[manveru]

Quote:

I'd like to thank you very much. This review is extremely informative. I'd like to ask though, is it possible to change a headphone cable? (For obvious reasons)

 
Thanks. 

 The Uptowns don't have a detachable cable, so in order to do so you'd need to open them up and use some DIY skills.

 

[rhfactor1]

Actually got to listen to some Uptown's at a Best Buy listening station. The SQ was very nice. But buyer beware: the listening stations at Best Buy seem to be equalized to a very upfront midrange setting; that being said I did like the Uptown's compared to the Downtown's. Maybe after price drops I'll have to purchase a pair, the build quality looks great for the asking price. These may be a better overall value than the L1 or M1 in the great scheme of things  Happy Listening.

 

[manveru]

Quote:

Actually got to listen to some Uptown's at a Best Buy listening station. The SQ was very nice. But buyer beware: the listening stations at Best Buy seem to be equalized to a very upfront midrange setting; that being said I did like the Uptown's compared to the Downtown's. Maybe after price drops I'll have to purchase a pair, the build quality looks great for the asking price. These may be a better overall value than the L1 or M1 in the great scheme of things  Happy Listening.

 
Now that you mention it I feel like I may have heard that too. Mostly just with Best Buy's own demo tracks though. I don't remember hearing it in particular with my own music plugged in.

 

[RobustOrange]

I went to my local Bestbuy to try these the other day. I found out a way to finaggle the headphone jack out of the demo station so you can plug it directly into your player, so I unplugged them all. I found the Uptowns to be best headphones at that display (the only 2 that really could compete were the Downtown and HD439). Compared to the Downtown, the Uptown had much better clarity and instrument seperation. I found the Downtown to be somewhat fatiquing due to the very forward midrange. The Uptown was balanced much better though. I listened to quite a few genres, metal, industrial, DnB, etc. The Uptown performed very well for all of them, all around a pretty nice headphone. My only qualm is the cable, I would have bought them on the spot if they had a detachable one. 

 

[manveru]

Yeah. I'm really enjoying the sound of these. Using them while out and about I don't feel shortchanged or like I'm really missing my AD2000s at home. If it had a detachable cable that would be the ultimate icing on the cake.

 

[stefan8bc]

In fact, I found that apparently the Uptown's are unable to be used with a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter (messes up the sound).

I had that too, intially. But when I used the included adapter for samsung and sony phones, it works! I don't know the details of how the cables actually differ, but I can connect my Citiscape Uptown now to my external audio interface, which has a 6.3mm Phones output

 

[manveru]

Quote:

I had that too, intially. But when I used the included adapter for samsung and sony phones, it works! I don't know the details of how the cables actually differ, but I can connect my Citiscape Uptown now to my external audio interface, which has a 6.3mm Phones output

 
Interesting. In what way does that adapter differ from a plain old 6.3mm one?

 

[stefan8bc]

Quote:

 
Interesting. In what way does that adapter differ from a plain old 6.3mm one?

 
Well, according to Wikipedia, the polarity on the plug is somewhat different. I just use a standard 3.5mm > 6.3mm adapter, but with another adapter in front of it. So it's like this:
headphones > included adapter (3.5 > 3.5) > standard 3.5-6.3 adapter and then it works just fine

 

[Marximus]

I've had my Uptowns for about a week.  Took three listening sessions at Best Buy to convince me that they were worth buying.  I really like them.  They make my KRK KNS-8400s sound thin and weak.  They are perhaps lacking a bit in clarity, though, and I think the 8400s win in that department.  Like others have said, they're a bit on the warm, bassy side, but still quite enjoyable; they're exceedingly comfortable and look nice; and the cable's a bit odd.  It's difficult to find headphones which are slightly bass heavier than neutral, but still have decent clarity.  I think they're keepers (until something else comes along).

 

[Lux Nocte]

When it is put on an equalizer, how often would you say it can buzz? I listen to quite a bit of classical piano music, and own a phillips headphone. (The O'neal Stretch) When hitting those high notes while I have my equalizer settings on, I can get some fizzeling in the high notes. I do use the default itunes piano equalizer settings for these songs. For lyrical songs, I have the bass flowing up to the cranked  1k and 2k , then have 4, 8, and 16k depressed a bit. It seems that the fizzeling pops up only when I put up 2k in those type of songs. I am not too big of a basshead. I like the mids being pronounced.
 
When you use a software equalizer, what kind of results do you get?

 

[Lux Nocte]

Quote:

I had that too, intially. But when I used the included adapter for samsung and sony phones, it works! I don't know the details of how the cables actually differ, but I can connect my Citiscape Uptown now to my external audio interface, which has a 6.3mm Phones output

 
*Sorry for the double post. It won't let me copy for some reason*
 
Do they sell those as individual spares on ebay? I'd like to try the headphones on my piano.

 

[manveru]

Quote:

When it is put on an equalizer, how often would you say it can buzz? I listen to quite a bit of classical piano music, and own a phillips headphone. (The O'neal Stretch) When hitting those high notes while I have my equalizer settings on, I can get some fizzeling in the high notes. I do use the default itunes piano equalizer settings for these songs. For lyrical songs, I have the bass flowing up to the cranked  1k and 2k , then have 4, 8, and 16k depressed a bit. It seems that the fizzeling pops up only when I put up 2k in those type of songs. I am not too big of a basshead. I like the mids being pronounced.
 
When you use a software equalizer, what kind of results do you get?

 
Can you post your equalizer settings in detail? Each frequency, how much +/- gain? I can test it out with some piano pieces.

 

[Lux Nocte]

  Itunes does not give me an exact status but here are some screenshots:
 
this is for my piano music:
 

 
And this is for my lyric music: (Loreena McKennitt, Enya, ETC)
 

 

[manveru]

Quote:

  Itunes does not give me an exact status but here are some screenshots:
 
this is for my piano music:
 
 
 
And this is for my lyric music: (Loreena McKennitt, Enya, ETC)
 
 

 
To be honest, I'm not sure that your headphones are what's causing the problem. It's likely that you are experiencing clipping due to using such extreme EQ settings (The second one I mean. The first is not too bad, although sometimes all it takes is a few dB to clip IME.) My advice would be either to reduce the severity of your EQ, or turn down the preamp slider. Usually one would turn the preamp slider down to an equal amount as the frequency with the largest boost. For example, if you have a +9dB boost at 1K, put the preamp slider at -9dB. Turning down the preamp should help prevent clipping, however it can decrease the dynamic range of your music a little.
 
Try that out and see if you still get buzzing or other unwanted noise not present in the recording.

 

[Lux Nocte]

That worked very well, thanks. I assume the buzzing I get on the piano music is my headphones then. The settings are not exactly extreme there, and I made sure the Mp3s are decent quality.