[aFo]

Although all headphones color the sound in some way, I want to hear my music as honestly as possible. So I suppose I would go for a can that is more reference quality.

 

[fatcat28037]

I listen with reference phones 99.99% of the time, the other .01% I use these.....

 

[milesandcoltrane]

To me fun headphones are like that nasty one-night stand you had, with that skanky, vulgar minx you picked up at some shady joint, piss drunk, only half aware of what you were doing. Sometimes you might even wake up the next morning, feeling 7 different kinds of s**t.

With reference phones, it's the girl you're gonna be married to. She dresses pretty decently. She's a lady in the street, but in the bedroom she can pretty naughty if she wants to, at times. Your parents are happy with her, your friends are quite happy with her too. Society finds her acceptable at the very least. You lead the good life.

Personally I'd like Reference most of the time. But once in a while, when I get a deep stirring in the loins, I crave just that a'lil Fun =))

 

[paaj]

if it where like that your reference headphone would run away after you tried one of the 'fun' ones

 

[Acix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ha ha... I think you should maybe get one too...say the HD800 or T1?

The HD800 or T1 are not reference hps, sorry dude.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milesandcoltrane /img/forum/go_quote.gif With reference phones, it's the girl you're gonna be married to. She dresses pretty decently. She's a lady in the street, but in the bedroom she can pretty naughty if she wants to, at times.

That's generalizing, in "reference" terms.

In the bedroom, some "reference" phones, like Sennheisers, would just lie there and tell you to get it over with.

Denon would be like having a 400 pound woman lying on top of you.

Beyer would be fun but balk at anything kinky.

Grado RS-1 with flats would be like having Jen A do ANYTHING!

HE-5 would be exciting in bed but no personality, and she'd fake orgasm.

 

[DeadEars]

I'd simply prefer to hear my music live. If I can't get that, then I want to get as close to it as possible. Whatever that's called? Reference, I guess. If music has life, fun, great rhythm, get's my feet a' tappin' Yeah, that's what I want. Anything that gets in the way of that is bad: things that make me focus on the detail rather than the whole are just as obnoxious as things that spotlight certain characteristics of the sound.

So what headphones do that?

 

[David.M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acix /img/forum/go_quote.gif The HD800 or T1 are not reference hps, sorry dude.

blasphemy !

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrGreen /img/forum/go_quote.gif Er, how does treble accent make some music unlistenable anymore than say revealing mids? How is clarity not a reference trait (unless you are using "what you like" as reference, or the marketing term "reference")? How is a detailed headphone less accurate than a muddy, undetailed headphone? Less detailed headphones will blur timbrally similar sounds (overdub vocal harmonies - the lower tone is always pushed back due to the nature of sound if the headphone is inadequate; violins and violas are blurred). Headphones dont need accented treble to be detailed, detail exists in all frequencies. Please explain your stance. How do you suppose a simple machine takes fun out of music? Sure, if the headphone is severely deficient in a particular frequency, it may make a headphone less fun (such as if it has a lot of bass and treble, and very little mids), but thats apparently a "fun" frequency response, then I can agree with you. But a neutral, detailed headphone will not take anything away, simply present the recording as is. It's perfectly fine if you don't like a relatively honest headphone (all speakers have fair amounts of distortion), but you cant shape words to avoid basic science.

yowza you really misinterpreted what I was saying. I was just trying to be brief cause i've said similar things before. Maybe I'll just start a thread about it. But starting new threads on head-fi these days is kind of a scary proposal

It seems we are saying the same thing in different ways. What I meant was that detail alone does not equal accuracy. And a lot of headphones accentuate treble and detail to have an "accurate-ish sound", but in doing so, they mess up the tonal balance, and so are not, in the end, accurate, IMO. When called upon to reproduce a rich sound or rich recording they cannot do so, because they are colored in the opposite direction. Same thing with clarity. Accentuated treble gives you a "clear sounding" headphone, but that doesn't mean it's a reference for all the millions of other things that go into making a piece of music beautiful. It would be like making an AI robot that can only express joy. That's one thing and that's good, but there's a lot more to people than that.

Clarity is part of being faithful to a recording. But so are a whole slew of other things.

I was saying the same thing when I referred to taking the fun out of music. If a headphone exaggerates one part of the spectrum, then you can't hear the subtle balance between all the notes, which makes it boring. to me, of course.

 

[Acix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David.M /img/forum/go_quote.gif blasphemy !

Right...religions are unbalanced too.

 

[bdh]

DeadEars has it right. If listening to dance music doesn't make you want to get up and dance, if listening to rock music doesn't make you bop you head and tap your foot, if listening to vocal music doesn't inspire or bring a tear to your eye, or listening to a symphony doesn't get your blood going, then your system is not a reference system, because those things are what occurs when listening to live music -- and that's the reason they created the music in the first place. But that also doesn't mean it should sound like crap. A true reference system should have all the attributes of the amazing analytical system, but also be full of life.

 

[subtle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acix /img/forum/go_quote.gif The HD800 or T1 are not reference hps, sorry dude.

They are far more reference than the K701/2 could ever dream of being, sorry dude.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by subtle /img/forum/go_quote.gif They are far more reference than the K701/2 could ever dream of being, sorry dude.

Like the man said!

Not to mention Acix, have you even heard the T1s? Last we spoke you had yet to hear them.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Acix I think you forgot to remove the weights from your scale it doesn't seem to be balancing right

just kidding with ya of course

 

[Graphicism]

I prefer reference headphones because they're the most fun... but by 'fun' I would presume you mean colored like the D2000 or HD650. Well I definitely prefer reference for music and fun, colored, bass heavy headphones for music and games.