It's not that a lot of electronic tracks are badly mixed, although some are - in the same vein that a lot of other music from different genres is badly mixed. it's because they've been appropriately mixed for the environment they're going to be used in - the club. Also bear in mind that a lot of electronic tracks have specific tracks that are deliberately distorted as an effect.
Also the HD800 would not be my first choice for hip hop. It's a marvellous headphone, but rather clinical in it's delivery, which means you'll get the sound warts and all. So where the HD800 makes the distortion difficult to listen to, a distorted track played on a club system may well sound warmer & more engaging to listen to.
With mixing and mastering it's often about playing to your intended audience, and not necessarily about absolute sound quality.
Good points. It's actually the 800s which has more bass. I don't think all electronically produced music is badly mixed/mastered but a lot of it most definitely is and shows up in headphones particularly when they are capable of producing enough detail and extension.
I also use ether c'a although I boost the bass in those. My favorite headphones for non acoustic music have been my he-500'a and I also like my alclair rsm quad ciem's but the sines with the new earpads are recently up there too.
When I mix/master music, I prefer speakers but always check on several headphones as well as car stereos. Most times, the top end is recessed on speakers compared to headphones so it's pushed harder in mixes to compensate.
There's also the sad fact that many people in the business have simply blown out the top frequencies in their hearing and that comes out in the mix.
Club music is meant to be played loudly and most producers/artists don't think about protecting their hearing until it's too late. It even happens in the studio. People are mixing listening to the track over and over again and the volume just keeps going up and up because everyone gets more deaf as the session progresses. They come back to the mix the next day and its got all kinds of problems that weren't heard at the end of the previous night. Ive seen it happen countless times. Conversely, if mixed on headphones, music meant to be played loudly on speakers many times comes out too smooth on top.
Don't even get me started on the dynamic compression aspect...
You're right in that the HD800 (hd800s included) is very analytical and many times not particularly enjoyable but I use them as a tool to clearly hear what's really there, kind of like a microscope.
I find the sines as a portable over ear solution (with new pads) can't be beat. It's not the deepest soundstage but the frequencies are there and can be tuned physically (toilet paper or?) or with eq (cipher).
They are definitely worth working with and kill anything else remotely in their price range imho.
