jiggawho
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2011
- Posts
- 38
- Likes
- 10
I have long used cheap, $10-15 Koss or Sony earbuds. The Sony earbuds I used were pretty decent, but were not in-ear, they were the flat kind, and I didn't get good isolation nor sound quality from them. The Koss were in-ear with replaceable buds, and they had decent sound quality. The model is KOSS KE29S. I've always had some beef with IEMs because I could never get the perfect fit without me needing to shove them in my ear and hold them in place. None of the sizes could stay in my ear and create that perfect seal that gives good bass and isolates well.
So I entered the realm of headphones and I'm still searching for the right headphone in my budget. I listen to hip-hop music and trance music, where bass is fairly important, so if it's non-existent, it sounds pretty lifeless. So I ventured out and bought the Sony XB500 due to rave reviews about its bass and how it sounds amazing and all that.
After listening to it for two weeks or so, with it in constant use (even when I am not listening, to "break it in"), I am pretty dissapointed in these headphones. So much so, that I almost feel like the KOSS in-ear-monitors I bought for 15 bucks might sound better. The fundamental flaw with these headphones is that in order to hear the detail in the instruments, vocals, or synths, I have to turn up the volume to levels where my ears hurt because of the overpowering bass. This is ironic because the genres I listen to, such as trance music, are bass-heavy if not bass-centric and the overdone bass of the XB500 just doesn't really seem like its working out.
When I listen to music with the XB500, its missing detail, its missing a sound stage - my KOSS IEMs would feel very open and reverberating when something like Motorcycle - As the Rush Comes was played, where the vocals are echoing and such. I can't hear the synths well, and the isolation is good, but sometimes inferior to the IEMs. At least with the IEMs, I can sort of jam it into my ear canal and there'll be a decent seal, it might not be good for my ears but I can worry about that later. With headphones, you just put it on, and however well it isolates is what you'll get.
Positives:
+ Basslines sound extremely good. But its artificial, I feel like I focus on the basslines in songs because they are artificially loud.
Negatives:
+ There is no clarity, no detail. Instruments are blended together.
+ I just don't feel the vibrancy, the color of the music. The music felt far more alive and bright with the Koss IEMs. A good song to illustrate this is John O'Callaghan - Big Sky. This is supposed to get me excited...it sounds OK, but doesn't get me absorbed like it does with the Koss IEMs.
+ There is no sound stage. When I'm listening to a song with a lot of built-in echo, as many trance songs do (Gaia - Tuvan is another example), I don't feel like I'm in a big room with the vocals reverberating around me, I feel like I'm sitting at my desk with the music coming out of two speakers next to my ear. Which is boring, and bland.
+ The bass is clearly unnatural. It's overdone, and I'm a basshead and I say that. When I bought these headphones I expected the sounds of a good club dance floor replicated in my ears, with the pumping bass as well as the musical highs and mids, but I just hear a lot of THUMP THUMP THUMP and the music simply recedes behind this THUMP.
I'm going to return my XB500s, and I'm not sure what I'll do next. Surely there's something better out there in the world of headphones? I'm just thinking that I might go back down the IEM route, as I was always under the perhaps incorrect impression that headphones and not earphones delivered the best quality sound. So far, a $15 pair of IEMs has outdone the $50 pair of headphones.
I've considered more than a few models, among the frontrunners are the Grado SR60i/SR80i, the Ultrasone HFI-580s/780s, the JVC HARX900 or 700, the ATH-M50s, the Sennheiser HD 428s, the Shure SRH440s, and possibly the Sony XB700 if there is a difference. All I know is that while I like bass, I need real bass, not this artificial bass. And I need some vibrancy and detail. I've upped my budget and I'm willing to consider whatever it takes to get a decent sound without the unnecessary extras - if an IEM is the way to go, then so be it.
So I entered the realm of headphones and I'm still searching for the right headphone in my budget. I listen to hip-hop music and trance music, where bass is fairly important, so if it's non-existent, it sounds pretty lifeless. So I ventured out and bought the Sony XB500 due to rave reviews about its bass and how it sounds amazing and all that.
After listening to it for two weeks or so, with it in constant use (even when I am not listening, to "break it in"), I am pretty dissapointed in these headphones. So much so, that I almost feel like the KOSS in-ear-monitors I bought for 15 bucks might sound better. The fundamental flaw with these headphones is that in order to hear the detail in the instruments, vocals, or synths, I have to turn up the volume to levels where my ears hurt because of the overpowering bass. This is ironic because the genres I listen to, such as trance music, are bass-heavy if not bass-centric and the overdone bass of the XB500 just doesn't really seem like its working out.
When I listen to music with the XB500, its missing detail, its missing a sound stage - my KOSS IEMs would feel very open and reverberating when something like Motorcycle - As the Rush Comes was played, where the vocals are echoing and such. I can't hear the synths well, and the isolation is good, but sometimes inferior to the IEMs. At least with the IEMs, I can sort of jam it into my ear canal and there'll be a decent seal, it might not be good for my ears but I can worry about that later. With headphones, you just put it on, and however well it isolates is what you'll get.
Positives:
+ Basslines sound extremely good. But its artificial, I feel like I focus on the basslines in songs because they are artificially loud.
Negatives:
+ There is no clarity, no detail. Instruments are blended together.
+ I just don't feel the vibrancy, the color of the music. The music felt far more alive and bright with the Koss IEMs. A good song to illustrate this is John O'Callaghan - Big Sky. This is supposed to get me excited...it sounds OK, but doesn't get me absorbed like it does with the Koss IEMs.
+ There is no sound stage. When I'm listening to a song with a lot of built-in echo, as many trance songs do (Gaia - Tuvan is another example), I don't feel like I'm in a big room with the vocals reverberating around me, I feel like I'm sitting at my desk with the music coming out of two speakers next to my ear. Which is boring, and bland.
+ The bass is clearly unnatural. It's overdone, and I'm a basshead and I say that. When I bought these headphones I expected the sounds of a good club dance floor replicated in my ears, with the pumping bass as well as the musical highs and mids, but I just hear a lot of THUMP THUMP THUMP and the music simply recedes behind this THUMP.
I'm going to return my XB500s, and I'm not sure what I'll do next. Surely there's something better out there in the world of headphones? I'm just thinking that I might go back down the IEM route, as I was always under the perhaps incorrect impression that headphones and not earphones delivered the best quality sound. So far, a $15 pair of IEMs has outdone the $50 pair of headphones.
I've considered more than a few models, among the frontrunners are the Grado SR60i/SR80i, the Ultrasone HFI-580s/780s, the JVC HARX900 or 700, the ATH-M50s, the Sennheiser HD 428s, the Shure SRH440s, and possibly the Sony XB700 if there is a difference. All I know is that while I like bass, I need real bass, not this artificial bass. And I need some vibrancy and detail. I've upped my budget and I'm willing to consider whatever it takes to get a decent sound without the unnecessary extras - if an IEM is the way to go, then so be it.
