[mrmas]

Thanks Oregonian for the tip about the alpha pads. I was on the fence about picking up the q40 as I wasn't sure how much an upgrade they would be over my m50. The comfort level alone with the alpha pads was completely worth it for me. The q40 sounds better too imo, i'm liking the rumble and how it doesnt sound as congested as the m50. Great find! thanks guys    

 

[Oregonian]

Thanks Oregonian for the tip about the alpha pads. I was on the fence about picking up the q40 as I wasn't sure how much an upgrade they would be over my m50. The comfort level alone with the alpha pads was completely worth it for me. The q40 sounds better too imo, i'm liking the rumble and how it doesnt sound as congested as the m50. Great find! thanks guys    

Glad to help. I was just so impressed with the improvement that I had to say something. I've tried at least ten pads on these phones and now I'm done.

 

[Thujone]

I won't lie, they are very much V-shaped with the Alphas, but the comfort and bass slam is really hard to beat!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I decided to snatch a backup for myself in case they actually discontinued this wonderful headphone (checking their website they don't even list them anymore under "product" section) so guess there is some truth to it.
 
I love these so much still after 2 years+ of use that I start to imagine it will be extremely difficult to find a replacement for me that has the abilities I crave but would do it better than Q40. These headphones works so nice for my hardstyle music mastering needs. It's like they were made for this purpose. For those who don't know I'm like among the very most successful hardstyle music promoter on Youtube with over 22.000 subscribers (add 10x to that for comparable subscriber count for dubstep music channels for example), the genre has changed so much though and you could think it is entirely different kind of music today than what it was say 6-7 years ago and I focus on the more melodic uplifting side of hardstyle that shares a lot of similarities as mainstream house and trance music but ofc has the basic hardstyle elements such as distorted bass, reverse bass, screeches, usually follows the intro-break-climax-outro structure and ~150 bpm etc. 

I then usually master newcomer's tracks a little bit before uploading to the channel as often newcomers lack this experience as they are more focused on the designing part, I promote a lot of very talented newcomers with very unique and different styles, some recent examples would be:

 

 

 
These headphones are like made for this genre. You need a boosted bass response like Q40 packs to get the most out of it, in fact the listening experience is greatly enhanced when I use ZO with Q40 as then I start to FEEL the bass as well when it's kicking my face which adds another level of satisfaction.

 

[dakanao]

I've read once that the bass of the Q40's isn't boomy at all, just really punchy. I definitely like that.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I've read once that the bass of the Q40's isn't boomy at all, just really punchy. I definitely like that.

 
For the amount bass it packs, they aren't very boomy at all, they provide a very textured bass response for the amount bass they pack, i.e. the bass quantity vs texture/quality ratio is very high on these headphones, another reason they work so well for hardstyle that I listen to because this genre is using "textured" bass beats so to speak, inserts some mids / highs, a clean typical EDM beat gets distorted in one or another in order to give it a more exciting sound of some sort, it can be an nice "crunch", or blop, tok, pow, paw, whatever sound to go with the bass beat why I'm so satisfied with these headphones as they both bring the quantity and quality. 

I wouldn't be suprised if you can't even find a bass-driven headphone with better quantity vs quality ratio even 3x as high cost. It's certainly not the "punchiest" bass I've heard (LP2, Sony XB800/900 especially) but comparing other bass boosted headphones it is definitely above "average" punchy. Their great subbass extension makes the bass seem less punchy so it's a good trade-off, midbass focused headphones can be punchier but this one brings you balanced midbass vs subbass output.

 

[Thujone]

Quote:

I decided to snatch a backup for myself in case they actually discontinued this wonderful headphone (checking their website they don't even list them anymore under "product" section) so guess there is some truth to it.
 

I've never been able to find them through the product page. Just search "Q40" in the search bar.

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

 
For the amount bass it packs, they aren't very boomy at all, they provide a very textured bass response for the amount bass they pack, i.e. the bass quantity vs texture/quality ratio is very high on these headphones, another reason they work so well for hardstyle that I listen to because this genre is using "textured" bass beats so to speak, inserts some mids / highs, a clean typical EDM beat gets distorted in one or another in order to give it a more exciting sound of some sort, it can be an nice "crunch", or blop, tok, pow, paw, whatever sound to go with the bass beat why I'm so satisfied with these headphones as they both bring the quantity and quality. 

I wouldn't be suprised if you can't even find a bass-driven headphone with better quantity vs quality ratio even 3x as high cost. It's certainly not the "punchiest" bass I've heard (LP2, Sony XB800/900 especially) but comparing other bass boosted headphones it is definitely above "average" punchy. Their great subbass extension makes the bass seem less punchy so it's a good trade-off, midbass focused headphones can be punchier but this one brings you balanced midbass vs subbass output.

Have you ever tried the Fidelio X1?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Have you ever tried the Fidelio X1?

 
No but I keep reading people say the highs are slightly veiled and there's some glare/resonance spike in the upper-mid range. Otherwise the measurement shows a very good quality punchy bass on this headphone.

 

[dakanao]

What does veiled highs mean and resonance? I've read 2 guys say the bass can become slightly bloated and ''one note ish'' at times. What do you think about that, Thujone?

 

[Armaegis]

Just some generalities...
 
Veiled usually means a recession in that particular frequency range, or when the bracketing sides are more pronounced.
 
Glare/resonance is a peak in the frequency range (although in some cases also a sharp dip) which typically also suffers from an "echo" effect (though the delay is so low you won't notice it in the traditional sense). This makes the sound more forceful in addition to being louder at that particular spot. 
 
Bloated bass is usually a midbass hump just below the vocal range so it tends to make voices sound muddy, and lower bass notes will feel forceful and odd as a narrow band of harmonics will be emphasized (hence one-note bass). 

 

[Thujone]

Quote:

What does veiled highs mean and resonance? I've read 2 guys say the bass can become slightly bloated and ''one note ish'' at times. What do you think about that, Thujone?

The X1 has a very similar signature to the Q40's in my mind. I never did a side by side comparison, but they sound very similar. The only real difference (from what I remember) is that the X1's might be slightly more boomy, better soundstage, and they have crisper highs. Obviously they will be more airy sounding as well due to the open can.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Woops, confused L1 with X1, don't know much about the X1 other than it's tonally more neutral than L1 from people who has tested both. For me the X1's bass probably won't suffice coming from Q40 and I need a closed can personally but otherwise I'm very curious to hear them as I think they should sound pretty good to me. Tyll recommended them to me once too as I was looking for a bass boosted but even mids and highs headphone but ultimately it leaks as a squeeling pig and there's ofc no outside noise isolation that I need (shutting off my computer fans).

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

Woops, confused L1 with X1, don't know much about the X1 other than it's tonally more neutral than L1 from people who has tested both. For me the X1's bass probably won't suffice coming from Q40 and I need a closed can personally but otherwise I'm very curious to hear them as I think they should sound pretty good to me. Tyll recommended them to me once too as I was looking for a bass boosted but even mids and highs headphone but ultimately it leaks as a squeeling pig and there's ofc no outside noise isolation that I need (shutting off my computer fans).

I've tried the L1 with my mp4 player. Man, do they suck. Everything just sounds so muddy and recessed. Especially the highs are bad, they are seriously almost NON EXISTANT. And I've tried them with 320 kbps music.

 

[Thujone]

I think the X1's have more bass quantity than the Q40's with the 840 pads. I didn't mess with stock pads very much due to the fit.