[monkey4054]

My headphone cannot be compare to your calibre. Mine is X1 and K240 Sexttet. Am getting new headphone soon and a dac.

Are you sure MP3 and FLAC a minor difference to you for Tidal and Spotify ? I have to admit some music sound pretty good regardless the genre for Spotify.

The quality of the recording/mixing/mastering is a much more important factor in how a song sounds. It matters far more than the difference you hear between two versions of the same song, one being a compressed MP3 and the other an uncompressed lossless file.

 

[Scott Branham]

I haven't owned both, but I own and have heard enough Foster Biodyna headphones to know that they are all really good. I use Dekoni sheepskin pads on my 900 and it sounds great. Keeps the stock sound, but helps lower the occasional sibilance you can get with the stock pads. If I were you, I would look for a used TH-600. It's the best value and it sounds about 85-90% as good as the 900 for a fraction of the price. Then buy a few pairs of pads (610, Dekoni sheepskin/perforated, Yaxi leather) and see which one works best.

How is the bass on the TH600 vs the D7000, Monkey?

 

[monkey4054]

How is the bass on the TH600 vs the D7000, Monkey?

Not sure, as I haven't heard the D7000 myself. My guess is that D7000 is also really good. General consensus from what I've read is that the Fostex is slightly more dynamic, detailed, and resolute, but brighter and more fatiguing than the Denons'. But the Denon line is a bit smoother, with richer and less recessed mids, and less treble, so more forgiving and less fatiguing. Bass on both is very similar, very healthy quantity and impactful.

 

[Mhog55]

Not sure, as I haven't heard the D7000 myself. My guess is that D7000 is also really good. General consensus from what I've read is that the Fostex is slightly more dynamic, detailed, and resolute, but brighter and more fatiguing than the Denons'. But the Denon line is a bit smoother, with richer and less recessed mids, and less treble, so more forgiving and less fatiguing. Bass on both is very similar, very healthy quantity and impactful.

Are you referring to 1st generation Denon headphones, or the 2nd series? The 5200, 7200, and 9200 use proprietary Denon drivers, so I'm assuming the 1st series. I haven't looked into the 1st generation much. If what you write regarding the sound is pretty accurate, I need to do some research for sure.

 

[NickT23]

The quality of the recording/mixing/mastering is a much more important factor in how a song sounds. It matters far more than the difference you hear between two versions of the same song, one being a compressed MP3 and the other an uncompressed lossless file.

That is true, that is why sometimes I discern the quality difference especially in Spotify. How can we tell good recording/mixing/mastering though ? Either way, many claimed metal genre are poorly recorded than any other genre. Trying to find out the best quality for metal genre.

 

[Raidersfan8118]

That is true, that is why sometimes I discern the quality difference especially in Spotify. How can we tell good recording/mixing/mastering though ? Either way, many claimed metal genre are poorly recorded than any other genre. Trying to find out the best quality for metal genre.

What kind of metal are you into primarily? A lot of metal to me isn’t too bad. Black metal stands out as possibly the roughest sounding of the bunch. I think lesser known older death metal can be poorly recorded too. Most of the more known stuff seems at least decent. Thrash can go either way but I feel like most of that isn’t bad. Prog, power, heavy seems like they are pretty solid. I’m not familiar with grindcore, gothic, or doom they’re not for me. Very little grindcore I’d listen to. A lot of metal is compressed heavily but seems like most rock after 1999 is too. Doesn’t bother me since most modern music is compressed. There is some full dynamic range remasters from earache which are really good but it doesn’t make me feel like other stuff that isn’t recorded as well suck.

 

[NickT23]

What kind of metal are you into primarily? A lot of metal to me isn’t too bad. Black metal stands out as possibly the roughest sounding of the bunch. I think lesser known older death metal can be poorly recorded too. Most of the more known stuff seems at least decent. Thrash can go either way but I feel like most of that isn’t bad. Prog, power, heavy seems like they are pretty solid. I’m not familiar with grindcore, gothic, or doom they’re not for me. Very little grindcore I’d listen to. A lot of metal is compressed heavily but seems like most rock after 1999 is too. Doesn’t bother me since most modern music is compressed. There is some full dynamic range remasters from earache which are really good but it doesn’t make me feel like other stuff that isn’t recorded as well suck.

Good question. Pretty much everything. For instance Nu metal and Black metal. But all in all, from what I heard, metal or probably rock, music recording sounds really bad or very compressed. I find this to be true. So how do we find really good recording like CD FLAC quality. I mean is ripping CD are the only way ?

 

[Raidersfan8118]

I’m gonna catch heat for this I’m sure but there’s no difference to my ears from 320 and flac or alac. I put my tidal on 320 and skip mqa. There’s just stuff that is better recorded than others whether u rip it from cd or listen to tidal or Spotify. All music is compressed now a days but stuff can stand out as just bad sounding. I listen to the same stuff you do and I can tell you stuff that sounds good in those genres but some don’t.

 

[NickT23]

I’m gonna catch heat for this I’m sure but there’s no difference to my ears from 320 and flac or alac. I put my tidal on 320 and skip mqa. There’s just stuff that is better recorded than others whether u rip it from cd or listen to tidal or Spotify. All music is compressed now a days but stuff can stand out as just bad sounding. I listen to the same stuff you do and I can tell you stuff that sounds good in those genres but some don’t.

So how could we determine which one has better quality ? If we rip from CD, can we ensure high quality ?

 

[Raidersfan8118]

I suppose technically speaking flac is best way to go so u kno u ripped it in flac. Only thing about tidal is some stuff is only remastered and not original version.

 

[NickT23]

I suppose technically speaking flac is best way to go so u kno u ripped it in flac. Only thing about tidal is some stuff is only remastered and not original version.

I have a strong feeling that FLAC Tidal is not the same as CD rip FLAC in some recordings. Not just metal, but all music genre. Maybe you could enlighten me as many are better than me in this area. I am only good at interpreting audio. Am no expert or that technical.

 

[Raidersfan8118]

I’m certainly no expert either man. Many people will tell you they can hear the difference between 320 and flac that’s fine. I tried to tell the difference and I couldn’t. To me tidal sounds no worse than using my laptop and ripped library. I’m glad I found that I can’t tell the difference so I can save space when I do rip which is not much anymore. I’m primarily on tidal for the time being. Why do you feel like tidal would sound worse than ripping from a cd?

 

[NickT23]

I’m certainly no expert either man. Many people will tell you they can hear the difference between 320 and flac that’s fine. I tried to tell the difference and I couldn’t. To me tidal sounds no worse than using my laptop and ripped library. I’m glad I found that I can’t tell the difference so I can save space when I do rip which is not much anymore. I’m primarily on tidal for the time being. Why do you feel like tidal would sound worse than ripping from a cd?

I cannot tell the difference either A/B. Because CD takes full encoded source and lossless digital sound, as pure as possible. Similar to vinyl. Its very difficult to differentiate quality of the recording/mixing/mastering.

 

[deanorthk]

As I have the idsd Dac for a few day now, I have ran some test, and beeing who I am, a lot of tests were about metal ^^
Right now I'm listening to the whole Winter's Gate from Insomnium.
I know the TH900MK2 from Fostex is not perfect, but it sure pack some good things metal wise, at least, with the dac/amp.
the first track of Winter's Gate (if I dare say so, as winter's gate IS one track ^^) is incredibly fast paced, double bass extensive, two guitars replying to each others, and all that is very defined, very well place stage wise. And, that's the most importante for me in metal listening, drum beat, bass, are not blurry. Easy to read, powerfull, impactfull. I'm going to test the same track with the Audeze LCD GX (a so called gaming headphone, but a jack of all trade).

 

[deanorthk]

One interisting song I am listening to, right now, is Colossus, from In Mourning.
It's very interisting because you have a lot of info there. The intro is full of drums impact, with both cymbal, fill and double bass, so it help distinguish both the bass strength, and the precision of trebles. Then as you move on, the song get more and more layer, as there are 3 guitars, 1 bass, drums. And they do play quite differently. As the song is quite well recorded it seems, it's a good testbed to my ears. and it ROCKS lot of energy there, and the way the guitar riff is hitting you is really impactfull. I'll test it with the LCD GX a bit later, but if someone know that song, I'd be curious to hear your feeling about song/headphone combo.