[cartograph]

@extrabigmehdi
 
Thank you, dear friend.
 
 
Quote:

I don't think it's worth it to buy a too much  expensive headphone for ambient music.

I wonder why you say so? Of course Ambient/Noise music (That especial sort that I like), is really low budget and mostly (+90%) use inexpensive & sometimes really cheap devices to make/record music, but I wonder if it means that It doesn't need a great headphone to listen to such kind of music? I don't know really, I'm not an expert, you say.
 
 
Quote:

I think here are the quality for the headphone you are looking for:
- nice sub bass
- great soundstage
- anything but bright (I mean no emphasis of the highs).
- not excessively analytical,  preferably something "smooth".
- some euphony , if you listen to stuff like stars of the lid (i.e even when playing a single note for long, it sounds pleasant).

First three are exactly right.
About smoothness, I don't know exactly if I like it or not.I want my headphone to be precise & completely neutral & sometimes smoothness hurts these two.
And about euphony, no, I don't like my headphone to be euphonious because of above-mentioned reasons.(Thanks for stars of the lid, I've never heard of them before. Nice music but not my cup of tea.)
 
 
Quote:

Listening to merbow  would be painful on a detailed and bright headphone , which seems the case of the k701/ q701.
&
The ultimate test , would be to listen to the Venerology album from Merzbow, and see how long you could stand it.

Hmmm, You are right about bright headphones, but others say Q701 is not that bright.
&
Great test. Venerology is really harsh, maybe one of the harshest & loudest albums that I've ever heard.

 

[cartograph]

Quote:

ooooo.......just get a bose ae2i and be done with ...lol.
( i just gotten one and like the cooler balanced sound vs a KRK KNS8400...the pads so cushy...so the bose is a snoozer to zzzzz with...great!! )

 
 its getting to be a maze with the list u chalked up..
just buy something and sell it, and buy somemore...thats the headphiway.

 
errr the Q701 dun sound the same as the k702...ditto the k701.

 

Thank you again.
 
I wish I could buy something and sell it after some months, but I can't.It's really hard to sell a 100 $+ (or even 50$+) headphone here. And about people from other countries, I don't know it is possible here or not. It's really really unusual here.
 
Good day

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

@extrabigmehdi
 
Thank you, dear friend.
 
 
I wonder why you say so? Of course Ambient/Noise music (That especial sort that I like), is really low budget and mostly (+90%) use inexpensive & sometimes really cheap devices to make/record music, but I wonder if it means that It doesn't need a great headphone to listen to such kind of music? I don't know really, I'm not an expert, you say.

I think it depends of how you listen to ambient ( and also the quality of recording). Do you focus all your attention to ambient music, and you like it it to stay in background, while you focus on  some work ? When brian eno invented the genre of ambient, it was intended to stay in background (the famous "music for airport"). If your headphone are too much detailed, and involving, it would be harder to "forget" the ambient  music, and relax. For the "background" listening, you don't need to spend too much,  since usually one of the promise of high end headphones, is to listen to more details. And also if it's old ambient recording (just like for brian eno),  you might hear details you don't want to hear (tape hiss). And finally if the headphone is too much analytical, it might sound thin, and a lack of euphony can be annoying ( the stars of the lid is an extreme example, but it would affect regular music too).
 
 
Quote:

Venerology is really harsh, maybe one of the harshest & loudest albums that I've ever heard.

A dynamic range of 0, according to foo_dynamic_range. It's the limit of loudness compression

.

 

[cartograph]

Quote:

I think it depends of how you listen to ambient ( and also the quality of recording). Do you focus all your attention to ambient music, and you like it it to stay in background, while you focus on  some work ? When brian eno invented the genre of ambient, it was intended to stay in background (the famous "music for airport"). If your headphone are too much detailed, and involving, it would be harder to "forget" the ambient  music, and relax. For the "background" listening, you don't need to spend too much,  since usually one of the promise of high end headphones, is to listen to more details. And also if it's old ambient recording (just like for brian eno),  you might hear details you don't want to hear (tape hiss). And finally if the headphone is too much analytical, it might sound thin, and a lack of euphony can be annoying ( the stars of the lid is an extreme example, but it would affect regular music too).

I am full-time Ambient/Noise listener (and in rare occasions, I listen to Funeral/Doom metal too). I don't listen to that kind of relaxing ambient music at all, and when I listen to music, I focus all of my attention to hear everything. In my own rights, it's blasphemous to listen to such an intelligent & sophisticated kind of music without your full hearing / imagination potentiality.
 
And about quality of recorded material, yeah you are right. Many ambient / Noise album are awfully bad recorded, but it doesn't mean that I should listen to them via a crappy headphone to don't hear their hisses/hums/crackles/noises & .....In this situation I don't hear what artist wanted me to hear too.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

@cartograph
Quote:

In my own rights, it's blasphemous to listen to such an intelligent & sophisticated kind of music without your full hearing / imagination potentiality.

 For me the best ambient recordings are from the nature, the rain, the wind, the birds, and don't find it blasphemous to not hear every bit of details. I  like soothing sounds, and I'm not addicted too much to dark ambient, although I  find funny a bit to listen to something like  "Diagnose Lebensgefahr" (listen to the track anoxi, and tell me if you can remain calm).

Quote:

And about quality of recorded material, yeah you are right. Many ambient / Noise album are awfully bad recorded, but it doesn't mean that I should listen to them via a crappy headphone to don't hear their hisses/hums/crackles/noises & .....In this situation I don't hear what artist wanted me to hear too.

I  think you misunderstand, the hd595 are not crappy at all. The flaws are  more or less masked, thanks to the frequency response, and perhaps by the slow reactivity to  transients too .  Anyway, with a very analytical headphone,  it might sound sometimes  often un-musical.  Go with the k701/q701 if you insist on getting something  very detailed .

 

[cartograph]

Quote:

"Diagnose Lebensgefahr" (listen to the track anoxi, and tell me if you can remain calm).

 
 
I've read some reviews about them and most of them were positive, but still I wasn't sure about them. After reading your post, I went to their website and listened to Obducentens Dröm & Situazion: Lebensgefahr first & I didn't find them that good, but then I listened to Anoxie and it was really good.Thanks for Diagnose Lebensgefahr.
 
 
Quote:

I  think you misunderstand, the hd595 are not crappy at all.

 

No offense to HD 595 or any other good Sennheiser headphone. When I used the word "crappy", I didn't mean HD 595 at all.
 
Thanks for your time and recommendations.

 

[TabooPc]

I remember the bass on the 701 being similar to the 880.
 
Have you heard of subtractiveLAD? Would you consider that atmospheric?

 

[cartograph]

Quote:

Have you heard of subtractiveLAD? Would you consider that atmospheric?

What a beautiful music.I don't exactly consider them atmospheric, because its not pure ambient music.It's more likely to IDM ambient or Dubstep (His music reminds me of Subheim, check him if you like this kind of music).

 

[TabooPc]

Quote:

What a beautiful music.I don't exactly consider them atmospheric, because its not pure ambient music.It's more likely to IDM ambient or Dubstep (His music reminds me of Subheim, check him if you like this kind of music).

Yeah I've listened to Subheim before, very good stuff!

 

[goldoon]

Quote:

Latest list of recommended headphones & amp for Ambient / Noise music:
 
Recommended Headphones:

AKG Q 701 x 3
Hifiman HE-400
Sennheiser HD 600
Shure SRH1440
Koss ESP-950
STAX SRS-2170
Denon AH-D5000 x 2
AKG K550
Shure SRH1840
 
 

Recommended Amps:

For AKG Q 701:
Fiio E10
Fiio E9
Objective2
HiFiMan EF2
Matrix M-stage
Audio-GD NFB-12
Musical Fidelity X-Can V3

For Hifiman HE-400 / Denon AH-D5000:
Fiio E10

For Sennheiser HD 600:
JDSLabs Cmoy
HeadRoom Total AirHead
Schiit Asgard

For Shure SRH1440:
Objective 2
 

Any other headphone/amp which makes the list better than this?
 
Thanks in advance.

Wow, I was away for 3 days and now I see that this thread is still alive.
 
What a nice list !!!

, most of them are great headphones, but I still think Q701 is the best can for ambient music among the ones that I've heard, but I don't know if it's good enough for noise music?
 
And be careful about deep bass response in headphone you want to buy. Because people interpret ambient music mostly as space ambient or other soft ambient kinds, but if you listen to dark ambient, drone ambient & ... , you really need a great deep bass response . IMO Q701 is good in this part too, but I'm not that experienced, maybe there are better headphones too.
 
MalVeauX recommended Hifiman HE-400, anyone has any idea about this one? Is it better than Q701?
 
and as GuyDebord recommended some over 500 cans, I want to try too and recommend  Hifiman HE-500LE, I haven't heard them myself, but people say they are great cans and I think they are better than Shure SRH1840.

 

[goldoon]

have a look at this links to have some info about Hifiman-HE-400 & Hifiman-HE-500:
 
http://www.headfonia.com/mike-and-lieven-on-the-hifiman-he-400/
http://www.headfonia.com/hifiman-he-4-the-lightest-modern-orthodynamic-yet/
http://www.headfonia.com/hifiman-he-500-first-impression/

 

[trotoir]

Hi cartograph
 
I listen to a lot of ambient and electronic music.
 
I would seriously recommend for your budget a second hand pair of denon d7000's with a fiio e9 dac amp combo thing. Electronic just sounds awesome on these cans I promise.
 
If your interested check out my sig for some ambient mixes I put on soundcloud. Might be too your liking or poss not quite dark enough....?!
 
Happy hunting!

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Just got my hd800, I enjoy  listening lustmord (silky smooth & detailed) . But I don't find it very scary ( sub bass is not visceral).
The hd800 manage to be smooth & detailed at same time (which means you can have both qualities at the end).

 

[cartograph]

@goldoon
 
Thank You.
Quote:

MalVeauX recommended Hifiman HE-400, anyone has any idea about this one? Is it better than Q701?

I'm really curious about this one too.I hope someone tell what he think about this one in comparison to AKG Q 701.
Quote:

and as GuyDebord recommended some over 500 cans, I want to try too and recommend  Hifiman HE-500LE, I haven't heard them myself, but people say they are great cans and I think they are better than Shure SRH1840.
&
have a look at this links to have some info about Hifiman-HE-400 & Hifiman-HE-500:
 
http://www.headfonia.com/mike-and-lieven-on-the-hifiman-he-400/
http://www.headfonia.com/hifiman-he-4-the-lightest-modern-orthodynamic-yet/
http://www.headfonia.com/hifiman-he-500-first-impression/

I've read all of those reviews before. HE-500 LE seems to be a great can, but it's 700 $ without amp and it's really out of my budget.But if others say it would be a great difference between this and Q701 or any other headphone in this price range, I can wait some months and buy this one. Does it worth?

 

[cartograph]

@trotoir
 
Thank you, dear trotoir for your replay & your music.
 
At first, I should say "One Day" is really beautiful & melancholic.Thanks again for sharing your music.
 
And about Denon AH-D7000+Fiio E9, it's so expensive for me (I know you said "a second hand pair", but if you want the truth, I'm not happy with a second hand headphone). I can think about D2000 or D5000 (at most) for now. Are they good too? What about their soundstage?
 
I see you have HD 650 too, though many people prefer HD 600 for ambient music, but some say they are close to each other. Are they better Than Q701? are they superior to D2000 or D5000?
 
Thanks in advance.
 
 
 
@extrabigmehdi
 
Congratulations for your HD800.
 
When you say "But I don't find it very scary ( sub bass is not visceral)", you mean HD 595 was more capable in this part?