[Snow_Fox]

I listen to (as I say often and many times) predominately metal. I am in absolute love with my Senn 598's. They are AMAZING they I have found lack in nothing from my rig. Now I have not had them an extremely long time and they are by no means "broke in" yet but, they have and are continuously redefining my standards of music and quality audio. 

I feel that it is a fair assessment that the Senn. 598's are over all neutral they as far as I can tell do what (I personally believe) headphones should do. They play the music without adding to or taking away from it. Now I am still new to the headphone world and I unfortunately don't know many people who care to spend their extra funds on headphones.. most consider it a wasteful or are happy listening to music tailored straight to the 128kb range.. So I don't have nearly the reputation or credibility of many of the users who can either afford many different headsets or trade headsets around with friends.

I do find it interesting and to be a recurring conversation oddity that people who like metal seem to be warned about this headset that it lacks bass. After riding around in my friends "bass heavy" vehicle I found it fun/interesting that the bass would literally make you shake due to his speakers and set up. However, I also find it hard to believe an audiophile would want that sensation in particular from a set of headphones. I can understand to some degree the appeal of having a "kick" in your music however, the music itself begins to sound warped. I had never even heard the song he was playing and it sounded so wobbly due to all the bass that aside from the interesting pounding sensation I felt in my body.. there was very little music appeal. Now I don't want to take my personal experience and apply that to every audiophile and say "YOU MUST BELIEVE THIS" however, I am trying to see if there is some middle ground I am missing.. I can't imagine sacrificing the clarity of my headset (Which I find to be amazing) for the sake of warping music. I mean I can understand not wanting the bass to be hollow.. Especially when you spend 300$ on headphones.. 

I suppose what I am trying to get enlightened on here is when people say bass is lacking.. Is the bass really lacking? or do they mean to say the bass is more "Unaltered". I mean every so often when someone says the bass is lacking, they don't normally say how.  (this seems to be the rarity sadly, although that could just be misguided perception). Coming back full circle.. is there something I myself am missing? Would you say my understanding is pretty reasonable? or what.. Cause I've seen so many warnings about various headsets its unreal.. I am not trying to say they are all unfounded.. but, perhaps the topic of bass could have some more conversation and differentiation? 

NOTE: I expressed a number of opinions in this thread and I am fully well aware. I am not trying to state my opinion as fact only observations from someone with a limited resume on headphones.  

 

[DaBomb77766]

Well, you're pretty much expressing exactly what most audiophiles who aren't bassheads think.  However, there's just something about bass that's...fun, I must say.  But I don't want all of my music covered in it, especially if it covers everything up.  It can completely take the enjoyment out of dance and some electronic music if you completely removed the bass.  Same with treble.  But still, I agree with what you're saying, and I'm sure most here would too.  But the "mainstream" way of thinking is that lots of bass is good.  And if that's what they like, then so be it, I'm not going to stop them.  Just so long as it doesn't affect my enjoyment of music adversely.

 

[Germancub]

I agree with your viewpoint on bass actually. So many people always say how lacking Shure headphones are in the bass department but I find it accurate and punchy, which is, to my ears, much more pleasant than boomy and/or overpowering. People always seem to get impact and quantity mixed up.

 

[wind016]

OP, you are right. I do, however, find the bass in the HD598 to be the quietest of the sound balance. I have the frequencies above the low frequencies shelved down on my equalizer to help it sound more balanced. The bass on the HD598 also lacks texture. You can hear the note, but you can't really hear the instrument.
 
IMO, I also think headphones should sound like the HD598.

 

[MetaLicca]

I know exactly where you're coming from. I like to hear the bass when I listen to music, but I don't want it shaking my eardrums at the expense of the other elements of the song.

 

[Thommohawk]

Well I had a cheaper pair of Sennheiser headphones for my first decent pair of headphones, and they were truly bass light and I hated them for it....sometimes the bass just wasn't there.....the sound signature placed you so far back from the music it sounded almost as if you were listening to music from the back of the room and up in the rafters....the effect was bass notes were so far away that they became useless in songs where they should have been dominant. And it just lacked far too much in that department. 
 
I've had other headphones the total opposite....with too much bass but I enjoyed them at the time for it.....but now I have the DT 990 Pro and for me in terms of soundstage placement and what occurs with the bass in terms of placement vs the rest of the sound I think it's spot on. Just too much of everything once amped but that's another issue entirely. 
 
In short I think the bass thing is a lot more to do with sound signature placement rather than impact alone. At least it is for me.

 

[Somnambulist]

I can't for the life of me remember what book it was from, but I read an article once in the paper which listed off various evolutionary quirks in humans, one of which was that we enjoy bass because it excites certain nerves in the ear (more than others?), a remnant of the distant past when vertebrates were still all in the sea. Fish are attracted to low frequency noise. I might be totally talking out of my butt though.

 

[Surruk]

Like "Dabomb" said, up to a point more bass = more fun. i keep my $50 TDKs for giggles because of their high impact bass gets the tows tapping much more that my K702s, especially in modern pop or the piano loop hip hop i listen too. But i (and im sure other people do too) find bass to be fatiguing if its over abundant, especially if its loud. However while bass is fun, If i am actually listening to the music properly i far prefer the bass lightness (others call it that, i find them to be O.K.) and clarity of the AKGs.
 
in the end its a preference thing. some like it, some dont and neither is right or wrong. Anyway Im sure Mad Lust Envy will be in here soon to sing the praises of much bass and tell everyone who like a so called "neutral" head phone that we are pretentious and have a superiority complex.
 
(it is worth mentioning that i have not had much exposure to very high end bass heavy head phones, and the "best" i have heard that a bass head would like would be the D2000s. perhaps i would like a bass heavy sound sig more agreeable on a high end can, but i some how doubt it.)

 

[EddieE]

The thing about bass is you get used to whatever volume it is in the frequency response anyway and that just becomes "normal". Everyone is satisfied with the level of bass of their headphones after spedning a few weeks with them, and the "where's the bass" thing others might say when trying your headphones after their bassier ones would disapear soon for them.
 
I think that's why it is better to have headphones with leaner bass - too much bass will obscure the mids and recuce the overall clarity - and if you chose headphones that have a big "wow" bass hit when you first get them, after two weeks listening it will still seem like the "right amount" of bass as it would if you had a leaner sound with more mids-emphasis anyway.
 
You gain much and lose nothing by having more mids-centric phones, while you lose a lot for the "quick fix" of bass-heavy phones and don't get any meaningful gains in the long-term anyway.

 

[pp312]

Quote:

I can't for the life of me remember what book it was from, but I read an article once in the paper which listed off various evolutionary quirks in humans, one of which was that we enjoy bass because it excites certain nerves in the ear (more than others?), a remnant of the distant past when vertebrates were still all in the sea. Fish are attracted to low frequency noise. I might be totally talking out of my butt though.

I may have evolved in a quite different fashion (many who know me would agree) but I find heavy bass annoying, both in shops, passing vehicles and occasionally headphones. As long as there's sufficient bass to balance out the rest of the frequencies (think of it like a pendulum) I rarely give the bass much consideration at all.
 
Incidentally, if you read this in a book wouldn't you be talking out of someone else's butt rather than your own?

 

[derycksan]

Bass is a bit over-obssesed over by the masses for a few reasons.  First off, its fun.  No other frequency range provides "Power" to a song like its bass.  Secondly, It tends to be one of the harder frequency ranges to reproduce, either because of size constraints, power constraints and its ability to overpower other frequency ranges, as a result (I believe) people associate systems that can pump out good bass as of higher quality. 
 
I might have a different perspective as my audiophilia stems from car audio (which 95% of people are bassheads), it wasn't until my dad pointed exactly why his Magneplanar were better than than my Cerwin Vega VS150's that I realized there was more to the music than an awesome bassline.  I love bass but it has its place and needs to be balanced well but if its not there in sufficient quantities it can ruin songs just like recessed mids or muddy/simbilant highs

 

[Croozer]

Do people over obsess about other people over obsessing?

Hmmm.

 

[TakashiMiike]

I have been thinking about this topic for a while. Admittedly when my father bought me my very first "audiophile" experience (the Bose companion 3) I enjoyed listening to my favorite vocal mixes with the bass up quiet high. My first headphones were the Denon d2000, and I loved them and I'll admit again that like many newbies I focused on the bass. But after around 6 months my ears became more tuned, and I started to really examine music. I noticed that there was a midrange recession in the d2000, which strongly affected vocal, setting them back, making the bass be at the front all the time.
 
This was the beginning. I think many audiophiles begin this way (perhaps one reason the m50 are recommended so often.) Bass is often obsessed over for many reasons, but I feel like the bass (no pun intended) reason is that it is the rhythm of most songs, it provides the beat, and because it has a low frequency it resonates and vibrates more than the other frequencies.
 
It also comes from a lot of music tastes. I am young, and I rarely see young people with the same music taste as I have. Many new young audiophiles are very into pop, rap, dubstep, or trance. All of which have artificially enhanced bass, and these make the heart of such songs (often not always). As jazz, classical, classic rock, etc, continue to fade into the background, a new generation versed in dubstep, trance, rap, and pop come in to the foreground.
 
For my own experience, I started what one could call a basshead, I listened to mostly vocal trance. My priority was bass. From that genre, I branched out, I discovered, downtempo chill music, and dubstep. As my music tastes continued to evolve and I was exposed to other peoples music (I was pretty much a recluse and didn't interact with people much) I discovered classical (and having played the piano loved it), jazz, and female vocals. Then I discovered soft rock starting with coldplay, and branching out from there. All this over the span of around 2-3 years. Now most of my library is female vocals/jazz/cello/guitar music, with dubstep consisting of i'd say only 1/5th of my library, and not getting as much playtime as it used to.
 
As a result my taste in headphones have also evolved, and currently my focus is on midrange (for those nice lovely female vocals, guitars, and piano) but also more balanced, I don't want the high range obscured, like in the famous hd650, nor do I want my low end obscured, although I lived with the k701 for a few months, It was a little under what I proffered.
 
Bass has a resonance in real life, headphones like the m50, and d2000 put a thump into everything, but bass is not always impactful. Bass comes in many flavors, and some headphones only cater to the modern view of thumping bass, leaving the cello, jazz bassist, and piano in the dust. But this is appealing to those who listen to the new generation of music. Sometimes I think some people don't have a full appreciation of what bass can be, and expect it to be that thumping beat that they know all too well.
 
I've rambled and completely forgotten my point, however I think this will show, from a young persons point of view,perhaps why bass is hyped too much, and is most new audiophiles and common peoples first, if not only, concern.

 

[judy1992]

Bass is where the music is. Bass is what moves you.. That's why phones like the DT48/501/AD700 don't cut it.. They don't have the bass that makes music what it is.

 

[EddieE]

Rythm, melody, the timbre of instruments, electronic sound or the human voice... isn't that what makes music what it is?
 
That happens from the top to the bottom of the frequency range of human hearing (and most of that range is the mids).