[Penzo]

Okay disclaimer: audiophile nooblet reporting in. I always want a better sound but I don't have money to support the dream of owning something worth a lot of money so I don't really have much experience, yet at least. I spend so much time listening to my favourite music, that I understand you aren't hearing the full potential of the sounds with cheaper equipment. My source is Xonar Essence ST.
 
Anyway, it has been a while since I got the HFI-580's and all I've got to say is that these things blow away my old ones, the rather cheap Koss Pro4AAT, out of the water. I have not EQ'd since I've gotten them. I find it makes the sound fake which is something I couldn't really believe after the old phones. All I've been listening is mostly electronic dance genres. Goatrance in particular.
 
Let's start with the bassline, it can be quite thumping and it is detailed, though wholly dependent on the original mastering, but it hardly feels like it's making solid vibrations to your head, only when the original track has it intended that way, though EQing affects this to some degrees and also the volume. I must mention that if it's true that HFI 780 has less bass than these, I probably would have been disappointed. 580 edges it's bass just enough for me, though I would like a little more, personal preference, I think many people here(Just an observation) would find the bass to be a lot, actually.
 
The mids and highs are great too, though there is an issue with sibilance. First time I listened the 580's, the sibilance was unbearably annoying. Gradually it got much nicer and now it's only in certain situations that they are quite annoying, vocal in particular. The genres I listen to hardly have vocals so I'm not concerned about that, but it's there. The phones feel actually airy at times considering it's a closed phone and the sounds have nice distinction from each others and never overpower one another. It is detailed/revealing enough that I have noticed many things I had not before and the sounds have much more textures now, especially the bass and mids. Though one thing bothered me at first is that there's hi-hat panning to one of the sides(mostly right) on some old school goatrance tracks, I still don't know if it's my ears or is it the headphone(most probably not), or the mastering. I never, ever noticed it before(But did afterwards, even with other phones) but I have gotten quite used to it. Movies are great, though could have done with a bit more spacey soundstage but there's nothing wrong there. Games are good too. I tried some of the movie/game settings on my Xonar ST but it just made it sound weird/fake.
 
In conclusion the only problems I find are the tad too small soundstage and some sibilance which makes vocals sound.. not that great, although the apparent sibilance in trance(all non-vocal) tracks completely works for them(!). Could I say it makes everything punchier? So keep that in mind.
 
The comfort, god, put those Kosspro4 AA's on your head and let them sit for an hour and you will say the 580's are feathers. With that said, as I've gotten out of that ultra non-comfort zone to these ones and yeah the 580 could be a tad more comfortable with glasses, but even with them they are nowhere near as bad, or even bad, per se. Without glasses they are great. I do hate the fact the pleather pads will take damage from anything remotely sharp+ a little force. Have to be careful..
 
All in all I did not feel like I wasted any money, the amount of detail I got over the old phones is just massive, worth all of it's price of 150e.

Thanks head-fi!
 
Music examples that are just amazing with these phones imo.
youtube.com/watch?v=LN0tMHrSRec
youtube.com/watch?v=macQd04kxlw
youtube.com/watch?v=bv7laheN_zA
youtube.com/watch?v=U6mTrXzPHlc
youtube.com/watch?v=ysjuFkIRIgk

 

[wind016]

If you want those vibrations, don't be afraid to EQ, but use a very good EQ. Cowon and Samsung players have good ones and phasing issues are not as big of a deal with the BBE. There is HUGE potential to pump your head with low end vibrations. It is only beat by the XB700 in that aspect. Even though some say the XB500 has more bass impact than the XB700, the XB700 has more potential FWIE. Either way, the 580 has more detail than either of them.

 

[Anaxilus]

Glad you like them.  They were one of my faves when I still had them.  Any impressions on the S-Logic w/ respect to SPL versus the Koss? 

 

[matt3D]

Hi Penzo,
Have you tried out the ATH M50s? How does the bass compare for these headphones, is the hfi 580's just as powerful and accurate?
Thanks,
Matt

 

[JacobTerrado]

@Matt3D
I have both the HFI 580 and the M50. I'm not as experienced as many so my description may be off or somewhat inaccurate
The M50's bass extends further than the ultrasones. The lower frequencies are heard more, than the HFI 580--but it doesn't meant that the lower frequencies are not heard in the HFI 580 (just not as much). In terms of impact, i believe the HFI 580 win, but i'm not sure. I can't test them out right now because my brother's using the Hfi 580. I could say though, that both headphones are similar. It's just a matter of which sound signature you would prefer

hope i somewhat helped

 

[matt3D]

Quote:

@Matt3D
I have both the HFI 580 and the M50. I'm not as experienced as many so my description may be off or somewhat inaccurate
The M50's bass extends further than the ultrasones. The lower frequencies are heard more, than the HFI 580--but it doesn't meant that the lower frequencies are not heard in the HFI 580 (just not as much). In terms of impact, i believe the HFI 580 win, but i'm not sure. I can't test them out right now because my brother's using the Hfi 580. I could say though, that both headphones are similar. It's just a matter of which sound signature you would prefer

hope i somewhat helped

Thanks Jacob, that sounds good! So the HFI 580 can still hit at least 20Hz right? I listen to music with deep bass sometimes and I would like to able to hear these frequencies but they don't have to necessarily make my head rattle.
 

 

[Penzo]

Sorry for ultra late replies, I have not logged in forever. Just thought I'd still share my thoughts either way.
Quote:

If you want those vibrations, don't be afraid to EQ, but use a very good EQ. Cowon and Samsung players have good ones and phasing issues are not as big of a deal with the BBE. There is HUGE potential to pump your head with low end vibrations. It is only beat by the XB700 in that aspect. Even though some say the XB500 has more bass impact than the XB700, the XB700 has more potential FWIE. Either way, the 580 has more detail than either of them.

I only use the Xonar STX for my output device. Sources are flacs or mp3s. I only tried this some time ago and it is quite true just how much bass the HFI can output, I'm almost scared I'll kill it with too much of it. Though, I've noticed it takes mids and highs a little lower if I EQ it on the Xonar driver. Any particular reason it does this?
 


Quote:

Glad you like them.  They were one of my faves when I still had them.  Any impressions on the S-Logic w/ respect to SPL versus the Koss? 

I didn't use either. I played around with the S-logic but I found it gimmicky and useless, though it's possible I was going on about it wrong as I did not really research about it.
 
 
Also just to put some further feelings on the table. The sibilance has recessed but it's still apparent. I still would not recommend for mostly vocal music, these cans are for electronic. Also the soundstage is just ok, but I guess I'd have to get more expensive cans if I wanted true sound separation. Maybe my next one's, maybe. For the money these things are fantastic, though. Truly.
 

 

[wind016]

Quote:

Sorry for ultra late replies, I have not logged in forever. Just thought I'd still share my thoughts either way.

I only use the Xonar STX for my output device. Sources are flacs or mp3s. I only tried this some time ago and it is quite true just how much bass the HFI can output, I'm almost scared I'll kill it with too much of it. Though, I've noticed it takes mids and highs a little lower if I EQ it on the Xonar driver. Any particular reason it does this?
 

 

If you don't use a linear phase equalizer, that result is expected. Even if you use linear phase, but make huge db changes, that will also happen. Cowon's BBE, EQ, and enhancements was the only equalizer that I've experienced to do it with the most minimal compromises, but the difference is HUGE =P

 

[Penzo]

Quote:

If you don't use a linear phase equalizer, that result is expected. Even if you use linear phase, but make huge db changes, that will also happen. Cowon's BBE, EQ, and enhancements was the only equalizer that I've experienced to do it with the most minimal compromises, but the difference is HUGE =P

Ohh. Does this apply for all of the Cowon mp3 players?

 

[wind016]

Quote:

Ohh. Does this apply for all of the Cowon mp3 players?

At least it does for the Cowon S9 and J3 IME. Reports seem to say the I9 is identical to those two in sound quality.
 
 

 

[desktophifi]

Nice impressions. I currently have the 580's on my wishlist. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Do they respond well to EQing deep bass 31 ~ 62Hz as it seems these have more mid/upper bass than deep/slow/rumbling bass by default at least. If it's not even at M50 in deep bass extension and amplitude it would be very lacking to me as I found M50 to lack in amplitude in bass in the whole range, it extended nicely but it wasn't quite as strong as I was looking for and M50 didn't respond well to my EQing, despite making quite drastic changes it didn't make it that much stronger whereas if I even touch the EQ a little for my XB500 it'll be very noticable for example.