[Trav]

Ok gents after approx 6 months of serious HP use I find myself becoming more sensitive to bass. Is this experienced by others or is my temporal lobe experiencing some sort of evolution?

 

[Acix]

Back to the K702...

this time you can check the RS-1 too.

 

[jellojoe]

I'm all for the mids.

 

[Duggeh]

I'm not confidently certain of what you mean in your post. There are two contextual readings. One is that you are more sensitive to bass and so want less of it than you once did. The other is that you have come to a greater recognition of the nature of the character of low frequency sound. I respond to both possibilities respectively.

Wham bam bass is one of those things that garners the most attention in any short term listening, that and any inflated sense of space or soundstaging. It takes more time to come to terms with the further nuances of sound. The longer the better ideally. Your ears have abviously gradually been coming to finding more and more particularly the sort of sound that you want out of your rig, which may well be leaner, or less bassy than where you started from. (Lets be honesnt, most people coming here for the first {or only} time are after a cheap awesome headphone with the stipulation of mega bass of some kind). 6 months is I would expect, enough time for such a change in attitude, and one cannot help but see you do have the sterotypical basshead headphone, the DT770. A headphone of which I am not myself very fond and which in the Headphile modded form I find downright awful.

As for the increased recognition, the ear and the minds ear, as with many things, can be trained and improved through the application of practice and the aquisition of dexterity. If you're reading more into the low frequency parts of music than just beat-boom-beat-boom and feeling the multitudinous textures and resonanaces that there are to be found there then this is only to your benefit as you are coming to a greater appriciation of some of the nuances of music which are an important mosaic of aspects in the grand picture. Once you get to a certain point though, you will have to make a deliberate effort to hear further difference. Once you move into these areas of deliberate effort though, the gains made by them are more easily maintained than their initial aquisition.

 

[Trav]

When I state bass I mean all facets thereoff, quantity, quality, and esp extension. As for my 702's to be honest I preferred the overall SQ of the Sextett over the 702. But at the same time, and this might make me a heretic....unamped..listening to jazz..I find the 770 Pro (bass monsters) quite pleasing. While home I find myself reaching more and more for the Sextetts to be honest. As far as the nature of bass while listening to heaphones it seems to take on a totally different character as opposed to the ambient, omnidirectional nature of bass from speakers. I myself have been blatently guilty of gushing posts regarding quick listening periods. Now that I have learned to post less and listen more I find myself learning a great deal more.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trav /img/forum/go_quote.gif As far as the nature of bass while listening to heaphones it seems to take on a totally different character as opposed to the ambient, omnidirectional nature of bass from speakers.

That depends on your speakers. Many of those deliver nasty cabinet resonances that many people mistake for genuine bass sound. That, or the $49.99 subwoofer making its own noises during cone excursion. It's not entirely their fault. A couple of generations have been raised with crap speakers and the prolonged death of music education in this country. People don't have the reference of live, acoustic music to compare against and think that "deep" bass is when the trunk lid on a Civic begins to rattle.

It's possible that your ear is becoming accustomed to genuine, tuneful bass.

 

[Trav]

Erik I think my ears reverting to my single days enjoying my Maggies (planars) that I truly loved.

 

[vvanrij]

I'v had the same experience trav, you well get more and more used to a neutral sound sig, and will hear how alot of not-so-good speakers and headphones have a boost in bass in treble.

 

[olblueyez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trav /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ok gents after approx 6 months of serious HP use I find myself becoming more sensitive to bass. Is this experienced by others or is my temporal lobe experiencing some sort of evolution?

With the right headphones and amp (When you hear bass done right) it will always be necessary.

 

[Cool_Torpedo]

Somehow most of us walk that same path. At first, as Duggeh said, we are easily impressionable, so systems producing "huge sound" which is sounding very loud without (much) distortion, having bodyful, impactive bass, and "revealing" treble, is what grabs your attention and makes you believe you're in front of good sound.
However, depending on the music you listen to, the experience you get from listening other systems and live music, and how you learn to focus your attention to other sound features, you realize that "huge sound" isn't what's really needed to enjoy and "understand" the music, or not all of it whatsoever.
This may take weeks, months or years. Some people can live happy ever after with just huge sound. Nothing wrong with that, after all our systems should sound as we need to have fun with our music.
In fact that's one of the reasons I'm so fond of headphones. On a speakers system it's not very practical to be swapping speakers to get the features you need to have fun listening to AC/DC, and then going to the more delicacy and tonal rightness needed to have string quartets made believable. With phones it's just as easy as taking a pair off your head and plugging another pair. Maybe when some perfect headphone-amp system is produced we can have just one pair

 

[hypoicon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trav /img/forum/go_quote.gif Erik I think my ears reverting to my single days enjoying my Maggies (planars) that I truly loved.

I find this thread interesting because it's hard to communicate with people who shout "I love bass" (common around here). Uh, personally I love music-- not just some particular part of it. I think the early admonition to "listen more and post less" would really make reading Head Fi a lot more fun. I think listening is the best education, rather than reading. I'd have to say that even after 40 years or so of listening to music, my recent purchase of Maggie MMGs has been a wonderful education.

I never was a "bass head," but I do like having a solid presence in the bottom octaves-- when it's present in the orginal recording, at least. Because of that, about a month after I got the MMGs I bought an REL subwoofer to go along with them. It's interesting the way the knob positions on the subwoofer have evolved in the last three months or so.

The salesman warned me that the sub required a pretty substantial burn-in, and when it finally loosened up I would know it-- he wasn't kidding, after about the first week the volume of the sub had to be reduced at least 20% to sound natural. I also found myself dropping the crossover point significantly as the first month went by, preferirng the sub to remain pretty much inactive for many recordings.

In the second month of using it, I've found myself lowering the volume almost another 20%-- the subwoofer is a nice assist on material with really low fundamentals, but it is far from essential to me. Fast clean bass is much better than boom.

I've always felt that way (hence my choice of an REL acoustic suspension sub instead of a ported arrangement), but living with the maggies has really amplified that feeling. Better no bass at all than tub-thumping.

That said, I do still like to put on a pair of HD-650s sometimes and crank it up. The rolled-off highs (in my opinion) and wooly bass are just comforting on old-school rock that just sounds better "loud" rather than "clean." Sometimes, old 60s recordings are downright painful on my Grado RS-1s-- though I prefer them for most things, especially things that are recorded nicely.

Nice to have lots of flavors, and sometimes it's better to just admit that it's more a matter of mood than an exact science.

 

[lucky]

This is one of the many reasons why the AD700 is my favorite pair of phones. I like music, not bass. Music, not treble. Music, not mids. Music.

 

[oqvist]

I am starting to wonder if not something like the DT 770 PRO is more balanced then say a K701. It´s damn hard to hear the bass guitar playing on the strings on Kees Modded PRO 900 and K701 for example and I am on a quite bassy amp (Heed Canamp) You really have to zoom in on it. Surely the bass that is there is good but is it more balance that way? Take jazz. Often just 3 instruments and a singer in jazz and from my experience playing in orchestra you generally don´t have a hard time hearing the brass playing.
You need more then one flute to counter a bass guitar

DX 1000 you really hear every instrument more clearly but I would think most who would hear my setup would maybe see them as bass monsters. It´s not boomy bass at all but tight with an amount of power I am not used to in a set of headphones. I have no need for the LFE on the DX 1000 to increase the sensation of bass. They do have some treble roll off so I ain´t saying they are neutral by any means either stock PRO 900 is probably about as accurate as I have gotten so far.

If I use my cheap speakers with sub it portraits bass guitars, bass drums and such with much more ease while still keeping the balance with the treble. though they have a crappy mid range instead compared to my headphones quite V-shaped but the bass is very tight and goes deep while not being boomy at all.

Bass is part of it I do need it still even though sometimes it´s refreshing with a bright can like the K701 since you get a nice flow with some music when little or no bass is involved it´s like flying a bit

So I do need bass about as much as always just don´t need boomy bass other then for movies and games

 

[Solid Snake]

The use of the DT 770 pro would probably explain it...I think your ears are just simply getting tired of hearing pounding bass. I had a similar experience. Wow factor on bass always diminishes if you judge sound by bass quantity in SQ IMO....

 

[tranhieu]

after few months listening, i appreciate hd 580's bass more than before