[rhythmdevils]

so, if the GS1000 is painfully sibilant and harsh on every recording I own, then following the majority of opinions here, does that mean that all 1,793 albums I own are sibilant and harsh recordings?

 

[powertoold]

The majority of the opinions seem to point to "give it a chance even if it hurts your ears, eventually your hearing will get ruined, and it won't hurt anymore." Because that's what people mean by "good headphones" right?

 

[intoart]

If headphone A sounds great with all of my CDs while headphone B is frequently harsh but "accurate", I will choose headphone A every time without the slightest hesitation.
I find it far better to enjoy what I am hearing than to be nit-picky about technicalities!

 

[Blackmore]

Its true if you like the sound sig, otherwise its nonsense...


Quote:

Originally Posted by intoart /img/forum/go_quote.gif If headphone A sounds great with all of my CDs while headphone B is frequently harsh but "accurate", I will choose headphone A every time without the slightest hesitation. I find it far better to enjoy what I am hearing than to be nit-picky about technicalities!

 

[rhythmdevils]

ok, well the assertion is still being made that harsh means accurate. I think the opposite is true, harshness hides the true nature and tone of the instruments in the recording, and is therefore incredibly inacurate.

So I am still wondering, if the GS1000 sounds harsh on all my CD's, and if it is true that the recordings are at fault, do you all claim that every one of my albums is harsh?

or have we degressed to say that real life is harsh, that all recordings are harsh, and that if music doesn't hurt your ears, then the phones have rolled off treble, and are "forgiving"?

 

[greggf]

It's often said that the Omega is a "forgiving" headphone that "makes all recordings sound good."

It is my experience that the O2 does make most "unlistenable" CDs listenable again.

The last few weeks, I've heard five different dynamic headphones, by rent-borrow-own. They have drilled my brain out of, now, 4 different amps.

So is the Stax flagship a POS, and all of these dynamics are just showing me the harshness and pain in most - most! - recordings?

Or are most - most! - audiophiles on this site misguided masochists who equate pain with pleasaure and pleasure with evil?

 

[johnwmclean]

“forgiving” can and only take you so far with excellent recordings. Most recordings are not painful or over sibilant. They are just badly recorded and mastered, which does not equate to unlistenable or sibilant.
I think we should be realistic when referencing a piece of music as “unlistenable” or “painful”, as very few in my collection warrant those adjectives. Most music will benefit from transparent and resolute equipment, and I would not make the assumption that harsh is a by-product of neutral or revealing.
If this were the case then the grails been in vain.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnwmclean /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think we should be realistic when referencing a piece of music as “unlistenable” or “painful”, as very few in my collection warrant those adjectives.

exactly! Which means it is the headphones that are "painful", NOT the recordings, which is the point I have been trying to make this whole time, but to my surprise, no one seems to agree.

 

[limpidglitch]

I think the blame must be distributed to all components in the chain.
There is no way that anyone can deny that the two youtube videos presented here are not sibilant ("hissy"), but different equipment presents it in different ways. On the built in speakers on my macbook it was barely noticeable, on HD25-1 straight from the jack it was significantly more emphasised, and with toslink-havana-trafomatic-GS1000, even more so.
Then there is the difference in people. Some are more prone than other, I myself, is probably relatively resistant.

 

[intoart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhythmdevils /img/forum/go_quote.gif exactly! Which means it is the headphones that are "painful", NOT the recordings, which is the point I have been trying to make this whole time, but to my surprise, no one seems to agree.

As mentioned, I have not heard headphones that sound sibilant with most recordings, but I have heard recordings that sound sibilant on most headphones. That is why I tend to blame the recording.

 

[chinesekiwi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by intoart /img/forum/go_quote.gif As mentioned, I have not heard headphones that sound sibilant with most recordings, but I have heard recordings that sound sibilant on most headphones. That is why I tend to blame the recording.

I'll backup this statement.

I have two albums that are known to have fantastic mastering:

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (grammy nominated)

Sibilance in those albums with my DT880: none.

I very much believe most sibilance comes from recordings.

 

[takezo]

i've yet to experience any sibilance using the infamous gs1000 on any of my classical cds.
sibilance rears its ugly head only on my rock/pop collections and some jazz recordings.
interesting things is, any recordings with high-gain volume output seems to suffer
from sibilance, which is the majority of rock/pop cds being produced currently. my guess is
that most cd recording engineers are pressured to produce louder and louder cds in order
to give the most impact and the perceived sensation of superior dynamics. as a consequence,
one area that suffers, with the use of high resolution headphones, is the high-frequency. as the
loudness increases, more often than not, the brightness does as well.

 

[crapback]

I have a very new set of dt 990/250's and i don't hear any sibilance either on Rage Against the Machine's self-titled album. I thought something was wrong with my phones when i listened to Bjork's Vespertine though. She does a bit more than just overemphasize her S's, she actually whistles slightly. I just found a painfully sibilant recording in the first few tracks of Portishead's self-titled album. Oh My God. For those of you who might say it's my 990's, i experience the same sibilance with my set of modded senn pc350's. Don't laugh, the mod turns that headset into a decent set of cans.

 

[Jaawa]

This thread has been very revealing, thanks for pointing it out crapback. I can't listen to most of Portishead with my main headphone rig, they've got all kinds of awful noises and distortions and sometimes sibilance that especially the HD 650 reveals. I'm better off using my Teufel speakers, they hide all those nasty things by being mid-fi speakers

 

[crapback]

lol Jaawa, just imagine listening to some of that stuff live on a massive set of overdriven PA speakers with nice screechy horn tweeters.