[keanex]

My friend sent me a linear wave to listen to, it starts around 8hz and goes to 20,000. Around 15,000 the wave starts panning back and forth with my friend said is rather typical, but it's good that it goes that high. Also I don't notice any odd sounds, it sounds as if an engine is starting up, maybe a very slight hump in the lowest of frequencies, but I've not noticed it effecting anything negatively. These obviously aren't perfectly flat, but they're still very neutral and expose recordings for what they are. I've not heard the D5000/D7000 though to compare, one day!

 

[dweaver]

Oh damn. So apparently that "lodged" thing was in Singapore.
 
My HM5s went from HK to SG and are now sitting there. Agh!

Mine too DOH!!!!!!

 

[kingpage]

Same here.
 
Last update was:
Quote:

ITEM LODGED INTO DESTINATION MAIL HUB LOCAL POSTAL AGENT    21/Dec/2011 12:38:49   SINGAPORE

 
It should be en route to Oz now.
 
I wonder what unit the weight is in. It's 8.602. Can't be grams, or kg or pounds. If it's 8.6 ounces, that means the weight is 243.86 grams which is way too light. HM5s alone weigh over 300grams, and there's the E10 DAC there.
 
Edit: On second thoughts, I think it means 860.2 g.

 

[hans030390]

Quote:

Which method did you use to mod your T50RPs? Do you know if yours is similar to any of the ones whose graphs are available at innerfidelity? While stock T50RPs are very bass-shy with almost no sub-bass, the bass of the modded versions can vary from very bass-shy like stock to neutral. I ask because sometimes people here regard bass-light headphones to be neutral just because the punch is tight.

Here is the link to my current mod. I've pulled from various T50RP mods, including the most recent RastaPants (RP2i, some call it), the KODA T50RPs, BMF, and suggestions from LFF. They are definitely not bass-light. They have more bass than my HD598s did for sure, but less bloat than the HM5s. They do sound more similar to the HD598s than the HM5 in this regard (and overall), though. I have a 12" sub in my car and an 8" sub for my 2.1 setup at home. I am no stranger to bass. 

 
I have no idea how similar they are to any of the modded T50RPs measured on Innerfidelity, but they do not sound too far off from the 840 version of the RP2i (mrspeakers posted measurements for that). I've done some frequency sweeps on mine with SineGen, and they sound relatively flat except for the 10KHz peak and the dip before that (common for the T50RPs). 
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by manveru /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Wasn't trying to say that they are flat or neutral in that area. There is something a tad odd about it. I'm just saying that while perhaps not perfect, it's not a sound that bothers me too much personally. I'll just end up equalizing them to taste later anyway. Still only a few hours out of the box.

Oh, I know! I've got no problem with you enjoying them, and my post wasn't directly aimed at what you had said. I was just contesting the neutrality claim about these headphones due to the bass.
 

 

[manveru]

Quote:

Oh, I know! I've got no problem with you enjoying them, and my post wasn't directly aimed at what you had said. I was just contesting the neutrality claim about these headphones due to the bass.

 
No worries. Your contention is perhaps rightfully so.
 
I'm noticing that on some songs/albums the bass is more tame and creates a very nice balance with the rest of the spectrum. Sometimes the mild bloat merely adds a kind of warmth/thickness which I don't mind, while on others the boominess gets a little out of control. Hopefully it'll tighten up a little over time for that reason.

 

[kingpage]

Quote:

(mrspeakers posted measurements for that).

 
I can't seem to find the graphs posted by mrspeakers. There are graphs by purrin.
 
Quote:

 
I'm no basshead, but I do like perhaps a bit more bass and warmth in my sound than most would call completely neutral. Why? I have a 12" subwoofer in my car and a nice 8" one for my stereo setup, so I'm used to plenty of sub-bass and punch. Headphones have a difficult time replicating that, and even if they measure out neutral with good bass extension, it's usually just not the same. For example, I found the stock D2000 to be slightly bloated and boomy, but I found the HD598 to be slightly bass-light. Somewhere in between there is a sweet spot for me, but probably closer to the D2000 than the HD598. I also just happen to prefer a bit of warmth in my sound. I like the life and fullness it brings to the sound. 

 
I'm quoting from an older post of yours. I wonder where would you put HM5s among D2000s, HD598s and modded T50RPs in the bass department. Are your modded T50RPs the sweet spot? Or would you call them slightly bass-light as well when they are similar to HD598?
 
 
 

 

[hans030390]

Quote:

I can't seem to find the graphs posted by mrspeakers. There are graphs by purrin.
 
 
I'm quoting from an older post of yours. I wonder where would you put HM5s among D2000s, HD598s and modded T50RPs in the bass department. Are your modded T50RPs the sweet spot? Or would you call them slightly bass-light as well when they are similar to HD598?

The graphs are pretty far back in the T50RP thread (somewhere in the 170-180 page range?). There might be a link to it in the T50RP mod links wiki.
 
The HM5's definitely have a thicker, much more bass-heavy sound than the HD598. I'd even go so far as to say they have more pronounced bass than the D2000s at 200Hz and below right out of the box. The T50RPs are kind of a sweet spot for me. There is a very slight roll off in the bass starting around 100Hz down to about 30Hz, which is still has plenty of presence in the sound and is quite audible. They have more bass, extend deeper, and punch harder than the HD598s. However, they are not nearly as bloated or boomy as the HM5s or D2000s can be. In my mind, it sounds very balanced.
 
In simpler terms, this is how I'd order them (most bass to least bass):
 
HM5s > D2000s > modded T50RPs > HD598s. 
 
I haven't heard the D2000s in a while, so I might be wrong about this. Either way, the modded T50RP certainly has the best bass overall out of all of those to my ears.
 
 

 

[keanex]

I didn't get these new, but there's no way I can even remotely agree about the HD598 having less bass than the HM5. I couldn't even see these having enough bass for that conclusion to be feasible. In direct comparison to my HD558 through my iBasso D4, the 558 are much warmer with far thicker bass. I don't have HD598 to compare, but they had very similar bass as the 558.
 
Edit: The HM5 may have more bass than the 598, I don't have them to compare, but the upper mid dip in the 598 makes the bass far more pronounced.

 

[soze]

I'm just getting into this stuff, but I happened to receive both the HD598 and the HM5 today brand new.(early christmas presents)
 
To me the bass sounds very similar between the two, but the HD598 definitely sound more spacious everywhere else.

 

[kingpage]

 
I finished the stand for HM5s last night. Here's more photos.

 

[paulkemp]

Nice work! Wood I presume? Hopefully we will get them soon so you can put them on that nice stand

 

[kingpage]

Yeah, it's wood. You can see originally it's a paper towel holder (which I didn't recognise). I described the DIY process quite extensively in the other thread. See link in my last post.

 

[kalelovil]

Anybody able to say how the sound quality is on these compared to the Creative Aurvana Live?

 

[manveru]

Concerning the whole bass thing: I left these on a playlist all day yesterday while I was out, and also had them playing overnight. There's now about 20-25 hours on them. This morning I came back and started listening to a lot of the same songs I was listening to earlier, and a good amount of the bloat and boominess is under control now, and the presentation sounds much more balanced as advertised. While they sounded good to me out of the box, admittedly I wasn't super impressed, but now I'm really starting to love these. Everything sounds so much clearer now.

 

[hans030390]

Quote:

I didn't get these new, but there's no way I can even remotely agree about the HD598 having less bass than the HM5. I couldn't even see these having enough bass for that conclusion to be feasible. In direct comparison to my HD558 through my iBasso D4, the 558 are much warmer with far thicker bass. I don't have HD598 to compare, but they had very similar bass as the 558.
 
Edit: The HM5 may have more bass than the 598, I don't have them to compare, but the upper mid dip in the 598 makes the bass far more pronounced.

I do agree that the HD598s have a warm sound, but below 300Hz, the HM5s have noticeably more bass than the HD598s. I remember listening to Opeth's "Ghost of Perdition" on my HD598s, and it sounded somewhat anemic at first. It sounds overly bloated and thick on my HM5s right away. I also think that dip at 300Hz does some weird things to the sound.
 
I don't have my HD598s anymore, but I do remember my D2000s having more bass than them. When I turned my D2000s into open-backed headphones, the bass still had a bit more heft and punch than the HD598 (with maybe a bit less extension). The HM5 just sounds bloated compared to both the HD598 and open D2000, to the best of my memory (sold my HD598 and the D2000s are being loaned currently). 
 
If you go off the measurements for the HD598 and FA-003 on Innerfidelity, they do have a very similar response past 400Hz. The main difference is the huge dip at 300Hz and the more elevated sub-bass on the FA-003s. It's hard to do a direct comparison because of the channel imbalance in the HD598 graph, but the raw graphs show the FA-003 is much more consistently able to dig deeper in the sub-bass than the HD598. In my experience, the "red channel" on the HD598 is more indicative of the bass response I got out of them than the "blue channel".
 
All in all, the FA-003s/HM5s do have more bass than the HD598s below 100Hz, and the dip at 300Hz adds to the perception of thicker bass in my opinion. It just sounds slightly weird once you put that dip and bass hump in the sound, I think.