[descloud]

Overrated: Oppo PM-3s
A lot of content and reviews rave about the sound signature being excellent for this headphone. I was a bit disappointed to say the least. While majority would say they are neutral and balanced, I don't completely agree with these claims. There is a thickness / muffled quality in the mids that just makes voices sound unnatural and there is a peak in the highs that make certain instruments in the upper 7k region emphasized compared to the rest. This is present only on certain songs though to my ears. The bass is alright decent impact and extension.

The Audeze Sine, which was the competing closed black portable planar at the time, is I would describe as much better balanced throughout the lows, mids and highs with a more accurate tonality in voices and instruments. When using the standard 3.5mm cable, it is more mid focused where there is a weird cut-off sound to the lowest bass frequencies. The highs can get piercing on higher volumes. With the cipher cable, the bass got the necessary increase and the highs are tamed better, making them more even sounding throughout the whole frequency spectrum, to my ears.

Underrated: Shure SRH750DJ
These are among the first headphones went I first started this hobby (don't have them anymore, but can vaguely remember their sound signature). Not a lot of reviews for these on this site. I think they are among the best closed back cans for $150 or less. They sound balanced overall. The bass may be a bit thin or dry sounding, but hits hard and has good extension. The mids are well represented - definitely an ace for Shure audio gear. The highs are also well represented, although I don't recall if they extend really far. Among the drawbacks of it are:
1) build quality is subpar compared to the monitoring one (SRH-840) - plastic always creak when moving around and changing headband size
2) earpads are shallow - can be uncomfortable after a lengthy period of time
3) soundstage is tall, but pretty narrow - like only an arm's length wall of sound based on recollection

 

[PointyFox]

Underrated: Audeze Mobius. Beats most popular headphones in the $500-700 range, yet no one talks about it and they sell for almost nothing used.

Underrated: qdc Neptune. Almost no one is interested in these, and qdc barely puts any effort into marketing them. They sound like BGVP DM6 IEMs with smoother treble response.

Overrated: LCD-4. Heavy and expensive. Prone to driver failures. No better bass and not as dynamic as the MDR-Z1R which sells for less than half the price. About the same level of transparency.

Overrated: ATH-M50. Intensely praised by almost everyone and Tyll claims they are better than the MDR-Z1R. They sound like mud to me.

 

[stimuz]

Underrated: Monoprice m350. more like completely unknown tbh, got it on sale for $100 bucks and I've been enjoying the hell out of them as my desktop headphones. Very good detail and with power and eq great sub and midbass. Mids also sound great to me.

 

[god-bluff]

Underrated, based on price : perfomance: classic headphones such as the AKG K240 Studio available at just £40 or so. Effortlessly musical and non fatiguing.

Also underrated; other, still made 'vintage', headphones eg; Beyer DT150, portaPro, Ultrasone HFi15g to name a few. For music lovers rather than 'audiophiles' who would rather listen to music than the headphone


Overrated: any headphone that costs more than a pair of HD600s or around £300. The purveyors of 'hi end' have seen the guillable coming. AIMHO?!?!

 

[llysender]

Overrated: HD600, The cult of HD6X0 says its the second coming of headphone christ after the hd580 but imo its a ok flavour can. Doesnt do wood/brass-winds well as they sound compressed and not ethereal with distinct reverberations. For EDM its ok for slower songs but once you have drunk out of the BPM cup and start enjoying extratone/gabber do you start noticing how bad the hd600 are.

Underrated: R70X, This is what the HD600 should have been. Does everything nicely and has a slight bass colouration making everything feel alive. Otherwise mids and trebble are very natural and has a nice dispersed soundstage. The only issue I have with it having looked around at kilodoller headphones is that detail could be better. Other while this is the one headphone in the midfi price range that I will say does timbre really well with its ability to go fast when it needs to.

 

[god-bluff]

Overrated: HD600,

B*ll*x

You are in a tiny minority, thankfully

In the wider, real world the 600 is king.

 

[bolim]

Not sure if it has been mentioned before but a modded HP-50 probably deserves the accolade of a seriously underrated hp

 

[Rocklobst3r]

i find the sony MDRz7's underrated by myself, bought them second hand almost two years ago because i needed some closed back's for work and they were cheap,
just realised iv'e been using them every day for two years and have absolutely no complaints for the price i bought them for, well i guess their not the prettiest pair of headphones.

 

[xeizo]

i find the sony MDRz7's underrated by myself, bought them second hand almost two years ago because i needed some closed back's for work and they were cheap,
just realised iv'e been using them every day for two years and have absolutely no complaints for the price i bought them for, well i guess their not the prettiest pair of headphones.

Since the MDR-Z7M2 is my current favorite, if the Z7 isn't very different I can understand why you like them

 

[Rocklobst3r]

Since the MDR-Z7M2 is my current favorite, if the Z7 isn't very different I can understand why you like them

Recently plugged them into my bottlehead S.E.X that i have smuggled into work because i was not using it and my god did the bass slam turn up a notch, took me by surprise really, was powering them from a cambridge audio dac magic plus, guess it wasn't quite up to snuff.

 

[SilverEars]

Recently plugged them into my bottlehead S.E.X that i have smuggled into work because i was not using it and my god did the bass slam turn up a notch, took me by surprise really, was powering them from a cambridge audio dac magic plus, guess it wasn't quite up to snuff.

Interesting, and the Z7 is only 70 ohm. Nothing funny about the sound, just stronger bass slam?

 

[xeizo]

Interesting, and the Z7 is only 70 ohm. Nothing funny about the sound, just stronger bass slam?

Maybe it needs more voltage than the dac magic can provide

 

[Rocklobst3r]

Interesting, and the Z7 is only 70 ohm. Nothing funny about the sound, just stronger bass slam?

yep, it's the second time this amp (dac magic plus) has done this to me fist time was with some hd800S's it was a similar outcome, though with the 800's i do distinctly remember the soundstage opening up when changing amps, i only use it as a DAC now.

 

[SilverEars]

yep, it's the second time this amp (dac magic plus) has done this to me fist time was with some hd800S's it was a similar outcome, though with the 800's i do distinctly remember the soundstage opening up when changing amps, i only use it as a DAC now.

I thought you meant the SEX. You meant the amp on DAC Magic plus.

 

[Rocklobst3r]

I thought you meant the SEX. You meant the amp on DAC Magic plus.

powering through dac magic amp = meh, powering through sex = yes please