[scottie584]

There were headphones in that picture? Didn't even notice.

 

[MorbidToaster]

It's the first thing I noticed.
 
Quote:

There were headphones in that picture? Didn't even notice.

 
 

 

[AudioRook]

I don't really ever get called out by Beats owners except one time from a really good buddy. I thought he was joking so I played along.
He got two Beats on Black Friday. At least he got em on discount, right?
 
Quote:

You're on the right track, extrabigmehdi.
The descriptions, fast and slow, refer to note decay. The way a headphone achieves note decay depends on how quickly the driver can recover from the initial impulse and transduce the subsequent impulse.
This is not a myth; it most certainly affects the attack and decay of a note noticeably. In a sense, this is an aspect of detail (as you can likely imagine). Listen to a guitar riff (I personally use classical pieces because I'm preposterously familiar with the violin). Each pluck of the string should be distinguished individually; if the plucks slur, it could indicate that the transducer you're using is slow. 
 
 

I'd be surprised if these were used interchangeably (bright and quick), but I think you mean that they're correlated, and I wouldn't be surprised in that case. AC500, this part is also for you. You stated that "quality treble = detail." Well, in a sense, that's true; if a headphone has quality bass, quality midrange, or quality treble, that naturally means it has detail (that's why you'd add the adjective "quality"). However, I'm afraid you're referring to a misnomer, since what I just stated is, at best, terribly redundant. A very common, popular trick among mastering engineers is to tweak the treble. By EQing the treble, you can achieve two things very easily:
1. create the illusion of more detail
2. create the illusion of a larger soundstage
These aforementioned reasons are why you see so many bright 'phones described as fast and spacious. I remember seeing an interview with Robert Hadley (an impressive mastering engineer) where he talked about the illusions he can create (such as "opening up" the sound) by simply tweaking the prominence of frequency registers. However, it's important to know there actually is not more detail; it is an illusion (often a desirable one). It also has absolutely nothing to do with note decay (fast and slow doesn't even remotely refer to the quality of the treble): "better" treble will not improve note decay.
Soundstage? Well, that's a bit more complicated; after all, soundstage is essentially the brain's interpretation of the sinusoidal waves our ears receive in the context of our existing schema relating to positional keys. Example: the trombones are placed near the back in an orchestra. If I hear a very prominent trombone in an orchestral track, my brain will perceive a smaller soundstage because it interprets the trombone as closer to me. Conversely, if the trombone is significantly less prominent in the same track, my brain will perceive a larger soundstage because it'll interpret the trombone as farther away from me. 

 
wow, really educating 
thanks

 

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

I think to fix our Beats problem we should have less of this:

 
And more of this:

Ah... V-Moda girl... if only... *sighs*

Who draws all of these pictures? Like really.a head fier maybe since the Vmoda are still relaively unknown?
 
That Vmoda girl looks like she is inspired from Miki from idolm@ster but then again, anime girls have very very similar qualities

 

[dleblanc343]

I AM THE 1% . I am 19 and working at a hi-fi store and because of my head-fi addiction, I already know more about headphones than all the other employees (some of which have been working for over 20 years). Some guy today came in asking for a good 400$ headphone for home use, he was leaning towards beats pro. I pulled out the Hifiman HE300's from the counter, let him try with and ef2 and a Nuforce icon, nothing too fancy. He was immediately sold, and saved himself a hundred bucks! 

 
Quote:

 
5% of retail employees are proficcent in what they are selling.
less than 1% is a very good and knowledgable at what they are selling.
 
That 1% would be if any of us ranked head fiers went and worked in a retail place that sells headphones(not as the main thing)
 

 
 

 

[Yanksrox94]

So i just got my grado sr225i today . I think they sound amazing while my brother thinks his beats solo hd are far superior :/ . He listened to mine and said they had no bass and his beats were so much clearer. He knows nothing..

 

[grandehombre09]

Quote:

So i just got my grado sr225i today

. I think they sound amazing while my brother thinks his beats solo hd are far superior :/ . He listened to mine and said they had no bass and his beats were so much clearer. He knows nothing..

Sounds like you need to get a new brother! 

 

[Yanksrox94]

My thought exactly. He thinks im lying and on the inside i want beats. Lol.

 

[ac500]

You should convince him to try them for a few hours, then switch back to his Solos on a song he just listened to. That way he should be able to tell the extreme loss of clarity, unless he has no sense of hearing or maybe only listens to poorly mastered rap.

 

[grandehombre09]

Quote:

You should convince him to try them for a few hours, then switch back to his Solos on a song he just listened to. That way he should be able to tell the extreme loss of clarity, unless he has no sense of hearing or maybe only listens to poorly mastered rap.

Yea! You know, If I listened to poorly ripped/mastered urban hip-hop/techno/trance only, then sign me up for the beats! 

 

[Parall3l]

I listen to poorly mastered Hip-Hop all the time and I still don't like the Beats.

 

[grandehombre09]

Quote:

I listen to poorly mastered Hip-Hop all the time and I still don't like the Beats.

I attribute this due to the fact that yourself, and so many other great listeners on this forum, have seen the light!

Or should I have said "heard the word!"...

 

[dleblanc343]

You should really look into hifiman's. The he300's are better than the srh940's in my opinion, and they are dynamics as well. And the new he400's might be a game ender for 350$. I started this hobby last winter and was seeing the srh940's as my next dream headphone (only had srh440's at that point). Well, with the job I got and the access to equipment I have; in 6 months I've passed that level without ever expecting it. The shure 940's proved to be a big let-down for me personally, feels and sounds like a toy to me (they're definitely not overpriced though, and good for people without amplification I guess). However, the 1840's really caught my mind, anxious to see how those turn out!
 
Quote:

SRH940's strong point is everything, but particularly upper mids and treble. Bass is great but not basshead quantity. I have not yet found a sub-$900 headphone that beats the SRH940 treble and upper mids, and I'm still looking. 

 

 

[192405]

So my practical step brother got Beats Solo for Christmas break. I had no forewarning of this, and I go to his house and walk into the door, go into the basement, and there he is, sitting on the couch listening to his Solo's while I have my MDR-V6s on my neck from Christmas too. I smile, almost like a hunter who sees easy meat, and he smiles back, almost as if to laugh at my haneous choice of headphones (no, there were no "hey"s or "Hi"s here. We meant bussiness.) Almost as if by que, he removes the glossy plastic off his head and says "Nice headphones" with a smile that says "I got better though". I take it as a challenge and take the V6's off my neck and twist them into a pretzel, drop them on the ground, pull them up by the chord, untwist them and show that they show absolutely 0% harm done to them by the fall.
 
And at that moment, his smile that said "Aha, I got better headphones" turned to "What?!" and he stops smiling and says "Oh okay, whatever" and he goes upstairs, not losing his dignity and going to get an Orange Crush from the fridge upstairs. I go upstairs too because it was almost dinner time, and at that time he says "Well yours might be metal and bulletproof, but mine are more comfortable", and almost as a challenge I give him my headphones and take his, trying them on. My first reaciton to them? I thought in my head "What the hell is this rubber thing on the headband?! Why does it feel so awkward?!" and take them off seconds later. He still kept my V6s on, and says "Hrm, these are actually pretty comfortable." and I also take the little iddy-biddy Monster-branded chord that comes with the Solos and take out my gigantic heavy duty Sony plug and show them in comparison. His face turns to an almost intimidated look, as if to say "Oh ****, he means bussiness."
 
So we have a peaceful dinner with turkey and chicken left overs and some corn, and some conversation thrown around about Modern Warfare 3 and GRID, knowing that he is an extremely avid gamer, and we finish and go back to the basement where he plays Skyrim on his Xbox and I play Mount and Blade Warband on my PC. An hour or two pass by and he comes up to me, saying that his headphones HAVE to be better somehow, and I simply unplug my headphones from my laptop, give him the plug, and say "hold this", then proceed to walk away several feet, and he just stands there like "Damn it's long..." (thats what she said ) and I walk back and take my plug, saying "You can tryem out too if you wanna test the sound", and he agrees and takes them with him to listen to his mainstream pop and gameplay from Skyrim, while I borrow the Solos.
 
My first reactions in thought? They were okay... really everything is muffled except in bass, which is quite adequate, but overall it's muffled, warm, and greatly UNdetailed in comparison to my V6s. My V6s are just plain superior to my (and many of my friends) ears. So an hour or two pass where I give him back his Beats, but he doesnt seem to wanna give up the V6s, which I say "Are they good?" and he lifts one cup off, and says "What?" (thats where he also notices the isolation ) and I reply" Are they good?" where he says "Yup" and I leave the beats with him and go back to listen to my game through my HP laptop speakers instead, and when he finally decides to go to bed, he returns my V6s and says "Seeya tomorrow" (I slept over that day) "Nice headphones". and proceeds to go to bed.
 
All in all, V6 - 1, Solos - 0.
 
Need I say more?

 

[mhtn]

Quote:

So my practical step brother got Beats Solo for Christmas break. I had no forewarning of this, and I go to his house and walk into the door, go into the basement, and there he is, sitting on the couch listening to his Solo's while I have my MDR-V6s on my neck from Christmas too. I smile, almost like a hunter who sees easy meat, and he smiles back, almost as if to laugh at my haneous choice of headphones (no, there were no "hey"s or "Hi"s here. We meant bussiness.) Almost as if by que, he removes the glossy plastic off his head and says "Nice headphones" with a smile that says "I got better though". I take it as a challenge and take the V6's off my neck and twist them into a pretzel, drop them on the ground, pull them up by the chord, untwist them and show that they show absolutely 0% harm done to them by the fall.
 
And at that moment, his smile that said "Aha, I got better headphones" turned to "What?!" and he stops smiling and says "Oh okay, whatever" and he goes upstairs, not losing his dignity and going to get an Orange Crush from the fridge upstairs. I go upstairs too because it was almost dinner time, and at that time he says "Well yours might be metal and bulletproof, but mine are more comfortable", and almost as a challenge I give him my headphones and take his, trying them on. My first reaciton to them? I thought in my head "What the hell is this rubber thing on the headband?! Why does it feel so awkward?!" and take them off seconds later. He still kept my V6s on, and says "Hrm, these are actually pretty comfortable." and I also take the little iddy-biddy Monster-branded chord that comes with the Solos and take out my gigantic heavy duty Sony plug and show them in comparison. His face turns to an almost intimidated look, as if to say "Oh ****, he means bussiness."
 
So we have a peaceful dinner with turkey and chicken left overs and some corn, and some conversation thrown around about Modern Warfare 3 and GRID, knowing that he is an extremely avid gamer, and we finish and go back to the basement where he plays Skyrim on his Xbox and I play Mount and Blade Warband on my PC. An hour or two pass by and he comes up to me, saying that his headphones HAVE to be better somehow, and I simply unplug my headphones from my laptop, give him the plug, and say "hold this", then proceed to walk away several feet, and he just stands there like "Damn it's long..." (thats what she said ) and I walk back and take my plug, saying "You can tryem out too if you wanna test the sound", and he agrees and takes them with him to listen to his mainstream pop and gameplay from Skyrim, while I borrow the Solos.
 
My first reactions in thought? They were okay... really everything is muffled except in bass, which is quite adequate, but overall it's muffled, warm, and greatly UNdetailed in comparison to my V6s. My V6s are just plain superior to my (and many of my friends) ears. So an hour or two pass where I give him back his Beats, but he doesnt seem to wanna give up the V6s, which I say "Are they good?" and he lifts one cup off, and says "What?" (thats where he also notices the isolation ) and I reply" Are they good?" where he says "Yup" and I leave the beats with him and go back to listen to my game through my HP laptop speakers instead, and when he finally decides to go to bed, he returns my V6s and says "Seeya tomorrow" (I slept over that day) "Nice headphones". and proceeds to go to bed.
 
All in all, V6 - 1, Solos - 0.
 
Need I say more?

I enjoyed your story very much!