Indrajit
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 23, 2015
- Posts
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- 19
OK - that's really weird - for a few reasons.
My advice - drop the upper mid-range by about 4-5dB (2-3 kHz) and see if it makes a difference.
- The A5 is almost completely neutral - measures dead flat, practically wire with gain.
- The HD598 is not a bright headphone. it has a 10dB rise at 2-3 kHz and another one at 9-10 kHz. 2.3kHz is too early for sibilance. 9-10 kHz is too late. So your description of the A5 or HD598 being a cause seems strange
- The HD598 can tend to be a bit grainy in the upper mids - because the bump is too pronounced - perhaps that is what you're hearing?
Also - check your music - perhaps it is also in the mastering? A hot track coupled with a headphone that overly boosts the upper mids can cause issues if you are sensitive to that frequency band. If that's the case - I'd sell the HD598 and look to get an HD6XX (Massdrop version of the HD650)
I will try reducing the 2-3 KHz band to see if the sibilance goes away from vocals. Thank you for responding. I highly doubt that the headphones could be damaged because sound from damaged headphones would be much more visible. Everything in the 598 seems very good except the vocals,
they just sound thin