[Shahrose]

yea so i have the old 990 pros, just got them brand new a few weeks ago. now i heard all these glowing reviews and comments about how their bass is amazing. but, what i noticed was that its bass was just right, any lower and i'd call it anemic. maybe i'm just used to subwoofers. when i turn the bass up on the my sound card the 990s(running through a gv5) distort the bass if it's at high volumes and if the bass is deep. before you say it's my sound card, i know what source distortion sounds like on my audigy 4 and using the gv5 fixed that. that was a different matter. this is just...well the 990s producing blown up, cracking bass whenever i play a song at high volumes at high bass settings. if it's a rap song, i don't even have to turn the bass up much, and the bass starts to distort at high volumes (but still listenable volume). for normal listening, the bass quantity on the 990s is acceptable, but sometimes i want that extra oomph and i feel the 990s can't handle it because the bass starts blowing up.

i'm happy with everything else, the highs, midrange, soundstage (my fav aspect of this phone) and bass quality and depth, but the quantity is sometimes lacking for me. again i'm used to my logitech z560 subwoofer for rap. i'm not sure if any headphone could remedy this. but i just want to hear your thoughts about this and also would like to know the bassiest can i could get without compromising the other features of the 990 i mentioned above.

super fi.5 ebs? or is there a way to help the 990s. i think i have about 40 hours of burn in on the 990s so far.

 

[basmatirice]

are you using an amp with them? they need an amp.

 

[Thelonious Monk]

gv5 = go vibe 5 = amp

not sure about its impedence though. might not be enough to drive them.

 

[OceanEnthusiast]

Quote:

when i turn the bass up on the my sound card the 990s(running through a gv5) distort the bass if it's at high volumes and if the bass is deep. before you say it's my sound card, i know what source distortion sounds like on my audigy 4 and using the gv5 fixed that.

i still suspect the soundcard. my audigy 2 does the same thing whenever i use the equalizer, even without a big bass boost. i don't have the 990's though.

 

[Epicurean]

Just how are you turning up the bass? If you actually increase the low frequencies in an equalizer, the headphones will almost distort by default. The correct way is to leave the frequencies you want to boost at 0 and decrease the rest.

 

[Snacks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shahrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...for normal listening, the bass quantity on the 990s is acceptable, but sometimes i want that extra oomph and i feel the 990s can't handle it because the bass starts blowing up. i'm happy with everything else, the highs, midrange, soundstage (my fav aspect of this phone) and bass quality and depth, but the quantity is sometimes lacking for me. again i'm used to my logitech z560 subwoofer for rap. i'm not sure if any headphone could remedy this. but i just want to hear your thoughts about this and also would like to know the bassiest can i could get without compromising the other features of the 990 i mentioned above. super fi.5 ebs? or is there a way to help the 990s. i think i have about 40 hours of burn in on the 990s so far.

DT770----------------->Darth Beyer--------------->L3000

 

[Shahrose]

i'm not using an equalizer to bump up the lower frequencies. there's a bass and treble meter on my audigy 4 soundcard control panel, which can be used to increase/decrease either one.

so for example, i increase the bass from 50% to 80% for a rap song (the volume output for the soundcard is set to 50%) and on my gv5 i set it to at about 2 o' clock. that's pretty loud for me and i can't listen to that for long periods of time. but the low end cracks, both drivers. when i turn the volume down a bit the cracking goes away (the max volume i can set it to without distortion depends on how much and how deep the bass is in the song) if you guys still think its the soundcard then i don't really have another way of testing it, i don't have any other source that would supply enough bass. perhaps a dvd movie on my receiver could do the trick, i'll try that. however, IF it is the soundcard(which i have doubts about), then that's amazing because when the bass is turned up, sure it distorts, but i noticed that the bass is very powerful, meaning it has incredible slam/depth.

i also want to ask, have any of you encountered the same problem? have you tried turning up the bass and the volume to see if the beyers distort the bass a bit? has anyone been able to distort their beyers or is it just me?

that would help me to identify the root of this problem, my source or the headphones reaching their low end limit.

 

[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shahrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif when i turn the volume down a bit the cracking goes away

For clarification: Does this refer to the sound card or the amp? If the sound card's processing were the culprit, you should be able to obtain clean playback by turning down the volume on the sound card and turning it up on the amp. Otherwise it could also be the amp clipping -what kind of power source does it run off? Those Beyers aren't the most efficient cans, and it has been shown that depending on the opamp used, a 9V block cell may not be enough, resulting in clipping. It may be worth investigating whether it is possible/safe to run the amp off a higher voltage.

BTW, I find it interesting that one would want to turn UP the bass on them "old" DT990s... they do have quite a bit to begin with.

 

[Shahrose]

good questions. i set the volume on my soundcard at 50% and the output wire goes into my gv5 which supplies the output for my dt990s. i set the volume on the gv5 at 2 o' clock as i said earlier (and i control the volume from my gv5, the sound card i set to 50% output volume). increasing the output volume from my sound card and decreasing it from the amp (and vice versa) makes no difference the same bass cracking is present.

the elpac PSU was a little bit of a hassle to use as there were too many wires protruding from my tiny gv5, so i use a 9V battery for convenience as i noticed a small difference switching from the battery to the PSU. right now i don't have access to the elpac because my friend is using it for his own gv5. i could get it back but that could take a few days.

if someone could test out their beyers to see if they distort on high amounts of deep bass at high volumes, that would be really helpful, because if they don't then that means the weak link here can't be my dt990s.

 

[Shahrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epicurean /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just how are you turning up the bass? If you actually increase the low frequencies in an equalizer, the headphones will almost distort by default. The correct way is to leave the frequencies you want to boost at 0 and decrease the rest.

i never thought of that. i just tried it, however, it didn't fix my problem. good suggestion though.

 

[Shahrose]

nevermind i fixed my problem, now the beyers have great bass. it was my amp clipping.