[DaBomb77766]

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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.

I would have to absolutely disagree with you there.  The music involves everything.  It all has to piece together to make a cohesive whole.  If bass is all you're listening to in music, you're sorely lacking out on everything else.  Bass may have a more important role in dubstep, hip-hop and some electronic music, but definitely not so much with classical, jazz and most rock.
 
While I agree that if you're missing the bass you're missing 1/3 of the music quite often, all parts are just as important as the rest.  The only part that I'd say is less important is anything higher than 16khz - most people can't hear that high anyway, and if they can, it'd be so dim you'd barely be able to hear it over everything else.  Still though, I wouldn't stand for anything less than, well, everything.  Take away any part of the equation and music loses its soul.

 

[elrod-tom]

This is what makes this "hobby" so interesting.  While I find bass important, I am much more concerned about accurate and involving reproduction of the midrange (see my "location").  Having spent most of the last 20 years or so listening to good speakers that lack full range, perhaps it's just something that I've grown accustomed to.  There was a time (think Cerwin Vega 15" woofers) when more bass was always better bass.  For me, today, bass that is tight and more accurate is better...even if it lacks somewhat wrt range.

 
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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.

 

 

[derycksan]

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I would have to absolutely disagree with you there.  The music involves everything.  It all has to piece together to make a cohesive whole.  If bass is all you're listening to in music, you're sorely lacking out on everything else.  Bass may have a more important role in dubstep, hip-hop and some electronic music, but definitely not so much with classical, jazz and most rock.
 
While I agree that if you're missing the bass you're missing 1/3 of the music quite often, all parts are just as important as the rest.  The only part that I'd say is less important is anything higher than 16khz - most people can't hear that high anyway, and if they can, it'd be so dim you'd barely be able to hear it over everything else.  Still though, I wouldn't stand for anything less than, well, everything.  Take away any part of the equation and music loses its soul.

I never understood why people say bass does not have an important role in those genres.  Symphony with no percussions/big horns?!? Jazz with no bassline/drums...same thing with Rock, no bass you're litterally removing the drums (well except for cymbals) and bass guitar...I think Les Claypool and John Entwistle might want to have a word with you
 
You're right though, its about all the pieces together and they all need some sort of balance, however, I do feel that bass under 100hz always needs to be a notch or two higher higher as it is a frequency range that our ears have a harder time hearing.
 

 

[peskypesky]

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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.

isn't it just simple physics? headphone diaphragms are small, so they can't push enough air for good bass. i mean, when i buy a guitar amp, i know going in that one with an 8" speaker is not going to have much bass. A 10" speaker will have more. And a 12" speaker even more than that.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

What about having much of everything, just not only bass? It's possible to achieve great strong bass output as well as mids and highs coming out clearly but it's difficult/rare to achieve in headphones when one small driver has to take care of the whole range, I like bass but I've grown past the time when I wanted to hear like 70% bass but now I like both strong bass but mids (especially mids) and highs that come out clearly without bass interfering (muffling/overhelming fine details etc) with them. It's possible but it'll involve EQing (high quality hardware ones) which is not to every1's liking. A good enough hardware EQ will be able to boost the frequencies without distorting (well to the point it's not audible for the human ear), you can raise the whole range and it'll get more "dynamic"/speaker-like sounding (less lean/laid-back, more forward), the technique won't work with software EQs, you can only get more or less of something with those but the hardware EQ I use I can get more of everything, making it sound more like a 5.1 set with bass that's strong like a small sub and mids and highs that come out like they'd be nearly unaffected by the bass as if they were separate speakers. Picture the technique as having several "loud" speakers tuned for different frequencies shouting for attention. (laid-back listeners, look elsewhere)
 

 

[jeust0999]

Must be pretty serious to over obssess over anything.

 

[DemonicLemming]

I like bass, and when I want to hear bass, I play some dubstep with wibbly wobbly (timey wimey) bass using my computer speaker setup (Z-5500s, about all they're good for).
 
When I want to hear music, I listen to my headphones.  They have good low bass extension, impact, and tone, but they don't smear any other frequencies to attain that bass "personality".
 
Ungodly bass that makes your eyeballs quiver can be fun, but it forces the music to be extremely one-dimensional.  You get bass, and bass is all you get.  If I'm listening to NIN, yeah, I want good bass impact, but if I'm listening to, say, Celtic Woman or some good piobaireachd, I don't want any over-emphasis on the bass at all.  Most of the time, I want the bass I hear to be exactly what's in the song - neither more, nor less.  Headphones serve as a transparent source for the music to come out of, rather than a tinted window that changes what's played.
 
All that said, sometimes I have to wonder if some of the people who proclaim to be "bassheads" have actually ever heard a truly piss-your-pants-loud subwoofer system.  There's not a headphone anywhere that can recreate that sort of experience.  Overly-bassy headphones, in my limited experience with them, tend to simply bloat everything up, without adding any of the fun aspect of stupid-loud bass.

 

[RexAeterna]

i agree. i don't like heavy bass on headphones at all. even speaker listening unless it was intended in the track. if i do want to hear chest discomforting wall shaking bass i'll do it on my floor tower speakers but most of the time that's rarely. i like my music listening to be as natural sounding and transparent as possible sitting back relaxing but i don't mind throwing in some electronic music in the mix for fun.

i do headphone listening at night as well so i don't want to hear heavy bass giving me a headach. i find if people want bass they should stick to speakers in all honesty cause bass on headphones is just a headach inducer and no way the same type of feeling from bass as you do with speakers in my opinion of course.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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I like bass, and when I want to hear bass, I play some dubstep with wibbly wobbly (timey wimey) bass using my computer speaker setup (Z-5500s, about all they're good for).
 
When I want to hear music, I listen to my headphones.  They have good low bass extension, impact, and tone, but they don't smear any other frequencies to attain that bass "personality".
 
Ungodly bass that makes your eyeballs quiver can be fun, but it forces the music to be extremely one-dimensional.  You get bass, and bass is all you get.  If I'm listening to NIN, yeah, I want good bass impact, but if I'm listening to, say, Celtic Woman or some good piobaireachd, I don't want any over-emphasis on the bass at all.  Most of the time, I want the bass I hear to be exactly what's in the song - neither more, nor less.  Headphones serve as a transparent source for the music to come out of, rather than a tinted window that changes what's played.
 
All that said, sometimes I have to wonder if some of the people who proclaim to be "bassheads" have actually ever heard a truly piss-your-pants-loud subwoofer system.  There's not a headphone anywhere that can recreate that sort of experience.  Overly-bassy headphones, in my limited experience with them, tend to simply bloat everything up, without adding any of the fun aspect of stupid-loud bass.
 

 
I used to use 5.1 speaker sets and I've got experience of what proper car sub setups can sound like but had to give up speakers to not upset parents/neighbours etc as I'm the kind of guy going very late to sleep and normally keep listening to music or gaming yet at 2 AM, so headphones became the practical choice and the main reason I started using headphones. Then I searched for some bassy headphone and ended up with Sennheiser HD 212 Pro which is very bassheavy by headphone standards (not that far from XB500 for example) and was like "where is the bass? Oo" after reading comments like "two subs attached to your head" which drove me into EQing and luckily I happened to find out kX Audio drivers for Audigy cards around that time (we're talking maybe 6~7 years ago or so) which has a very amazingly well working EQ that you can boost the frequencies and won't have to lower the whole range to get more bass and it does so without distorting and then I started getting to the point I was looking for when giving up on 5.1 speaker sets. Using this EQ I don't have to exaggerate about 6.25 ~ 8" sub-like bass capability like I feel most people grossly exaggerates bass output of headphones around the net compared to real subs, especially M50 which is NOWHERE close quantity-wise unEQ'd compared to even cheap/poorly powered 5 ~ 6.25" comp subs.
 
With the right EQ settings for XB500 I can get bass that will give me a ear tickling effect whit bassheavy bassnotes and will do so at very low volume of which would resemble probably already around ~70dB for ballads without any bass (with bassheavy songs we're probably talking 75~78dB levels) and yet the mids and highs can be made very clear like it was almost unaffected by the bass.
 
I wish I'd find some XB500 + Audigy 2/4 card owner (it's not like they are expensive, ~$65 investment, if you'd decide to try it out either) as I think people would get quite suprised what can be done with them. It's something the popular $150~$200 popular soundcards can't achieve when it comes to bass output and how well it can be made integrated with the music despite the strength of it so I'd heavily suggest bassheads giving it a try.

 

[Snow_Fox]

Well I am glad to see I am not the only one out there who feels the way I feel.

I had the AudioTechnica M50's recommended quite a bit because, I expressed concerns about bass being lacking in the higher end headphones I was interested in (Senn. 598's, AKG 701's ect.) I have found it weird how any recommendation for a headphones that were geared towards bass were also looked down upon for other reasons. As another user explained.. You will adapt to bass no matter how thumping it is.... 

I will definitely agree with the users who point out if your missing the bass your missing 1/3rd of the music. I however, personally (as others have mentioned)  do like accuracy and precision in my headphones. That goes for the high as well as the low and the mid. I think my concerns with bass mostly stemmed from fearing the Senns would sound bad on the low end which I personally feel they do not. Sure they lack the "THUMP" but, even in the more intricate metal songs I listen to I think they maintain a good degree of clarity and never become muddy as I feared they may. (not claiming to have some huge resume) Having never heard some of the higher end headphones, I can certainly say the bass on the Senns doesn't feel out of proportion with the rest of the headset. It hits the bass, the bass isn't hollow.. it just doesn't rattle the drivers.

 

[zmd]

Bass, accuracy, precision? Do try the HD25s. (Sorry, I really like these cans and can't stop pimping them out.)
 
I'm in the "quality over quantity" camp here. Low frequency sounds used in music need not go boom boom or thump thump unless recorded that way, IMO.

 

[DaBomb77766]

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I never understood why people say bass does not have an important role in those genres.  Symphony with no percussions/big horns?!? Jazz with no bassline/drums...same thing with Rock, no bass you're litterally removing the drums (well except for cymbals) and bass guitar...I think Les Claypool and John Entwistle might want to have a word with you
 
You're right though, its about all the pieces together and they all need some sort of balance, however, I do feel that bass under 100hz always needs to be a notch or two higher higher as it is a frequency range that our ears have a harder time hearing.
 

Well, I never said that it wasn't important with classical and jazz, just not quite as important.  But yes, it is still very important that it stays, but it's not "central" to the music like it is with hip-hop.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Have you ever to be forced to hear an entire concert which implemented a bad sound system? When they are using a low quality sound reinforcement setup it will usually have no bass and grainy treble. The concert is usually unemotional in that what seems to move people in rock is low middle and bass as well as antics on the stage. That is the live issue but headphones seem to be different.
 
Some peoples set-ups at Head-Fi shows are totally detailed in the high treble and have no bass. This could be the sound they love and have gotten used to. They hear the bass in other systems and roll their eyes back in silent opinion. (They do that due to the fact that it takes days and weeks for your mind to re-conform to a completely new sound signature. Not moments.}  It is just what ever system that you have used for along time ends up being what your mind guesses is the correct sound.
 
That is the cool part of this hobby. It is something to explore, there are very few rules, tons of informed opinions and lots of gear to try. No one sound signature is correct.

 

[Derp]

I like a little punchyness to the kick drum and the bass guitar in any song I'm listening to that has those respective instruments. I'm more drawn to huge, textured bass sounds in IDM music. Nothing blows me away on my headphones than an Autechre song blasted.

 

[wind016]

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Some peoples set-ups at Head-Fi shows are totally detailed in the high treble and have no bass. This could be the sound they love and have gotten used to. They hear the bass in other systems and roll their eyes back in silent opinion.

This seems to be the route most Head-fiers go. They set out to go buy the most sterile and lacking of warmth headphones and then end up rolling tubes.