[MalVeauX]

Quote:

I agree with MalVeauX about a stock XB500 but an EQ'd XB500 can sound great in the whole range especially with price taken into account. Out of box it's a bit too unbalanced for sure though.
 
This EQ setting for mine will make them sound great with any genre.

 
I haven't yet heard any headphone that improves more by EQing than XB500 yet.

Heya,
 
I have to admit, the XB500's with some EQ tweaks are actually extremely impressive. I normally only use them for reference for bass. But I just played with my EQ on some acoustic and it was actually surprising how well the XB500 was able to take EQ settings and let vocals just pour out without sounding dampened and muffled. I'm listening to acoustic, right now, and it sounds good and not like a basshead can normally does for acoustic. So I agree 100% with you that this headphone is probably the only headphone I've ever EQ'd and was able to listen to two spectrums of music and they sound great. Dub and Acoustic. Who would have thought this little beast could do that.
 
Here's where I ended up on my EQ for acoustic.
 

 
This is pretty interesting. I may have to play a lot more with these and do a review.
 
Edit: Just did the same thing with some Rush to test it out for old rock. WOA. This headphone can do rock. I'm surprised. Never even though to try them for that haha. I may have to spend some more time on this XB500. For the $40 I paid, this is quite a headphone. It's doing what some $250 headphones do. Pretty impressive. And not just for bass.
 
Edit: It's too bad that EQ's on portable devices are so limited. This could be an exception little headphone, other than it's looks of course...
 
Very best,

 

[Xoria]

That's funny.Does that EQ work for just Dub and acoustic? or a variety of songs?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I'm suprised you get such good results with foobar2000's EQ, I always found it to be quite poor, especially when you start boost it above 0-level it'll start coloring the frequencies quite a bit. I get a lot better results with my soundcard's EQ which does sound even a bit better if actually boosting above 0-level but when I tested with foobar2000's EQ I was using the reducing technique and got somewhat acceptable results in my ears (less of a colorisation).
 

 
Well I don't know about you but I find the optimal EQ setting usually works great with any genre, you go the golden middlepath where nothing stands out too much so it sounds great with all music (then you know you have the optimal setting), you just make it balanced enough so you still enjoy what you're hearing but this is down to personal preference how much of a bass emphasis or how much mids or highs should stick out why different people will need a bit different settings for them to be equally satisfied etc (even with this kinda EQing it won't suddenly sound like a flat headphone) but the whole range plays better together with better synergy. The problem with stock XB500 is the overemphasized upper bass around 200~300Hz. Tuning down this or boosting the mids and the highs or a bit of both like I preferred then the "muffled" midrange/vocals will be fixed and the highs just also lack a bit in presence and need to come out a bit more but the headphone have suprisingly great sound quality for its price like MalVeauX also hinted but the problem is the unbalanced frequency response. Using a high quality EQ with it (IE, NOT foobar2000, iTunes, Winamp or anything like that), it can easily start competing with much higher priced cans IMO, I think if Sony would simply balance the XB500 better they could sell it for $150.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

I'm suprised you get such good results with foobar2000's EQ, I always found it to be quite poor, especially when you start boost it above 0-level it'll start coloring the frequencies quite a bit. I get a lot better results with my soundcard's EQ which does sound even a bit better if actually boosting above 0-level but when I tested with foobar2000's EQ I was using the reducing technique and got somewhat acceptable results in my ears (less of a colorisation).
 

 
Well I don't know about you but I find the optimal EQ setting usually works great with any genre, you go the golden middlepath where nothing stands out too much so it sounds great with all music (then you know you have the optimal setting), you just make it balanced enough so you still enjoy what you're hearing (even with this kinda EQing it won't suddenly sound like a flat headphone) but the whole range plays better together with better synergy. The problem with stock XB500 is the overemphasized upper bass around 200~300Hz. Tuning down this or boosting the mids and the highs or a bit of both like I preferred then the "muffled" midrange/vocals will be fixed and the highs just also lack a bit in presence and need to come out a bit more but the headphone have suprisingly great sound quality for its price like MalVeauX also hinted but the problem is the unbalanced frequency response. Using a high quality EQ with it (IE, NOT foobar2000, iTunes, Winamp or anything like that), it can easily start competing with much higher priced cans IMO.

Heya,
 
What I'm hearing is likely different. You're listening out of a soundcard yes? I'm EQ'ing in Foobar2000 and it outputs and is converted to an analog signal with my Matrix Cube DAC. I've tried reducing and just raising above 0. I get nearly the same thing. But again, depends on your DAC since that's what turns it into sound. Mine doesn't seem to care how I EQ, it sounds about the same--great.
 
Very best,
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

OK, yea you're absolutely right about on different setups it'll behave differently and yea I'm using a soundcard and yes you should always go with your own ears so you're doing the right thing.

 

[Xoria]

Guys, how do you usually keep the XB 500s on your head? On the go, it's hard to keep on your neck without being slightly strangled.

 

[Croozer]

WOW, just got these XB500s today, and they are everything I expected them to be. Best headphones evah <3
 
They were a tiny tiny bit muddy with the vocals, but changing the itouch's eq to R&B solved it. These headphones are awesome

Congratz.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Guys, how do you usually keep the XB 500s on your head? On the go, it's hard to keep on your neck without being slightly strangled.

Heya,
 
You either wear it, or you take it off. A non-folding non-swiveling headphone simply has to come off when it's round like that.
 
Very best,