[conquerator2]

I think the HE-560 is a fairly forgiving headphone but it is also pretty detailed. I also own the K612 and it is significantly less forgiving but less detailed at the same time. Therefore, the HE-560 is a fairly neutral headphone. Plenty detailed and still forgiving - a great achievement IMO. The HE-6 was similarly neutral but a bit less forgiving when I previously owned it [that's also why I prefer the 560]

 

[tinyman392]

   
You need to look at it both ways.  Poor recordings can also review flaws in colored headphones.  Almost everybody on head-fi seems to have this misconception that a forgiving headphone has to be a colored one.  The truer statement is more along the lines of:  a forgiving headphone is one that isn't so colored.  

A forgiving headphone tends to have treble that is a little softer to compensate for the compression that poor recordings have (somewhat, they do their best).  If you feed a good recording to that headphone, it'll also be compensated, in a way, like the compressed album was.  At least one of the two recordings, now, has to be colored (something got compensated when it didn't need to be).  The opposite is also true of an unforgiving headphone (it'll keep colored tracks colored and good tracks uncolored).  
 
The sound from a forgiving headphone tends to warm up a sound rather than brighten up, which is generally why it's more accepted (a slight warm tint is OK to most audiophiles while a brighter sound will push treble sensitivity).  I will personally prefer a slight warmth to my headphones as a large chunk of my music collection isn't mastered the best (rock on!).  
 
There is no headphone that will do well on both fronts unfortunately because compression does change the coloring of the track itself.  So you either color the colored track (shift it) to match something less colored, but risk shifting the same uncolored track that same way (reason why a lot of forgiving headphones tend to be warm or laid back), or you can keep the colored track colored and keep the uncolored track uncolored.  
 
For me, the 560's fall somewhere in between.  They aren't entirely unforgiving, but aren't entirely forgiving.  That is, on some tracks, it's too forgiving (too warm and takes a bit away from details) while on other tracks, it becomes a little hot.  

 

[Sonic Defender]

  I know exactly what you mean, in the car, it's pretty much straight rock and metal. At home with the speaker system it might be Supertramp on vinyl, Jesse Cook on cd or other well recorded stuff. Having said that not all rock recordings are terrible. Tool is usually pretty good, the new Chevelle album is a little off. My only difference is that I can't properly enjoy the well mastered stuff as much if I'm out and about because it loses so much when it's not reproduced well. I don't have too many unlistenable recordings, but a few for sure

The new Chevelle is very good music, but the recording is typical. They make use of the generated bass rumble that underlies busy passages giving it that growl. Rush also employed this on some tracks on Clockwork Angels. I guess it is supposed to give the tack some thickness and growl down low, but I find at loud playback you just get a wall of sound with a clumpy rumble. I have started to listen to rock at as quiet a playback level possible and of course that improves the perceived quality of the recordings. I agree, most Tool is pretty decent, I own every album and have seen them in concert a few times, but once you give the material plenty of volume it quickly starts to become somewhat undifferentiated and muffled sound. I had The Grudge up pretty loud on the bus today and at points I couldn't even distinguish the bass or drum lines as they became a blur of low frequency energy. I'm a drummer and I had to strain to pick out any distinct drum hits. Now if I play Steely Dan at similar levels it remains clear as day, every element can be enjoyed. That is what I use headphones for most of the time, sonic bliss.

 

[olegausany]

The new Opeth album sounds totally awesome on the 560!  You can stream the entire album here : http://pitchfork.com/advance/519
-pale-communion/

Nice album and sounds great with HE-560 / HA-1 using balanced out with Norne Vanquish cable

 

[Articnoise]

Bad recordings is not the same as too bright sound, even more common on recordings like rock and pop is that they are to hard compressed. A too hard compressed record will often sound better with a small boost in the upper mids. That is (a bit simplified) what they normally do than they remastering old records. Unfortunate most of the time the result is not very good in a reviling system.
 
Btw a headphones can be colored in other ways then adding warmth. If it is colored in the treble it can sound harsh. If colored in the bass it can sound blooming and lacking punch/clarity.

 

[Articnoise]

  You can definitely blame a headphone if it sounds terrible on poorly mastered tracks.  Tons of 'audiophile' headphones have elevated treble , to give the impression of more definition and clarity on recordings.  If a track is mastered every-so hotly, then the elevated treble of the audiophile headphone will come out in brutal force, and not only is it the song's fault, but it's also the headphone's fault.
 
As I hinted at earlier, I have literally not found a headphone on which an audiophile recording sounds bad.  They're poor tools on which to ultimately judge headphones by.

I agree on this and would say that’s the same for speakers.

 

[tuna47]

I just enjoy music on the 560 that show the beauty of the music and the 560 I love jimmy Hendrix but he sounds a lot better in my car or my klipsch buds
I find the 560 with well recorded music a match made in heaven I am not just talking sound but separation and sound stage

 

[Kirnupiima]

  The new Opeth album sounds totally awesome on the 560!  You can stream the entire album here : http://pitchfork.com/advance/519-pale-communion/

Except for the cymbals, horrible artefacts caused by the bitrate Good album, I'm positively surprised!

 

[mandrake50]

I think, garbage in, garbage out. I don't think you can really make crappy masterings  sound good, but you can cover up some of the flaws with an output device that simply does not resolve well.
If a headphone sounds excellent with high quality material and  source equipment, but lousy with low quality material and the same equipment, it is a bit illogical to say that the lousy recording is showing faults with the headphone.
 
OTH, if you have a set of phones that make your low quality music sound better to you, by all means use them. It simply does not follow that a set of phones that are technically better and more resolving, and sound great with high quality music is not as good... or has flaws.

 

[TMRaven]

It's not illogical at all.  How many times do you look at posts on head-fi from headphone apologists claiming the reason people are complaining of stridence and sibilance on a headphone is because it's 'revealing?'  More often than not they're making an excuse for it having an elevated treble that's not too uncommon with detail-centric audiophile gear.  People associated elevated treble with more detail and definition.  The focus pads are just another example of that, providing an even larger peak at 4khz which a lot of people-- even Jude himself, considered to be even more detailed and transparent when they first heard the production 560.
 
Quite a lot of classical orchestral recordings and jazz recordings are mid-centric, so the treble spike on many of those audiophile headphone is seen as a nice sparkle to lift them up, even though it's still a coloration regardless.  Take that same kind of elevated treble and apply it to a more modernized-type of recording that's slightly hot and/or brickwalled, and chances are it'll sound wildly bright (HD800, HE-400, DT990, Grados, etc).
 
The 560 (with focus-a) is not as pronounced in the upper treble as some of those other offerings, and I find it considerably more tolerable for poorer recordings.
 
Of course there's no getting around garbage-in, garbage-out, but going around reading a lot of posts on head-fi often gives you the feeling that people are blaming the recordings more than they should be, when they need to be blaming the coloration of their headphones more.

 

[Sonic Defender]

  It's not illogical at all.  How many times do you look at posts on head-fi from headphone apologists claiming the reason people are complaining of stridence and sibilance on a headphone is because it's 'revealing?'  More often than not they're making an excuse for it having an elevated treble that's not too uncommon with detail-centric audiophile gear.  People associated elevated treble with more detail and definition.  The focus pads are just another example of that, providing an even larger peak at 4khz which a lot of people-- even Jude himself, considered to be even more detailed and transparent when they first heard the production 560.
 
Quite a lot of classical orchestral recordings and jazz recordings are mid-centric, so the treble spike on many of those audiophile headphone is seen as a nice sparkle to lift them up, even though it's still a coloration regardless.  Take that same kind of elevated treble and apply it to a more modernized-type of recording that's slightly hot and/or brickwalled, and chances are it'll sound wildly bright (HD800, HE-400, DT990, Grados, etc).
 
The 560 (with focus-a) is not as pronounced in the upper treble as some of those other offerings, and I find it considerably more tolerable for poorer recordings.
 
Of course there's no getting around garbage-in, garbage-out, but going around reading a lot of posts on head-fi often gives you the feeling that people are blaming the recordings more than they should be, when they need to be blaming the coloration of their headphones more.

I tend to agree, but when I have read (or made such posts myself) I have always thought it understood/implied that the sound signature of the headphone may or may not account for some of the perceived flaws in the recording. I think it need be considered that there are times when the recording is the most if not exclusively at fault for some of the sonic issues being detected. I am also unsure of this, but is having slightly elevated treble response perhaps required to actually retrieve more detail? I am asking more than suggesting as my knowledge here is admittedly little, but it seems to me that on the edges where some detail is to be found (it can be debated if that detail is worth retrieving) that some extended treble is required to find it.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

^TMRaven, Sonic Defendrs note brings a question to mind, the graphs I have seen for all/almost all TOTL HP's I have seen have an increase from baseline between 4 and 6 kHz. My assumption is that this is the "presence" zone, so bumping it up increases perceived and actual detail retrieval, and is a bit of compensation for background noise and other factors in HP listening. Is this boost part of the "Harmin Curve", interested in hearing from you, Jerg, Purrin, Matt, etc., with significant HP evaluation under your belts?

 

[olegausany]

Just tried latest Opeth album mentioned earlier (Flac of course ) with HD800 and HE-560 using moded SEX amp, while HA-1 just a Dac, and it sounds more detailed with HD800 than with HE-560. Both headphones use Vanquish cable with appropriate adapters and since SEX was used single ended appropriate adapter made with Moon Audio Blue Dragon V3 cable was used

 

[Articnoise]

  It's not illogical at all.  How many times do you look at posts on head-fi from headphone apologists claiming the reason people are complaining of stridence and sibilance on a headphone is because it's 'revealing?'  More often than not they're making an excuse for it having an elevated treble that's not too uncommon with detail-centric audiophile gear.  People associated elevated treble with more detail and definition.  The focus pads are just another example of that, providing an even larger peak at 4khz which a lot of people-- even Jude himself, considered to be even more detailed and transparent when they first heard the production 560.
 
Quite a lot of classical orchestral recordings and jazz recordings are mid-centric, so the treble spike on many of those audiophile headphone is seen as a nice sparkle to lift them up, even though it's still a coloration regardless.  Take that same kind of elevated treble and apply it to a more modernized-type of recording that's slightly hot and/or brickwalled, and chances are it'll sound wildly bright (HD800, HE-400, DT990, Grados, etc).
 
The 560 (with focus-a) is not as pronounced in the upper treble as some of those other offerings, and I find it considerably more tolerable for poorer recordings.
 
Of course there's no getting around garbage-in, garbage-out, but going around reading a lot of posts on head-fi often gives you the feeling that people are blaming the recordings more than they should be, when they need to be blaming the coloration of their headphones more.

 

Very true!  

 

[olegausany]

Just tried latest Opeth album mentioned earlier (Flac of course ) with HD800 and HE-560 using moded SEX amp, while HA-1 just a Dac, and it sounds more detailed with HD800 than with HE-560. Both headphones use Vanquish cable with appropriate adapters and since SEX was used single ended appropriate adapter made with Moon Audio Blue Dragon V3 cable was used.Also HE-560 using Focus A pads and regrilling mod, while HD800 have partial annex mod