[elvergun]

How about the Alessandro MS2?
 
Tight bass!  That's what I hear when  I listen to my MS2 after listening to the HD650s.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

Sony MDR-MA900 kicks ass for an open headphones.

 

[brandonlyz]

Do give the DT990 a shot? They have plenty of clean tight bass

 

[Ricksander]

Hi folks,

I'm just curious about what you know (not think without really having actually heard!) about open headphones with a really tight bass.

I only ask for OPEN headphones. No semi open and of cause no closed ones.

What do I mean with 'tight bass'?

I don't mean how low the bass reaches or how emphasized it is compared to the mids, no.

I mean really fast, tight, hard, kicking bass on an open pair of headphones.

For example:

The Fidelio L1 (semi open) has such a bass. But sadly this headphones are not open, so it can't be counted here, and there are some metallic resonances within the bass presentation, but that's another story...

From all open headphones that I know personally, the Audez'e LCD-2, AKG K701 and Beyerdynamic T90 have the tightest bass.

But their bass isn't as tight as the bass that comes out of the L1. (Maybe the L1's bass is just too tight...?!)

The HD800 has also kind of a tight bass, but it's not as tight as the bass of both of its electrodynamic competitors, the K701 and T90, for example.

The opposite of a tight bass is produced by for example the DT990, HD600/HD650, GMP400 and many other open cans.
(Another example: Also the big former Denons (D2/5/7000), being semi open/closed, don't offer what I would call 'tight' bass.)

So what do you know? Which open headphones have the tightest bass you've ever heard, regardless of the price?

Let's collect some. (Maybe this topic is also interesting for some other members here.)

The three I've already mentioned here are:

Audez'e LCD-2
AKG K701 (K702/Q701)
Beyerdynamic T90

And please, if you want to disagree with my few statements here, feel free to do so.

Greetings from Germany,

Frank

Hello! I'd freaking love to have this Thread resurrected; I'd really like an update on the subject, specially because when I search on Google about this, it shows dozens of links about mainstream headphones that have full deep boomy bass (like Crusher Evo or WH-1000XM4), rather than tight, fast, clean, hard and very kicky, like we are looking for here.

Budget? Any budget really, but preferrably below $1,000 used.

I'll give it a shot asking 3 questions on the original post:

1. The headphones that are mentioned in the Thread, are still the best for the purpose of the opening question?
2. Which ones would you select today, having a lot more options and 11 years of new technology, as the best for this purpose?
3. What about closed-back headphones? Are they better achieving tight bass? If so, which ones would you recommend?

Thank you very much folks!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I mean really fast, tight, hard, kicking bass on an open pair of headphones.
-----
The opposite of a tight bass is produced by for example the DT990, HD600/HD650, GMP400 and many other open cans.
(Another example: Also the big former Denons (D2/5/7000), being semi open/closed, don't offer what I would call 'tight' bass.)

So what do you know? Which open headphones have the tightest bass you've ever heard, regardless of the price?

I like what Jukka Nevalainen or Casey Grillo or Johnny Portnoy/Mike Mangini sound like when they use both feet through my HD600. Ditto anyone using two or three fingers on thicker strings.

That's with my Meier Cantate.2 and Pangea HP101 though. Not so much with the Little Dot Mk2 (bass is bloated), NAD304 (bass is almost nil), etc.

Audez'e LCD-2
AKG K701 (K702/...

Meier Cantate.2 was great with those two too. Also the Symphony.