Smuul
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2010
- Posts
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Well I live in Estonia, so it is quite limited to get any second hand cards here. But could Creative SB Audigy be near ZS?
am listening to it now foobar2000 and it's as good in sound as vlc player, will try it more and if i like i will use it thx bro!!
which would u recommend for rap music being played out of an ipod touch?
UnEQ'd the XB700 sounds clearer due to less warmth, the upper bass to lower midrange isn't as emphasized on XB700 and the highs are also slightly emphasized compared to XB500. If you compare unEQ'd vs unEQ'd then it's quite a bit harder to tell for me which I'd pick, at times I'd probably even pick XB700 because of the clarity advantage, however the mids are a bit more recessed and I'm a mid-forward person. The XB500 I think benefits a lot more from EQing and I use a very high quality EQ which is miles beyond EQs like iTunes', foobar2000 etc. and when they are both EQ'd optimally to my taste I'd pick XB500 but I really liked XB700 too and valued it more like ~150 EUR than 75 EUR I paid for it and XB500 I paid 43 EUR for I'd personally value even up to 200 EUR after the applied EQ settings for my own taste as they easily for me beat headphones such as DT770 Pro and ATH-M50. But every1 got their own taste how it should sound like. Best is to describe the sound differences and let the other people decide for themselves.
Between XB500 and XB700 the differences are that XB700 are less warm and forward/"in-your-face" sounding than XB500 which sounds warmer/smoother/"thicker" by default. The XB500 has a bit bigger bass quantity due to A LOT stronger mid/upper bass but loses marginally to XB700 in deep bass range <80Hz. This means XB500 will have bigger bass impact while XB700's bass remains relatively soft and slow. Mids are quite similar on both but XB700's mids are slightly more recessed because while the high frequencies got a boost, the mids didn't so the result is a more V-shaped frequency response and XB500 can be more explained as a gently slanting slope from the bass to highs and the mids sounds therefore less recessed. Soundstage wise I feel that XB700 had a bit bigger soundstage but that XB500 had slightly more precise positional sound cues, it was easier to tell the direction and distance in games for sounds on the XB500 for some reason and I tested this a lot to be sure as gaming is an important part for me (yes I love my XB500 even for gaming).
It's all down to preference, I tend to prefer very warm and forward/"in-your-face" sound signature and I prefer as forward sounding mids as possible coupled with no emphasized highs which tend to be a very common sight in most headphones over 100 EUR/USD, I prefer them to be like on a neutral level or perhaps even slightly veiled for a smoother/warmer and to me "fullier" sound. XB500 had slightly less recessed mids and had a bit smoother highs. Then basswise I missed some mid/upper bass punch in the XB700 compared to my previous bassheavy headphones I had before XB series which also beats XB700 in bass punch but aren't nowhere near in the deep bass output. I bought XB700 and used it for maybe 2 weeks or so before I got XB500 and still when compared them both side by side I noticed rather quick that XB500 was more to my liking BUT as I said after applied EQ settings. Some people don't even EQ their headphones so then it's another matter but that's like the first thing I start with when getting a new headphone, trying to find the optimal EQ curve for that headphone in particular. Even if I'd buy a $500+ headphone I'd probably find things I can make it sound better (meaning more to my liking) so it's not about how expensive/cheap they are, all headphones would get EQ'd to a more or less extent for me.