[speecher]

Hi folks,
 
My listening experience consists of  rock and pop out of an Ipod touch and Shure e530 IEM.
I love the way to Shures sweeten all types of music and sound so smooth and clear.
 
I just received the Denon D7000 headphones as a gift.
The highs (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano) are similar to the Shures but the bass is waaaay to heavy and overblown for my tastes.
When the song starts, and the singer sings, it sounds good, until the bass kicks in and then its OUCH. It does sound tolerable on certain recordings and painful on others.
the funny thing is...i DO like bass, as its presented in the Shures or on the Grado 225i which I've heard, when borrowed from a friend.
the equalizer on the itouch did nothing useful.
 
What can i do to get the most of these headphones?
I would prefer something somewhat portable - i only listen at home,  work (i have my own office) or perhaps on vacation in a hotel.
 
I am willing to spend $500 to make that happen.
 
Please help.

 

[musicman59]

The Markl mods help with the baass. Specially if you do the one for the cup or put some fiverloft inside the cups.

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

Hi folks,
 
My listening experience consists of  rock and pop out of an Ipod touch and Shure e530 IEM.
I love the way to Shures sweeten all types of music and sound so smooth and clear.
 
I just received the Denon D7000 headphones as a gift.
The highs (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano) are similar to the Shures but the bass is waaaay to heavy and overblown for my tastes.
When the song starts, and the singer sings, it sounds good, until the bass kicks in and then its OUCH. It does sound tolerable on certain recordings and painful on others.
the funny thing is...i DO like bass, as its presented in the Shures or on the Grado 225i which I've heard, when borrowed from a friend.
the equalizer on the itouch did nothing useful.
 
What can i do to get the most of these headphones?
I would prefer something somewhat portable - i only listen at home,  work (i have my own office) or perhaps on vacation in a hotel.
 
I am willing to spend $500 to make that happen.
 
Please help.

Play music through them for 150  hrs and all will change. i almost sent the first lppair back but was patient and rewarded with a great headphone. Bass will tighten up and be more defined.
 

 

[Taowolf51]

I'd agree with Frank, I came from Ultrasone, so I was used to a lot more bass. When I got my Denons, they sounded very bass-light. I wasn't too sure about them for awhile, but after a week or two, I started to *really* like them!

 

[leng jai]

I actually think that the D7000 bass will always be too much for certain recordings. When you combine a poorly mastered bass heavy song with the D7000's bass it often sounds too overpowering. 

 

[Taowolf51]

Quote:

I actually think that the D7000 bass will always be too much for certain recordings. When you combine a poorly mastered bass heavy song with the D7000's bass it often sounds too overpowering. 

There's you're problem right there.
 
Though I agree, but not specifically for bass. These cans will *really* show you how detrimental poor mastering and mixing can be. While they do make pretty much every song sound great, the difference between a well mastered song and a poorly mastered song is IMMENSE with the Denons.

 

[leng jai]

All high end headphones will show you the flaws of a poor mastered recording. Its one of the biggest issues I have with high end audio. Specifically for the D7000s, its the bass though. When you combine their bass response with a song that has a lot of uncontrolled flabby low end the problem is really exacerbated. 

 

[Magick Man]

All high end headphones will show you the flaws of a poor mastered recording. Its one of the biggest issues I have with high end audio. Specifically for the D7000s, its the bass though. When you combine their bass response with a song that has a lot of uncontrolled flabby low end the problem is really exacerbated. 

Well, it's a good thing that some break-in and a little work will fix that. After the markl mods mine became much more forgiving, tighter, and with flatter FR from 80-20Hz.

I can tell you really don't like Denons from other posts you've made, but I can say with 100% certainty that it doesn't take much effort at all to turn them into a world class set of cans. Perhaps you could get your hands on some that have been properly worked and have a listen, it may change your mind.

 

[leng jai]

Oh I did enjoy the time I had with my D7000s a lot. They are a very nice pair of cans. After a year the bass I kind of got over the bass and yearned for more clarity. Guess a lot of people go through these types of phases. The D7000s are great, I just don't think they are great for some genres. I couldn't live with it by itself for my entire music collection, whereas I can with the T1s.

 

[speecher]

You all make good points about the quality of the recording. For example -  Dave Matthews Live..which is well recorded and has little bass, sounds great.
 
1) How do you get good recordings? I mean i am just taking CD's and downloading them via PC WMP. Or from those ive downloaded..i try to find those that are 160, 192, 224, 256 etc..
 
2) No one thinks an amp/dac will dramatically change the sound? but burn in will?
I think ive listened for about 10 hours so far. Other posts ive found on line claim burn in has little to no effect..but its controversial.
 
 
Thanks.

 

[Taowolf51]

Good recording/mixing/mastering depends on the album. some are awesome, some are awful. It's a neverending search.
 
I don't know about everyone else, but when I say "burn-in", I mean the time your brain takes to get used to the sound signature of your new headphones. 

 

[Dougeefresh]

Quote:

You all make good points about the quality of the recording. For example -  Dave Matthews Live..which is well recorded and has little bass, sounds great.
 
1) How do you get good recordings? I mean i am just taking CD's and downloading them via PC WMP. Or from those ive downloaded..i try to find those that are 160, 192, 224, 256 etc..
 

 
They mean the original recording, not how you rip the songs. Original recordings, you can't really do anything to make it better. You can only try not to lose any data by using lossless codecs. Bitrates and sampling rates only show a little part of a big picture and they are just transport medium of music delivery. If you begin with crappy recording/mixing/mastering, highest bitrates can't save the music and it will show.
 
Quote:

2) No one thinks an amp/dac will dramatically change the sound? but burn in will?
I think ive listened for about 10 hours so far. Other posts ive found on line claim burn in has little to no effect..but its controversial.

"Dramatically" is a relative term. The longer you are in this hobby, the meaning of "dramatically" gets smaller and smaller. Amps & DACs do make quite a difference in some headphones (i.e. high impedance phones).
 
As far as the burn-in goes, they say you have to see it to believe? I've heard the difference and I KNOW for a fact that burn-ins exist. I had a pair of PRO900 (known for significant sound changes over the burn-in period) for a while and heard the changes, but didn't believe my ears or burn-in. After I sold them, I bought another pair right after because I missed them. As soon as I put on the new pair, they sounded NOTHING like what I heard, in a bad way. I left the phones on 24/7 (with breaks here and there). Then all was well. This was not my brain adjusting because the comparison was between listening to the old for hours, completely stopping, then listening to the new.
 
D7000? I couldn't tell anything was changed since I got them a year ago.
 
One thing you can't do in this hobby is generalizing. Every headphone, every song, every single gear will sound different to every person.
 

 

[Il Mostro]

Quote:

You all make good points about the quality of the recording. For example -  Dave Matthews Live..which is well recorded and has little bass, sounds great.
 
 

I noticed something very similar.  Last night I dug into the new The Byrds CD box set ("The Complete Columbia Recordings") which I picked up to augment my vinyl collection of all of these albums. On music without bass emphasis the D7000's really shine and have pretty much perfect balance.  

 

[speecher]

 
Quote:

I noticed something very similar.  Last night I dug into the new The Byrds CD box set ("The Complete Columbia Recordings") which I picked up to augment my vinyl collection of all of these albums. On music without bass emphasis the D7000's really shine and have pretty much perfect balance.

So whats the answer?
Im really hoping to get suggestions on an Amp/Dac that isnt too expensive that will tighten, lighten and smooth out that bass. I want to use the cans for all rock music...from Greenday to Nina Gordon. IMO most of the "music" does not occur in the lowest bass anyhow, its nice if you can get it, but the quality of the mids and highs (which the D7000 seem to do very nicely) are more important.
 

 

[Taowolf51]

The Mark-L mod is supposed to clean up the bass a decent amount. I haven't done it personally, but I bet someone here has.