Lately I've been noticing (using the HD650) that albums with even the most biting vocals or cymbals have lost that sharp bite of sibilance that I had been used to (on other cans). For example I hear the sibilance loud and clear with the E5, which is supposed to have a more rolled-off high end than the Senns.
Looking at the headroom graphs (yes I know they're no be-all, end-all) shows the HD650 has almost no harmonic distortion, whereas the E5 has a pretty signifcant amount.
This leads me to wonder whether I'm hearing no sibilance on the HD650 becausme my plackback chain is extremely low distortion, or because the frequency response of the Senns is masking the sibilance. I.E. is sibilance a function distortion in the playback chain (so a neutral, undistorted system would have no sibilance) or is it just a fact of particular recordings, and any system that doesn't present it is not neutral or transparent?
Looking at the headroom graphs (yes I know they're no be-all, end-all) shows the HD650 has almost no harmonic distortion, whereas the E5 has a pretty signifcant amount.
This leads me to wonder whether I'm hearing no sibilance on the HD650 becausme my plackback chain is extremely low distortion, or because the frequency response of the Senns is masking the sibilance. I.E. is sibilance a function distortion in the playback chain (so a neutral, undistorted system would have no sibilance) or is it just a fact of particular recordings, and any system that doesn't present it is not neutral or transparent?