[dgbiker1]

Sounds like an amp problem to me too. I first used mine with a Cmoy and it would distort under bass and loud passages. I thought it was the phones. Then I bought a LD MKIII and I haven't heard any distortion since.

 

[stevenkelby]

Sounds like not enough current but how many hours have they got?

Are you sure your test track is good?

 

[billinkansas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sxr71 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't know if I have a defective pair but I was listening to the song "Gaia" on James Taylor's Hourglass album on SACD. The signal path was SCD-1 -> LaRocco PRII (I didn't feel like using the Dared MP-5 and I don't have a better home headphone amp) -> K701. The song has some deep bass that even at modest volume levels causes the K701 to distort. It's basically what happens when a drive unit has excursions that overwhelm the driver. I can't imagine what would happen if I tried the song "Too Rich for my Blood" on Patricia Barber's "Cafe Blue" album. Even my Grados can handle this better. This has been an issue I've had with headphones in general (except balanced armature IEMs), but it usually manifests on certain tracks at higher levels. It's made me feel like giving up on headphones sometimes. Is this how it is or am I doing something wrong? BTW, absolutely no bass boost was dialed in on the PR-II. Also, just for the record, I get the same results with the Dared MP-5.

FWIW, both my former K601's and K701's would occasionally distort on very low sustained bass notes. My former DT880's did this as well. It certainly wasn't amp clipping because I was using a big old Fisher tube amp - no headphone is going to stress that amp. I just figured that these headphones could be overwhelmed by too much deep bass, and it was best not to push it with them.

Now that I think of it, I've never heard any bass distortion with HD650's, HD600's, AD2000's, D2000's or DX1000's.

 

[carmatic]

the thing is i was listening to a pure sine wave at 10hz , and it kept the volume up without doing anything nasty... but once the sound is abit more realistic, i.e. brown noise, the clipping starts big time
that said tho i am using a sound card

at really high volumes , with a steep EQ setting too...when i said 'i turned down the bass' i meant going from +12db to +10db , that sort of thing ...

its handling that amount of bass with no distortion until i turn it up to bad for my hearing volumes, and it sounds absolutely wonderful at any volume

 

[Rednamalas1]

you can listen to 10Hz? that's a news to me

human ear is unable to detect frequency below 20Hz..At least that's what I remember from neuropsyc...

 

[sschmeichel]

Some can hear slightly below 20hz... but i think 10hz is more like a vibration than a sound?

 

[dcstep]

That's a hell of a stress test. I was only talking about listening to music and test tones down to 20hz with the response flat. I 10hz tone is only going to sound like clicking when you can hear it at all. There's no music down there, so I wouldn't worry about it. Do your cans distort with music when the EQ is set flat?

Dave

 

[silverrain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sschmeichel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Some can hear slightly below 20hz... but i think 10hz is more like a vibration than a sound?

Yep -- it is barely audible -- more like "sensing" or "feeling" the lowest frequencies, down around 15 hz or lower, that I've heard on test CD's made for testing freq. response.

 

[carmatic]

i said 'teeth rattling' and thats exactly whats happening... im hearing nothing, but my entire skull is shaking
so yes, the k701 can definitely do bass if you need it to

ive never really noticed anything in terms of distortion with a flat eq, then again i dont spend alot of time looking because the 2khz region is soooo loud , any distortion which happens due to bass is probably going to get drowned out by those frequencies...

 

[sxr71]

Sorry I haven't returned to this thread in a while, I've been really busy. I'm a little confused right now, but I think I will try to switch my amp just because I want to try the Bada PH-12 anyway.

However, I wonder if headphones in general were meant to play music with really deep bass. The track I mentioned has a review on Amazon with a reviewer stating that the track has the deepest, cleanest bass he's heard on SACD. It could even make my speakers distort of played very loud, but when they were set to a volume where they wouldn't distort, it was the most amazing bass I've heard come out of a speaker. The bass occurs near the end of the song and is only a few kick drum (or other large drum) hits that happens only once in the song.

I don't actually hear an added distortion as much as the diaphragm vibrating hard. In fact it doesn't even have a sound of it's own but it just makes the other frequencies have a "vibrato" sort of feel. I doubt these headphones could actually reproduce the bass in that region since I think that with bass that deep you mostly feel the bass anyway. But it does color the rest of the spectrum with that "vibrato" effect. Also, I wonder if that is what is known as inter-modulation distortion.

I will try an amp that has more current delivery (I've heard the Dared MP-5 isn't so bad in that realm), just to be sure. I don't think that headphones have the same sorts of issues with regard to damping factor and back current that speakers do since the diaphragms are relatively weightless compared to any bass driver cone.

However it does make sense to me that more current would keep the diaphragm where it needs to be. Then again maybe due to the small size of the driver in a headphone the excursions needed for low frequencies must be ridiculously high, but then again being inches from your ear, needs to be much more modest in absolute level. Honestly, I wonder if the only way to make that track listenable on headphones is to get a low pass filter.

 

[carmatic]

like, in my testing with lowpassed brown noise where the higher frequencies are not produced, the headphones distort at much lower volumes than if they are playing a pure sine wave... it sounds like a series of random clicks , like a geiger counter, they dont sound very sharp and have frequencies just above the lowpass filter... its caused by many different waveforms of different frequencies having their peaks and troughs adding up at the same points in time, this is not bass, but it is still undesirable
in my personal experience this is already much better than cheap headphones which ive owned, where a low frequency sine wave will cause the driver to slam against the housing or whatever, long before any noticable bass is produced
perhaps a device which can soften these transient peaks and troughs will allow the headphones to be driven much much louder... does such a thing even exist??

 

[L7R]

I don't listen much music in this category and I'm not rich enough to buy 120$ SACD...

But, I have Cafe Blue MFSL CD and there's few songs which have very powerfull and true to life sounding bass. Bass is like being inside a double-bass! Massive attack surely has deep bass but it cannot be compared to this "rumble". Why? Because there's so much dynamic range in cafe blue. I have to turn volume way above my normal listening level to hear lowest-sounding passages. Normal rock/pop recordings are so loud after listening cafe blue they surely can blow my phones to smoke if not careful.

If all recordings could be produced like that there will actually be a need to use whole dynamic range of compact disc (and SACD). For example dynamic range of RHCP - Californication? 1db? 3db? 5db? Of course there are many (overproduced) recordings which sounds better, but in my opinion cafe blue is nearest to live/concert sound I've heard among some classical recordings. Bad thing; I feel almost sick after listening whole album as loud it was meant to be when mixed/produced.

Btw, I use MS2+tubeamp combo and didn't found distortion. Expect few hairs inside bowls rattling along with my teeth.

 

[ricmat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgonino /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sounds like there are one of two problems: 1.The amps you have are not putting out enough current (the k701 is really power hungry) 2. You have a defective pair.

I must agree with him... ... I love my K701's bass!!!

 

[Mr.Sneis]

I always felt that the k701 definitely handle bass differently than other headphones. It's there, just not as boomy and "fun" as a Senn or Grado.

 

[Hi-Finthen]

Sounds like there are multiple of several problems "IN THE SYSTEM":

1.The amps you have are not putting out enough current (the k701 is really power hungry), as has been said.

2.The source is also contribuiting to the proformance, or whatever lack there of, in bass being experienced.

3.Your reference has given you unreasonable expectations vs headphones in general, and specifically with the 701s relatively balanced presentation. Although, when well feed, it does produce articulate bass, perhaps not preferable for certain generes meeting ones expectations ....

Phil Lesh's(Grateful Dead) bass notes on their better recordings, played through my rig driving the k-701s is wounderfully deep and articulate not stepping all over the other instuments which remain beautifully presented...To my ear

Best regards~