[Tiramisu]

As per title...I just got my beloved A900 and PRO700WH LTD in the mail yesturday. I've being burning them for about a day now...well let's talk about PRO700WH LTD, not to my surprise...it sounds "not bad" I consider myself to have quite high standard for sound quality and have a picky ears. I value all all range in sound. The PRO700WH has decent bass impact/extension(4/5) and good mid/high(3.5/5). I tested the PRO700WH from my SE Walkman Phone so it's strictly for portable device (36ohm for the PRO700WH)

Now the A900....I've being reading way too much great reviews about the A900..especially have got many recommandations for its great bass performance as well. I was so serious about the comming A900 so I went and bought the best sound card avaliable on the market, Azentech X-Meridian, the best rated sound card for analogue/SPDIF playback at 32 bit/192khz...built in DAC/ADC...Dolby headphone...etc...etc...countless top of the line industry performance.

I was pairing this sound card to the Bose Around-Ear headphone...the soundstage is spectacular, excellent mid/high and awsome bass impact/extension...so I though c'mon...Bose is gotta be a joke POS compare to godly A900 that's highly rated here....I know lots of you BOSE haters here...well I'm no bose lover/fan myself..in fact I'm not a fan of any manufacture. IMHO, I only find the A900 to be "on-par" with the Bose soundstage presentation, mid/high clarity/detail...but BASS....no A900 is unbelievably quite SHY on the BASS area...I've tried the Sennheiser HD555 and I also found it to be extremely shy in bass...the A900 is a little better, yes, that's what other head-fi member recommanded suppose to be a huge step forward in terms of bass extension/impact..and overall sound quality.

The A900 got excellent mid/high detail and clarity indeed...but bass wise, I simply can't believe it's nearly as bad as Sennheiser known for their lack of bass (except HD650 and similar). I have to totally crank up the 30hz MAX , 60hz 80%, 120hz at 50hz....but no adjustment needed for 200-16k..as A900 performs excellent in this area like the sennheiser....so to my surprise...the BOSE consider as garbage here is on par with A900 performance and even exceeds its bass area.

Please tell me what the hell is wrong with my ears or my setup? I doubt is the prob with my setup in terms of my soundcard. I know some of you guys will eventually say..."c'mon and fork out the extra $ for an external DAC" but please...it's only 40ohm for the A900...it's suppose to perform near at its optimal state from the Meridian soundcard. Meridian sound card is suppose to power any demanding application in the market. I know except those 250-350 ohms sennheiser/beyer/AKG phones , i know those need external DAC for sure.

Any advices from all A900 experienced users are much appreciated...thanks in advance.. god please help me get more love for my A900

 

[Esidarap]

This is why I'm always hesitant to recommend the A900 to bassheads, it just doesn't have enough bass for you guys. What you were looking for was the DT770, not the A900... that's the basshead 'phone.

 

[mtd]

Most headphones audiophiles recommend will have flat/recessed bass. It's because they get off listening to high pitched guitars recorded in the 60s.

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esidarap /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is why I'm always hesitant to recommend the A900 to bassheads, it just doesn't have enough bass for you guys. What you were looking for was the DT770, not the A900... that's the basshead 'phone.

That + more current from an external amp would be good. Don't exactly recommend sound-cards alone for producing strong bass.

 

[jdimitri]

Quality over quantitiy?

I gotta say, the triports aren't that bad.. but there are better things out there for the price
Basshead phone- yeah, DT770

But I was pleasantly surprised when i tried the A900, it's warm, smooth and has pretty big soundstage for a closed headphone.. certainly preferred it to DT990/880 that i had at the time

 

[spacemanspliff]

Darth's are the ticket for all bassheads. I hear the V3 actually has good mids now. Which sucks b/c now I want some.

For less $$ the Ultrasones have good bass. Not as slamming as the 770s/Darth's but very deep and articulate.

 

[Albatross05]

Well, first of all....if there's one thing I've learned with all of my audio exploits, it's that impossibly high expectations are the mother of all disappointment. I've learned to always expect the worst......that way, anything better than the worst is an improvement.

But anyway....I think people here speak negatively of Bose headphones not necessarily because they're all that bad. Just that they're not the greatest value, they're not made all that well (construction-wise) and they're marketed to the general public as the last word in quality audio (which is just nonsense. There are always better speakers and headphones).

As far as bass goes....there's gobs and gobs of sloppy bass and then there's tight, refined bass. Audiophiles tend to go for the latter and headphones (and speakers) which produce the latter tend to be more expensive because they're much harder to produce. If you're listening to modern day hip hop or something similar, you may very well want a 'phone that produces a ton of sloppy bass. For most rock, you're going to want tight, refined bass and it's not necessarily going to rattle your teeth.

 

[TheSloth]

The 900's do have a rolled off bass response. Quality over quantity, yadda yadda. I'm not sure why it is so unfashionable to admit that these headphones do not have a flat, or headphone flat response in that area. It's not an insult to people who like them, and is not uncommon in closed headphones, which depending on the design will suffer the same kind of roll off due to compression that closed box speakers do. Doesn't mean they don't do other things well, it's just the nature of the tradeoffs they chose in that model. It also doesn't mean a closed box headphone/speaker can't have prodigious bass (DT770), just depends on the individual design.

 

[oqvist]

the quality of the a900 bass is not great. I don´t believe why some people think no bass is better quality then a lot of bass. comparing to my DT 770 PRO the quality of their bass is better overall then the A900...

Bass is the wrong reason to recommend the A900... I guess what some people think is that they find the A900 less coloured and thus preferr it...

DT 770 is coloured a bit with great bass extension recessed mids and good highs if you want a neutral sounding can there is better out there like Ultrasone 750

.

But yeah the A900 bass is just so crappy. It´s not tight as the 750. It doesn´t go as low as the 750/DT 770 at all. You COMPLETLY miss important bass notes with the A900 so it´s nothing you want to listen to bass heavy music with...

After burn in they got a bit of a punch but not at all like the 750...
If you really need good bass I recommend you trading them for some Proline 650/750s... 650s don´t go as high so the bass get more pronounced...