I don't like the m100 for metal at all, no mids, way too much boomy bass. The 400i, however, are excellent for metal. I would just stick with those and save you money for other things.
Kinda have to agree with the notions to stick with the 400i's. Although my pair of them aren't my TOTL cans I have atm (Alpha Primes would be those), I do agree that the HiFiMan's handle metal like champions
I love mids on my headphones for rock/metal. Both the 400i's and Grado's do guitar right. Also, for clear dialogue for movies, nothing I've heard comes close to Grado.
I think of the 400i's as Grado with actual bass.
Many may disagree. Except one things- Grado's give you nothing below about 40 Hz. YMMV...
Whoa! That's some brutal international pricing! Really? The 800 and the X cost basically the same in the US!
I get that from time to time too, but I've found it depends on the Headphone. For example, the m100 made me almost a little dizzy, but the TH-900, which is as bassy or bassier, causes no such issues. I don't get it.
However, if you found the HE-560 too bassy, you probably won't like the LCD-X anyway.
I suppose the difference is also because the HD800 is produced in Europe, whereas the LCDs is produced in the US. Similarly, the HE-560 is a budget option in the US, but over here it costs nearly as much as the HD800 (€ 950). It sometimes leads to interesting discussions, though, where for instance the HE-560 is cheaper for someone and considered a not-too-bad budget option, but clearly not as good as the much more expensive HD800. Whereas for me, they cost nearly the same and perform much the same as well (though catering to different preferences).
I don't necessarily find the HE-560 to be too bassy, it was mostly that the mids seemed a bit recessed whenever I switched from speakers to headphones. I wouldn't want anything more bassy, though.
I've not had any headphones that make me dizzy or anything like that, but I have a pretty extreme dislike of anything too bassy, so I'm not likely to listen to such for very long. I also tend to listen at low volumes. Perhaps it also has to do with the exact frequencies that are boosted and how much they are boosted.
I had a Vorzuge amp that had a noticeable bump somewhere in the high mids that literally gave me an ear ache at any volume, and a headache after an hour or so. It was quite horrible. I feel sometimes that the HD800 is edging in the same direction, but the bump the HD800 has seems to be at a slightly higher frequency and doesn't appear to bother me quite that much. Depending on music and volume, of course.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that small differences may have a big impact on what we hear. There are apparently many people that like the Vorzuge amps, but they are literally painful for me to listen to, so the small differences may not have the same impact on different people either.
Much of the stuff Andy Sneap has produced sounds great to me. He had a hand in the 2003 Opeth Lamenations DVD. This year he did mastering and mixing for Genexus by Fear Factory. Last year mastering, mixing and production for the Accept release.
Anything he does sounds perfect to me. Your millage may vary?
The 400S looks good on paper for the price, especially for being a sensitive headphone you can drive out of a phone or laptop. Slight treble spike but not Beyerdynamic or Grado bad. The problem is the stock pads have sealing issues and if you have to get the Focus pads (bigger upper mid dip than the 400S stock ones but more bass extension due to better seal) with shipping, you're almost at the price of an HD 600 on sale + a cheap amp and the HD 600 is just better except for planar bass extension. I couldn't get the stock ones to seal myself so the upper bass/lower mids were a gooey mess. Definitely a try before you buy headphone. The 400i sealed but ventures into Sennheiser's price territory and gets smacked.
Oppo PM-3 didn't seal at all either. Molasses. Definitely not worth the price
HE 560 was too bright. Not HD 800 iron spike though your head bad but bad enough that I didn't feel comfortable blasting metal on them.
The AKG K7XX separated Suffocation's guitar notes/strings from their distortion on Effigy of the Forgotten due to the major dip in the presence region that help give the AKG artificial sound stage. The treble is still too elevated for poor recordings and sparkling high hats too. Much grainier than the HD 650 overall when ABed but better bass extension for rumbly, distorted grindcore bass but the treble is definitely too elevated for how poorly recorded grind is. Good luck cranking Insect Warfare on these. Very mid-fi compared to the HD 600/650 and doesn't scale but good for the price. Just a no go for metal due to the staging issue.
Much of the stuff Andy Sneap has produced sounds great to me. He had a hand in the 2003 Opeth Lamenations DVD. This year he did mastering and mixing for Genexus by Fear Factory. Last year mastering, mixing and production for the Accept release.
Well-mastered Fear Factory? That's novel (to me).
How's the new album? I liked the older stuff like Demanufacture, Obsolete and Digimortal, but found the newer stuff only mildly interesting.
Well-mastered Fear Factory? That's novel (to me).
How's the new album? I liked the older stuff like Demanufacture, Obsolete and Digimortal, but found the newer stuff only mildly interesting.
Different people have different opinions of well mastered. It's typical DR 6 Nuclear Blast production. Andy Sneap so it won't be too bad but as he probably just lowered everything to the guitar/vocal peaks for the digital slam job. Nothing like Zach Ohren's "work" on Death Magnetic, Fallujah, and Kingdom of Conspiracy. If the LP has a separate dynamic master, it will often reveal the guitars to be super thin or drums to be fake as Sneap has no problems doing even more cut 'n' paste surgery than Scott Burns for not up to snuff bands. The Surgical Steel LP has much better sounding drums than the CD but reveals Bill Steer's tone to be way too sterile and thin. Death metal on a Les Paul but the amping is terrible. Not that Surgical Steel was good as the best song was Holy Wars with Carcass lyrics.
Anything recorded by the Morris brothers, Scott Burns, Martin Birch, Colin Richardson, Tomas Skogsberg, Fred Estby, Pytten, Flemming Rasmussen, or Harris Johns up to about 1995 or so will sound at least decent. You'll have to hunt down stuff through various channels though as often only one edition sounds good, eg the original LP for Altars of Madness, the original German mail order CD pressing of Like an Ever Flowing Stream from mid 1991, the original Bathory 80s LPs ($600+ for the debut's original pressing, over a hundred for an 80s repress before major tape decay set in) etc. You'd be surprised that a lot of black metal records actually were decently recorded, just incredibly distorted instrument tones with quick and dirty but not awful drum micing. Pytten recorded at the Bergen Philharmonic's house studio. 80s Slayer and Harris Johns probably produced the best sounding records with natural drums. South of Heaven, Agent Orange, Dawn of Possession. Dawn of Possession's kick drums haven't been mixed to uniformity so 8th notes are louder than 32nd notes and there are actually emphasized hits. Listenable just repressed the original master it for the first time in 20 years and it sounds amazing.
Then there's stuff that's not as well recorded but has a great live feel like Black Sabbath's debut, Paul Dianno Iron Maiden, Unleashed in the East (actually live), Angel Witch Angel Witch, Morbid Visions / Bestial Devastation, Onward to Golgotha, None so Vile, and Promulgation of the Fall.
Machine Head's Burn My Eyes has been a reference for many through the years. It doesn't have a natural sound to the drums (Pantera-style "click" on the kick etc.), but it has some very balanced and crunchy Colin Richardson -production done before brickwalling was a thing. Sepultura's Chaos AD is another example of nice dynamics and balance in production, Igor's drums at their best. Slipknot (despite what people think of them) have had some extremely punchy production-jobs on their latest albums (All Hope Is Gone, .5: The Gray Chapter). Even though Vol.3 is a very good album, it was produced by Rick Rubin... Lots of brickwalling caused distortion going on.
Tool's Lateralus through LCD-2's, oh man. Talk about wall of sound!
EDIT: I think Jens Bogren has done some very good work with fellow swedes Opeth and Katatonia. Check out The Great Cold Distance or Viva Emptiness from the latter. Opeth's Ghost Reveries deserves a mention here too.
Machine Head's Burn My Eyes has been a reference for many through the years. It doesn't have a natural sound to the drums (Pantera-style "click" on the kick etc.), but it has some very balanced and crunchy Colin Richardson -production done before brickwalling was a thing. Sepultura's Chaos AD is another example of nice dynamics and balance in production, Igor's drums at their best. Slipknot (despite what people think of them) have had some extremely punchy production-jobs on their latest albums (All Hope Is Gone, .5: The Gray Chapter). Even though Vol.3 is a very good album, it was produced by Rick Rubin... Lots of brickwalling caused distortion going on.
Tool's Lateralus through LCD-2's, oh man. Talk about wall of sound!
Yeah, opinions may differ. To my ears Chaos A.D. has much better punch than Arise and other albums before. Guitars aren't muffled/mid-scooped like on the Scott Burns mixed albums and drums sound more natural. Also, Igor Cavalera is on top of his game on that one - even if the tempos are slower. More groovy stuff to my ears, to each his own. Territory is a prime example from the album.
BTW: I bought the 180gr Chaos A.D. vinyl some time ago, it has a slightly better mastering than the CD.
Everyone knows the best Sepultura is Morbid Visions. They just wrote the material, practiced, went into the studio, and bashed it out without even bothering to tune their instruments. ****'s metal.
Everyone knows the best Sepultura is Morbid Visions. They just wrote the material, practiced, went into the studio, and bashed it out without even bothering to tune their instruments. ****'s metal.
Hey guys, I've been using the Beyerdynamic DT990s for almost a year now and as much as I love them, there are some issues I've personally had with them, one of which is not being in an isolated enough environment for them. My budget is for the more basic level of headphones, so I am tossing up between the Shure SRH840 and Beyerdynamic DT770s.
For some background, I listen to Symphonic/Melodic extreme metal, mostly metalcore and deathcore (Make Them Suffer, Born of Osiris, In Hearts Wake, Erra, Betraying The Martyrs, Like Moths To Flames, etc).
If there are better recommendations for my listed genres, as long as they are not out of budget (preferably under $300 AUD) please let me know! Otherwise, which of the two (Shure SRH840 and Beyerdynamic DT770s) are the best for the genres of music I listen to?
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