[Coq de Combat]

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I have the D2000 and the PRO 900 myself, and I must say, the XB500 outputs a greater quantity of bass at a lower quality level. You won't get a lot of fidelity with the XB500, but it does exactly what its marketed to be. For bassheads that place greater emphasis on bass as opposed to overall sound quality, I don't think you're going to find a better can than the XB500.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, well, it wouldn't become my "main headphone" but merely something for those moments when the need for BlurVision™ arises. Something to "play with" if you will.
 
How EQ:able is the XB500? I mean, how much can I EQ the bass before the headphones can't handle it anymore and starts distorting and misbehaving?

 

[Malevolent]

Quote:

Thanks for the response. Yeah, well, it wouldn't become my "main headphone" but merely something for those moments when the need for BlurVision™ arises. Something to "play with" if you will.
 
How EQ:able is the XB500? I mean, how much can I EQ the bass before the headphones can't handle it anymore and starts distorting and misbehaving?

 
Single amping/EQing with the XB500 won't introduce much distortion to the sound. However, if I bump up the bass via EQ (in Poweramp) and then amp it with a ZO2.3 or E11, the bass starts to muddy up (at full bass levels). In all, I think the XB500 can handle a good amount of amping/EQing.

 

[Coq de Combat]

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Single amping/EQing with the XB500 won't introduce much distortion to the sound. However, if I bump up the bass via EQ (in Poweramp) and then amp it with a ZO2.3 or E11, the bass starts to muddy up (at full bass levels). In all, I think the XB500 can handle a good amount of amping/EQing.

Thanks.
 
Putting things into context:
 
It's such a shame that the XB500 (over here) seems to be half the price of K550, (probably) making the latter seem like the better price/performance.
 
The principle of buying a (excuse me for saying this) "toy":ish headphone for those basshead times, for roughly "half the price" of something like the K550 doesn't sit well with me, especially when the K550 is equally (or even more .. I'm kind of starting to get tired of ridiculous bass all the time, I want something else as well) interesting for other reasons. Because here's the deal: I've been eyeing at the K550 for that particular price for quite a while now, and I feel tempted to invest in those. On the other hand, I feel like I'd be missing out on something very special if I didn't invest in the XB500. Still, XB500 in Sweden is about $75.
 
 

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20Spoiler!

I'll probably end up investing in both headphones sooner or later anyway. 

 
Edit: LOL, I chose the wrong currency when calculating how expensive those K550s are. Well, okay, the XB500 are roughly "one third" of the K550, and not roughly "half the price". Still, the K550 seems like the better deal.

 

[MS1605]

Thanks for the link Malevolent. Thats what I was looking for.

 

[Oregonian]

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So I haven't invested in the XB500 yet. Seeing as I already have the D2k and Pro 900, is the XB500 a still must-have for me? Or are the ones I already have fully capable of doing what the XB500 does?
 
It'd be fun to have a pair of earth-shattering, blurry-vision inducing, head-imploding headphones and knowing that it just won't get bassier than this, but seeing as we as a crowd are great at exaggerations (really, it'd be fun to listen to listen to some of our fishing stories: "The perch I caught yesterday was as big as a shark") I'm still a bit hesitant. Also, they are ridiculously hard to audition in a store because of their packaging. All stores I've visited keep them in their packages and if I ask them if I can try them, they just look at me as if I'm an idiot, kind of like "Dude, it's a $50 headphone, buy it or gtfo".

I have the XB500's, run them with a ZO/E-11 double amp combo, via LOD (key point - don't use headphone out or quality suffers)  all EQ'd and thumping and it's hard to  beat.  That said M-Audio Q-40 phones have equal if not better bass with better mids and highs and simply cannot be made to sound muddy which XB500's can be made to sound.  
 
Guys, just once try double amping.  Go from source like my iPhone 5  or iPad via LOD (I use Fiio connections) into the E-11, then into ZO and out to phones.  I leave the ZO at full bass contour dark red, E-11 bass either off or on 1 and my EQ app of preference (Equalizer or EQ10) emphasizing upper mids and highs.  Start listening at low level and you won't believe the bass response without needing to turn up the sound very much.  From that point, crank the E-11 as much as you can bear......
 
yes, the E-11 is your volume control in this step.
 
enjoy......and report back if anyone tries this just as I have laid it out.  Would love to hear your impressions.  

 

[Carlos4996]

I feel like the zo2 just boosts my volume not my bass...

 

[k1n0n3]

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I feel like the zo2 just boosts my volume not my bass...

 
Either there is something wrong with your ZO as many have already speculated, or you are possibly using it wrong.
Which ZO do you have, was it shipped directly from the manufacturer, 3rd party or used.
If it is the ZO 2 rev.3, how are you using it with your "android": are you maxing the vol on the phone and then controlling via the ZO, or do you have the ZO in "high gain mode" and are controlling the volume with the "android" ?
 
In personal experience, owning the original ZO, ZO 2 rev. 1 and rev 3, ANY pair or headphones/earphones I tried had insane amounts of bass on 8 cicks (greenish yellow).

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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I have the XB500's, run them with a ZO/E-11 double amp combo, via LOD (key point - don't use headphone out or quality suffers)  all EQ'd and thumping and it's hard to  beat.  That said M-Audio Q-40 phones have equal if not better bass with better mids and highs and simply cannot be made to sound muddy which XB500's can be made to sound.  
 
Guys, just once try double amping.  Go from source like my iPhone 5  or iPad via LOD (I use Fiio connections) into the E-11, then into ZO and out to phones.  I leave the ZO at full bass contour dark red, E-11 bass either off or on 1 and my EQ app of preference (Equalizer or EQ10) emphasizing upper mids and highs.  Start listening at low level and you won't believe the bass response without needing to turn up the sound very much.  From that point, crank the E-11 as much as you can bear......
 
yes, the E-11 is your volume control in this step.
 
enjoy......and report back if anyone tries this just as I have laid it out.  Would love to hear your impressions.  

 
From my experience ZO2.3 with XB500 works best on level 4-5 or so if you want max bass vs quality, ie. significantly more bass than stock but with pretty good quality still. I don't think ZO sounds good with max bass level with any headphone I've tried, it stops sounding great with different headphones at different levels. What I mean with that is, it both loses fidelity and the bass becomes muddy and maybe even looses some tight punchiness (that "thud" gets more a "thomp" = softer). With XB500 it happens around lvl4-5, with Q40 around lvl 8-10 or so, so I'd give it another careful listen at a lower bass setting, I think you might prefer it that way if you actually gave it some more critical listen.
 
Furthermore it sounds like it stops to give out more bass at certain levels depending on what headphone is used, XB500 for example do sound bassier even to the highest setting while I don't find Q40 for example to start sounding bassier past lvl 10 or so, it's like the Q40 fights back and doesn't want to muddy up the bass and stops ZO2.3 from letting that happen or something. ^^
 
But generally the higher you go the softer kind of "bloated" bass you get as the higher you go the centered peak at where the bass curve peaks at moves just lower and lower as we saw in the measurements to avoid midbass bleed into mids. I tend to stick to lvl 3 - 10 or so depending on headphone. 
 
I greatly prefer ZO2.1 with Q40 like I've said many times, I'm not sure whether I would prefer ZO2.1 with every headphone but with Q40 it's no contest, it sounds REALLY good with ZO2.1 and not THAT great with ZO2.3. The ZO2.1 is set to to yellow with Q40 and it's easily at least twice as bassy as stock while still having more fullbodied and forward midrange compared to ampless. I think lower-mids are a bit more forward / in-your-face sounding with ZO2.1 vs 2.3, at least with this headphone.

 

[Oregonian]

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From my experience ZO2.3 with XB500 works best on level 4-5 or so if you want max bass vs quality, ie. significantly more bass than stock but with pretty good quality still. I don't think ZO sounds good with max bass level with any headphone I've tried, it stops sounding great with different headphones at different levels. What I mean with that is, it both loses fidelity and the bass becomes muddy and maybe even looses some tight punchiness (that "thud" gets more a "thomp" = softer). With XB500 it happens around lvl4-5, with Q40 around lvl 8-9 or so, so I'd give it another careful listen at a lower bass setting, I think you might prefer it that way if you actually gave it some more critical listen.
 
Furthermore it sounds like it stops to give out more bass at certain levels depending on what headphone is used, XB500 for example do sound bassier even to the highest setting while I don't find Q40 for example to start sounding bassier past lvl 10 or so, it's like the Q40 fights back and doesn't want to muddy up the bass and stops ZO2.3 from letting that happen or something. ^^
 
But generally the higher you go the softer kind of "bloated" bass you get as the higher you go the centered peak at where the bass curve peaks at moves just lower and lower as we saw in the measurements to avoid midbass bleed into mids. I tend to stick to lvl 3 - 10 or so depending on headphone. 
 
I greatly prefer ZO2.1 with Q40 like I've said many times, I'm not sure whether I would prefer ZO2.1 with every headphone but with Q40 it's no contest, it sounds REALLY good with ZO2.1 and not THAT great with ZO2.3. The ZO2.1 is set to to yellow with Q40 and it's easily at least twice as bassy as stock while still having more fullbodied and forward midrange as ampless.

 
RPG -
 
I have done basically DOE's (design of experiments for those who don't know what I'm saying) on the best setup for my double amping combinations, and trust me, how I have it running sounds the best.  Yes, ZO maxed out, on High gain (forgot to mention that in my earlier post) and with E-11 controlling the volume.  There is no bloated bass here - NONE.  The key really was using LOD as the connection to source, and then fine tuning with equalization, which again was one of the key 'quality adders'.
 
Maybe with ZO by itself your settings would apply...............but not with the setup I laid out. 
 
Wish y'all could experience what I am describing. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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RPG -
 
I have done basically DOE's (design of experiments for those who don't know what I'm saying) on the best setup for my double amping combinations, and trust me, how I have it running sounds the best.  Yes, ZO maxed out, on High gain (forgot to mention that in my earlier post) and with E-11 controlling the volume.  There is no bloated bass here - NONE.  The key really was using LOD as the connection to source, and then fine tuning with equalization, which again was one of the key 'quality adders'.
 
Maybe with ZO by itself your settings would apply...............but not with the setup I laid out. 
 
Wish y'all could experience what I am describing. 

 
OK then it probably means ZO simply works better at higher levels of bass boost when double amped compared to without double amping. It does make a lot of sense here, very much so and here is why:
 
Let's take for example XB500 and Q40 that I've got and used both for a while.
 
- XB500 is VERY sensitive, easily driven headphone that goes really loud
- Q40 is not overly sensitive and is 64 ohm for starters.
- XB500 responds to the bass boost much more than Q40 continues to sound noticably bassier the higher you go
- Q40 stops sounding noteworthy bassier somewhere midways and starts to sound less controlled and tight after that
- The very low frequencies consume a lot more power, ZO's bass boost curves goes only deeper and deeper the higher you go => the power requirement becomes much more higher 
- XB500 because it's a sensitive, easy driven headphones doesn't need as much power for the bass and therefore it continues to easily respond to the bass boost (my point here is obviously the more sensitive / easier driven the headphone the better it will probably respond to ZO's bass boost)
- ZO2.1 has at least a bit higher gain than ZO2.3, ZO2.1 is said to be 2x amp staging, preamp + amp, I'm not sure what was the case with ZO2.3 which is actually based on ZO1 config, ZO2.1 was a more experimental config so it may even have a better amping config besides higher gain (at the expense of unability to use with IEMs and sensitive headphones due to hissing and not possible to use LOD)
- ZO2.1 provides stronger bass than ZO2.3
- A lot of people are having good results with double amping
 
All these statements is a sign of that it indeed could use some better amping to keep the bass boost more controlled and refined at the higher levels.
 
So probably when double amping it will sound fine at the higher settings too which may not sound great if you only used ZO. digiZoid at one point was also concidering putting out a high-power amp "buffer" that can be used both with ZO and otherwise as a normal amp (probably they are well aware that ZO probably doesn't quite have the ideal power delivery on its own). I hope the future ZO3 will have better amping or at minimum ZO2.1 levels.

 

[Craigster75]

Quote:

 
RPG -
 
I have done basically DOE's (design of experiments for those who don't know what I'm saying) on the best setup for my double amping combinations, and trust me, how I have it running sounds the best.  Yes, ZO maxed out, on High gain (forgot to mention that in my earlier post) and with E-11 controlling the volume.  There is no bloated bass here - NONE.  The key really was using LOD as the connection to source, and then fine tuning with equalization, which again was one of the key 'quality adders'.
 
Maybe with ZO by itself your settings would apply...............but not with the setup I laid out. 
 
Wish y'all could experience what I am describing. 

+1- I have tried the same setup and it is the ultimate portable basshead solution.  Just don't boost bass on the E11 along with the ZO if you want your drivers to survive

 

[Carlos4996]

Either there is something wrong with your ZO as many have already speculated, or you are possibly using it wrong.
Which ZO do you have, was it shipped directly from the manufacturer, 3rd party or used.
If it is the ZO 2 rev.3, how are you using it with your "android": are you maxing the vol on the phone and then controlling via the ZO, or do you have the ZO in "high gain mode" and are controlling the volume with the "android" ?

In personal experience, owning the original ZO, ZO 2 rev. 1 and rev 3, ANY pair or headphones/earphones I tried had insane amounts of bass on 8 cicks (greenish yellow).

Well I have the zo2.3, have my phone at 15% volume, with no eq, the zo2 is at pink at high gain, and the bass is at red 32

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Well I have the zo2.3, have my phone at 15% volume, with no eq, the zo2 is at pink at high gain, and the bass is at red 32

 
Have you tested listening with lower bass contour levels just to check what happens then? 

 

[Carlos4996]

Have you tested listening with lower bass contour levels just to check what happens then? 

yah I've tried going from green to red and to be honest there's really not much change, can tell the bass presence us getting better when moving up to red but nothing big, it really doesn't make ny cans shake as much a bass boost from my phone

 

[k1n0n3]

Only thing to suggest at this point is to try a different ZO. Are you able to return/exchange the current one ?