Apologize if my descriptions aren't exactly accurate, but anyway. ..
Earlier, my initial impressions was that the headphones made everything saturated in the low end and that it was too 'bass heavy' or punchy especially for songs with vocals mixed with synthetic sounds, such as Tove Lo's album or Zedd. Even Walk the Moon the guitars just blur the vocals. Bruno Mars bass made it difficult to appreciate his emotion as he cries about catching a grenade. It made the vocals difficult to appreciate with everything being slurred together, and thick. Everything was "in your face" and overwhelming. I like listening to my music where you can distinctly separate out the different "lines". I want my instruments separate from the voices, like you're at a concert and no one is artifically mixing the two. I decided not to return them because I was lazy to ship them back, and there were some genre of music that these headphones shined and brought to life compared to my other headphones - most pop where the vocals don't matter so much (nicki minaj). They're also more comfortable than anything I have.
So I pulled out my old mp3 player, the cowon iaudio x5, and these X2s sound more to my preference compared to my computer source (which I already am using EQ to bring down the bass). It makes the voices sound more distinct and stand out from the rest of the background music and I can appreciate the emotions as they sing. I think the iaudio x5 is known for rolling off at the lower end, and for its warm mids. However, something that is unfortunate with the iaudio x5 is that the headstage is more narrow .
What I am curious about is there a way to get the best of both worlds? Sound signature like the iaudio x5 in an external DAC/AMP for my computer? without losing the soundstage of these headphones offer.
Thanks!