Best bass headphones

[xykreinov]

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...

Hard to beat Beyerdynamic DT770 600ohm with a good amp.
Its light drivers can deliver some seriously fast bass, when powered properly.
I listen to lots of electronic music with deep bass myself, and can definitely vouch for these cans' prowess there.

Also, as others have recommended, EQ always helps. A good read through this page is a great primer for what you need to get a decent EQ setup: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

 

[Filodream]

Spirit Torino Radiante Ragnarr.

 

[Robbo99999]

Also, in addition to my earlier post, the NAD HP50 has very very low distortion in the bass area, so I think that would make it the perfect bass headphone for cranking up the bass given that fact & also the deep extension into the bass of that headphone. Like I said I own this headphone, very good for bass. Here's the reference to the very low bass distortion courtesy of DIY-AUDIO-HEAVEN (thanks to @solderdude of course):

https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/nad-viso-hp50/

For example, I'm listening to Massive Attack, "Inertia Creeps" track (EDIT: and also "Sunshines Better(Talvin Singh)" from John Martyn), and there's loads of low bass in those, sounds great.....albeit with my EQ based on Oratory's measurements:

 

[NDC]

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 ?

LCD2 Classic or the normal LCD2?

 

[solderdude]

Personally I prefer the Fazor version. The classic has less treble. When EQing it doesn't really matter.
Another difference is efficiency, the classic goes louder at the same volume setting,

 

[MRC01]

Personally I prefer the Fazor version. The classic has less treble. ...

I agree. The Fazor's FR is flatter / closer to neutral, though it still has the Audeze "house sound" dip around 4 kHz, it's not as big a dip as with other models, so it sounds a bit less "dead" without EQ. Also, I think the Fazor is a bit flatter through the bass & midrange.

 

[Astrozombie]

NAD are a bit warm, i'd probably recommend the M50x over them. Dt770 and Fidelio X1 are my faves.

 

[borissiomin]

I am using sony xb900N, superb bass quality in my experience. And I used XM4 for few hours, obviously xm4v better than xb900N. I am very late here but if anyone wants to sort it out then check this post- https://bestwirelessbluetoothheadphones.com/best-headphones-for-bass

 

[markanini]

AKG K371 are the best I've heard on modern house.

 

[dasdoing]

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/momentum-3-wireless

 

[Jose Hidalgo]

Wow, 2 pages, and nobody has suggested the Nighthawk Carbon yet ? Come on guys, the OP @mpscottfr wants BASS down to 20 Hz...

... without distortion :

On the "+" side :

• Impressive distortion-free bass / warm sound. It goes all the way down to 20 Hz without attenuation, beyond the limits of the human ear.
• Great 50mm drivers
• Good soundstage and exceptional imaging
• Luxurious look & feel (build, etc.), much better than most plasticky mid-fi cans (remember these were sold 700 $/€ in the beginning)
• Extremely comfortable (suspension system), you barely feel them on your head during long listening sessions
• Respond very well to EQ, just load the latest Oratory preset and they magically become neutral with no added distortion
  (some other cans you need to pump up the bass with EQ, which may increase distortion to the point where it becomes noticeable)
• Low impedance, very easy to drive to very loud levels, even a smartphone can drive them (but a headphone amp is better of course)
• 2 pairs of pads

On the "-" side :

• The 4ft stock cable (aka the garden hose) really sucks comfort-wise, but a decent replacement cable costs only about 25$/€
• Don't buy them if you don't have access to EQ and you only want one pair of cans

On the "neither + nor -" side :

• Semi-closed (not open, not closed)
• There are only a few left in France for less than 250 $/€, so you have to be quick

 

[wemist01]

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

My daily cans are Audeze LCD-XC's EQ'd with Sonarworks. Amir hated their tuning, but they are close to distortion-free, so EQ gives you whatever you want. That said, I did have a pair of Massdrop Foxtex TH-X00s which I sold to finance these and the low end extension on them was incredible- you want low end power, they had them. And once you EQ'd them to bring sparkle back to the highs, they were nearly as good as my XCs. I have to say I find the XCs more comfortable to wear, heavy as they may be. But I wouldn't mind owning another pair of the Fostex's at some point.

 

[Tokyo_John]

I disagree that one should EQ bump the bass. When we do that, we are boosting the bass on the entire mix, it is imposed on all of the tracks that went into the mix. If we EQ the entire mix, then every track is colored by that EQ. I personally don't like that effect, it sounds very crude and rough to my ears.

What I really want to do is to have bass presence only in the individual tracks that are bass-y by nature/design, while the rest are left untouched. So...a great bass headphone will dig deep in extension, yield dynamic slam/tightness, bass imaging/soundstage, etc.. But most importantly the ideal bass headphone gives clean separation of all of the tracks and gives its intrinsic bass emphasis only to those tracks in the mix that have bass-y character to begin. Tracks that have a mid or high emphasis without bass will be left alone, and the contrast that was intended by the audio engineer who produced it will remain intact.

Clean separation of tracks in a mix is a characteristic of higher end cans, so you'll have to spend a bit or find a good deal on a used pair. I have a pair of Ultrasone Edition 8 that separate tracks nicely, I can hear exactly what the studio mix was intended to do and how each track was individually flavored, listening to the music is like being served different tracks as if a chef was offering me different courses on unique platters. They also have wonderful bass character on the bass-y tracks that doesn't affect other tracks, it just remains on those tracks alone.

I hope you can try out and hear some headphones that offer this kind of clean separation, and keep bass emphasis only on the bass-y tracks alone. Only your own ears will know which are the right ones for you.

 

[solderdude]

ultrasone edition 8 frequency response (measured by Marv from SBAF, formerly Changstar):

That bassboost is what 'separates' the bass. Bassheads may love it. It will be the same on other headphones where an EQ is set similar to what the Ed 8 does.
Let's call this 'extreme Harman bass' Notice how the response above 200Hz is +/-6dB and there is a14kHz peak as well.

 

[SeaNNyT]

I have used the LCD2f and the Fostex 909s, two of the "bassier" headphones out there and I sitll think Audeze holds the best bass crown. Too bad that sucker was way too heavy for me to keep.

 

[threni]

I disagree that one should EQ bump the bass. When we do that, we are boosting the bass on the entire mix, it is imposed on all of the tracks that went into the mix. If we EQ the entire mix, then every track is colored by that EQ. I personally don't like that effect, it sounds very crude and rough to my ears.

What I really want to do is to have bass presence only in the individual tracks that are bass-y by nature/design, while the rest are left untouched. So...a great bass headphone will dig deep in extension, yield dynamic slam/tightness, bass imaging/soundstage, etc.. But most importantly the ideal bass headphone gives clean separation of all of the tracks and gives its intrinsic bass emphasis only to those tracks in the mix that have bass-y character to begin. Tracks that have a mid or high emphasis without bass will be left alone, and the contrast that was intended by the audio engineer who produced it will remain intact.

Clean separation of tracks in a mix is a characteristic of higher end cans, so you'll have to spend a bit or find a good deal on a used pair. I have a pair of Ultrasone Edition 8 that separate tracks nicely, I can hear exactly what the studio mix was intended to do and how each track was individually flavored, listening to the music is like being served different tracks as if a chef was offering me different courses on unique platters. They also have wonderful bass character on the bass-y tracks that doesn't affect other tracks, it just remains on those tracks alone.

I hope you can try out and hear some headphones that offer this kind of clean separation, and keep bass emphasis only on the bass-y tracks alone. Only your own ears will know which are the right ones for you.

This doesn't make any sense. With a CD there are only two "tracks" - left and right.

The tracks as they existed on the disk/tape during recording and production eventually get reduced to two channels and at that point there's no way of knowing whether it was a live take recorded in stereo, or using 4 tracks (bass & drums, guitar & vocals, keyboards, percussion), or any other combination.

Of course, given the scenario where effects have been applied per instrument or per track it might well be possible to hear that - for example - no reverb was applied to the track used for keyboards. But that would sound the same as if all instruments were recorded together and reverb applied purely to the keyboards.

So there's simply no way for the headphones to "gives clean separation of all of the tracks" and keep the keyboards separate from the other tracks due to the fact that they were recorded on their own track. The keyboards will be located somewhere on the soundstage regardless.

If you boost the bass it's going to (ideally, if implemented well) just boost a given range of frequencies and have little or no effect on the higher ones, so it should have little or no effect on a human voice, for example, or a cymbal or violin.

 

[Tokyo_John]

This doesn't make any sense.

It makes perfect sense to me, it is how I mix audio, with the intent to make tracks separable and distinct.

With a CD there are only two "tracks" - left and right.

Yep, and before the stereo production tracks are made, there are often very many tracks, each one can be adjusted individually. This is the true art of audio engineering.

The tracks as they existed on the disk/tape during recording and production eventually get reduced to two channels and at that point there's no way of knowing whether it was a live take recorded in stereo, or using 4 tracks (bass & drums, guitar & vocals, keyboards, percussion), or any other combination.

This isn't true, and if it were I think it would defeat the point of hi-fi (at least for me). Being able to hear exactly how the tracks were put together, eadh one sculpted carefully, and then introduced into the mix as part of a broader composition, to me this is essential. The degree of freedom one has in a studio mix is enormous in comparison to a live recording, and can readily be distinguished (unless it is mixed in a way that tries to blend the imaging and sound more "live" than manicured).

Of course, given the scenario where effects have been applied per instrument or per track it might well be possible to hear that - for example - no reverb was applied to the track used for keyboards. But that would sound the same as if all instruments were recorded together and reverb applied purely to the keyboards.

So there's simply no way for the headphones to "gives clean separation of all of the tracks" and keep the keyboards separate from the other tracks due to the fact that they were recorded on their own track. The keyboards will be located somewhere on the soundstage regardless.

I don't think you understand how music is produced. In a studio mix the specific stereo imaging of each track and the soundstage are all added by the engineer. It is an essential part of the artistic rendering.

If you boost the bass it's going to (ideally, if implemented well) just boost a given range of frequencies and have little or no effect on the higher ones, so it should have little or no effect on a human voice, for example, or a cymbal or violin.

A lot depends on the tracks, and how much overlap they have in frequency space. If there is no overlap in the bass end and the EQ is extremly high quality, then what you say is true. But for many kinds of instruments and real life cases, the first condition is not satisfied.

 

[Maki]

I disagree that one should EQ bump the bass. When we do that, we are boosting the bass on the entire mix, it is imposed on all of the tracks that went into the mix. If we EQ the entire mix, then every track is colored by that EQ. I personally don't like that effect, it sounds very crude and rough to my ears.

What I really want to do is to have bass presence only in the individual tracks that are bass-y by nature/design, while the rest are left untouched. So...a great bass headphone will dig deep in extension, yield dynamic slam/tightness, bass imaging/soundstage, etc.. But most importantly the ideal bass headphone gives clean separation of all of the tracks and gives its intrinsic bass emphasis only to those tracks in the mix that have bass-y character to begin. Tracks that have a mid or high emphasis without bass will be left alone, and the contrast that was intended by the audio engineer who produced it will remain intact.

Clean separation of tracks in a mix is a characteristic of higher end cans, so you'll have to spend a bit or find a good deal on a used pair. I have a pair of Ultrasone Edition 8 that separate tracks nicely, I can hear exactly what the studio mix was intended to do and how each track was individually flavored, listening to the music is like being served different tracks as if a chef was offering me different courses on unique platters. They also have wonderful bass character on the bass-y tracks that doesn't affect other tracks, it just remains on those tracks alone.

I hope you can try out and hear some headphones that offer this kind of clean separation, and keep bass emphasis only on the bass-y tracks alone. Only your own ears will know which are the right ones for you.

The headphones' frequency response - if it has boosted bass - produces the exact same effect at the ear as EQ. There is no possible way for a headphone to separate tracks - it's all a single analog waveform that the transducer receives. The headphone imposes its frequency response on the whole mix, just like EQ does. If a headphone boosts a region, that entire region is boosted on all tracks in every recording. With that in mind, if you use a good PEQ like EQ APO or PulseEffects, you can target a much more specific region of bass or sub-bass to boost so that you minimize the effect on other parts of the mix.

 

[Tokyo_John]

The headphones' frequency response - if it has boosted bass - produces the exact same effect at the ear as EQ. There is no possible way for a headphone to separate tracks - it's all a single analog waveform that the transducer receives. The headphone imposes its frequency response on the whole mix, just like EQ does. If a headphone boosts a region, that entire region is boosted on all tracks in every recording. With that in mind, if you use a good PEQ like EQ APO or PulseEffects, you can target a much more specific region of bass or sub-bass to boost so that you minimize the effect on other parts of the mix.

This is a very one-dimensional view of the situation (i.e., frequency), the reality has many more degrees of freedom.

In any case, I have no desire to debate this...instead, I highly recommend everyone learns more of the art behind studio mixing. You're missing out.

 

[Maki]

This is a very one-dimensional view of the situation (i.e., frequency), the reality has many more degrees of freedom.

It's a one dimensional problem. No need to invent degrees of freedom when a good solution exists in EQ provided you take into account non-FR related issues like distortion for your headphones.