Erieg
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2011
- Posts
- 130
- Likes
- 10
10 years ago my wife bought a Gibson electric guitar for me on my 30th birthday . I had always wanted to learn how to play. Fast forward 10 years and I still had not even started. So this year my wife bought a USB preamp and some interactive software. She is determined I have to give that.
I couldn't find some old headphones I had stored.. somewhere, so I could sit down and start practicing. Just as an aside, whoever invented the guitar was a sadist. I hit the internet and started looking at what types of headphones are out there. I was going to pick up another pair of cheap ones but decided that I wanted to get a decent pair so I could use them at work to block out some noise and listen to music and I could also use them to practice.
I read a lot of forums and a lot of reviews. Both customer and professional. I had come down to two different pairs. The Sennheiser HD595 and the Audio-Technica ATH-M50. One of the things that I read was that the Sennheisers lack in the low end and that the M50s if anything had too much bass that actually muddied the mid-range. I like bass. Not thumping, all encompassing bass but I feel that it gives music a fuller sound.
I watched prices of the two and I found a pair of the M50s on Amazon for a really good price so I happily ordered them. When they arrived I immediately hooked them up to my Mac and start practicing. I have to say the the sound quality was amazing. It was actually too good. I can hear mistakes before I actually play them.
Now the bad part. I hooked them up to my MP3 player and they sounded very clear but no bass, I mean none. I tried all styles of music and it was the same. My MP3s are all 320k which sounds great on everything else but I figured I would try some recordings in FLAC format. Same thing. I moved to CD, same thing.
I know these are studio monitors which are flat but this was beyond that. I talked to a friend of mine who used to sell high end audio gear and his response was "Idiot, they need to burn in". Fair enough. Every night for the past 10 days I have hooked them to an old iPod set the volume to a comfortable listening level wrapped them in a towel and let them play. At eight hours a night that puts this at 80 hours. The high end and mid sound a lot better now (and they sounded great to start with) but still no low end. I swear in some songs it is actually removing the bass.
So my long story comes down to this. If almost every review I read stated there was too much bass and I am getting the opposite is this set defective or was there a change made to the product line after complaints? I have heard mention of "white box vs. blue box" but I haven't been able to find what the difference is. I did go to Best Buy and listen to the floor models of different brands they had out and they were definitely over kill. The beats were painful. I just want normal bass. When I got home I tried listening to a Rush song and I swear that if Geddy Lee wasn't singing I would have thought he wasn't on the recording.
Anyways. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I couldn't find some old headphones I had stored.. somewhere, so I could sit down and start practicing. Just as an aside, whoever invented the guitar was a sadist. I hit the internet and started looking at what types of headphones are out there. I was going to pick up another pair of cheap ones but decided that I wanted to get a decent pair so I could use them at work to block out some noise and listen to music and I could also use them to practice.
I read a lot of forums and a lot of reviews. Both customer and professional. I had come down to two different pairs. The Sennheiser HD595 and the Audio-Technica ATH-M50. One of the things that I read was that the Sennheisers lack in the low end and that the M50s if anything had too much bass that actually muddied the mid-range. I like bass. Not thumping, all encompassing bass but I feel that it gives music a fuller sound.
I watched prices of the two and I found a pair of the M50s on Amazon for a really good price so I happily ordered them. When they arrived I immediately hooked them up to my Mac and start practicing. I have to say the the sound quality was amazing. It was actually too good. I can hear mistakes before I actually play them.
Now the bad part. I hooked them up to my MP3 player and they sounded very clear but no bass, I mean none. I tried all styles of music and it was the same. My MP3s are all 320k which sounds great on everything else but I figured I would try some recordings in FLAC format. Same thing. I moved to CD, same thing.
I know these are studio monitors which are flat but this was beyond that. I talked to a friend of mine who used to sell high end audio gear and his response was "Idiot, they need to burn in". Fair enough. Every night for the past 10 days I have hooked them to an old iPod set the volume to a comfortable listening level wrapped them in a towel and let them play. At eight hours a night that puts this at 80 hours. The high end and mid sound a lot better now (and they sounded great to start with) but still no low end. I swear in some songs it is actually removing the bass.
So my long story comes down to this. If almost every review I read stated there was too much bass and I am getting the opposite is this set defective or was there a change made to the product line after complaints? I have heard mention of "white box vs. blue box" but I haven't been able to find what the difference is. I did go to Best Buy and listen to the floor models of different brands they had out and they were definitely over kill. The beats were painful. I just want normal bass. When I got home I tried listening to a Rush song and I swear that if Geddy Lee wasn't singing I would have thought he wasn't on the recording.
Anyways. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.