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Best bass headphones

mpscottfr

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Hi guys, so I'm looking for some heavy bass headphones that would be great for listening to electronic & hip hop music.
Which are the best bass headphones in2020? Which is the indisputable king of bass?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions...
 

Jimbob54

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Hi guys, so I'm looking for some heavy bass headphones that would be great for listening to electronic & hip hop music.
Which are the best bass headphones in2020? Which is the indisputable king of bass?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

What will be your chain before the headphones? Potential to use some software EQ to boost the bass? Better to get some good headphones that fit you well and are "good" overall and EQ up the bass a bit to taste .

Also, you need to give an indication of budget.
 

raistlin65

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1more Triple Driver Over-ear has a good bass extension and level.

I can second that. I have a pair. Rarely use them because I have come to prefer a more moderate bass amount over neutral. But I hate to get rid of them for when I do want a spell of extra bass.

Also used to own the Sony MDR-1A. More bass than the 1More's, but not as resolving and the mids were not very good on the 1A. I also prefer the mids on the 1Mores over the M50X.
 

3125b

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High quantity often means low quality.
I would agree with @Jimbob54 as far as EQ goes. That is a more sensible thing to do in my opinion.
 

Robbo99999

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Maybe something like AKG K371 and then EQ up the bass if it's not enough, but point is with K371 the bass extends all the way down flat to 10Hz:
Here's a link to the frequency response of the K371, which also happens to be the one of Oratory1990's EQ's:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ftqm1c13xjcqgv/AKG K371.pdf?dl=0
 

raistlin65

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Maybe something like AKG K371 and then EQ up the bass if it's not enough, but point is with K371 the bass extends all the way down flat to 10Hz:
Here's a link to the frequency response of the K371, which also happens to be the one of Oratory1990's EQ's:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ftqm1c13xjcqgv/AKG K371.pdf?dl=0

I would suggest it's not accurate to say that it's flat. Isn't oratory's compensated response using Harman's Target response?

First, even Harman themselves doesn't claimed that's a perceived flat response. They say it's a preferred response.

Second, 1 out of 3 people don't prefer the target response. So it seems better to say it closely matches the Harman target response.
 

Robbo99999

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I would suggest it's not accurate to say that it's flat. Isn't oratory's compensated response using Harman's Target response?

First, even Harman themselves doesn't claimed that's a perceived flat response. They say it's a preferred response.

Second, 1 out of 3 people don't prefer the target response. So it seems better to say it closely matches the Harman target response.
Yeah, what I meant by that is that the bass doesn't roll off, not even at 10Hz. Yep I'm aware of the nuances of the Harman Curve. He (mpscottfr) can see the stock & EQ'd frequency response curves of that headphone at that link, so that's pretty useful to know.....I think they'd be good headphones for bass, and he could even EQ up the bass beyond the stock frequency response (Oratory1990 didn't even need to boost the bass, he didn't even touch it, which is rare in a headphone, and perhaps the only headphone he's tested where he didn't need to touch it).

EDIT: actually I was wrong, it starts rolling off a bit at 20Hz, but still great bass and my other points.
 

raistlin65

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Yeah, what I meant by that is that the bass doesn't roll off, not even at 10Hz. Yep I'm aware of the nuances of the Harman Curve. He (mpscottfr) can see the stock & EQ'd frequency response curves of that headphone at that link, so that's pretty useful to know.....I think they'd be good headphones for bass, and he could even EQ up the bass beyond the stock frequency response (Oratory1990 didn't even need to boost the bass, he didn't even touch it, which is rare in a headphone, and perhaps the only headphone he's tested where he didn't need to touch it).

EDIT: actually I was wrong, it starts rolling off a bit at 20Hz, but still great bass and my other points.

It's not flat from the upper midbass through the sub bass either. That's why I didn't care for them. I found the midbass to be rather lean. Music with a bassline or a beat was typically unengaging to me with K371.
 

Joaquin Dinero

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The cool kids on Head-Fi will tell you that Fostex headphones are renowned for their bass slam.

I myself have some well-used Ultrasone Pro 900s for when I want to make my funk the P Funk.


But even Microsoft Groove has EQ options.
 

MRC01

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Hi guys, so I'm looking for some heavy bass headphones that would be great for listening to electronic & hip hop music.
Which are the best bass headphones in2020? Which is the indisputable king of bass?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions...
Depends on what exactly you mean by "best bass" or "king of bass"...
Large diaphragm planar magnetics give the cleanest (lowest distortion) bass with extension to sub-sonic frequencies. Like Audeze or HiFiMan.
But if you don't care as much about low distortion, for electronic / hip-hop music, you might just want lots of bass power?

Are you looking for a particular type of headphone? For example is an open circumaural OK, or do you need to prevent sound leaking out disturbing people nearby? Are you looking for IEM? What kind of device will you use to drive the headphones? Do you want headphones that can be driven from a phone? That can limit your options. Or do you have a headphone amp?
 

muslhead

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i have tried a lot of headphones and the audeze lcd4 provided the greatest amount of bass, all else being equal.
 

blse59

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Hi guys, so I'm looking for some heavy bass headphones that would be great for listening to electronic & hip hop music.
Which are the best bass headphones in2020? Which is the indisputable king of bass?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions...
Audio-Technica M50x. The bass has a nice rumble I don't hear in other headphones. I would not describe it as 'bass heavy'. It's very present, it's not overpowering, but it has a nice rumble.
 
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Robbo99999

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It's not flat from the upper midbass through the sub bass either. That's why I didn't care for them. I found the midbass to be rather lean. Music with a bassline or a beat was typically unengaging to me with K371.
I've not listened to the K371, but I know people who have them and love them, especially for the bass extension primarily, which is why I recommended them. If a person knows they like the Harman Curve they're an excellent headphone to get because they're so close to it....especially in the bass, and as long as they don't mind the strange dip in the treble at 4kHz, which can be EQ'd out to some extent. Horses for courses, but I think K371 would suit a lot of folks due to closeness to Harman Curve & combined with great bass extension. Recommending a headphone that is a close fit to the Harman Curve is a solid recommendation, just due to the nature of the research itself (far better than getting general advice from randos on the internet re their favourite headphone), but I'm not gonna get into a Harman discussion here....and out of the headphones that I'm aware of that fit the Harman Curve the K371 has the best bass extension so totally relevant to the OP.

I got a NAD HP50 (EQ'd), I suppose I could recommend them too, as they have great bass extension and are just a bit shy of my EQ'd Sennheiser HD600 in the vocals while exceeding them with the bass. I EQ'd mine (HP50) to the Harman Curve myself using Oratory's measurements because I found he had decided to EQ down 9000Hz below the curve because he thought it sounded harsh, but I felt it lacked some treble so I thought I'd take a clean sheet & just do the EQ myself to get it spot on (turns out I managed to use lower Q filters and also requiring less preamp, due to how I decided to position the target curve on the measurement):
NAD HP50 Oratory my own EQ.jpg

Re NAD HP50, you can always use Oratory's settings though, but be aware don't just copy the preamp value because he calculated that wrong for this headphone, or he probably just did a typo or something re the preamp, it clips at his preamp setting, but yeah you can still use his NAD HP50 settings:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mjbp2dau2o3m680/NAD Viso HP50.pdf?dl=0
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets


EDIT: re K371, I also did an EQ for that one the other day because I was bored (even though I don't own that headphone), so if the OP gets the K371 he can try this EQ (or anyone else), again it's taking Oratory's measurements and doing my own EQ to the Harman Curve. I managed to eliminate the 4kHz dip a bit better than Oratory in terms of it's about 2dB more accurate in that troublesome area whilst also using slightly lower Q filters. It's also more accurate in the bass....I think it's because Oratory limits himself to 10 filters so he probably decided to use them to concentrate on the treble. This EQ uses only 0.7dB more negative preamp than his too:
K371 Oratory My EQ.jpg
 
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dmac6419

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Hi guys, so I'm looking for some heavy bass headphones that would be great for listening to electronic & hip hop music.
Which are the best bass headphones in2020? Which is the indisputable king of bass?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions...
Nick Cannon headphones bass heavy as shiitt ,wireless but can be wired too,cheap too
 

solderdude

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If you want visceral but not boosted bass go Audeze LCD-2.
The LCD series can be EQ'ed up so your earlobes will flap around like crazy and it still sound 'clean'

Perhaps look at V-Moda ?
 

FrantzM

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Hi

I will add the Audeze LCD-2 in the recommendation. Another one is the mighty Hifiman HE-6 original ( I haven't heard the HE6SE) .. with a capable amp, read amp capable of driving speakers to loud level as in 20 wpc @ 8 ohms for exemple .. It can reproduce bass in a way few headphones can or few headphones afficionados have an inkling of. IMO one the 5 best headphones around and one of the best bass in the biz... Not too shabby when it comes to bass was the Denon AHD-2000? can't remember the exact model number I had it a few years and loved it. It can be found used, from time to time around $200, on eBay.
 

Blujackaal

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Get any good flat sounding headphone, eg; K712, HD600, ER*SE. Just EQ it in with a low shelf within 80 ~ 160Hz, then up the db to taste(mine 6db). Been doing that with my Etymotic ER2SE & ER3SE for Ambient/metal, They sound better than any headphone that was tuned to be bassy.
 
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