Meloncoly
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2007
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I have ran my friend's Bose OE from my iPod before, and I can chime in. This is all from MEMORY. THIS MIGHT BE INACCURATE. This is also my opinion. Now that that's out of the way...
I'm not great with describing audio but here it goes.
Comfort: Bose wins. Circumaurals are usually more comfortable for me than supraaural, but that's not saying that the HD25s aren't comfortable. I have a small head, and ears, so I don't have the clamping issue many spoke of, and I know what clamping is, I used to own the Senn HD280, which I thought was comfortable. The Bose is also light, not saying that the HD25-1s aren't, but the Bose is lighter, so it has a feeling of not being on your head.
Lows:
The Bose has tons of mid-bass. Tons. It caters to the audience that feels that more mid-bass booming is higher sound quality. I hate this bass because it distracts me from music the most. When I think of mid-bass, I think of huge subs from some person's car that I can hear from far away. It distracts me from the music, and it definitely takes a hit on detail. The bass is also very one noted. What I mean by that is, it just sounds like boom boom boom, with little to no variation at all in terms of different musical notes. The midbass is too much for me.
The HD25-1s (I was using the steel cable that came with it at the time), has mid bass too, but it is toned down, which is good, because it won't block out as much detail as the Bose OE. But the good thing I love about the HD25-1s is the low bass, the vibrating type. I'm a basshead, but not one that loves boomy bass, but one that loves vibrating bass. The bass detail is really good, and pretty accurate, and it just went lower and lower and lower, without sacrificing too much of the highs. I have this audio clip where it's a trance beat, comprised mostly of low bass changing "tones". With the Bose I really had to put effort into deciphering the different tones, but with the HD25s, I can just sit and enjoy the vibration. Yum. The bass on the HD25-1s are more satisfying to listen to than my DT770, which I also adore.
Mids: I don't really understand how to describe mids. I read many descriptions online, but I can never actually hear it myself, but I will describe it as I understand it. When I hear about mids, I usually think to myself human voices, like when people sing. So when I listen for mids, I listen to how believable the artist sounds from my headphones. That's what I will go by.
Bose: If the Bose is good at anything, it would be the mids. But the thing is, I wouldn't be so fast to say that either. Oh, Bose has forwardish mids, it's more in your face than Sennheiser, but not in your face like the Alessandro MS1/MS2i. I have this nice song that I always use to test mids, it's called True Love by Mikuni Shimokawa. The reason I use this track is that I love it. A valid reason would be that it's just acoustic guitars and her singing. It doesn't get more cooler than that, for me at least coming from a synth scene. The way she sings this song, there isn't too many high notes that she sings, usually in the middle, semi-deep. Sorry for the bad explanation. With the Bose, I think that she sounds really nice. It has a human like attribute to her, nothing wrong that I can hear. Now comes to when she does sing a higher note. Fail. Her high voice looses the human lushyness that enveloped me, and has turned into raspy-like also synthesized like voice. I'm guessing that's what they called honky? I think that was the term. So I didn't like that.
I found someone who posted the song I use online.
Mikuni Shimokawa TRUE LOVE -Toori Gakari Hiki Katari Version- - Song - MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
I didn't post this up. I am just directing you to this source. Please don't blame me.
HD25s: Sennheisers are known for their warm, lushy mids, and I can hear it. She has this "ehem" in the beginning to clear her throat, and the first time I heard that, I thought it was my sister. Now I don't know if that describes mids or not, but that's my experience. Her voice sounds really nice, and the HD25s make me believe that I'm sitting a little bit away from her. The upper registers still retain the warmness of her voice, and not at all did I hear anything sound electronic. I still get goosebumps listening to this song on the HD25, but I never got that feeling with the Bose.
Highs: On highs, I usually play that Ultrasone CD track with the bells and the other one wiht the tuning forks.
I don't remember too much of the highs, so take this with a grain of salt.
Bose:
I remember this cracked A LOT. Tons of distortion, and everything sounded fake. I didn't like it. There was also some track that had trumpets, and whatnot. That sounded fake as well. The bell track had the bell noises all convoluted and whatnot. It was just one big blob...not satisfying.
Senn:
Although the highs are the best on the HD25s, and they sound a little bit veiled, never did I once get the feeling that it sounded fake. The tuning forks came in with super clarity, and the speed was good enough when the bells came that it never blended together to create a big blob. That's all I can remember.
Sorry this review sucks, hope it helps a little.
I'm not great with describing audio but here it goes.
Comfort: Bose wins. Circumaurals are usually more comfortable for me than supraaural, but that's not saying that the HD25s aren't comfortable. I have a small head, and ears, so I don't have the clamping issue many spoke of, and I know what clamping is, I used to own the Senn HD280, which I thought was comfortable. The Bose is also light, not saying that the HD25-1s aren't, but the Bose is lighter, so it has a feeling of not being on your head.
Lows:
The Bose has tons of mid-bass. Tons. It caters to the audience that feels that more mid-bass booming is higher sound quality. I hate this bass because it distracts me from music the most. When I think of mid-bass, I think of huge subs from some person's car that I can hear from far away. It distracts me from the music, and it definitely takes a hit on detail. The bass is also very one noted. What I mean by that is, it just sounds like boom boom boom, with little to no variation at all in terms of different musical notes. The midbass is too much for me.
The HD25-1s (I was using the steel cable that came with it at the time), has mid bass too, but it is toned down, which is good, because it won't block out as much detail as the Bose OE. But the good thing I love about the HD25-1s is the low bass, the vibrating type. I'm a basshead, but not one that loves boomy bass, but one that loves vibrating bass. The bass detail is really good, and pretty accurate, and it just went lower and lower and lower, without sacrificing too much of the highs. I have this audio clip where it's a trance beat, comprised mostly of low bass changing "tones". With the Bose I really had to put effort into deciphering the different tones, but with the HD25s, I can just sit and enjoy the vibration. Yum. The bass on the HD25-1s are more satisfying to listen to than my DT770, which I also adore.
Mids: I don't really understand how to describe mids. I read many descriptions online, but I can never actually hear it myself, but I will describe it as I understand it. When I hear about mids, I usually think to myself human voices, like when people sing. So when I listen for mids, I listen to how believable the artist sounds from my headphones. That's what I will go by.
Bose: If the Bose is good at anything, it would be the mids. But the thing is, I wouldn't be so fast to say that either. Oh, Bose has forwardish mids, it's more in your face than Sennheiser, but not in your face like the Alessandro MS1/MS2i. I have this nice song that I always use to test mids, it's called True Love by Mikuni Shimokawa. The reason I use this track is that I love it. A valid reason would be that it's just acoustic guitars and her singing. It doesn't get more cooler than that, for me at least coming from a synth scene. The way she sings this song, there isn't too many high notes that she sings, usually in the middle, semi-deep. Sorry for the bad explanation. With the Bose, I think that she sounds really nice. It has a human like attribute to her, nothing wrong that I can hear. Now comes to when she does sing a higher note. Fail. Her high voice looses the human lushyness that enveloped me, and has turned into raspy-like also synthesized like voice. I'm guessing that's what they called honky? I think that was the term. So I didn't like that.
I found someone who posted the song I use online.
Mikuni Shimokawa TRUE LOVE -Toori Gakari Hiki Katari Version- - Song - MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
I didn't post this up. I am just directing you to this source. Please don't blame me.
HD25s: Sennheisers are known for their warm, lushy mids, and I can hear it. She has this "ehem" in the beginning to clear her throat, and the first time I heard that, I thought it was my sister. Now I don't know if that describes mids or not, but that's my experience. Her voice sounds really nice, and the HD25s make me believe that I'm sitting a little bit away from her. The upper registers still retain the warmness of her voice, and not at all did I hear anything sound electronic. I still get goosebumps listening to this song on the HD25, but I never got that feeling with the Bose.
Highs: On highs, I usually play that Ultrasone CD track with the bells and the other one wiht the tuning forks.
I don't remember too much of the highs, so take this with a grain of salt.
Bose:
I remember this cracked A LOT. Tons of distortion, and everything sounded fake. I didn't like it. There was also some track that had trumpets, and whatnot. That sounded fake as well. The bell track had the bell noises all convoluted and whatnot. It was just one big blob...not satisfying.
Senn:
Although the highs are the best on the HD25s, and they sound a little bit veiled, never did I once get the feeling that it sounded fake. The tuning forks came in with super clarity, and the speed was good enough when the bells came that it never blended together to create a big blob. That's all I can remember.
Sorry this review sucks, hope it helps a little.