Quote:
Just found my old
parts express headband under a pile of misc cables.
I thought I'd try it out on my KSC35s...
I'm not sure how the sound differs from the clips, probably not very much at all. The pressure is about the same, perhaps
slightly more...so
slightly warmer/bassier. Not quite sure yet. It's hard to A-B compare...
There is more room to position the drivers on the ear then with the clip-ons though. You can move them to be more centered and aimed into your ear with the headband.
Could make the sound fuller....
OK, I tried some swapping and comparing between the KSC35 with the either the KSC75 clips, or the headband. There are definitely some differences.
To sum up:
With Headband:
+ Fuller mids
+ More body and impact to sound
+ Better balance between frequencies
+ Taller soundstage height, "bigger" sounding
With Clips:
+ Airer sound
+ More soundstage width
+ More separation between parts
You can pretty much say the pros of one are the cons of the other.
The airiness part is sort of a grey area though, because the airiness is sort of tied to/comes at the expense of the mids. The KSC35 is a bit grainy up top anyways, so I'm not sure I want to hear the "air" it has to offer all that much. I'd rather hear some more mids instead.
- The mids are fuller with the headband, no question. That's the first thing I notice when I swap. There is more body to the mids and lower mids/upper bass with the headband. When I put the clips back on the mids get sucked out some and it's more "V" shaped, and the highs sound more stranded off and isolated from the rest of the frequencies (which I think also makes the clips sound airier up top - as there are less mids next to the highs so they sound more highlighted, airey, and slightly more metallic).
- The balance sounds closer to a full sized headphone with the headband.
- With the headband on the soundstage sounds taller and the overall sound sounds "bigger."
- The clips are airier sounding (keep in mind what I said at the end of the first bullet point about the air).
- With the clips the soundstage has more width. While the headband soundstage does sound taller, the width sounds more compressed as well. Coming from the headband, it sounds like you squished the soundstage height and stretched the sound more to the sides instead, but perhaps stretched it too thinly (losing some mids and fullness). That's pretty much to be expected, and you should be able to attribute that to the different position and distance from the ear with the clips.
- There is also some more separation between parts with the clips. I think a part of that has to do with the mids "getting out of the way" more with the clips, which can add separation to the sound but at the expense of sounding thinner. The other part is related to the differences in soundstage width from the different physical positions of the drivers.
- I didn't test imaging, but I imagine it will probably do a little better with the clips and the extra room they give in the soundstage.
Keep in mind this is with the KSC75 clips. I'm assuming the differences between the KSC
35 clips and the headband will be smaller, since they're a little less distant than the KSC75 clips.
So far, I prefer the sound with the headband. It's a fuller more balanced sound, closer to a that of a full sized headphone. I think the fuller mids and added body are worth the loss of some soundstage width and separation. I mainly use the KSC35 for things where soundstage and imaging isn't critical anyways, like TV/movie watching. When I need moar soundstage, I've got my full size headphones.
Some of the shortcomings I've always had with the KSC75 and 35 (both with 75 clips mind you) were that the mids were too thin, the soundstage was to short (height), and the highs were too grainy/sibilant. The headband helps alleviate those issues some, and IMO the pros outweigh the cons.
> Most importantly, using the headband makes me miss the Q701's less than when I'm just using the '75 clips.