[DisCHORDDubstep]

Me and my dad were discussing if my little brother should've get the K67 tiësto one, I told him the K240 were reviewed way better on "a professional site (talking about head-fi of course)" so that he should get these, but my dad just kept raving about how great the K67 looked.

In the end my little brother bought the K240, and tried the K67's in a store. The poor K67's didn't stand a chance, he didn't explain what was different, he just said "Wow, these (pointing to the K240's) sound so much better!"

lol... How great they looked...

 

[zunehdrocks]

  That's not how they sound at all.
 
I always look at RAW FR graphs because I completely disagree with the kind of garbage HRTFs that get applied to measurements to different sites. For me, I'm looking for a gradual peak of about 10 dB at 4 kHz followed by a dip to flat centered around 6 kHz and then another boost to no more than around 5 dB at 10 kHz. The 440s fit this precisely. For me the K240s have a large upper bass warmth that is heavily boosted, VERY natural mids (I do love that part about them), but a grinding peak at 10 kHz that hurts after a while. The SRH440s sound incredibly neutral to my ears, regardless of what graphs say. I agree most with HeadRoom's K240 MKII graph (with 280 Pro for comparison. Keep in mind this is a tight 15 dB scale and is a raw FR with no HRTF):
 
http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=-2&graphID[]=2611&graphID[]=533&scale=15
 
5 dB boosted upper bass, perfectly natural mids with just the right hump centered around 3-4 kHz, but grating highs boosted by over 10 dB from flat. The 280s sound "dead" with rolled off highs, but a much more easygoing 5 dB peak at 10 kHz. They have scooped midbass and slightly boosted (MASSIVE in real life) sub-bass. I love the 280s for electronic music. I find the 240s best for classic rock from the 60s, The Beatles sound amazing on them.
 
The SRH440s sound most like the raw plot (in gray) on InnerFidelity:
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/ShureSRH440.pdf
 
We're centered around -25 dB on the raw FR graph. Super flat with a perfect 10 dB peak at 3.5 kHz, a return to flat at 6 kHz, then a gentler 5-8 dB peak at 10 kHz. There's not as much sub-bass roll off on these as the raw FR would indicate, they've still got plenty of bass. Just the right amount if you ask me. Quite simply, the SRH440 is one of the most neutral headphones in this price range without a doubt. That's about the best idea I can give you as to what all of these headphones I've actually owned really compare in real life, and I can back it up with RAW measurements because HRTF used between different FR graph sites can be quite different from each other.
 
This tells you nothing about the soundstage though. The K240s might have one of the widest soundstages in this price range, that's their strongest suit aside from their organic mids. I personally hate harsh upper mids. I once had an MDR-V6 which I sold after a short time because the 15 dB peak on just about every raw FR graph was just incredibly painful in real life. I have no clue why people call those neutral, they're not at all. Not to my ears. Just another comparison
 
I STRONGLY support people comparing headphones via raw FR graphs keeping in mind the kind of HRTF they want to hear. Raw FR graphs shouldn't be completely flat. I don't know if anyone else on the forum knows about this or uses this method often, but I figured it out for myself and it has worked really well for judging sound of headphones via graphs across sites...just not soundstaging or comfort obviously.

Headroom FTW

 

[zunehdrocks]

Yamaha's headphones and iems are pretty underrated here too.

 

[metal571]

  Yamaha's headphones and iems are pretty underrated here too.

What's the most neutral of their headphones? Just curious.

 
Headroom FTW

 
When I discovered they had raw FR graphs I was overjoyed. Now it is possible to compare one site's graphs to another. Somehow the bass regions of some cans are way off on headroom, but only some.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

What's the most neutral of their headphones? Just curious.

demon magic!!!... Oh, I was looking at the bass boost chart for my e11, and it seems like it would actually manage to flatten the response more... That -5 db response at 50 hz becomes 0 db, and it pulls up 20 hz from the -15 db pit into the -10 db... Pit... Still a pit, but a less deep one. And at the k240's peak of 100hz until 500 hz, it boosts 100hz 3 db, 200hz 1 db, and beyond that <1db. And at the 50-100hz region, it boosts it 5-3 db... So it causes that midbass to come out a little more. It makes a peak at 100hz at 7db... So it does it some good imo... But be warned: that 8-10khz spike of 4 db is still there, and that recessed -5db zone from 3.5-6khz is still there... I think the only reason that 8-10khz 3db spike seems so prominent is because of the fact that right before that at 3.5-6khz its recessed 5db... Hey, metal, try boosting sub-bass at 20hz +15db, at 50hz +4-7db, at 3.5-6khz +5-7db, at 100-500hz -1-3db, and at 1.5 khz +2-3db. That should get you an even response. So then tweak it from there to your preferred response... And this is also for anyone who wants a flatter than it already was response from the k240's. I'll try it out on my eq in a while, then ear tune from there to get a flat response, then post my eq settings here.

 

[metal571]

demon magic!!!... Oh, I was looking at the bass boost chart for my e11, and it seems like it would actually manage to flatten the response more... That -5 db response at 50 hz becomes 0 db, and it pulls up 20 hz from the -15 db pit into the -10 db... Pit... Still a pit, but a less deep one. And at the k240's peak of 100hz until 500 hz, it boosts 100hz 3 db, 200hz 1 db, and beyond that <1db. And at the 50-100hz region, it boosts it 5-3 db... So it causes that midbass to come out a little more. It makes a peak at 100hz at 7db... So it does it some good imo... But be warned: that 8-10khz spike of 4 db is still there, and that recessed -5db zone from 3.5-6khz is still there... I think the only reason that 8-10khz 3db spike seems so prominent is because of the fact that right before that at 3.5-6khz its recessed 5db... Hey, metal, try boosting sub-bass at 20hz +15db, at 50hz +4-7db, at 3.5-6khz +5-7db, at 100-500hz -1-3db, and at 1.5 khz +2-3db. That should get you an even response. So then tweak it from there to your preferred response... And this is also for anyone who wants a flatter than it already was response from the k240's. I'll try it out on my eq in a while, then ear tune from there to get a flat response, then post my eq settings here.

Sounds like a plan but what parametric EQ are you using to precisely do this?

Also you have to be careful with saying the upper mids are recessed. Many HRTFs say that a lot of headphones have recessed upper mids, but that is so incorrect to my ears. The "golden" mids according to many sites have a peak on a raw FR of 15 dB at about 4 kHz! That's ultra painful, guess what one of the most well known headphones has that kind of peak: Sony MDR-7506. I've had the V6 and let me tell you those are some genuinely painful headphones to listen to especially for metal where the guitar shears your ear apart. So many FR plots that have been adjusted show recessed upper mids for many headphones. They're so wrong to my ears, in fact the K240S has some of the smoothest and most realistic mids I've ever heard. They aren't recessed, they're just right. The only issues I have lie in the treble spike and the upper and mid bass boost with the quick rolloff below that into the sub-bass region. Because so many sites somehow think +15 dB vs flat on a raw response graph is "neutral" you'll see a lot of FR graphs that show - 5 dB for 3.5 kHz on the K240 and other headphones with great mids. +10 dB vs amplitude at 1 kHz on a raw FR graph is where you want the 3.5 kHz spike to rise to, nothing more, nothing less.

Again be careful with chart reading.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

Hmm... I'll try a bunch of different eq combos tonight, then post all of the ones that are best for different people. For you, id probably just try boosting that sub bass a ton and the mid bass some too, then doing a cut on those higher frequencies you hate... I'd like to see if you get it to where you love it... Lets see how they react to some good old eq!

 

[metal571]

Hmm... I'll try a bunch of different eq combos tonight, then post all of the ones that are best for different people. For you, id probably just try boosting that sub bass a ton and the mid bass some too, then doing a cut on those higher frequencies you hate... I'd like to see if you get it to where you love it... Lets see how they react to some good old eq!

Yeah I haven't tested how well this headphone responds to EQ yet, that would be interesting to mess with.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

Well, my computer soundcard sucks and starts to crackle when I turn the bass up even a little, and my home stereo only has 5 levels of eq: 63hz, 250hz, 1khz, 4khz, and 12.5khz... If my Nokia Lumia audio jack were working id use that... The Nokia Lumia 925's have a very powerful eq ability.... But sadly, the eq only shows up to 7khz... So no luck there either... Can you do it please?

 

[zunehdrocks]

Well, my computer soundcard sucks and starts to crackle when I turn the bass up even a little, and my home stereo only has 5 levels of eq: 63hz, 250hz, 1khz, 4khz, and 12.5khz... If my Nokia Lumia audio jack were working id use that... The Nokia Lumia 925's have a very powerful eq ability.... But sadly, the eq only shows up to 7khz... So no luck there either... Can you do it please?

Try lowering the preamp volume in the eq

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

Try lowering the preamp volume in the eq

tried that already... Still crackles. Maybe a software bug?

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

Well, all I can say is that it reacts to eq fairly well. Not the best I've seen, but its sound sig can be moved.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

After many hundreds of hours burn in, the soundstage opened up, the treble has calmed itself a little, and sub-bass has a bit more presence. Note: these still are quite sub-bass shy, but it came out of its hole at least. Still sound great, and I haven't had any issues so far.

 

[zunehdrocks]

You can use accudio on your phone to balance it out
It is an auto eq that uses golden ears frequency response measurements.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

You can use accudio on your phone to balance it out
It is an auto eq that uses golden ears frequency response measurements.

I'm aware of what it is, although windows phone doesn't have it. Why is it that people on this site assume others have IOS????