[brat]

I've always thought that headphones' bass should be tested with non-bassy songs. With bassy ones every headphone sounds "bassy".

 

[jerg]

Quote:

I've always thought that headphones' bass should be tested with non-bassy songs. With bassy ones every headphone sounds "bassy".

OP probably meant "good songs to test bass impact/thud on headphones", and not ".,...bass resolution/refinement/extension/clarity...".

 

[brat]

Quote:

OP probably meant "good songs to test bass impact/thud on headphones", and not ".,...bass resolution/refinement/extension/clarity...".

OK
SACD/CD or lossless file of "Tide of Thepidation" - E.S.T. - incredible DSD recording!!
 
 

 

[billith]

I always like these two songs:
Money - The Flying Lizards
I Can See Clearly Now - The Holy Cole Trio.
 
Both have great bass presence.

 

[maverickronin]

If I'm not using test tones, I use this.
 

 

[wallace]

Try  Bela Fleck's Flight of the cosmic hippo.I can make next door's cat tremble with my transmission line speakers,works almost as good on the phones.

PS,you have to wait until about halfway through when the bass solo just goes down an octave,

.Best screw your floor boards down !.

 

[TMRaven]

The XX's Fantasy has some nasty bass near the end.  
Of course this is youtube so it's probably bad.
 

 
 

 

[AstralStorm]

I'm not a big fan ofhiphop, so my three bass test songs:
1) Disillusion - Gloria - Aerophobic
Industrial. Lots of bass guitar and some synth bass.
2) Kraftwerk - Tour de France - Aero Dynamik
Minimalist pre-techno? Synth bass. Various kinds of impact, also plenty of subbass. Excellent for testing the results of bass on soundstaging.
3) J. Haydn - Symphony G-dur no. 94 "Mit dem Paukenschlag", part 2: Andante
Actual classical, this features the titular drum - if the bass is broken, then the drum won't have the impact envisioned by Haydn.
Most headphones actually fail this test - it requires a lot of good decay.
 
You know, no list of audiophile music would be complete without classical.

 
For the record, I've just bought Ultrasone Pro 650 based on the measurements of the bass impulse response.
There are few headphones with actual non-ringy bass and these are one of them.
Also the fact that nobody mentioned any sibilance. From what I hear in the reviews, they won't disappoint.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

For the record, I've just bought Ultrasone Pro 650 based on the measurements of the bass impulse response.
There are few headphones with actual non-ringy bass and these are one of them.
Also the fact that nobody mentioned any sibilance. From what I hear in the reviews, they won't disappoint.

Where did you see those measurements?
 
The ones Tyll got a hold of don't look too hot...

 

[AstralStorm]

Here you go:
http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php?graphID[0]=1733&graphID[1]=&graphID[2]=&graphID[3]=&graphType=3&buttonSelection=Compare+Headphones
 
Maybe that guy actually measured HFI-650? Either that, or the graph looks better... 500 Hz looks atrocious.
Never mind, I had to buy something around this price range.

 

[colmustard]

radiohead's the king of limbs has some very low frequencies and is pretty well recorded if your willing to listen to anything besides hip-hop.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

Here you go:
http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php?graphID[0]=1733&graphID[1]=&graphID[2]=&graphID[3]=&graphType=3&buttonSelection=Compare+Headphones
 
Maybe that guy actually measured HFI-650? Either that, or the graph looks better... 500 Hz looks atrocious.
Never mind, I had to buy something around this price range.

Innerfidelity is Tyll Hertsens', founder and former CEO of Headroom, new site.  I believe that Tyll is using an even more advanced set up as compared to the one he originally put together for Headroom.
 
It does look better at 50hz than 30hz though its a pretty unusual looking waveform.  Headroom doesn't the Audeze LCD-2 up on their site to use a a proper standard, but the SE535's waveforms are pretty **** close to perfect.  Most good dynamic 'phone have curves more like this, which actually sounds pretty good despite looking nothing like a square wave since square wave aren't exactly common in music.  To compare it so something I've heard which has a similar graph, I'll go with the Sony XB700s.  The primary differences would appear to be the 'sones slight overshoot and medium amount of ringing before settling into an otherwise good square wave.  The XB700 on the other hand show a significant amount of undershoot, a touch or ringing, and a slow leisurely climb to the top of a mostly flat square wave.
 
The good news is that its better than it looks since humans are pretty tolerant of large amount distortion in the bass before it becomes audible.  I'd imagine it would hit fast and stay fairly well defined at 50hz at least.

 

[Kail]

Quote:

Innerfidelity is Tyll Hertsens', founder and former CEO of Headroom, new site.  I believe that Tyll is using an even more advanced set up as compared to the one he originally put together for Headroom.
 
It does look better at 50hz than 30hz though its a pretty unusual looking waveform.  Headroom doesn't the Audeze LCD-2 up on their site to use a a proper standard, but the SE535's waveforms are pretty **** close to perfect.  Most good dynamic 'phone have curves more like this, which actually sounds pretty good despite looking nothing like a square wave since square wave aren't exactly common in music.  To compare it so something I've heard which has a similar graph, I'll go with the Sony XB700s.  The primary differences would appear to be the 'sones slight overshoot and medium amount of ringing before settling into an otherwise good square wave.  The XB700 on the other hand show a significant amount of undershoot, a touch or ringing, and a slow leisurely climb to the top of a mostly flat square wave.
 
The good news is that its better than it looks since humans are pretty tolerant of large amount distortion in the bass before it becomes audible.  I'd imagine it would hit fast and stay fairly well defined at 50hz at least.

http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php?graphID[0]=1733&graphID[1]=2851&graphID[2]=2321&graphID[3]=2033&graphType=3&buttonSelection=Compare+Headphones
 Ultrasone graph looks horrible in comparison with other decent phones. Avoid it at any cost.

 

[colmustard]

Quote:

http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php?graphID[0]=1733&graphID[1]=2851&graphID[2]=2321&graphID[3]=2033&graphType=3&buttonSelection=Compare+Headphones
 Ultrasone graph looks horrible in comparison with other decent phones. Avoid it at any cost.

 
You best be trolling.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

 Ultrasone graph looks horrible in comparison with other decent phones. Avoid it at any cost.

Is actually more "different" than horrible IMO.  I'd be more concerned about the 500hz square wave than the 50hz...