Sennheiser HD497's - Powerbook - extremely bright treble?

[narzf]

Hi all,
I just bought a pair of Sennheiser HD497's to run straight from my Apple Powerbook, and I find the treble extremely bright, almost painfully so - even when I EQ the levels down a fair amount. I listen mainly to electronic - house, techno, trance and a large variety of other stuff (Metallica, U2, RHCP, Eveclear, some punk rock, some slower stuff) - but it doesn't really matter what I'm listening to, the treble kills me. I've only put about 10 hours on them, will they get better with breaking in? I'm seriously considering just chucking these and going back to my $10 panasonic headphones.

 

[Aman]

They may get a little better, but I agree with you that even after burnin the headphones are painful to both wear and listen to

 

[narzf]

Hmm - I have just put the EQ on a downward slant, ending with the highest treble level at the minimum and it makes it somewhat listenable.
But - I wouldn't buy these headphones again. I dunno what the fuss about them were - I bought these off the back of an extremely good review on headroom, but I really don't like the sound much at all - I can put up with the slightly uncomfortable design.

 

[Rempert]

Not sure what the difference is, but my 497s were not bright at all. Their frequency response charts certainly don't resemble that of a bright headphone either. *shrug*

 

[tiberian]

i don't remember 497s being bright...but they were crappy for sure.