[LDme]

Quote:

 
I´ve used these headphones for more than two years, paired up with a DIYmod Ipod video 5.5 gen +V-Cap Dock. But it is no fun. The sound is too analytical for my taste, I guess. The reason I´m writing this is because I just realized that I find my old Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro much more enjoyable.
 
What should I do?
 
/Erik

also you can try audio-technika sound - it's more bright , but also have a lots of details
 

 

[p a t r i c k]

Audio equipment manufacturers are not in the entertainment business.
 
Headphones are not about being "boring" or "interesting".
 
That is the job of the musicians!
 
Good headphones (like the AKG K701s) let you hear what the musicians are doing. So change the musicians not the headphones.

 

[gechu]

Thanks all for your feedback!
 
Patrick, fine comment. I´ve actually followed your advice right from the start. I went from Metallica to Tori Amos and classical music. So maybe I should simply try look for new artists within this scope. Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

Thanks all for your feedback!
 
Patrick, fine comment. I´ve actually followed your advice right from the start. I went from Metallica to Tori Amos and classical music. So maybe I should simply try look for new artists within this scope. Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hi gechu
 
Thank you for your generosity about my comment.
 
I think that in general people are tending to demand that their hi fi "performs" in some way, but good hi fi is not a performer at all, it is the exact opposite.
 
Unfortunately you will often see good hi fi dismissed as "clinical" or "analytical" or "boring"
 
There is something about the approach to the listening of the music which is skewed, I think, in many.
 
Please note that I only understand this because I myself was like this for many years.
 
When you read the reviews etc. of hi fi stuff you will see that people are listening "out -> in" rather than "in -> out".
 
This difference is subtle but huge at the same time.
 
Bad hi fi (coloured, distorting stuff that is unfortunately gaining popularity) makes listening "in -> out" more difficult.
 
Today I listen to classical music almost exclusively. I do not for one moment believe that quality in music is exclusive to classical, goodness no!, but I do think that there is very much quality to be found in classical.
 
The actual term "classical" covers a vast area and so I think it is good to find some area within classical that you can identify with or which you like, then explore that area.
 
The area I am most interested in is the impressionist. This includes composers like Debussy, Ravel most famously, but also many others.
 
The impressionist music is great for listening to with good hi fi because it makes such use of all the subtle combinations of sounds that can be made by an orchestra.
 
A very famous piece to check out is Debussy's La Mer, this has been recorded many times and getting hold of one or two recordings of this might be interesting.
 
It is absolutely a classic impressionist piece, you will find Debussy's exploration of the sea to be fascinating. At first you will hear the marvellous orchestrations, the astonishing sophistication there is in the sonic sculptures. With each listen you will hear more and more of what is in this work. After a while it will start to communicate with you at a much deeper level.
 
P.S. on the rather more prosaic technical level I think that to hear the K701s at their best means getting a good amp Avoid coloured stuff (often described as "warm sounding").

 

[gechu]

Today I mostly enjoy Bach and Vivaldi. I have never heard of La Mer, but it is not surprising because Im not very well educated in classical music - even though I enjoy it a lot. Thanks for the inspiration! /Erik

 

[rhythmdevils]

I don't agree, I think headphones certainly can make music sound boring.  For one thing, I think a headphone sounds boring when it is colored in a way that de-emphazises a part of the spectrum/listening experience that is important for you or vice versa.  If treble is what turns you on, if treble is how you connect to the music, then the HD650 is going to sound boring to you.  However, if lower midrange and midrange is what makes you hot, then they may be very exciting and the K701 might be boring.  Also, headphones can make music sound boring if they emphasize part of the spectrum that you don't want emphasized.  Like people who prefer analyzing details might prefer a bass-light sound because they can then just focus on the details more. 
 
Of course, if you were stuck with the one headphone, then you would just ignore the colorations, but since you get to choose, you might as well choose a color that suits the way you listen to music. 
 
Just my random opinion

 

[apatN]

Fully agree. Patrick, try to A/B a Grado and a Sennheiser. There's such a distinctive difference between the two.
 
Anyway OP, have you tried to dampen the K701 already?

 

[monkuboy]

I agree with rhythmdevils. That's why I am glad I have several headphones with different characteristics because not only do certain ones seem to suit certain recordings better, but it depends on what mood I am in as well.  So on one day maybe I prefer to listen to a recording using the Senns but then on another I prefer the upfront character of the Grados instead. It makes it seem like two completely differently engineered recordings. 

 

[p a t r i c k]

Well I didn't say that headphones all sound the same.
 
It would be great if people read posts before responding to them.
 
I did say that it is not the job of audio equipment to provide entertainment in itself.
 
Very good transparent audio equipment will simply get out of the way of the music making.
 
Unfortunately this is often being described as "boring" by people who think that audio equipment should be adding coloration of some sort.
 
It is true that some audio equipment has a "neutralising" effect, but this is absolutely not the case with the AKG K701/2s.

 

[apatN]

You seem to be thinking from a view in which you think that neutrality equals boringness according to some people. This might be true under certain circumstances but how often don't head-fiers hear songs through certain audio equipment and say: "hey, something's missing". This can be treble, bass, mids, soundstage, certain effects that don't stand out etc.
Another set of headphones may emphasize certain things in music rather than "colour" it to make music more entertaining like you say (though I am not saying that some headphones are not coloured; clearly not the case). Vocals may be preferred through a relaxed-sounding pair of Sennheisers and metal through a pair of fast Grados. In a way, you are using the right headphones to really understand what the artists want you to hear and understand.

 

[Coupe]

Sound is based mostly on personal perception. That is why people recable.

 

[apatN]

Troll alert. :-D

 

[Jibbie]

Hahaha awesome response.  I've never heard a recabled headphone compared to its stock counterpart, but there are certainly mixed opinions here on Head-Fi.  I assume I'll recable a headphone once I like it enough for me to want to max out its potential.
 
Quote:

Sound is based mostly on personal perception. That is why people recable.

 

[gechu]

apatN, haven´t tried that mod yet. Only read about it quickly. Will take a deeper look.