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Originally Posted by Denaturat /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Erik, sorry for OT, but you seem very enthusiastic about both DT48 and K501 - so how do they compare directly, as both are reported to have rather similar characteristics.
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Well, yes and no. The K-501 has an expansive soundstage and a very open feel. The DT48 is closed and has a flat soundstage. The two couldn't be more different there. They share a neutral presentation and both are what some call "bass shy." I prefer to think of them as not having exaggerated bass, which people have come to think of as "normal" bass.
To pick a fine point, an electric bass is amplified and, therefore, exaggerated. It is very different from a plucked upright bass or an unamplified singer with a bass voice. The K-501 and DT48 do not give you the same impact that you get from amplified bass in a live setting. Nor do they produce the kind of bass people are used to from subwoofers. However, if you do a frequency sweep on either, you will see that both reproduce bass all the way down.
So what gives? Neither is tuned to overemphasize bass, and my guess is that this is done for both accuracy and to give a clearer picture of the mids and highs. Even in mixed reviews, you'll find that people agree on the mids and highs. Both do very well for chamber pieces, live recordings of acoustic material, and similar music. Neither makes bassheads happy since, while you can hear the bass, there's no "impact."
The K-501 and DT48 also differ in speed and resolution. The K-501 is plenty fast and resolving, but the DT48 is on a different level. The DT48 picks every last detail out of a recording, shows up differences in tubes and will let you know if there's any problems upstream. At a meet, I plugged my pair into a portable amp and spun some classical. It revealed some soft clipping on notes - ones that weren't there when I put the same disc into my rig and listened through the Zana.
Finally, the DT48 has a very different approach than any other headphone discussed here. A lot of people didn't like it, though I wish a few had given it more time. I put a good month of listening in on mine before I said anything here. It really grew on me - the tonality and timbre are dead on and it is as crisp and fast as the planar speakers I love so much.
Sorry for taking the thread off topic. I wanted to add that I think the HD-600 is better suited to large orchestral than the HD-650. It's less congested and the strings sound more realistic than they do on the HD-650.