[Mochan]

I've had good feedback on the XB700's bass really improving a lot after pairing with an E5 and its bass boost. I will report on this soon enough, as well as trying it out with different amping combos as I have 5 different amps I can try it with.
 
The 212s were just a set I could never get into, I tried it with many amps and setups and they were just never right for me. I tried it with a P51 Mustang, a Marantz 1090, an LD MkII, a P4 and a Petite. It just never worked out. And no amount of amping could fix the highs which were just screechy especially when listening to distorted guitars. The only way to fix it was to EQ out the treble... and even then it still sounded too scratchy for my liking.

 

[Katun]

Quote:

I've had good feedback on the XB700's bass really improving a lot after pairing with an E5 and its bass boost. I will report on this soon enough, as well as trying it out with different amping combos as I have 5 different amps I can try it with.

 
Excellent. Please report back when you have tried them out!
 
I'm really curious about the E5 and the XB700. Hopefully, it can improve the SQ and make the bass even better!
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I have also E5 and Gary's PA2V2 but I don't use them cuz I get better results tweaking the DSP hardware 10-band EQ with kX Audio drivers, at least with the easily driven headphones. The amps color the sound too much, it adds more bass but affects midrange more than I'd want so the sound isn't as clear as simply boosting low frequencies a bit more in the EQ instead.

 

[Reputator]

In my experience, the XB700s improve a lot with amperage. I wish I had a nice discreet amp, but even with my integrated amp the improvement is palpable. Better handling of music layers, separation, air and space, more refinement, smoother and more natural highs, etc.
 
The HD 212 Pros hardly changed at all with an amp, so the XB700 is special in that regard.

 

[Mochan]

I like the EQ on my PC's sound card as well, the Auzentech cards really sound great for me. 
 
Anyway the XB700 isn't due to arrive for another two weeks. I should have it first week of August. I'll post quick impressions here unamped as well as with a few of my amps (and whatever other amps I can get from my friends).
 
- Marantz 1090
- Dared MP5
- FiiO E5 and E7
- uDAC
 
I should also be able to try it with a MkIII, P4i, Mini^3, Gamma 1, MiniMaxx, Cobra, Mamba, and some other combinations in August once we have one of our major meets. I am expecting great things. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

The thing for me is that the amps improved the sound quality for all headphones as long as I used them with another source (MP3 player, TV or even integrated crap realtek onboard sound) but with Creative Audigy 2 ZS coupled with kX Audio drivers I often get worse results. Switching from Creative's own drivers to kX Audio drivers was like getting a very high quality amp or even better, a completely new soundcard, there was a night and day improvement. So adding a real amp on top of it is like using 2x amps sorta, that's how it sounds like, the sound is colored too much from already sounding near optimal. I've been looking at Auzentech Forte or Asus Xonar Essence STX and I could easily afford them but I'm so satisfied with kX Audio drivers so I'm not sure it would be an improvement or at least not worth the cost. I've already tried 2x 150 EUR headphones (ATH-M50 and DT770 Pro) vs my Sennheiser HD 212 Pro and AKG K 518 DJ ~50 EUR headphones and despite the 3x higher cost they offered me barely any noteworthy improvement, they didn't really sound that much different but if I then again compared with for example Realtek onboard sound I can hear a very distinguishable difference between all headphones, I couldn't simply stand using the HD 212 Pros with onboard sound after comparing it to the other ones. With kX Audio drivers they all start sounding very nice though, the differences are far less distinct and I thought HD 212 Pro sounded better even unamped vs Realtek onboard with Gary's PA2V2 amp and ATH-M50 even. The main thing you can still notice a very clear difference with kX Audio drivers is bass quantity and type and sound stage for the headphones.
 
How crazy as it sounds like even AKG K 518 DJs and Sennheiser HD 212 Pro sounds nearly the same when EQd accordingly despite these headphones are like total opposite of each other (OK apart from HD 212 Pros having easier to follow 3D positional sound for gaming and deeper bass focus). With Realtek onboard sound I prefer the AKGs but with kX Audio drivers I prefer the HD 212 Pros...
 
Would be nice if some of you had any Audigy card collecting dust and gave em a try with kX Audio drivers or something cuz I'm worried that it's just something wrong with my ears. xD
 
EDIT: Should get the XB700 tomorrow, but I think I'll go ahead and also order XB500 as well.

 

[DrSpiv]

Been following this thread for a little while because I've been looking for a good set of cans for rap/hip-hop/etc. I found a friend who had a set of the Sony XB500s, and I'm glad I got to try them out before investing.
 
Two things struck me: the first that the bass seemed artificially heavy, like someone turned it way way up on the EQ, and second that there was terrible clarity to the music. It reminded me of being in the next car over from that guy with the windows rolled up and the music cranked on a hooked up donk. Maybe I'm completely spoiled by the K702s, but I felt like I was missing a large part of the music. Tried 3 different amps, 4 if you count a mixer out.
 
So back to the hunt. Any suggestions? I'm guessing I can't get the clarity/detail of the K702s and still get the strength of bass I'm looking for (which I would say is maybe halfway between my denon's and the XB500s). I still want a lot of clear, clean music to come through, but I want to feel the drum kick and bass drop rattle my brain.

 

[Katun]

Quote:

Two things struck me: the first that the bass seemed artificially heavy, like someone turned it way way up on the EQ, and second that there was terrible clarity to the music. It reminded me of being in the next car over from that guy with the windows rolled up and the music cranked on a hooked up donk. Maybe I'm completely spoiled by the K702s, but I felt like I was missing a large part of the music. Tried 3 different amps, 4 if you count a mixer out.
 

 
When I first wore them, the same thing happened to me.
 
Did you EQ them? When the EQ is flatline, it almost sounds exactly as you described. The entire spectrum seems to sound extremely muffled in comparison to the bass.
 
But when you boost the mids and treble, things really start to change for the better. Occasionally, I listen to them flatline just to hear what they sound like, and they do sound muffled compared to my EQ'ed version.
 
But the thing that changed them the most was just giving them time. On my head. At first, when I bought the XB300, I still remember listening to them for the first time. I started laughing because it sounded like my PortaPro's with the bass cranked all the way up on the EQ. But now when I listen to my XB500, the bass seems normal, it seems to make the music whole. Then when I switch over to my AD700 or my 9850, it sounds like all bass has been stripped entirely.
 
It's not everyone's sound, but when you get more accustomed to it, and do a bit of EQ tweaking, they are magnificent headphones.
 

 

 

[bumbabeef]

I have the m50s and for $100 they have great bass but most important great overall balance.

 

[FlyingInABlueDream]

I'll keep it brief...
 
Ultrasone Pro series. They are my 'go-to' for bass. Some tunes just rattle my head so bad I have to turn the bass down.

 

[DrSpiv]

 
Quote:

 
When I first wore them, the same thing happened to me.
 
Did you EQ them? When the EQ is flatline, it almost sounds exactly as you described. The entire spectrum seems to sound extremely muffled in comparison to the bass.
 
But when you boost the mids and treble, things really start to change for the better. Occasionally, I listen to them flatline just to hear what they sound like, and they do sound muffled compared to my EQ'ed version.
 
But the thing that changed them the most was just giving them time. On my head. At first, when I bought the XB300, I still remember listening to them for the first time. I started laughing because it sounded like my PortaPro's with the bass cranked all the way up on the EQ. But now when I listen to my XB500, the bass seems normal, it seems to make the music whole. Then when I switch over to my AD700 or my 9850, it sounds like all bass has been stripped entirely.
 
It's not everyone's sound, but when you get more accustomed to it, and do a bit of EQ tweaking, they are magnificent headphones.
 

 

hmm...I did not try EQing them, but I will tonight. EQing from software isn't really an option, simply because I have a lot of gear from a single source that works great as is. Ultimately I would have to buy a separate EQ to drive one amp just for the one set of cans. If they sound really good though, their price is low enough maybe it would be worth it. I really like being able to just grab a pair of cans for a song and listen without having to push buttons and change settings.
 
Do the 500s really get clear and detailed with EQ? Are the 700s significantly better?

 

[Katun]

Quote:

hmm...I did not try EQing them, but I will tonight. EQing from software isn't really an option, simply because I have a lot of gear from a single source that works great as is. Ultimately I would have to buy a separate EQ to drive one amp just for the one set of cans. If they sound really good though, their price is low enough maybe it would be worth it. I really like being able to just grab a pair of cans for a song and listen without having to push buttons and change settings.
 
Do the 500s really get clear and detailed with EQ? Are the 700s significantly better?

Oops, sorry. Didn't realize you were doing it from software. I thought you were using an MP3 like I have been.
 
They do indeed 'clear up' when you adjust the EQ. Vocals become much more apparent and overall sound becomes more like you would expect from 'normal' headphones. As for the XB700's being significantly better, that I do not know. That is exactly why I will be ordering some of those this week, as my experience with the XB500's have been very good.
 
There are some users on here that claim the XB700's do everything the XB500's do, but better. Others say the XB500's are more balanced. Generally though, I think I see the favor in the XB700's over the XB500's. Most people think these phones do nothing but solid bass, but they actually do get quite sharp when we crank up the EQ. Even without adjusting the EQ, I could still quite easily listen to these headphones and like them. It just depends on the music, and what mood I'm in.

 

[stevenswall]

Koss KDE/250, in my pic.
 
Heavy bass from the larger element leaves the clarity of the treble untouched. Smooth treble, and extreme musicality are caused by its emphasis on low bass and high treble, with fullness of mid-range where the two speakers sound ranges overlap (thanks to not having a crossover)
 
With an EQ I can voice it to sound however I like, it handles anything I throw at it... in the rare case that the bass distorts due to extremely high volume, the treble is still, as I stated, untouched.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I recieved the Sony XB700's today and have played with them for a while. Wow, these are really great already out of box with my Sennheiser HD 212 Pro EQ profile I could hear these are in a totally different league. I'll try to compare them with my experiences from Sennheiser HD 212 Pro (deep boomy bass, bright "skinny" sounding highs, recessed mids), AKG K 518 DJ (aka K81 DJ) (VERY PUNCHY upper bass, dark/warm sounding, smooth highs, decent mids, typical closed headphone sound), ATH-M50 (controlled midbass extension, great soundstage, clear/sharp highs and great smooth mids) and DT770 Pro (somewhat controlled deep bass, lacking midbass, decent mids & highs).
 
Bass
 
These headphones have the bass I'm looking for. It's there between being punchy upper bass / boomy lower bass compared to AKG K 518 DJ (most punchy, 90~150Hz bass focus) and Sennheiser HD 212 Pro (most boomy, 40 ~ 70Hz focus) while quantity being about same (ie, among the bassiest you can find, more than ATH-M50 and a bit more than stock DT770 Pro). It's a bit more "soft" than punchy tho, a bit more focused towards the below 90Hz or so bass and it extends deeper than any other headphone most likely and it did play very deep bass say around 30Hz a bit more clear and loudly than the HD 212 Pro but those do suprisingly well for deep bass too. There's relatively small emphasize on the very outmost upper bass around 120~150Hz. An easy recommendation IMO for bassheads because they can handle a bit of both types of bass depending how you EQ them and btw these responds very well to EQing (unlike DT770 Pro) but more on that later.
 
Mids & Highs
 
This is where I thought HD 212 Pro lacked the most, recessed mids and very bright and "thin" sounding highs and where I was looking for the improvement while keeping the bass of HD 212 Pro. I liked both ATH-M50's mids and highs and AKG K 518 DJ as well but M50 lacked bass quantity and K518 DJs lacking deep bass. Sony XB700 handles the bass perfectly but also handles mids and especially highs extremely well. The highs are very "full" sounding and suitable bright IMO, far from HD 212 Pro levels and not quite as sharp as M50, just about right IMO to not cause any ear fatigue and still stand out from the deep bass output. The cans have only a slight emphasize in the lower mid range 150 ~ 500Hz or so, but 1kHz - 4kHz sounds very nice and "full" still, unlike HD 212 Pro, giving them a quite smooth transition from bass to mids without drowning them too much (depending on how much you've EQd low frequencies).
 
Soundstage
 
These are better than the average closed headphone in soundstage but not quite in the league of M50 so something between average to best. They do however have a very "spacious" sound signature, most likely to the big drivers (50mm) and the rather big airchamber the soft cushions create, this makes them sound a lot more towards open headphones than especially small "on-ear" closed headphones. Playing a round of Unreal Tournament 3 I could more easily distinquish the different sounds from each other as overall it sounded way more dynamic, (weapon noise or running over a guy etc noise effects etc just popped out more clearly). Sound positioning was also decent, not the very best but still better than most closed headphones I'd say and it was possible to hear from which directions the sounds came from.
 
Comfort
 
I thought the big size and 295 g weight would be a problem, but it seems the way it's designed, it really doesn't feel any heavy at all, in fact it feels like it would be lighter than both M50 and DT770 Pro to me. The clamping force out of box is just perfect. The soft pads are so huge they're like the size of CDs and there's plenty of room for your ears inside and like many others already have said they are prolly among the most comfortable headphones to wear. I thought sweat would be a problem but I was positively suprised, despite I got 28C in my room, they only got a bit warm after 1hr+ of use and only very slightly wet/soaky altough the pads are so big they easily absorb up the sweat, leaving your ears dry.
 
EQing
 
I've never heard a headphone that responds this well to the equalizer I'm using with kX Audio drivers. If I listen closely at some frequency settings and certain values, I was able to notice a slight difference even from a 0.1 step change! O_o (yeah, kX Audio driver's 10-band EQ let's me adjust in 0.1 increments). Usually I use a gently shaped V-curve but with these headphones the V-curve became far more closer to a flat line apart from being a spoilt basshead I ofc boost the low frequencies a bit more. Due to the well sounding mids and highs I want to hear these a bit louder than what I wanted to with the HD 212 Pros as the XB700 responds so well to tweaking especially lower midrange (250 - 500Hz) and 1 - 4kHz range.
 
To Summarize:
 
The good:
 
- Tasteful BASS, can be both boomy or punchy depending on how you EQ it. Non-EQd it's in-between.
- Very good full sounding mids and highs for the price (mind the recent pricedrop, now you can find it for ~$75 / ~65 EUR! at popular etailers)
- Very sensitive to EQing, makes it easy to get the sound YOU prefer
- Comfortable
 
The bad:
 
- Short cord
- Pads can get a little warm
- Not perfect ambient noise cancellation and leaks a bit sound
 
 
The only problem for me with these headphones is the short cord, I'm gonna buy an extension prolly tomorrow. Well possibly it would be good if it had slightly better ambient noise cancellation. But I'm very happy with them, it's like I got what I was looking for, I got Sennheiser HD 212 Pro's deep bass with AKG K 518 DJs "fullier" mids and highs. The Sennheiser HD 212 Pro I paid 43 EUR for and AKG K 518 DJ I paid 49 EUR for, the XB700 I paid 66,60 EUR for, getting the best of both worlds. IMO this is a very easily recommended headphone for any basshead, I prefer them even over DT770 Pro/80 and I think it has mids and highs that reminds me slightly that of M50 making them really an awesome bang-for-buck ratio pick for any bass lover out there.

 

[Katun]

^ Awesome! Thanks for the review. I'm glad you are liking them.
 
That's exactly what I love about the XB series, is their sensitivity to the EQ. You can change them so they have many different sound signatures. It's like a whole different phone each time you EQ them a different way. Mids and highs are great, contrary to popular belief, and even if they aren't 'good enough' you can boost them in the EQ.
 
At first, I was worried about the short cord, but I actually kind of like it. I'm to used to my AD700's 10ft cord, so the 4ft one is a nice change. Sometimes when playing games or watching videos, you need the extra length though, but a short cord helps prevent accidental 'yanks' that I seem to do more frequently with my longer cords. I do like it's flat design though, it reminds me of Spaghetti...
 
Yup, you are 'officially' a true bass head. You 'boost' the bass on a Sony XB headphone... (I find myself doing that quite often as well!)