[adrien]

Hey! This is my first time posting here but I've been reading around quite a bit and I had this one question.
 
I've got a pair of HD497's that I've had for 6 or 7 years now. I do some recording and studio work, but am by no means an expert when it comes to headphones.
 
My friend recently brought over his pair of Grado SR60's so I gave them a try. The sound from the SR60's sounded so full and the bass was quite heavy (in my opinion, the bass almost was to loud in comparison to the rest of the spectrum). But I could feel the bass and the sound was very different than what was coming from my HD497's. My HD497's always seemed to half a relatively flat frequency response, but I always felt like they were a bit light on the bass. When I tried the Grado's, I realized how light mine were in the bass. In my HD497's, the bass is audible, but it does not have the same effect as in the Grado's.
 
So I began looking around for info about this online. Ironically, in most of the comparisons I found of the two, the reviewer claimed that HD497's have stronger, louder bass response than the Grado's.
 
For instance, in this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/137138/hd497-vs-sr60-bass, one writer says:
 
 
Quote:

The Sennheiser is a lot more prominent in mid-bass, and sounds thicker. The Grado sounds more analytical and faster in the bass, and seems to thin out very fast in the lower bass notes.

 
and another said:
 
 
Quote:

497 has a warm sound that is fairly balanced. Much better and deeper bass than the Grados.

 
These 2 reviews seem to totally contradict what I'm hearing.
 
What is going on?? Do I have a defective pair of HD497's?
 
Thanks a bunch!
 
Adrien

 

[leng jai]

While I've owned both it has been a while so don't take my words as gospel. To me the HD497s definitely had better bass, especially when it came to depth. The SR60s had decent midbass impact and this is what you might be hearing as "more" bass. The SR60s are seriously lacking when it comes to depth, and while the HD497 wasn't great at it either, it wins here.