[Mhog55]

Wow, that's the 1st I've heard this. The mids are glorious on the 58X. Perhaps you prefer a bright, thin sound? Don't hesitate to use the EQ on your dap. Personally, I don't consider these two cans in the same league.

 

[jdtenny]

Wow, that's the 1st I've heard this. The mids are glorious on the 58X. Perhaps you prefer a bright, thin sound? Don't hesitate to use the EQ on your dap. Personally, I don't consider these two cans in the same league.

So far I haven't touched the EQ on the DAP. I like to think I like a pretty neutral sound, but who knows, maybe not. The thing about the tracks I was listening too, Richard Strauss music really runs the whole range. So if there's a bass drum, or a low gong, string bass, etc, I want to hear it. And on these tracks, there was a soprano belting out that big voiced and often very high range german song. And I know what a good soprano sounds like. And while the Sony's headset sometimes sound like tin cans (_especially compared to the X58_), the soprano was *clear*. You could hear the diction. It sounded ... like a sorprano ... on the Sony. But with the X58 it was simply muted. Buttery smooth, but... muted. Like the recording equipment was in the wrong room.

Anyway, I'll try some more tests of course, including a test against my stereo amp with the DAP line-out piped into it, to see if that makes any difference. Is it possible my X58 is just a lemon? Some poorly QA'd defect?

 

[jdtenny]

So I spent another hour+ testing. This time I used music locally sourced from my DAP (not TIDAL). I ran line-out from the DAP to my stereo receiver, then headphone out from there, just as a curious experiment (though in the end I don't think it changed a thing about the sound). I listened to a mix of things. Some pipe organ music. Some orchestral pieces. Some mixed choral/orchestral (Mozard Requiem). Finally I finished up with a trip down memory lane with something completely different using the first track of Jean Luc Ponty's "A Taste For Passion".

In the end now I hate all my headphones (well, not hate, but they're all lying to me).

Here's what I liked from the X58. Really superior sound stage on recordings that make use of it (orchestral: yes, Jean Luc Ponty: No), as you might expect from this set. Good low frequency immersion, though ... still not ... as clear as the Sony. The X58 keeps making me say "smooth".

Here's what I liked from the Sony: crisp. Crisp crisp crisp, and much more detailed in the higher frequencies.

Here's what I don't like about the X58. That "smooth" tone takes all the sharp edges off of the music. The only exception where I really felt more detail from the X58 was a passage of col legno string activity where it stood out more clearly in the X58.

Here's what I don't like about the Sony: after listening to the X58 with its soft tones and superior sound stage, the Sony's really sound like "cans". Sometimes more than others.

Final comparison from this morning. There was one thing that stood out _hugely_ between the X58 and the Sony. When I was playing the Jean Luc Ponty, basically the electronic stuff has no soundstage presence, but the percussion stands out in places. And it's got a lot of hi-hat or other brass percussion going on at one point in that first track. And this is where the X58 just blows it entirely. Not even close. The X58 makes it so that the percussion may as well not even be there. It's muted beyond all recognition. Of course that's the thing about audio, sometimes you don't know what you're missing until you hear it some other way. The Sony MDR's made that percussion pop. Crisp. _Great_ percussive detail from the Sony on this track that was entirely missing from the X58.

So for now, I prefer the Sony's, even while I resent their canned sound on occasion (which the X58 kind of drives home by comparison). The X58 are a big disappointment at double the price. Of course none of my headphones are that expensive in the grand scheme of things.

I tried a couple of other things too. (1) I compared my 40 year old non-descript bose stereo speakers on some of the tracks too, just to sanity check what I was hearing. They're crisper than the X58's too. Otherwise both headsets weren't horrible compared to the speakers, I don't remember which I'd give the edge on. (2) I tried the FiiO M11 DAP EQ on on the X58, but it is renowned to be ineffective, and that was the case with the X58, really little discernable difference. Neither did my stereo "treble" knob do much for the X58 sound.

Caveat: I'm not qualified to judge anything, nor am I up on all the current musical techno-wizardry, but I have a good ear and a lot of ancient musical performance experience. That's why I know what I want things to sound like, like a good soprano, and why I was very disappointed in the X58's failure to deliver. I haven't done much testing though. This is all an hour or two of first impressions and deliberate listening for comparison.

 

[Mhog55]

I listen to hard rock 95%, and the 58X really shines with this type of music. It is possible that detail retrieval isn't a strong point with these cans, and therefore may not be best suited for what you're listening to. Isn't the 7506 more so intended for critical listening and studio use? Where as the Sennheiser 600 series is more suited for kicking back and music enjoyment. It sounds like you're after a an detail / nuance monster. One that is an upgrade to the 7506, but also a little more musical and exciting. Is this somewhat accurate?

 

[jdtenny]

I listen to hard rock 95%, and the 58X really shines with this type of music. It is possible that detail retrieval isn't a strong point with these cans, and therefore may not be best suited for what you're listening to. Isn't the 7506 more so intended for critical listening and studio use? Where as the Sennheiser 600 series is more suited for kicking back and music enjoyment. It sounds like you're after a an detail / nuance monster. One that is an upgrade to the 7506, but also a little more musical and exciting. Is this somewhat accurate?

I would think, based on the heavily muted percussion I encountered in the 58X playing my Jean Luc Ponty track (even though it's not rock, per se) that it would affect most of your rock in a similar fashion (because what's rock with out some percussion! But of course that can come in a wide range of frequencies - maybe you're happy with just a good thumping bass drum). It's weird to me how most reviewers of the 58X say it really pops for them, and yet I catch it red-handed pretty much sucking the life out of the percussion on that track. I don't understand this huge discrepancy in perception between me and pretty much every other 58X reviewer.

I have pretty eclectic music tastes. On the one hand I appreciate the nuance of well recorded classical pieces. I also enjoy a lot of classic rock and jazz in many forms (plenty of Steely Dan & Doobie Brothers in my collection, for example). Mostly I just want to hear what's present in the recording and not have it filtered out. I don't usually feel the need to add stuff that wasn't recorded in the first place via equalizers or heavily biased speakers and such. Most of my listening is while I work, writing at a computer, so it's a isolated environment conducive to quality listening. So when my Sony showed me that the X58 was completely obliterating the high percussion sounds, I felt cheated. On the flip side, there's something not quite right about the Sony's too, but I have less of the feeling that I'm missing something, with them. What I am missing is more in the lower frequencies.

Anyway, I don't think of myself as a detail fiend, but maybe I am and I just don't know it. I just want to hear what the composer wrote and the artist performed. If my headphones are actively hiding that from me, that's frustrating, of course if you don't know what you're missing you can't feel cheated. Unfortunately I recently received a few clues about things I'm missing and was hoping for that bump up from the 58X that didn't materialize. A costly gamble.

 

[jdtenny]

Btw, thanks to all who made suggestions. I bought an ATH-MSR7b and am happy with it. I posted a review in the appropriate head-fi section.

 

[Anrec]

I came here to say I completely agree about the 7506 and it’s right up there with the 58x. I can’t justify the price and the sound doesn’t seem to drastically improve. I can’t understand the reviews and seems like you get attacked fro criticism. Which headphones did you decide to upgrade to?

 

[jdtenny]

I came here to say I completely agree about the 7506 and it’s right up there with the 58x. I can’t justify the price and the sound doesn’t seem to drastically improve. I can’t understand the reviews and seems like you get attacked fro criticism. Which headphones did you decide to upgrade to?

I bought the ATH-MSR7b (and posted a review in the reviews section of head-fi). If you're wanting strong bass it isn't going to give you that boost, but it is all around an improvement on the 7506 that I was looking for, I'm happy with it.

 

[bazzz]

I just received the ATH-MSR7b to use with my M11 and am very happy with my purchase thanks to recommendations I read here. Really am liking the balanced cable. I listened to the same song with the SE and the balanced cable and it made me feel better about my purchase.

 

[jdtenny]

I just received the ATH-MSR7b to use with my M11 and am very happy with my purchase thanks to recommendations I read here. Really am liking the balanced cable. I listened to the same song with the SE and the balanced cable and it made me feel better about my purchase.

Glad you like it and that my review didn't lead you astray. There was nothing wrong with the MDR-7506, but the ATH-MSR7b definitely reveal more of the music for me. Just forget trying to do any work while I listen when I'm wearing them and playing Pink Floyd, the combo requires full submission submersion.

 

[Lionlian]

MDR7506 are best monitor by the World's studio standard, there is none that sounds better than this masterpiece even HD650,

technically HD800 shall be better, but still MDR7506 still sonically masterpiece true to it natural tonality