[Prog Rock Man]

Bass we can feel and the timing of the bass is important to the emotional reaction to music (this is from memory based on an excellent programme about music by the composer Howard Goodall). How 'exciting' the music is depends on the speed of the beat in relation to the heartbeat. Faster and more exciting.
 
In our modern world maybe people are looking for more excitement, hence pop and rock has faster than the avearge heartbeat rhythms making them more popular. Add in bass you can feel at raves, discos etc and you can see how people get worked up into a frenze.

 

[EddieE]

There seems to be an idea floating around that that if people find bass important to their music then they should want it to be boosted beyond the other areas of the frequency response. 
 
The line almost seems to be that if you don't want headphones where the bass is the dominant element then you don't like bass. It's a false dichotomy.
 
I find bass really important to my music; equally important to mid bass, mids, mid treble and treble. I don't want any one of those elements to overwhelm or detract from the other as they are all part of the music.
 
The quality of the bass, just like the quality of the rest of the frequency response, is all important. But boosting the quantity of any one element to make it dominant does not improve the music.
 
I'll go back to my previous point - after listening to one sound signature for a week or so, your mind adjusts to the levels anyway. That reaction someone coming from bass dominated headphones "these have no bass" is just that there is less bass than your mind is conditioned to expect. Within a week that amount of bass would seem like the right amount too and going back to the bass dominated cans again you'd feel like you were being repeatedly punched in the face by the bass and would notice how much less detail of your music you could hear clearly.
 
And that is the crux of it. While we adjust to heavy bass/neutral bass pretty quickly and the amount of bass you have will always sound "right" once you get used to it - the fact that dominance of any one area of the frequency response does make it harder to hear the parts of the music in other areas -that doesn't go away.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I prefer bass detail to BASS THUMP.  None of my 1970s headphones do BASS THUMP as back then it was all about the detail, which suited audiophile music tasts which were still classical and jazz based.

 

[Tronz]

To me bass, midrange and treble is a like a building. The bass is the foundation, the midrange being the livable area and the treble being the roof. Without one, there is no building just like it would be no music.

 

[Redcarmoose]

 

 
I'll go back to my previous point - after listening to one sound signature for a week or so, your mind adjusts to the levels anyway. That reaction someone coming from bass dominated headphones "these have no bass" is just that there is less bass than your mind is conditioned to expect. Within a week that amount of bass would seem like the right amount too and going back to the bass dominated cans again you'd feel like you were being repeatedly punched in the face by the bass and would notice how much less detail of your music you could hear clearly.
 
And that is the crux of it. While we adjust to heavy bass/neutral bass pretty quickly and the amount of bass you have will always sound "right" once you get used to it - the fact that dominance of any one area of the frequency response does make it harder to hear the parts of the music in other areas -that doesn't go away.

@EddieE     2X that's well said! Crux of it.
 
 

 

[DemonicLemming]

I don't think it's so much of a "balanced" vs the T1 or HD800, but it provides more of an organic listening experience.  If you go to a rock or metal show, you're not going to hear "airy delicacy" and "good separation between the instruments" that so many people like to characterize the T1 and HD800 as having; it's going to be a big, noisy, messy fun time.  Some people - myself included a lot of the time - can enjoy a headphone that's not as "technically proficient" for all sorts of music, simply because it makes listening to music more fun - rather than analyzing how Bassist 1 is playing a specific string slightly differently than Bassist 2, we just tap our toes and rock out.
 
Ruler-flat FR and an overall dry tone (what I got from the HD800s, the one time I got to listen to them) might be great for classical, but it just doesn't sit well with music meant to be more "engagingly entertaining".
 
Quote:

Good morning. 
Could you please elaborate a little this statement ?
Are you saying that you deem the HD598 more balanced of the two other models ?
This is quite of a statement, enough to provoke violent reactions here

As I am evaluating the purchase of one among the HD5X8 series, of which I am reading great things, you will understand my extreme interest.
Thanks and regards,
gino
 

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I don't think it's so much of a "balanced" vs the T1 or HD800, but it provides more of an organic listening experience.  If you go to a rock or metal show, you're not going to hear "airy delicacy" and "good separation between the instruments" that so many people like to characterize the T1 and HD800 as having; it's going to be a big, noisy, messy fun time.  Some people - myself included a lot of the time - can enjoy a headphone that's not as "technically proficient" for all sorts of music, simply because it makes listening to music more fun - rather than analyzing how Bassist 1 is playing a specific string slightly differently than Bassist 2, we just tap our toes and rock out.
 
Ruler-flat FR and an overall dry tone (what I got from the HD800s, the one time I got to listen to them) might be great for classical, but it just doesn't sit well with music meant to be more "engagingly entertaining".

Very well worded! Couldn't have said that better myself and totally agreeing with you and I also fall into the category of which find less analytical more enjoyable to listen to. Most people might find "smearing" a bad word but yea for me if the instruments are too well separated it just doesn't sound realistic/enjoyable and maybe a bit cold and non-musical.
 

 

[Redcarmoose]

This may be off subject but many guitarists have been known to cut holes into the amp speakers to create a physical fuzz distortion and changing any of the white papers specs about the driver. That is rock!

 

[zmd]

Josh Homme plugged his guitar straight into a bass amp. Hellz yeah!

 

[DaBomb77766]

Well, not to mention that in most rock electric guitars are purposely made to clip, or distort.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Hate me all you want but I have been around a lot of bass heavy headphones and speakers and personally I can't stand bass heavy headphones/speakers. my parents have a car that has very Bassy speakers and it drives me nuts and I hate it. it gives me a headache, and my uncle's car has so much bass you can't hear any of the music. I prefer mids and treble. That's where the music is.

 

[Uncle Erik]

This may be off subject but many guitarists have been known to cut holes into the amp speakers to create a physical fuzz distortion and changing any of the white papers specs about the driver. That is rock!

There's that, and also a lot of guitar players overdrive their tubes and oversaturate the output transformers. They also like old carbon comp resistors that are wildly out of spec and drift as the amp heats up. Accuracy isn't important.

You can also thank guitar players for driving up the price of NOS tubes as they burn through them in a few months (or faster) by driving them beyond their limits.

 

[AnAnalogSpirit]

THERE CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH HOLY BASS.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

SORRY I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE AWESOME BASS IM HEARING.

 

[jackmccabe]

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Redcarmoose 
 
This may be off subject but many guitarists have been known to cut holes into the amp speakers to create a physical fuzz distortion and changing any of the white papers specs about the driver. That is rock!

Guitarists don't really do this any more as they have access to pedals and effects to create distortion and fuzz.
 
Also Uncle Erik I am one of those guitarists that uses up all your tubes, but solid state just cannot create the same guitar tone as tubes.
 
I find that bass on headphones needs to be very well controlled and detailed or it just comes across as a horribly boomy sound that smears all the other frequencies.
With speakers  I find a decent sub can produce spectacular bass that really helps make the music more involving.