried out your (latest posted) config for giggles. I hear exactly what Malveaux is talking about with the painfully metallic quality. Traced it to the Dolby plugin. You know, it reminds me ever-so-slightly of the Radio Shack reverb unit I bought for $50 in 1987. Yes, the soundstage narrows back to the HTF's comparatively boxy field when you kill the Dolby, but I would posit the other sonic consequences are just not worth it. They are downright ruinous.
 
The channel mixer is also not quite to my liking, but it doesn't bother me in the chain nearly as much as the Dolby.
 
The EQ curve itself doesn't sound too bad on the 600s, though. It does improve noticeably on the mid recession although it doesn't seem to improve the overall sense of impact. One thing - make your EQ curve subtractive (always deduct from +/-0 rather than pushing any given point above 0dB), and then you can lose the limiter. The additive EQ running through the limiter creates internal clipping which you can still very clearly hear through the limiter with brickwalled sources.