[GoldWarlock]

BMF, could you provide 3-5 samples? Let's say something that demonstrated a good bass/sub-bass, female vocals, cymbals and maybe something with a lot of sound for instrument separation?
I'll list and categorize those and will try to get more samples from from other modders.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

 
Quote:

BMF, could you provide 3-5 samples? Let's say something that demonstrated a good bass/sub-bass, female vocals, cymbals and maybe something with a lot of sound for instrument separation?
I'll list and categorize those and will try to get more samples from from other modders.

 
No, sorry.  That would be a copyright violation. You can go on their website, though, and listen to samples from many of their recordings which are superbly mastered; I don't know, however, if their samples will sound as good as their recordings.
 
For soundstage look for a good recording of Donald Fagen's Century's End.
 
For Bass: Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat (thanks micmacmo - the whole album is great).
 
For Bass: Patricia Barber's Light My Fire and Ode to Billy Joe
 
For vocals: all of the above plus Diana Krall's albums > The Look of Love; and Love Scenes...I know, sappy album titles but great jazz tunes with vocals, double bass lines, and cymbals/high hats.
 

 

[GoldWarlock]

I agree that having their 30 sec samples are not ok to post, but having 30sec samples of other musicians are probably ok to post for reference.
I think I have some Krall's albums. Let me check if I have other albums.

 

[rhythmdevils]

You don't want to use nothing but perfectly recorded and mastered albums, because phones will be able to be very colored and still sound good on them.  Which is why people talk about really bright phones like the GS1000 as being "revealing" of bad recordings.  Really it's just their colorations making the bad recordings worse than they ought to while good recordings are so far from the threshold that it still sounds listenable. 
 
Good to use some well done recordings as well, but if all you use is perfectly recorded female vocals you're going to wind up with something really colored. 

 
More important is to use music you are familiar with and have heard on a lot of different gear.  The more gear you've heard a recording on, the easier it is to have a sense of what it should sound like.  Even better is to have some neutral speakers.  Or any speakers.  Comparing your T50rp to speakers will be a much better reference because speakers are more neutral than headphones.  Even those M-audio monitors will be a better reference than most headphones. 

 

[bachiano]

For the ultimate reference.
Lets not forget going out and listening to real musicians in real spaces.

 

[bachiano]

Is there a free or inexpensive mac app I can use to measure my modded headphones?

 

[bachiano]

One side semi done 

 
Pretty:

 
 

 

[shrimants]

Hey Bachianno, why do you have multiple colors? are those different densities or did you just pick up a thing of modeling clay and decide to use whatever colors it came with? Will you be trying to cure it in place to really add hardness/adhesion or will you leave it like that? Mine looks like it has a bunch of "pokey holes" from trying to jab it into the holes in a flat fashion, how did you get yours so flat and even? The clay in mine is really thick but not as dense as the heavy modeling clay stuff.

 

[bachiano]

 
Quote:

Hey Bachianno, why do you have multiple colors? are those different densities or did you just pick up a thing of modeling clay and decide to use whatever colors it came with? Will you be trying to cure it in place to really add hardness/adhesion or will you leave it like that? Mine looks like it has a bunch of "pokey holes" from trying to jab it into the holes in a flat fashion, how did you get yours so flat and even? The clay in mine is really thick but not as dense as the heavy modeling clay stuff.

 
Yeap. All same densities.
Just used whatever colors I liked cause I'm artistic
 
I'm leaving it as is.
Trying to harden it will only introduce other resonant problems.
The softness is great at absorbing a wider range of frequencies. 
 
I'm stuffing it with a dental tool and then cutting of the excess with an ultra thin palate knife.
Pic below:
 

 
 

 

[LFF]

 
Quote:

For the ultimate reference.
Lets not forget going out and listening to real musicians in real spaces.

 
Shhhhh!!!! That's my reference!

 

[wje]

 
Quote:

 
For soundstage look for a good recording of Donald Fagen's Century's End.
 
For Bass: Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat (thanks micmacmo - the whole album is great).
 
For Bass: Patricia Barber's Light My Fire and Ode to Billy Joe
 
For vocals: all of the above plus Diana Krall's albums > The Look of Love; and Love Scenes...I know, sappy album titles but great jazz tunes with vocals, double bass lines, and cymbals/high hats.
 

 
I could pretty much agree with all of the above.  I haven't heard "Century's End" though.  All the rest is excellent for not only putting the headphones through a great work out.  Also, for male vocals, I'm really getting into some of the remastered Van Morrison tunes.  He has a very wide vocal range in his music.

 

[wje]

 
Quote:

 
 
Shhhhh!!!! That's my reference!

 
What's the cocktail of choice to enjoy the experience? 

  India Pale Ale for me. 

 

[LFF]

All you need is one of the following:
 
Paul Simon - Graceland (original issue)
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (Legacy Edition)
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues (original issue)
 
All of the above can usually be purchased for under $10.00

 

[bachiano]

 
Quote:

All you need is one of the following:
 
Paul Simon - Graceland (original issue)
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (Legacy Edition)
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues (original issue)
 
All of the above can usually be purchased for under $10.00

 
Did you forget "Miles Smiles" ?

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

 
Quote:

 
 
I could pretty much agree with all of the above.  I haven't heard "Century's End" though.  All the rest is excellent for not only putting the headphones through a great work out.  Also, for male vocals, I'm really getting into some of the remastered Van Morrison tunes.  He has a very wide vocal range in his music.

 
Century's End has amazing soundstage. Fagen's Snowbound, Trans Island Skyway, Janie Runaway, and Gaslighting Abbey are great tunes for top to bottom testing. I find that all of Fagen's stuff is well mastered.
 
The Patricia Barber tunes I mentioned because of their emphasis on double bass, not necessarily female vocals but her vocals are to die for.
 
Krall's recordings offer a complex mixture of double bass and drums to midrange guitar/vocals, and high hats/cymbals and full orchestra with violins so the range is comprehensive, not simply unidimensional female vocals.  
 
I could have mentioned others like Metallica's Enter The Sandman and Whiskey In A Jar, Radiohead's Jigsaw Falling Into Place and There There, Gorillaz's Dare and Feel Good, Inc, Miles Davis' So What?, and more.
 
BTW, I agree that Van Morrison offers several good ones, too.
 
I use B&W 803 speakers controlled by a McIntosh MX-136 pre/pro and powered by a McIntosh MC-402 amp for speaker reference. I use a stock set of T50RP's  and my set of LCD2 v1 powered by a Dacmini for headphone reference.