[koiloco]

  Hey, while I am awaiting shipping of my Alpha Dogs, I am going to take suggestions for sub-bass and bass impact test tracks, in other words, tracks that are particularly good for checking whether headphones can produce sub-bass and/or good bass impact.
 
Most of my aforementioned acoustic instrument tracks have excellent bass quality and sometimes quantity, but rarely go below 60hz and never below 40hz.
 
So what tracks do you like to use ?

My 2 favorites :
 
Radiohead :  little by little (caribou remix)
Lusine Icl : Invisible
 
Get ready to be rocked.  

 

[ethan7000]

Hey, while I am awaiting shipping of my Alpha Dogs, I am going to take suggestions for sub-bass and bass impact test tracks, in other words, tracks that are particularly good for checking whether headphones can produce sub-bass and/or good bass impact.

Most of my aforementioned acoustic instrument tracks have excellent bass quality and sometimes quantity, but rarely go below 60hz and never below 40hz.

So what tracks do you like to use ?

Bjork - Virus. I'll link you to number of tracks on soundcloud when I'm on a computer tomorrow.

 

[sunneebear]

  And, yet, none of that matters if you don't have your audiophile grade acoustic stones and hangers.

 
 
Holy cow that's a real site.  It's from Sweden, I clicked on it to see if it's real and now I'm a owner of the Megalodon stone.  Now I have to sell my car.

 

[drm870]

  Hey, while I am awaiting shipping of my Alpha Dogs, I am going to take suggestions for sub-bass and bass impact test tracks, in other words, tracks that are particularly good for checking whether headphones can produce sub-bass and/or good bass impact.
 
Most of my aforementioned acoustic instrument tracks have excellent bass quality and sometimes quantity, but rarely go below 60hz and never below 40hz.
 
So what tracks do you like to use ?

 
I'm not a huge fan of the track, but since it (in my viewing experience) seems to be the song that everybody on YouTube uses to stress-test/flex their subwoofers, I figure I'd just leave it here...
 

 

[miceblue]

The C5 and O2 sound really great with the Alpha Dog! The C5 just has a bit of sub-bass rumble missing that the O2 has. The Alpha Dog just sounds so natural to me. My goodness.....and this is only with the iPhone 4S's DAC. I can't wait to hear it on the desktop!

 

^ With approximate volume-matching
 
Rock, folk, classical, electronic, acoustic, they all sound really good to my ears. I think this is the closed-back headphone of my dreams. XD

 

[ethan7000]

The C5 and O2 sound really great with the Alpha Dog! The C5 just has a bit of sub-bass rumble missing that the O2 has. The Alpha Dog just sounds so natural to me. My goodness.....and this is only with the iPhone 4S's DAC. I can't wait to hear it on the desktop! :basshead:

I find the HS2 to pick up noise pretty badly, and I hear crosstalk between signals - do you notice those issues with yours?

 

[miceblue]

 

The C5 and O2 sound really great with the Alpha Dog! The C5 just has a bit of sub-bass rumble missing that the O2 has. The Alpha Dog just sounds so natural to me. My goodness.....and this is only with the iPhone 4S's DAC. I can't wait to hear it on the desktop!

 

I find the HS2 to pick up noise pretty badly, and I hear crosstalk between signals - do you notice those issues with yours?

I'm not sure what that would sound like. When I turn the HS2's dial slowly I get a little *blip* sound. Other than that, I don't hear anything out of place. I don't think it makes a big difference, but I made sure that none of the cables from the HS2 touch another cable except for the one on the Alpha Dog's jack.
 
Before using the HS2, I did switching between amps by hand and came to the same conclusions. The O2 sounds a bit more open-sounding with a tad bit more bass rumble.

 

[ethan7000]

I'm not sure what that would sound like. When I turn the HS2's dial slowly I get a little *blip* sound. Other than that, I don't hear anything out of place. I don't think it makes a big difference, but I made sure that none of the cables from the HS2 touch another cable except for the one on the Alpha Dog's jack.

Before using the HS2, I did switching between amps by hand and came to the same conclusions. The O2 sounds a bit more open-sounding with a tad bit more bass rumble.

Maybe touching cables is my issue, I'll try separating them, thanks.

 

[Asr]

Since no one uploaded a photo of the Alpha Dog on someone's head from the front (it's always been to the side...), here ya go:

 
FTFY

 

 

[koiloco]

^roflmao.

 

[miceblue]

 

Since no one uploaded a photo of the Alpha Dog on someone's head from the front (it's always been to the side...), here ya go:

 
FTFY

 

Hahaha. Epic face!
 

---

Still on the portable setup, I'm actually quite surprised at the differences between this CMoy-like amp and the C5 and the O2. I find it to have the forward midrange of the C5, but with the O2's spaciousness and bass extension.
 
iPod Video 5th Generation + Rockbox (I was playing I-Ching's Of the Marsh and the Moon album) -> FiiO L9 -> headphone splitter -> C5/CMoy-like amp -> HS2 -> Alpha Dog

 
So from what I've been hearing with the Alpha Dogs today: O2 ≥ CMoy-like amp > C5 > FiiO E12 > iPhone 4S > Sansa Clip Zip
 
 
 
Now that that's taken care of, with the iPod Video 5th Generation + Rockbox -> FiiO L9 -> O2 setup the Alpha Dog actually sounds pretty spacious considering it's a closed-back headphone, but it still sounds like a closed-back headphone. Maybe it's the music I'm using, maybe it's the DAC, or maybe it's the amp, but although the Alpha Dog has a pretty spacious soundstage for the overall presentation, the clarity of the instruments (what I call instrument separation, what others call imaging) isn't the clearest. I can't recall enough about the LCD-2 to make a fair comparison between the two for you all, unfortunately.
 
Actually, listening to this album, which I listened to with the LCD-2, the Alpha Dog's soundstage reminds me of that of the LCD-2. But again, don't quote me on that since it's been a while since I heard the LCD-2.

 
In other news, this headphone has some really sweet mids! I actually like it much more than my STAX for that reason.

 
 
I'll post impressions with my desktop setup later today after I get some sleep and go to classes. XD
But to me, I think the Alpha Dog would be a great transportable headphone from my listening tests today.
 

---

A general question to anyone, what makes a headphone sound bassy? The STAX SRS-2170 measures pretty flat along the bass frequencies, so does the LCD-2, and so does the HE-500. Why does the bass on the LCD-2 sound so much more prominent than on the STAX or HE-500 (without the Jerg pads)? I'm finding that to be similar for the Alpha Dog (LCD-2-like bass?) and SRS-2170.

 

[ethan7000]

[rule]A general question to anyone, what makes a headphone sound bassy? The STAX SRS-2170 measures pretty flat along the bass frequencies, so does the LCD-2, and so does the HE-500. Why does the bass on the LCD-2 sound so much more prominent than on the STAX or HE-500 (without the Jerg pads)? I'm finding that to be similar for the Alpha Dog (LCD-2-like bass?) and SRS-2170.

Could be you're getting a better seal with the lcd2. Could be that the housing is a bit more closed than the others. If the bass really is the same in quantity as the others, then it could be it dips a bit more than the others in mids, making the bass sound emphasized (don't know, not looking at any charts). Just a few ideas.

 

[mrspeakers]

FYI, as of tomorrow we'll have shipped Alpha orders through Sept 6, so we're keeping pretty close to our 6 weeks.

 

[manbear]

Could be you're getting a better seal with the lcd2. Could be that the housing is a bit more closed than the others. If the bass really is the same in quantity as the others, then it could be it dips a bit more than the others in mids, making the bass sound emphasized (don't know, not looking at any charts). Just a few ideas.

Wouldn't the effect of the housing show up on the frequency response graphs? Pad seal does make sense though. 

 

[ethan7000]

  FYI, as of tomorrow we'll have shipped Alpha orders through Sept 6, so we're keeping pretty close to our 6 weeks.

Do you charge on order or when you ship?
 

  Wouldn't the effect of the housing show up on the frequency response graphs? Pad seal does make sense though. 

Don't know

  Hey, while I am awaiting shipping of my Alpha Dogs, I am going to take suggestions for sub-bass and bass impact test tracks, in other words, tracks that are particularly good for checking whether headphones can produce sub-bass and/or good bass impact.
 
Most of my aforementioned acoustic instrument tracks have excellent bass quality and sometimes quantity, but rarely go below 60hz and never below 40hz.
 
So what tracks do you like to use ?

Most of these tracks have some sweet sub bass:
https://soundcloud.com/ethan7000/sets/bass