[talan7]

I'm not trying to judge, to each his own, I love bass myself, but how can music sound good with bass so elevated? Doesn't it just obscure everything else? I'm actually curious as I have never known anybody who boosted bass so much and as such I have never heard about why and what the music sounded like. Have you had damaged drivers at all from the bass boosting?

Not all of my headphones can handle the boost from the Vorzuge. I do know this. The SE5, with 5dbs of boost still isn’t as bassy as some of my other headphones without bass boost. Many headphones have little sub bass. It’s usually rolled off. I boost subass only. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll get good results. Plus, each headphone gets boosted differently.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Not all of my headphones can handle the boost from the Vorzuge. I do know this. The SE5, with 5dbs of boost still isn’t as bassy as some of my other headphones without bass boost. Many headphones have little sub bass. It’s usually rolled off. I boost subass only. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll get good results. Plus, each headphone gets boosted differently.

Gotcha, sub bass makes sense. Yes the SEM5 doesn't have the most prominent sub bass. The Z1R was easily the best headphone I have ever owned where sub bass was concerned.

 

[climbingair]

Which bass frequency would you guys recommend raising to generate a little more impact from the SEM5?

 

[climbingair]

Another question for you guys. Is there an open back headphone with a similar signature to these? I'd like to upgrade my home headphones, but my wife prefers that I use open back so I can hear her. I don't want to go from these at work and then have a completely different signature at home.

 

[talan7]

Another question for you guys. Is there an open back headphone with a similar signature to these? I'd like to upgrade my home headphones, but my wife prefers that I use open back so I can hear her. I don't want to go from these at work and then have a completely different signature at home.

The DT1990s are my favorite headphones.

 

[Sonic Defender]

The DT1990s are my favorite headphones.

Is the 1990 different from the 990? I hope so as I found the 990 to be a little bit of a sonic mess where the bass was concerned, but I owned and loved the DT880. I have heard that the DT1990 is different from the 990, but I would be curious to hear what you think.

 

[JWahl]

What I meant by whack was too little all around, but only quantity is what I consider whack. The quality of the bass is excellent as you can hear all the notes, other headphones you can feel impact but don’t hear individual notes. I feel though, when it comes to bass, you need to feel some impact as well. I have 5 dbs of bass boost on a shelf eq and it’s just getting there for me in quantity. It doesn’t break up with that eq. Once it burns in a little more I’m going to see how it handles my Vorzuge Vorzamp Duo II 12 dB bass boost. If it can handle that, I’d be really impressed.
I won’t lie, I’m kind of a basshead, but a different kind of one. I’m not just looking for bassy headphones. I want quality bass, then I’ll boost it myself, so the ability to take a lot of bass boost without breaking up is what I judge for most.

I totally agree with this. 5 dB was the minimum boost for me. I guess there is a lot of subjectivity with different personal tastes. I find it can hit pretty hard once eq'd. I miss it already.

I got my Grace M9xx in today as well and should get my Loki tomorrow. I also ordered an HE-4xx to try, but it took 4 days to ship and is estimated to take another 6 days to arrive. My Pioneers might beat them back from the RMA at this rate. It's been awhile since I've owned a planar. I had a HE-1000 loaner for a few weeks about 2 or so years ago. Last planar I actually owned was an HE-6. It should be nice to have some variety between the 650, SE-Monitor5, and the HE-4xx.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I totally agree with this. 5 dB was the minimum boost for me. I guess there is a lot of subjectivity with different personal tastes. I find it can hit pretty hard once eq'd. I miss it already.

I got my Grace M9xx in today as well and should get my Loki tomorrow. I also ordered an HE-4xx to try, but it took 4 days to ship and is estimated to take another 6 days to arrive. My Pioneers might beat them back from the RMA at this rate. It's been awhile since I've owned a planar. I had a HE-1000 loaner for a few weeks about 2 or so years ago. Last planar I actually owned was an HE-6. It should be nice to have some variety between the 650, SE-Monitor5, and the HE-4xx.

The minimum boost with what headphone, and what headphone do you miss already? Sorry it just wasn't clear to me so I needed to ask. Great selection of headphones that you'll have by the way.

 

[JWahl]

The minimum boost with what headphone, and what headphone do you miss already? Sorry it just wasn't clear to me so I needed to ask. Great selection of headphones that you'll have by the way.

Referring to the Pioneer, since it was in reply to his post and the thread topic. I miss it because I shipped it back for RMA for the dented driver. I’ll qualify that bass boost statement a bit further though.

Although I find the stock Pioneer desperately needing bass boost, I think it also helps to attentuate somewhere in the 2-3 kHz region a bit. Not too much so it doesn’t lose its character. I find cutting down that region also helps increase the usable volume of everything below it.

The problem is when you crank the volume to get more bass fullness and get stabbed in the ears by upper mids. I do like a small bit of upper mid presence though, so I don’t want to upset it’s presence too much.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Referring to the Pioneer, since it was in reply to his post and the thread topic. I miss it because I shipped it back for RMA for the dented driver. I’ll qualify that bass boost statement a bit further though.

Although I find the stock Pioneer desperately needing bass boost, I think it also helps to attentuate somewhere in the 2-3 kHz region a bit. Not too much so it doesn’t lose its character. I find cutting down that region also helps increase the usable volume of everything below it.

The problem is when you crank the volume to get more bass fullness and get stabbed in the ears by upper mids. I do like a small bit of upper mid presence though, so I don’t want to upset it’s presence too much.

Thanks for the clarifications. I will try to take some time tonight and run the SEM5 through some of my bass-centric music and listen to them. I certainly concur that they run closer to neutral, but I did not find them to be bass lite in any problematic way at all. I suspect our personal preferences can explain that, while I really like bass, it is not the central focus of my preference and overall I think a balanced signature is more my thing. I find neutral bass problematic when combined with treble emphasis, but if the treble is well integrated, and or the presence region is also well balanced in the signature in such cases even bass neutral is acceptable (but not preferred). I suspect I am a moderate bass head, but still not so much into bass that a truly bass skewing signature works for me all the time. I like electronica quite a bit, but even there I prefer faster bass and will be willing to give up a little impact (but only a little) to achieve articulate bass.

 

[Doctordoom16]

Has anyone done a comparison of the SEM5 and Ether C Flow? I love my SEM5 but have the chance buy the Ether c flow at a good price. Any input would be appreciated

 

[Merkurio]

How's the sound leakage con these compared with other TOTL closed cans?

 

[Doctordoom16]

Compared to my akg k872, focal elegia, and Sony mdrz1 I'd say they let in less and sound leak out is very little to the point i listen pretty loud on train w a person sitting inches away and they can't hear much at all.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I could have sworn that at one time I found a frequency response graph for the SEM5, but after looking for about 20 minutes today I couldn't find one. Does anybody know whether or not there is one and if so where I could find it? Thanks in advance.

 

[1Tbps]

I could have sworn that at one time I found a frequency response graph for the SEM5, but after looking for about 20 minutes today I couldn't find one. Does anybody know whether or not there is one and if so where I could find it? Thanks in advance.

https://www.alpha-audio.nl/review/review-pioneer-se-monitor5-hoofdtelefoon/5/

Graphs are not very high quality though