[nugget2013]

i got my urbanites this morning and took them out with me and played some music and was delighted, decent bass, i even heard some details in tracks i've never heard before, even on my dali zensor 3's which i use for my home cinema. they was a treat, but as soon as i got back home and listened on my sony vaio laptop using a fiio e17 amp/dac it was terrible. worst experience i've ever had..here's why

on my iphone 5s i had to have volume at about 65-70% and this was the same loudness as my old solo hd's on about 90% volume. back home i have my volume on max but 40 volume on amp which is what i've mainly had it on. maxing it at 60 sometimes when want it loud for a little bit

now on 40 volume the vocals are TOO LOUD! the vocal to bass ratio is terrible now im on my other listening setup. at 40 its very loud vocals and 45 is the absolute max i can have it for more pop oriented songs and such.

what happened? and i tried multiple sources, youtube and itunes (256kbps) and even used the equaliser to up to bass to see if it equals out with the vocals ratio but still hardly any change.

is this common? im not used to have vocals this much louder than bass. it's nearly earbleedingly loud in a way. the previous headphones i had were sennheiser momentum (distorted with bass all the time) v moda m100 (wasn't the best), beats solo hd (mainly for mobile use) and most recently razer tiamat 2.2 (40mm dedicated bass driver and 40mm midrange per earcup) never heard anything like this. any tips? its much different on iphone so surely its the amp source? which is my fiio.. i'll try plugging straight into laptop with no amp. and try youtube on my phone.

 

[nugget2013]

tried on phone again and it's still the same as laptop but not quite as bad. still very bad though. what shall i do now? even with bass eq set to the max at usual volumes vocals and voices are too loud. and youtube as source is the most noticeable as cant do any eq at all

 

[billybob_jcv]

Hmm - they are only 18 ohms and 118 dB/V. So, they are very efficient. I'm wondering if the issue could be that the gain from the amp is too high and the amp is clipping or distorting in some way?

 

[nugget2013]

Hmm - they are only 18 ohms and 118 dB/V. So, they are very efficient. I'm wondering if the issue could be that the gain from the amp is too high and the amp is clipping or distorting in some way?

the gain is not turned up on the amp at all. and the volume is normally on 30/60 or 40-45 max, maybe my headphones have yet to properly burn in? only had them about 40hours
 
the sound is not as bad as yesterday. its either changed a bit or my ears perceive it differently now. although i wish the bass was better..its about the same amount of bass swapping back and forward testing between these and my beats solo hd's. i would of thought it would be improved since they are rated better for the bass and are newer headphones..

 

[depleted]

Looking at the graphs, the urbanites should have pretty elevated bass compared to the mids (and therefore vocals). But they are not properly "basshead" cans, the bass isn't that overwhelming. You are probably getting used to the sound signature, but don't expect it to change that much.. this is the sennheiser approach to bassy cans. The over ear Urbanite XL sounds with even less bass (the mids and highs are more pronounced. Drivers are the same between both but the cup size affects the sound).
 
They are so sensitive and with low impedance that amps shouldn't change that much how they sound. But in my experience with other headphones, iPhones tend to sound warm, while FiiO amps tend to sound more detailed in the highs. I couldn't use my X2 with my E10K because of this (I'm treble sensitive).
 
Try only the Urbanites for a couple of days, but if you don't change your mind about them you should return or sell them IMO.

 

[nugget2013]

  Looking at the graphs, the urbanites should have pretty elevated bass compared to the mids (and therefore vocals). But they are not properly "basshead" cans, the bass isn't that overwhelming. You are probably getting used to the sound signature, but don't expect it to change that much.. this is the sennheiser approach to bassy cans. The over ear Urbanite XL sounds with even less bass (the mids and highs are more pronounced. Drivers are the same between both but the cup size affects the sound).
 
They are so sensitive and with low impedance that amps shouldn't change that much how they sound. But in my experience with other headphones, iPhones tend to sound warm, while FiiO amps tend to sound more detailed in the highs. I couldn't use my X2 with my E10K because of this (I'm treble sensitive).
 
Try only the Urbanites for a couple of days, but if you don't change your mind about them you should return or sell them IMO.

i ended up returnign them and getting the beats studio 2.0 wireless for £210 including postage! quite a good deal. and they're real, much better bass on these and they still sound good. and the wireless is pretty useful 

 

[depleted]

  i ended up returnign them and getting the beats studio 2.0 wireless for £210 including postage! quite a good deal. and they're real, much better bass on these and they still sound good. and the wireless is pretty useful 

 
Yep, well done, Beats aren't really loved in here but you should buy what pleases you. Another pair you should try, that are well reviewed, are the Sony XB950BT bluetooth headphones, they were on sale on black friday for 99$ down from 250 IIRC

 

[Silent Xaxal]

Considering they are a mobile set of cans, how do they fare in PC use?

 

[nugget2013]

  Considering they are a mobile set of cans, how do they fare in PC use?

the beats or the urbanite? they both don't differ much from pc and mobile use but i prefer the beats when paired with my iphone 5s