[XENOPHOS]

What genres do you listen to and do you prefer a neutral or warm sound sig. for that type of music?

 

[d-cee]

jazz - warm and fuzzy
classical - neutral and detailed
pop/rap/rnb (anything heavily produced) - neutral but forgiving because some of the production on these tracks is shocking! bassiness is desirable usually but needs to be tight

 

[dizzyorange]

classical: cold and detailed
jazz: bassy and detailed
vocals/pop/rock: weighty and sweet, like maple syrup

 

[bellsprout]

any music made with instruments i prefer as neutral as possible

 

[2deadeyes]

classical - detailed, accurate, neutral
rock/pop - detailed & warm w/full bodied sound
electronica - bassy

 

[BirdRobin]

Classical - flattttttttttttttttttttttttt

 

[65535]

Acoustic instrumental music must be warm and forward, rock/pop/new age stuff must be neutral and precise. There is something about the warm crack of a record with a tube amp.

 

[MD1032]

It's not about neutral or warm or bright it is... it's about how NATURAL it sounds, at least for me.

 

[itsborken]

neutral across the board for rock/jazz/classical/new age;I prefer to let the recording stand on its own merits.

 

[catscratch]

Um, we could call two completely different sound signatures "neutral" when it comes to headphones, and none of us would be right (or you could say "all" of us, if you're one of those "optimists" that I keep hearing about).

So, while I don't pretend to know what "neutral" is, my rating of various headphones on the warm/cold scale is:

HD600 - pretty near neutral as far as I can tell
K501 - cold
SR-404 - cold
K340 bass-light version - cold
ER-4P - yikes! very cold
UM2 - warm with recessed highs
E500 - warmish but a bit washed out
SR-001 - warm
HD650 - very warm, excessive bass and not enough highs (this is not always a bad thing)

So, now that we have some idea of what I consider warm or cold, here's what I like, by genre:

Classical - slightly warmish sound with lots of impact. Instrument separation and detail have to be good, and instrument tone and tembre have to be right, though I do prefer them to be a touch warm. HD600 sounds very nice here but it doesn't have enough detail or instrument separation.

Rock/Metal - warm and rich, with a big bloomy bass. The HD650 is very nice here on slower rock, and the SR-001 is very nice across the board. Rock is usually mixed to be thin and bright to sound better on average systems, and warm headphones take the edge off the sound and fill in the missing parts.

Electronica - cold and impactful, with as much detail and instrument separation as possible while keeping the highs smooth. The SR-404 is very, very nice here, though it has an annoying lower treble peak that ruins some songs. Ditto for the K340, it's even colder than the 404 but it's treble is more linear, making it sound smoother. A cold but lush system with psytrance or good chillout will completely blow your mind.

Jazz, pop, rap - I don't listen to them so I can't really tell you.

 

[MaZa]

My preference is towards NATURAL sound for whatever genre im listening, not necessarily actual neutralness of a headphone.

Classical - Neutral but smooth sound and wide soundstage.

Metal - Aggressive mids and highs with strong but very tight bass. Closer to real thing, the better.

Ambient - Neutral but smooth and wide soundstage.

 

[pearljam5000]

do you like your DT-990's with metal?
Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif My preference is towards NATURAL sound for whatever genre im listening, not necessarily actual neutralness of a headphone. Classical - Neutral but smooth sound and wide soundstage. Metal - Aggressive mids and highs with strong but very tight bass. Closer to real thing, the better. Ambient - Neutral but smooth and wide soundstage.

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pearljam5000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif do you like your DT-990's with metal?

Yes. Only thing that bit bothers me are slight wierd thinnes (not exactly recession) on mids and slight sibilance on highs. Latter is fixed by some tweaking in around 7-10khz area.

 

[Quint]

Primarily rock. For that genre, I like punchy, but also fluid and warm to bring out the inherent naturalness of the recording (if there's any there to begin with).

 

[Kraegorn]

Rock/Metal: Neutral, Bassy, Dynamic, "In your face" soundstage. (PS1)

New Wave/80's Pop/Easy listening: Extra detail, Wide Soundstage, Neutral or
Warm (depending on mood, K701/HD650)

New Age/Classical: Extra detail, Warm, Distant/Wide soundstage (HD650)