GanChan
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2002
- Posts
- 758
- Likes
- 12
Greetings, all.
Since I'm kind of new to this stuff, please help me confirm that I'm not deaf or nuts (well, at least not deaf). I currently own the KSC-50 and the V6, both excellent phones, but I notice that when I watch DVDs, the cheaper Koss paints a more natural picture than my "main" headphones. Don't get me wrong, the V6 still has more clarity, power, immediacy, detail, and accuracy, and if I were seriously studying a complex piece of music I would turn to it first every time. The KSCs, by comparison, have a little midbass hump, a slightly echoey midrange and distinctly "silvery" (chilly?) highs. And yet...with the V6, as great as the sheer sound is, I'm always aware that I'm listening to a device parked on my head, because the sound is very "close," very much in the foreground going "Hey you, listen up." With the KSCs, on the other hand, I could almost be fooled into thinking I'm listening to a pair of stereo speakers in the room with me. My guess is that it's the KSC's very eccentricities -- the slight distancing effect on certain frequencies, the less aggressive highs, and the faux-subwoofer effect of the slightly emphasized lows, that combine to create a sensation of more "air around the notes" and more of a soundstage, room-acoustic effect. Well, that and the fact that they're open phones!
So I'm starting to think that my main phones should sound like that too, since I listen to DVDs all the time this way. Unfortunately, I'm hobbled by the >$100 ceiling; I can't even afford an amp to go with them. Who has any thoughts on what phones I should try?
Thank you.
Since I'm kind of new to this stuff, please help me confirm that I'm not deaf or nuts (well, at least not deaf). I currently own the KSC-50 and the V6, both excellent phones, but I notice that when I watch DVDs, the cheaper Koss paints a more natural picture than my "main" headphones. Don't get me wrong, the V6 still has more clarity, power, immediacy, detail, and accuracy, and if I were seriously studying a complex piece of music I would turn to it first every time. The KSCs, by comparison, have a little midbass hump, a slightly echoey midrange and distinctly "silvery" (chilly?) highs. And yet...with the V6, as great as the sheer sound is, I'm always aware that I'm listening to a device parked on my head, because the sound is very "close," very much in the foreground going "Hey you, listen up." With the KSCs, on the other hand, I could almost be fooled into thinking I'm listening to a pair of stereo speakers in the room with me. My guess is that it's the KSC's very eccentricities -- the slight distancing effect on certain frequencies, the less aggressive highs, and the faux-subwoofer effect of the slightly emphasized lows, that combine to create a sensation of more "air around the notes" and more of a soundstage, room-acoustic effect. Well, that and the fact that they're open phones!
So I'm starting to think that my main phones should sound like that too, since I listen to DVDs all the time this way. Unfortunately, I'm hobbled by the >$100 ceiling; I can't even afford an amp to go with them. Who has any thoughts on what phones I should try?
Thank you.