Yes. I agree. I should have explained the bottom end better, sorry.
I currently favour the Shure SRH940 for studio work - well defined clear-as-day mids and a BIT like the MH40, subs are there but musical unlike the MH40, I can hear what the low notes actually are (a low B or a low C?) and make reliable decisions for later work with proper monitors. Obviously we don't all need to do that. The Shure SRH940 is, however, built like a child's toy - ridiculously awful - not even metal inside the headband, where they all break. Plastic inner headband! Seriously! The WORST built headphones I have ever touched - but hey American right? It's like they're made of that horrific hard plastic that only USA uses - it's used on cheap usa car dashboards (Ford P100). Also used by China for child-breakable knock-off action figures with no detail, and used in Europe, in a super-thin way, to hold cheap chocolates in place in a cheap box of chocolates. The WORST materials. Someone in USA, in Shure, is telling China to use this awful plastic for these headphones which break because of it and Shure carry on not giving a fk.
Obviously the MH40 is a listening headphone, not a hifi one (yet), not a surgical recording one, but once you know notes down there it's hard to accept a headphone that just has sub blobs down there, for any listening purpose - much like a cheap sub for 5:1 speakers - just rumbles - doesn't convey any notes or articulation. There is a reward in accurate low notes. You don't need to be a ponced-up music producer or musician to appreciate it - music's made for entertainment. For the last 50 years, music has been 'produced' for the listener to enjoy as best they can - to re-live the live event or the careful studio work. You just need to hear low defined notes and then the world presents you with more demands on your wallet/purse
I did this track recently with my very special (Dingwall) bass tuned down to A below A, I think. It's very low. Other basses can't do it. Some headphones I have here just rumble and don't define the notes:
Denon M400 (good try, not great)
Sony h.ear (just rumble, bit nice rumble)
Blue Mofi [not retail one] (just plain wonderful ear nectar)
PSB M4U2 (acceptable with amp on, oddly)
Yamaha MT220 (pretty good)
Shure SRH 940 (pretty good)
Beyer t51p (pretty good)
They all sort of manage it which is why I still have all those headphones that do well in the rest of the spectrum. The Denon is pretty useless in the mids, but like velvet otherwise.
Track here:
http://www.slunq.com/temps/Eradicate.wav.zip
You WILL hear bass notes even on internal computer speakers - harmonics. Just saying.
Couldn't care less if you like the track or not - I am a grown-up.
(Copyrighted by the way - just in case there's a dick out there. It takes much time and thought to make all creative things - even things some people don't like.)
Don't get me wrong, I adore The MH40 as a delightful beautiful object to own and admire and touch, and they sound fairly good (ish) compared to others at the price point (you will find nothing so exquisitely made) but around 2khz they are SO annoying and that is not good for listening in any way nor your ears' health, whatever environment you are in. It is the wrong frequency to push. There's already a lot of annoying stuff around 2khz wherever you are. In studio work you never boost, always cut. They should have cut 2khz and boosted the rest to rise above the city sounds, not boost 2khz to compete with them. It's what other people do, with good reason. Whoever their sound designer/engineer is, I wouldn't use them again. Rookie error.
I returned mine suspecting (knowing) they could damage my hearing. The company people themselves could not have been more polite and helpful.
As I've said before, I REALLY look forward to the next iteration of a NEARLY good headphone.
And yes, get now at massdrop if you want to ruin your ears.
