[navii]

Way to go. Now the pads are as big as the headband! Hehe

Looking forward to your thread.

 

[roma101]

Good stuff m80!

 

[gelocks]

Wow... I'm guessing the mids are even more distant now?

 

[m8o]

If by mids do you mean the one~two octave range centered around 450Hz or some other range?  Probably debatable but I consider that 'mid-bass'. 
 
If anything it's the octaves below that have 'eased'.  And the sound has 'bloomed'.  Big, may I say incredibly huge difference between using a second set of V990 pads inside as seen in my pictures, vs. just the uncladded foam that came from the black pad. 
 
I'll go into detail in that thread I mentioned when I make it.  I may blow the dust off my Terrasonde Audio Toolbox for some relative measurements with and without my pad mod if I can come-up with a reasonable jig with which to do so.

 

[monkeyboylee]

Hi again, just after a bit of advice/opinions from my fellow Yamaha Pro 500 users.... well i absolutely love mine, and with my ipod classic/arrow amp combo find the quality mind blowing..... but I am thinking of adding to this headphone now with an open back where I can really go for it at home when everyones out. Anyway, do you think I will notice much difference tho, I'm thinking of some DT880 250 or HiFiMan HE300's..... help me spend my money... or not.... as the case may be 

 

[commando]

I listened to the Pro 500's briefly on the weekend. I found the bass muddy, and the clarity substandard, overall not even worth considering. The Yamaha HPH-MT220 however I found quite good, other than the recessed midrange that lacked clarity, though that may be because they needed burning in.

 

[roma101]

Yeah I read your brief impression on the comparisons thread. I hope you can go and take another listen because what you heard is not what I'm hearing at all and I've had these for several months now. I hear clarity and refinement that I haven't heard in many other headphones. To my ears they outclass headphones like the Momentum and 1R. Good extension on both sides and excellent layering. I wonder if you heard a pair that was defective.

 

[commando]

I'll have another listen when I go back to the store.

 

[gelocks]

I actually liked the sound of the Pro 500s, IN FACT, if it wasn't for these I would probably NEVER have bought the MT220s...!!! If it wasn't for the fit on my head, the Pro 500s would have a place somewhere in my home.

 

[soundeffect]

Quote:

I listened to the Pro 500's briefly on the weekend. I found the bass muddy, and the clarity substandard, overall not even worth considering. The Yamaha HPH-MT220 however I found quite good, other than the recessed midrange that lacked clarity, though that may be because they needed burning in.

 
 I had a similar experience, they sounded like an improved beats pro.  I only listened to them for 30 mins. so not the best "true" impression.  Bass is bloated and okay to good clarity.  Overall my thought was "if you like bass this would be nice".  I do like them better than the momentum though, I thought the momentum had a veil mid quality to them plus a darker feel that didn't help. 

 

[fateicon]

anyone else notice the 400s were down to $159 new and $150 used from Amazon? I snagged a new pair. might be here today. the 500s are still $300 at the cheapest either new or used. last time I went through the fry's demo, I swear that the 400 kept the piano heavy tracks together a little better. in terms of separation. but since the Yamaha reps screw with them and the 500 there is broken, its hard to say. I will most likely buy a 500 once I have the cash and it goes down to around $200. seemed kinda silly to spend twice as much when the differences I heard at frys aren't extremely significant. for all I know they rig the demo so the 500 runs off a clearer source. one of these days I will do a sansa clip test.

 

[fateicon]

Got my $159 400s. These are about as good as I thought they'd be. At first I thought they sounded pretty bad. I plugged in the 10 ft cable and stuff was bloated. They were better with the 4 ft cable, but still sounded bloated. I think they're settling with a few hours of use. These are very neutralish with big drums. Almost like a closed back 701. The experience reminds me of when I covered the open back of my 701. These have the same sort of washed out, grey sound as the 701. Same big screen TV sound where everything is magnified a ton. Very immersive like the 701. Fortunately these phones manage to spread stuff out enough that a huge drum does not end up as an aural assault. The immediacy of the 701 is a curse and a blessing. The 400s opt for a non-offensive, but not too exciting level of immediacy. These tend to produce big drums as opposed to just boosting bass. Domination by Morbid Angel was rattling the 400 with no EQ or amping. Suit&Tie was bombastic, but maybe more tolerable now that these are a little broken in. I've got them straight into my rockboxed sansa clip with default settings. Instruments sound really, really dead on. Cymbals, wood, strings, etc. The acoustic guitar plucks sound really legit. The electronic stuff I don't think sounds as good here as it does on other phones, but those aren't exactly real instruments. These things can handle a lot without distorting. The volume doesn't need to be cranked much. I can leave it below 0 db just fine, whereas on my 550, it doesn't get loud enough on really old cd even on max volume. These are really wide and deep. Sort of like an H sound. Meaning the sound spreads out and then scales. 
 
Treble energy is much better than the UE6000 but I feel it could use a tad more. I'd like if it sounded a little sharper. This is an area where I think I will be satisfied once I purchase a 500. On the plus side, I can't see this ever shooting treble spikes into my ears. This phone is almost like a hybrid of RS-1/K701/UE6000. I think it's a stretch to call this dramatic or exciting. It's definitely not the equivalent of a 70-90 mph coaster like the RS-1. It's very smooth. Compared to the 500s, it's sorta like listening to those with a veil. Like if you Sennheiser'd em. If there's a lot of low bass percussion like on the Empire Strikes Back score during parts of the Carbon Freeze/Luke Pursues track, it can sound like stuff is getting a bit muddied up. Otherwise separation is outstanding. 
 
The clamping feels pretty bad at first. I've sorta adjusted to it. The force seems to go down with break in. The case is really nice. Not sure what to do with the stickers or what that ten ft cord is for. 
 
Isolation is better than my other closed phones. Wife cannot hear any sound leaking most all the time, even if I got it on loud. In short, I feel that these are nearly perfect and probably the best closed phone next to the 500s. I do like the clarity of the 550 better, but I don't think the 550 would necessarily beat the 500s in that area. People who don't give these a try are really missing out. At least now I can take the cord and try the 500s with my Sansa clip.

 

[fateicon]

I thought I should update again as these are still $150 on amazon used. Muddy songs seem to get slightly muddier. Stuff like hysteria by def leopard. Maybe that means those low bass frequencies are boosted. Bass shy songs like burning heart by survivor sound less bassy than my 550, ue6000, or amperior. Volume can completely change a song. Some rock like ready to strike by king kobra becomes unfatiguing and alive at higher volumes while sounding bad at lower ones. Things like tape hiss are very audible with these, so maybe the highest frequencies are boosted. The rest of the fr sounds neutral/washed out. Piano keys all sound distinctly different on these. Some songs seem to lack the vertical dynamics I hear on other phones, like eyes on fire by blue oyster cult. It doesn't push the chorus overdubs up and forward like most phones. It just spreads them out further, horizontally. Happens on other songs too. Then some songs will have the vocal overdubs expand vertically. It's hard to predict what the 400 will and won't add. Film scores work real well, almost all the time. The phantasm 1/2 CD being an exception. Gets a tad strangled and muddied up compared to 550. I also think the another night album from real McCoy benefitted more from the 550 than 400. I'll reiterate that the 400 does nothing badly and is very non-fatiguing and easy to listen to

 

[fateicon]

just tried the 500s using my sansa clip and the smaller cable that came with my 400s. the one with the volume buttons. thought the 500s sounded awful. Treble was way too boosted, body was lacking big time. the 500s sounded the same as before when listening to the demo material. can anyone tell me if I need to be using the ten foot cable instead?

edit: Tried the two different cables for a while on the same songs. Hysteria does not sound muddy using the 10 ft cable, it sounds almost Grado harsh at times. The Star Wars ep 4 1997 cd sounds much peakier with the 10 footer. So much so that I felt a need to cut the treble by a few db(double checked, I left all settings at neutral/default). The veil I was hearing is gone. The sound is more neutral and clear, but much peakier. Have to turn the volume up a lot more. Maybe the 4 foot cable being made for ipods with a volume switch was compressing the sound somehow. I don't think I'm hearing things. The reason I initially rejected the 10 footer was because I thought it made stuff too bassy, so if biases were tricking my mind, that's where I imagine they would be taking it.

edited again: now I can't really tell a difference between the cables. Maybe it's just changes due to break-in. I guess that unless the pair of 500s at Fry's is majorly defective, then I actually prefer the 400s by a very wide margin. Those 500s at Fry's far exceeded the 550 in terms of brightness and lack of body. It sounded like someone took a 400 and turned the bass down by 15-20 db and the treble up by 15-20 db. I might actually prefer something more in the middle of these two. On tracks with a lot of real low bass, like the Main title of the La La version of Batman Returns, the 400s don't distort or become unbalanced, but they start feeling like a mini sub woofer. It's sort of like the UE6000, just with more bass and treble energy. I'm not used to a headphone being able to handle bass like that. Wish I could get more tech info on these Yamaha headphones. I might try them with the O2 today.

 

[monkeyboylee]

Anyone compared these to the momentum over ears at all?