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Headphones for metal music - ultimate solution
Jan 25, 2016 at 9:05 PM Post #3,796 of 12,271
psalmanazar said:
@sagana
Black metal is so lo-fi, any real treble emphasis is a no go. You want something flattish with a good soundstage and instrument separation for the Emperor and Absu type bands. Open headphones will present them much more clearly.

If you don't already have a DAC+amp, a receiver, or good soundcard that will eat into your budget too if you don't want to be stuck with choosing between say the Sennheiser HD 558/598, Oppo PM-3, Philips X2, HE 400S, or closed headphones that you can use out of your phone or laptop's headphone jack. Some of them are not worth their price in many places, eg The Oppo PM-3 is almost 600 euros on Amazon.de

You should actually try the 400S before making your purchase. It has issues with the pads sealing and pair to pair variance that can make some sound very veiled including the pair I tried. If you have to buy the Focus pads to get the 400S to seal, you might as well just get a real HD 600 and a cheap dac+amp for that price. The 400i doesn't have these functionality problems which is why everyone went nuts when it was priced below the 400s for a bit last year.

 
For a 300 euro limit setup I would go used: a working HD 580 or 600 (200 or below), a cheap sound card or combo unit like the Monoprice Desktop Amp or Fiio FiiO E09K, and a new set of Sennheiser brand replacement ear pads (40-50ish). If new, I would just get an HD 598 (only 20-30 euros more than the 558), plug it into my laptop, and save up to get something better. I hated the X2 and AKG K7XX has a hole in the staging that separates the guitar note/string from the distortion which I find to be completely unacceptable for listening to metal. Try before you buy of course.
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Yoooooo!

How's it going, buddy?!?

It's been too long.
 
Jan 25, 2016 at 9:16 PM Post #3,797 of 12,271
More black metal thoughts....
 
MDR 7550/EX800ST is really good for black metal too. has better/clearer mids than XB90EX so not too much bass.
 
I even tried some black metal cassettes out of a walkman to be sure :D
 
You know what else is great for black metal? Koss PortaPro!!!
 
You know it's good because they're Fenriz' headphone of choice! And i've probably used it more than any other headphone for metal. That is, until I became an IEM junkie...
 

(This pic was posted long ago by @MohawkUS
tongue.gif
I remember watching the black metal documentary when it came out and being like WOAH!!! PORTAPROS!!!)
 
Jan 25, 2016 at 10:08 PM Post #3,800 of 12,271
psalmanazar said:
@sagana
Black metal is so lo-fi, any real treble emphasis is a no go. You want something flattish with a good soundstage and instrument separation for the Emperor and Absu type bands. Open headphones will present them much more clearly.

If you don't already have a DAC+amp, a receiver, or good soundcard that will eat into your budget too if you don't want to be stuck with choosing between say the Sennheiser HD 558/598, Oppo PM-3, Philips X2, HE 400S, or closed headphones that you can use out of your phone or laptop's headphone jack. Some of them are not worth their price in many places, eg The Oppo PM-3 is almost 600 euros on Amazon.de

You should actually try the 400S before making your purchase. It has issues with the pads sealing and pair to pair variance that can make some sound very veiled including the pair I tried. If you have to buy the Focus pads to get the 400S to seal, you might as well just get a real HD 600 and a cheap dac+amp for that price. The 400i doesn't have these functionality problems which is why everyone went nuts when it was priced below the 400s for a bit last year.

 
For a 300 euro limit setup I would go used: a working HD 580 or 600 (200 or below), a cheap sound card or combo unit like the Monoprice Desktop Amp or Fiio FiiO E09K, and a new set of Sennheiser brand replacement ear pads (40-50ish). If new, I would just get an HD 598 (only 20-30 euros more than the 558), plug it into my laptop, and save up to get something better. I hated the X2 and AKG K7XX has a hole in the staging that separates the guitar note/string from the distortion which I find to be completely unacceptable for listening to metal. Try before you buy of course.
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Thanks, sadly in my country there's not such thing as a music shops where i could try different headphones :frowning2:
In my reasearch for an upgrade over my actual headphones: the superlux evo at first i was really interested in the dt770pro, but than my thinking was "i don't want to continually buy new headphones in search for small improvements" so i've upped my budget to buy something that can please me and surprise me over my actual headphones.
For the Dac/Amp question i've a fiio q1 for my laptop and at home i use a Sanyo setup that can drive all kind of headphones but i prefer to stay under the 300ohm usually because i'm often working on the laptop so i mostly use the q1.
For koss pro, i can't stand on ear headphones so, sadly, no koss, grado or hd25 I-Ii for me :frowning2:

Ps: an even more sadly i cannot buy from massdrop because of the taxing issue in my country for product from the US.
 
Jan 25, 2016 at 10:14 PM Post #3,801 of 12,271
Check out the vid of Fenriz headbanging out to an old boombox in their home studio with thousands of dollars of gear.(Darkthrone F---ing around on youtube).

Portapros, the HD 25, AT mwhateverxes, and such are decent. I was just thinking about how to make In the Nightside Eclipse sound great for under 300 euros. The 650 is my metal headphone of choice for cranking sibilant recordings but the 600 is cheaper. If sanaga can get a good condition 580 for 150 or less that would be an even better deal as there would be more to spend on the dac and amp. Metal has kick drums, not tons of subbass only samples like rap and EDM to fart up dynamic drivers. Yeah most of the kicks outside of old Slayer and Immolation sound like crap but they're still kicks or samples of kicks.
 
Jan 25, 2016 at 10:22 PM Post #3,802 of 12,271
sagana said:
Thanks, sadly in my country there's not such thing as a music shops where i could try different headphones
frown.gif

In my reasearch for an upgrade over my actual headphones: the superlux evo at first i was really interested in the dt770pro, but than my thinking was "i don't want to continually buy new headphones in search for small improvements" so i've upped my budget to buy something that can please me and surprise me over my actual headphones.
For the Dac/Amp question i've a fiio q1 for my laptop and at home i use a Sanyo setup that can drive all kind of headphones but i prefer to stay under the 300ohm usually because i'm often working on the laptop so i mostly use the q1.
For koss pro, i can't stand on ear headphones so, sadly, no koss, grado or hd25 I-Ii for me
frown.gif


Ps: an even more sadly i cannot buy from massdrop because of the taxing issue in my country for product from the US.
Click to expand...

I guess the 400S would be good to try from somewhere with a good return policy like Amazon. They just look like a bit of a crapshoot to me given the veiled pair I tried even though Tyll loved his. If you get a unit that sound more like the other measurements on the web with the big upper bass hump that masks the lower mids like the pair I tried last fall, just return them and maybe look at the HD 598, used headphones, or closed backs. I don't know if the Q1 can drive higher impedance or insensitive cans well.
 
Jan 26, 2016 at 8:28 AM Post #3,808 of 12,271
colonelbucket8 said:
  How about superlux 668b? Is this good for metal?
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Used to have it and gave it away. sounded super distant and like it never got loud enough.... gave it away to someone who got sick of it and eventually threw it away. to be honest i don't blame him... i actually feel worse that i made him ever experience the 668b.
 
i think if you want a really cheap metal headphone the PortaPro will always be an excellent choice, if not, there is a lot of superb budget stuff in the chinese budget IEM thread if you look around.
 
i don't know of anything over-ear worth using in that price range. i just don't like over ears very much though
 
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