[Graphicism]

You shouldn't hear any distortion, in my book that means poor quality recording or underpowered headphones.
 

 

[MorbidToaster]

1: Awesome name
2: I'll 3rd Angel as a test track. And just an amazing one in general.
 
Quote:

I agree, that's a great test for your rig's bass response.
 
I usually test my cans out on some Autechre tracks. Stuff like MCR Quarter has crazy deep booming bass that is tough to reproduce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzcaWhBpeSM
 
 

 
 

 

[Derp]

Oh wow, I just listened to the youtube video of the song I posted and it must be a terrible rip, (well, I should of figured it's f*cking youtube.) I have Confield, the album it's on ripped in FLAC and the bass is obviously much much much deeper and rich.

 

[Jibbie]

The albums "New Blood 010," "More Blood 010," and "New Blood 011" from Hospital Records have some of the best and deepest bass I've ever heard.  Check them out!

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

You shouldn't hear any distortion, in my book that means poor quality recording or underpowered headphones.
 

It must be the recording as I have heard distortion on most hifis, the Bose Sound dock being an exception!?
 

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

It must be the recording as I have heard distortion on most hifis, the Bose Sound dock being an exception!?
 

Well there is no distortion in my copy of Massive Attack's 'Angel' ~ If you're hearing distortion, which I presume you mean a static noise and/or clipping it's either a poor MP3 rip or the equipment.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I mean an additional buzzing vibration to the deep bass vibration right at the opening of the track. It hapened with CDPs on most hifi setups I have tried and less so with rips (lossless) and less so again with streaming.

 

[TMRaven]

I generated a 20hz sine wave to test with my DT990s on iTunes with audacity, but it's not producing it cleanly.  The left cup seems to be vibrating with a weird sound while the right cup is producing it right, but overall it feels very weak.  30hz feels stronger but I still get the vibrating in the left cup.  40hz is even stronger and with less of a vibration in the left cup, but still there-- and so on.  The sound gets worse the higher up I turn the little dot amp.  The extra vibration in the left cup eventually disappears the higher up in tone I go though.
 
Is this a problem with the amp or a bad driver in the headphones?   When playing music nothing feels out of place or to clip when the songs enter basslines.
 
 
 

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

Is this a problem with the amp or a bad driver in the headphones?   When playing music nothing feels out of place or to clip when the songs enter basslines.

 
Could be as simple as a hair on the driver. Are you allowing your tube amp to warm up before running the tests, tube amps take a few minutes to turn on and 10+ minutes to start sounding there best.

 

[scompton]

Quote:

I generated a 20hz sine wave to test with my DT990s on iTunes with audacity, but it's not producing it cleanly.  The left cup seems to be vibrating with a weird sound while the right cup is producing it right, but overall it feels very weak.  30hz feels stronger but I still get the vibrating in the left cup.  40hz is even stronger and with less of a vibration in the left cup, but still there-- and so on.  The sound gets worse the higher up I turn the little dot amp.  The extra vibration in the left cup eventually disappears the higher up in tone I go though.
 
Is this a problem with the amp or a bad driver in the headphones?   When playing music nothing feels out of place or to clip when the songs enter basslines.
 
 
 

Are you listening at a low SPL?  Except the buzzing, this is exactly my experience with most headphones that others hear deep, clear, bass.  When I'm testing with test tones, I set the listening level at 1kHz and step down from there.  For many headphones that others hear 20Hz clearly, the sound disappears at around 30Hz for me.  All because I listen around 65dB.  I was testing my Fostex T30 with XB700 pads the other day.  At my normal listening levels, I could just barely hear 25 Hz.  When I turned the volume up by about 10dB, that dropped to 15Hz.
 

 

[scompton]

Quote:

1: Awesome name
2: I'll 3rd Angel as a test track. And just an amazing one in general.
 


 
 

The first time I heard Angel was with an LCD2 out of a balanced B22.  Bought the album later that night.  I just listened to it on 2 headphones.  A XB500 that I bought for $20 for the pads, and a Fostex T30 with XB700 pads.  With the XB500, the bass is good, but everything else is horrible.  With the T30, the first couple of bass beats are inaudible.  The bass doesn't have the impact of the XB500, but everything else is pretty euphoric sounding.  Makes me wish I could justify buying a LCD2/B22 rig.

 

[hadouken]

Two of my favourite tracks for testing bass:
 
Skrillex - Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites (Original Mix)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSeNSzJ2-Jw
Paul Keeley - A Sort Of Homecoming (Jaytech Saturday Mix)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8k5u6fnDtU

 

[TMRaven]

Quote:

 
Could be as simple as a hair on the driver. Are you allowing your tube amp to warm up before running the tests, tube amps take a few minutes to turn on and 10+ minutes to start sounding there best.

I'm inclined to think it is something like a hair.  Although I don't know what a blown or bad driver sounds like, but I'd probably assume it to sound really apparent.  I havn't really noticed this quirk on the left driver unless I test a pure low tone.  It isn't the tube amp warming up to its fullest either.
 


Quote:

Are you listening at a low SPL?  Except the buzzing, this is exactly my experience with most headphones that others hear deep, clear, bass.  When I'm testing with test tones, I set the listening level at 1kHz and step down from there.  For many headphones that others hear 20Hz clearly, the sound disappears at around 30Hz for me.  All because I listen around 65dB.  I was testing my Fostex T30 with XB700 pads the other day.  At my normal listening levels, I could just barely hear 25 Hz.  When I turned the volume up by about 10dB, that dropped to 15Hz.
 

I do usually listen lower, and it was very hard to hear 20hz unless I turned the volume up to a bit unnatural levels (for my hearing anyways-- still perfectly acceptable to some people)  The right driver seems to produce it cleanly, but it's the left one with the added rattle.  I'll have to take it apart and see what's up with it once I find myself a flat head screwdriver or the like.
 
 

 

[scompton]

Sounds like a hair to me too.  I've experienced it once and read about it numerous times.  Fortunately, when I experienced it, the hair was sticking out though the cover of the driver.  I was able to pull it out without taking it apart.

 

[NV2U]

My two ultimate bass tester songs are:
 
1. In Da Club - 50 Cent - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss
 
2.  Cruisin'  - Stanley Clarke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvhQXYKi8FU&feature=fvwrel