[Golden Monkey]

Well, I listen to tons of metal, stuff like Opeth, At the Gates, Children of Bodom, In Flames, Katatonia, Asunder, Corrosion of Conformity, Amorphis, Borknagar, The Sword, The Crown, The Haunted, Edge of Sanity, Dark Tranqillity, etc. and I too hit that revelation that it all sounds like crap (recording and mastering-wise) once you go hi-fi. I have the Denons D2000 and the HD650s, and I prefer my metal with the Denons. The Senns sound great for almost everything else but techno and electronica, but just don't sound right to me for metal. The Denons really pound the bass (great for those Gothenberg double-bass drummers!), and the highs are clear without rolloff, while the mids keep everything going on in the middle in check (no smearing or muddy sound).

 

[Al4x]

it seems to bee hard work to find a good phone for me

 

[Golden Monkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al4x /img/forum/go_quote.gif it seems to bee hard work to find a good phone for me

You don't like your Denons?

 

[Al4x]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif You don't like your Denons?

not enough, lacking in the high range, bass is a bit boomy

 

[YtseJamer]

Unfortunately no..

If I suggested Ultrasone, it's simply because I know that their headphones are very good for all kinds of metal music.

In the last 6 months I have tried most of the phones that are available on this planet and for me the Ultrasone products are highly competitive when you need something good for rock or metal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gp_hebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you on Ultrasone payroll or something? It seems like you suggest Ultrasone in every thread you participate in without ever doing any comparisons or backing up your suggestions.

 

[Golden Monkey]

Wow, listened to the new Opeth (Watershed) last night on my HD650's...sounded SO good, especially the acoustic bits.

 

[moogoob]

SR80s with taped bowls.

325is are better for female vocals though.
I also find that they're a bit too harsh for Opeth at higher volumes.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

ATH-AD2000 works very well for all different genres of metal. They have like the prefect combination of exceptional speed, tight, punchy bass, good amount of details, clear mids and highs. Very PRaTty and never overly bright.
BTW, that's Audio-Technica, not Denon, their model numbers are confusingly alike.

 

[MaZa]

Sennheiser HD580/HD600 are good for Symphonic metal because of their rather natural sound and large soundstage. Not very good on more aggressive forms because they arent very "energic".

Grados are good for aggressive and fast metal due to their awesome presentation of electric guitars. Bad for symphonic stuff because soundstage is very small and in-your-face.

Ultrasones are quite good for all genres and they also offer veeery deep and strong bass. But their lower midrange is quite lacking, atleast with Proline 650 and 750 which I have experience with. Sound also has slight metallic tonality which everyone doesnt like. Dunno about HFI-780 or its ALO-modded version, never heard them.

Sony SA5000 is also good for everything because of their incredible speed and detailing, and soundstage is decent too. Sound is also quite neutral, with slight concentration on overall treble, but bass is quite punchy too. However, sound is very analytical and hard, quite lifeless that is. With warm sounding tube amp and source, this can be fixed if it bothers, but still this is the basic nature of this headphone.


Whatever floats your boat.

 

[Golden Monkey]

Bak to the topic of poor metal recording/mastering for a sec. I was listening to Nightwish last night too (Dark Passion Play). This album is the most expensive to record in Finnish history, and has almost 150 musicians and vocalists on it. Great album, but I was disappointed with the overall recording quality - not "run of the mill metal" bad, but I couldn't escape noticing that it sounded very smallish in the soundstage, imaging, separation, and the dynamics. I really wish this genre would produce some "audiophile" quality recordings. Which brings me to this...are there any?

 

[MaZa]

Im not aware of any other than Metallica - Master Of Puppets DDC remaster. Quality is simply excellent and natural. Atleast as audiophile as metal album can be.

*edit* Sorry, its DCC.

*edit2* And this is obviously in Thrash, not in Symphonic genre. I dont know any audiophile recordings in there. Even Therion recordings arent very audiophilic, and their stuff would make great use of proper mixing.

 

[TKvC-SainT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Im not aware of any other than Metallica - Master Of Puppets DDC remaster. Quality is simply excellent and natural. Atleast as audiophile as metal album can be. *edit* Sorry, its DCC.

You also have the album Ride the Lightning on 24k DCC, although I don´t think they sound all that different from the original versions, a little bit better, but nothing mindblowing.

For metalheads that want good dynamic sound there´s one solution, go vinyl. Since it´s impossible for vinyl to be as dynamicly boosted as CDs.

 

[Golden Monkey]

True, but for me that would require an insane budget increase, and of course the vinyl...sigh...curse you Tomas Skogsberg and Dan Swano!

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TKvC-SainT /img/forum/go_quote.gif You also have the album Ride the Lightning on 24k DCC, although I don´t think they sound all that different from the original versions, a little bit better, but nothing mindblowing. For metalheads that want good dynamic sound there´s one solution, go vinyl. Since it´s impossible for vinyl to be as dynamicly boosted as CDs.

For me the difference was great. Okay, originals do not suffer from loudness war badly, but they suffered from common CD-babydiseases instead and werent very good sounding otherwise, very compressed and clipping and wavy cymbals. Remasters are very pure and good sounding IME, better than original vinyls I remember reading.

 

[synaesthetic]

I've found that most of the metal I listen to, within the sub-genre post-metal, is uncharacteristically well-recorded and mastered. Post-metal, especially bands like Red Sparowes, Rosetta and Pelican are a joy to listen to on my ER-4P, which are not exactly warm or forgiving.

Post-metal and post-rock in general seems to have much better recording and mastering standards than other examples of metal and rock. Many black and death metal recordings are extremely dodgy and sound terrible on my Etymotics.