Dino
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2005
- Posts
- 18
- Likes
- 0
Ok let's start.
This is my first pair of serious headphones, I had some cheap earbuds (sony, philips don't even remember the model) before and a very cheap (and crappy) philips closed sovraaural cans (maybe 10-15€ range).
I expected them a bit sturdier. But I'm getting used to it.
They also feel very confortable, velour circumaureal pads are a great achievement in comfort tecnology =)
Lot of people say that HD570 are "power hungry". Well I would say that they are not "loud". At least not as loud as my 100W Hughes&Kettner guitar amp (equipped with a 12" Celestion Vintage Loudspeaker. Yes, I'm very proud of it...) which can litterally make things fall from the shelfs (even the shelfs themselves tremble sometimes).
I'm using them on my IBM R40 Thinkpad with SoundMAX sound card (by Analog Devices). It can drive them considerably loud. I Listen to winamp 5.11 with Izotope Ozone DSP (adds a certain amount of tube saturation and compression which makes mp3s sound considerably better).
Since this is the first time I write something here I have to say that:
1) I'm an engineer. Ergo (Latin = so) I may not have enough immagination to be an audiophile.
2) I do like to have a variable (by daily taste) amount of second harmonic distortion. I would say at least 1% going up to 5-6%... Added to the first point, this means I'm definitely not an audiophile.
3) I don't have "golden ears", subaudible distortion levels and ultrasonic frequencies are beyond my hearing capabilities (anyway, ruined by heavy metal). This is probabily due to my lack of immagination.
4) I don't believe in perfect reproduction of any kind of signals (this includes audio ones)
5) I like this pair of cans
6) They can go unamped with my Creative Zen mp3 player.
Yes they can. Not very loud but they can go unamped. My player has a 1-25 volume scale. Now I'm on 16 and still getting lots of details. It means that I have one, two, ... 9 volume levels left. Plenty of room you would say. Very strange. How this can be?
Many people will agree with me if I say that human ears can easly adapt to different acustic levels and equalizations. Twenty minutes ago I was listening to my headphones at maximum volume level. Now my volume level is no more than 3 on a tenth scale. And I'm still enjoing all the details (including mp3's hiss and artifacts =) ).
Question: do you need 132dB (or more) spl? I think no IMHO. Maybe you need better isolation. But this is a different kettle of fish (choose closed cans).
The sound quality using my Zen player is even better! I think this is due to minor EM interference, better s/n ratio and the very good built-in equalizer (-12, d12 dB range without clipping). In this Creative hardware is second to none in their price range.
Bass response is good (although not as good as closed cans) but I believe that the HD570 is more mid-frequency oriented. It gives it's best between 3-10kHz. It's not that harsh as someone said. And I'm not sure I would like a more "mellower" sound.
With some music it sounded a bit messy. Muddy. But in the end I realized that it was fault of my records since it happened only on 128kbit mp3s. But it was to be expected: cheaper headphones are more indulgent with poor recorded music.
I tryed it with different kind of music. From pop to Heavy metal. Here it is a brief list:
Layla - Eric Clapton
Concerto per Due Clavicembali BWV 1060 - Johann Sebastian Bach
Lady in black - Uriah Heep
Halfway to Heaven - Blue Tears
Time Is Running Out - Muse
Space Oddity - David Bowie (Bowie sometimes changes voice and it's great to listen to with good headphones)
Your Sweet 666 - HIM (great crunch guitar background, spreads harmonics through the whole spectrum)
Summer '68 - Pink Floyd
This song has well defined bass guitar and voice at the beginning. Then switches to a more complex image with piano, acustic guitar and trumpet. Although the HD570 does a good job it suffers from super-stereo separation (which is boosted by pink floyd's recordings)
Toccata e Fuga BWV 565 - Johann Sebastian Bach (sounds great)
About this last one I would like to say that the organ is a very difficult instrument to reproduce since it's very wide frequency band (has harmonics even in the subsonic range). The 570 obviusly lacked the subsonic range but had a quite good balanced bass response. Sometimes better than my home rig (harman Kardon AV130 with JBL infinity speakers)
I'm planning to buy the HD497 so I'll make a comparative review with an half-the-price-headphone
Wow, I wanted to write just a few words and it ended in a full sized pseudo-review. I say pseudo becouse it's my first pair of cans and I just don't know how to review cans. But there is a first time for everything.
Final judgment: I like them. There surely are better headphones (even for half the price), but I like the HD570.
With proper equalization I think I'll get good results. Next week I will start developing an headphone amp with a built-in eq. network, tailoring both to the 570 specs. It'll take a while since I haven't got much spare time.
I hope I will be able to raise this "poor and overpriced" headphone at higher levels... At least for the sake of other people who like me made such a "mistake" buying the 570.
=)) just kidding LOL
BTW I feel it's just the beginning... I wonder how many cans I will buy by the end of this year...
This is my first pair of serious headphones, I had some cheap earbuds (sony, philips don't even remember the model) before and a very cheap (and crappy) philips closed sovraaural cans (maybe 10-15€ range).
I expected them a bit sturdier. But I'm getting used to it.
They also feel very confortable, velour circumaureal pads are a great achievement in comfort tecnology =)
Lot of people say that HD570 are "power hungry". Well I would say that they are not "loud". At least not as loud as my 100W Hughes&Kettner guitar amp (equipped with a 12" Celestion Vintage Loudspeaker. Yes, I'm very proud of it...) which can litterally make things fall from the shelfs (even the shelfs themselves tremble sometimes).
I'm using them on my IBM R40 Thinkpad with SoundMAX sound card (by Analog Devices). It can drive them considerably loud. I Listen to winamp 5.11 with Izotope Ozone DSP (adds a certain amount of tube saturation and compression which makes mp3s sound considerably better).
Since this is the first time I write something here I have to say that:
1) I'm an engineer. Ergo (Latin = so) I may not have enough immagination to be an audiophile.
2) I do like to have a variable (by daily taste) amount of second harmonic distortion. I would say at least 1% going up to 5-6%... Added to the first point, this means I'm definitely not an audiophile.
3) I don't have "golden ears", subaudible distortion levels and ultrasonic frequencies are beyond my hearing capabilities (anyway, ruined by heavy metal). This is probabily due to my lack of immagination.
4) I don't believe in perfect reproduction of any kind of signals (this includes audio ones)
5) I like this pair of cans
6) They can go unamped with my Creative Zen mp3 player.
Yes they can. Not very loud but they can go unamped. My player has a 1-25 volume scale. Now I'm on 16 and still getting lots of details. It means that I have one, two, ... 9 volume levels left. Plenty of room you would say. Very strange. How this can be?
Many people will agree with me if I say that human ears can easly adapt to different acustic levels and equalizations. Twenty minutes ago I was listening to my headphones at maximum volume level. Now my volume level is no more than 3 on a tenth scale. And I'm still enjoing all the details (including mp3's hiss and artifacts =) ).
Question: do you need 132dB (or more) spl? I think no IMHO. Maybe you need better isolation. But this is a different kettle of fish (choose closed cans).
The sound quality using my Zen player is even better! I think this is due to minor EM interference, better s/n ratio and the very good built-in equalizer (-12, d12 dB range without clipping). In this Creative hardware is second to none in their price range.
Bass response is good (although not as good as closed cans) but I believe that the HD570 is more mid-frequency oriented. It gives it's best between 3-10kHz. It's not that harsh as someone said. And I'm not sure I would like a more "mellower" sound.
With some music it sounded a bit messy. Muddy. But in the end I realized that it was fault of my records since it happened only on 128kbit mp3s. But it was to be expected: cheaper headphones are more indulgent with poor recorded music.
I tryed it with different kind of music. From pop to Heavy metal. Here it is a brief list:
Layla - Eric Clapton
Concerto per Due Clavicembali BWV 1060 - Johann Sebastian Bach
Lady in black - Uriah Heep
Halfway to Heaven - Blue Tears
Time Is Running Out - Muse
Space Oddity - David Bowie (Bowie sometimes changes voice and it's great to listen to with good headphones)
Your Sweet 666 - HIM (great crunch guitar background, spreads harmonics through the whole spectrum)
Summer '68 - Pink Floyd
This song has well defined bass guitar and voice at the beginning. Then switches to a more complex image with piano, acustic guitar and trumpet. Although the HD570 does a good job it suffers from super-stereo separation (which is boosted by pink floyd's recordings)
Toccata e Fuga BWV 565 - Johann Sebastian Bach (sounds great)
About this last one I would like to say that the organ is a very difficult instrument to reproduce since it's very wide frequency band (has harmonics even in the subsonic range). The 570 obviusly lacked the subsonic range but had a quite good balanced bass response. Sometimes better than my home rig (harman Kardon AV130 with JBL infinity speakers)
I'm planning to buy the HD497 so I'll make a comparative review with an half-the-price-headphone
Wow, I wanted to write just a few words and it ended in a full sized pseudo-review. I say pseudo becouse it's my first pair of cans and I just don't know how to review cans. But there is a first time for everything.
Final judgment: I like them. There surely are better headphones (even for half the price), but I like the HD570.
With proper equalization I think I'll get good results. Next week I will start developing an headphone amp with a built-in eq. network, tailoring both to the 570 specs. It'll take a while since I haven't got much spare time.
I hope I will be able to raise this "poor and overpriced" headphone at higher levels... At least for the sake of other people who like me made such a "mistake" buying the 570.
=)) just kidding LOL
BTW I feel it's just the beginning... I wonder how many cans I will buy by the end of this year...
