[lim(x->0)]

For example, some bands such as The Raconteurs and The White Stripes sound really gritty and have lots of crackling. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley is another excellent example, almost the entire background is crackling. Other bands that are of the same genre such as The Arctic Monkeys/Bloc Party/ Kings of Leon/Minus the Bear have a much cleaner/crisper sound with no crackling.

I'm just worried that it's the fault of my headphones instead of the actual song recording.

 

[BrookR1]

If you hear crackling on some songs but not on others, then yes...it sounds like you have poor recordings. I listen to the Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party and have noticed the same thing with my Grados. Sometimes they can be too detailed.

 

[NeObliviscaris]

What format are they?

It depends, say you are using some petty 129kbps downloaded from the interweb, then maybe the file, but if you ripped it yourself into .flac or something, they maybe your earphones.

 

[intoflatlines]

Some stuff like The White Stripes is recorded to sound really raw, right?

 

[Uncle Erik]

If you don't hear it on every recording, then it can't be the headphones.

Most likely, it comes from bad recordings. It could also be your amp clipping.

 

[InertKinesis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by intoflatlines /img/forum/go_quote.gif Some stuff like The White Stripes is recorded to sound really raw, right?

Yup. Jack White is a fan of playing $5000 guitars through $200 amps to $60 speakers. I'm not sure "raw" is the right word, though. The Stripes came out of the Detroit indy/garage rock scene, and I think one of the ways Jack has tried to preserve those roots is by going with that low-fi sound.

I appreciate his musical choices, but it makes the Stripes hard to listen to through nice, high resolution cans. My MS-1 are fine with them, but I'm guessing I'm going to start noticing the low-fi-ness more with the K-701s that are arriving tomorrow.

 

[chillk]

The white stripes do sound very low fi on a lot of their material. I personally don't like listening to them through my ms-1s. My hd555s seem to cover up the raw recording a little better. Blue orchid does sound awesome through the ms-1s however.

 

[InertKinesis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chillk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Blue orchid does sound awesome through the ms-1s however.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssss! (Just had to listen to that song again because you wrote that.

)

 

[lim(x->0)]

All the stuff I previously mentioned is in V0 mp3 format. So I assume that shouldnt be the problem.

 

[pez]

Yeah, I think I've come to the conclusion some of mine are the recording. I have a pair of Ety's coming straight out of an iPod and it's straight off cd in apple lossless. I used Foo Fighters new cd as an example, and I could tell a little bit, even though I would think the Foo Fighters have really good recorded CD's, and Ety's are balanced and even lean in bass...This is so wierd.

 

[krmathis]

On most or all record -> Most probably the headphone
On one specific record only -> Most probably the record

 

[Lucabeer]

The White Stripes are one of the very few bands that actually suck on my Sennheiser 595... They sound much better in my car stereo...

IMHO that band is MEANT to be listened to with speakers, not with headphones. And possibly not high quality speakers... They need some grittiness, and maybe the "Loudness" option turned on...