[Alizz]

Bigger soundstage = more detail.. I came to this conclsuion ''if there's more room for sound to play around, you can hear more of it.''
 
Can we all agree on this? I mean it's by no accident that the ''detail king'' HD800 at the same time have the biggest soundstage of all..?
 
What's your opinions?

 

[AdamTR]

There is some truth in it but the drivers also play a big role..

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Bigger soundstage = more detail.. I came to this conclsuion ''if there's more room for sound to play around, you can hear more of it.''

Can we all agree on this? I mean it's by no accident that the ''detail king'' HD800 at the same time have the biggest soundstage of all..?

What's your opinions?

That depends. Some people think that some bright headphones like Grados, in particular the Prestige series, have a wide soundstage, but they're not paying attention to believable proportionality. In this case, what they perceive as "wide" is "very strong L-C-R, weak between L-C and C-R, cymbals waaaaay off to the front and flanks because Mr. Fantastic is a believable drummer and is totally not a fictional character."

By contrast to the Grados and K70x, the LCD-3 might not be as bright, but having the cymbals farther back and closer to the center isn't a bad thing, because Mr.Fantastic is a comic book character.

 

[Arniesb]

Completely Wrong sir! Les Soundstage = More Forward sound = More forward sound is more deatailed, cause details is less Distant. Grado is known to have crappy drivers in comparison to other companys, but a lot of grados sound really detailed cause of their forward tuning.

 

[AdamTR]

Completely Wrong sir! Les Soundstage = More Forward sound = More forward sound is more deatailed, cause details is less Distant. Grado is known to have crappy drivers in comparison to other companys, but a lot of grados sound really detailed cause of their forward tuning.

I think you are completey wrong tbh. More forward = les soundstage = less instrument separation = less detail. You can more hear things if there is more room than if everything sounds closer packed on eachother...

 

[RaptorX2]

No.

Headphones with bigger soundstages are more of a perception from a leaner sound also some other factors. It has more to do with the quality of the driver.

Detail has nothing to do with the perception of stage whether it's closer or far away. Headphones with larger stages also tend to have an upper mid dip.


I own the HD800 and it's soundstage isn't exactly massive it's not the biggest it's just that it has equal width to depth, cohesive so it doesn't sound as narrow as some phones. Sennheiser have a great engineering team and have made a great driver, it's that simple.

 

[TMRaven]

The two don't really share any correlation. Perceived soundstage size can be summed up pretty easily. If there drivers are angled and/or pushed far away from your ears with the thickness of the pads, soundstage will appear wider. If the headphone has a laid back presence region around 2-5k, then soundstage will sound deeper.

Detailing can be due to lack of resonances in headphone, lack of distortion, and overall frequency balance and smoothness so frequency masking is minimized. Peaks in the treble can lead to perceived more macro-detail.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I think you are completey wrong tbh. More forward = les soundstage = less instrument separation = less detail. You can more hear things if there is more room than if everything sounds closer packed on eachother...

It's a matter of perception. To us, we hear more when there is more air between the instruments, rather than getting assaulted by a cluttered, forward, disproportionate sound. The same sounds are there, just slightly different, but it's confusing to us. To others however what we perceive to be "more air" tends to be perceived by them as "weak cymbals" or more commonly, "can't hear the bass drum," when in fact the bass drum is there, just pushed farther to the back.

From a more objective standpoint of course what we look for essentially is "proportional if not totally correct (ie, headphone compromise vs correct speaker) imaging."

Headphones with bigger soundstages are more of a perception from a leaner sound also some other factors. It has more to do with the quality of the driver.

More of depth than width or size in general. Systems that image depth well have a tendency to not necessarily be "lean" like the earlier roll off on the K701 vs HD600, but more of how the K702 for example pushes the bass drum farther to the back compared to, say, an SR225. Some perceive the K702 as having insufficient bass compared to the impact of the percussion, including the bass drum, on the SR225, but of course others who pay attention to every detail and listen in a more quiet room would hear the bass drum farther away from his forehead on the K702. It's there, and in a proportionally believable location relative to the other instruments.

 

[nraymond]

Bigger soundstage = more detail.. I came to this conclsuion ''if there's more room for sound to play around, you can hear more of it.''

Can we all agree on this? I mean it's by no accident that the ''detail king'' HD800 at the same time have the biggest soundstage of all..?

What's your opinions?

I personally haven't found that correlation to be that simple, and recently I happened to be reading the Focal Utopia review on Innerfidelity, and they address this topic on page 2:

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/worlds-best-headphone-focal-utopia-page-2

"The other area that's rather unusual is that the image is not very big or deep. Previously, I've been of the opinion that good imaging on headphones is primarily due to good transient response. I figured clean edges provide the cues needed to localize sound better. I've also had the impression that headphones that image deeply tend to lack dynamic punch, and headphones with punch tend not to image well. Having now heard the Utopia I'm beginning to call these observations into question.
[...]
What I'm geting at here, I think, is that depth of image on a headphone may not be something achieved with accuracy as much as it might be an illusion caused by a change in tonal response. After all, a normal stereo signal played on headphones doesn't have very many real spatial cues. Maybe, when done really well, headphone reproduction will not have a very spacious image, just a tight clean one."​

 

[Jazic]

I put some full size pads on some Grado SR60/80's using another set of pads that I modified. It increased the forward sounds soundstage so it's now forward but also wider sounding. I do need a bass boost of about +6dB @ 75hz to add some warmth/umph. The details on the modded Grado's are incredible.

I've parked the MrSpeakers Ether C Flow's since I've had these and haven't looked back. I still use the Flow's when I need closed but the Grado's most of the time have me living with open sound when I need closed.

At home I have the SR80e's and use some Shure SRH1540 pads. They sound best and are most comfortable.

The modified adapter was from the $20ish Amazon leather pads. They sounded like garbage but figured I'd try some larger pads by cutting up some plastic and taping it together. Sure enough it fit, was more comfortable and sounded 100x better.

 

[ubs28]

Nope. The Focal Utopia is one of the most transparent and detailed headphone on the market and it isn't the headphone with the widest soundstage (in comparison to let's say a HD 800).

But most headphones that have a wide soundstage are not low-end headphones, so they are most likely also detailed. But it is not due to the soundstage.

 

[ibage]

I disagree. The HD600 has significantly more detailed mids than the 700, but the 700 has better lows and highs and the superior soundstage. Drivers make a big difference. While I find the 700 more revealing, I still have a better image of the mids with the 600.