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What headphone(s) do you own ?
- Thread starter solderdude
- Start date
Saffuria
Member
OP
solderdude
Grand Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #264
Looks like trickery... the plot is 'corrected' for amplitude loss to better show tonal balance changes. 
Actual effect of the filter:
Actual effect of the filter:
Last edited:
Saffuria
Member
thanks.... , got it !
.... , got it ! 
Sgt. Ear Ache
Major Contributor
Hifiman HE-400i
Takstar Pro 82
AKG K240
Takstar Pro 82
AKG K240
Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7
Still have a love-hate relationship with these. Hate the unbearably creaky plastic and the midrange harshness that becomes too much with some tracks. Love their airy, clean and effortless sound that doesn't sacrifice bass quality as well. Constantly oscillating between considering to get rid of them and falling back in love with everything they do.
Audio-Technica ATH-M40x
These are the headphones that I use at work. They feel somewhat muddy to me, perhaps due to the upper-bass hump or bass distortion. Still pretty dynamic and natural sounding, especially at higher volumes. Probably shouldn't have skimped on money and bought M50x instead.
Audio-Technica ATH-A1000Z
Bought them almost on impulse when I was in Japan. To my dismay, after some time I've spent with them I still can't hear a single thing they would do better than MSR7. The mids sound congested, the bass is not nuanced, the treble is "grainy", the soundstage is non-existent, and there's some peak in the upper mids that makes vocals really fatiguing to me. They're also very sensitive to how they seal on your head, so glasses are a no-no unless you want the bass to get completely ruined. The only thing I thought was good about them was their solid build (they certainly don't feel cheap like MSR7 do), but after a couple of months one of the cups became loose due to threadlocker on the screw failing to do its job, so the only apparent upside went out the window. There's some hope that they'll blossom with a better amp, but I doubt that FiiO E10K that I'm currently using is that bad at driving them.
The favorite one? Obviously, MSR7 for now, but I'm on the lookout for something that will finally make me feel satisfied with what I hear.
Still have a love-hate relationship with these. Hate the unbearably creaky plastic and the midrange harshness that becomes too much with some tracks. Love their airy, clean and effortless sound that doesn't sacrifice bass quality as well. Constantly oscillating between considering to get rid of them and falling back in love with everything they do.
Audio-Technica ATH-M40x
These are the headphones that I use at work. They feel somewhat muddy to me, perhaps due to the upper-bass hump or bass distortion. Still pretty dynamic and natural sounding, especially at higher volumes. Probably shouldn't have skimped on money and bought M50x instead.
Audio-Technica ATH-A1000Z
Bought them almost on impulse when I was in Japan. To my dismay, after some time I've spent with them I still can't hear a single thing they would do better than MSR7. The mids sound congested, the bass is not nuanced, the treble is "grainy", the soundstage is non-existent, and there's some peak in the upper mids that makes vocals really fatiguing to me. They're also very sensitive to how they seal on your head, so glasses are a no-no unless you want the bass to get completely ruined. The only thing I thought was good about them was their solid build (they certainly don't feel cheap like MSR7 do), but after a couple of months one of the cups became loose due to threadlocker on the screw failing to do its job, so the only apparent upside went out the window. There's some hope that they'll blossom with a better amp, but I doubt that FiiO E10K that I'm currently using is that bad at driving them.
The favorite one? Obviously, MSR7 for now, but I'm on the lookout for something that will finally make me feel satisfied with what I hear.
Try a parametric equalizer.
Headphones in my current collection:
Sennheiser HD 569
NAD VISO HP50
Audioquest Nighthawk
ZMF Eikon
Sennheiser HD 700
Massdrop X Sennheiser HD 6XX
Sennheiser HD 598
Massdrop X HiFiMan HE4XX
Massdrop X AKG K7XX
Boy, these things really pile up over the years!
Sennheiser HD 569
NAD VISO HP50
Audioquest Nighthawk
ZMF Eikon
Sennheiser HD 700
Massdrop X Sennheiser HD 6XX
Sennheiser HD 598
Massdrop X HiFiMan HE4XX
Massdrop X AKG K7XX
Boy, these things really pile up over the years!
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Thanks. Just installed Equalizer APO and discovered that the most offending region on MSR7 was in fact not in the mids, but at around 10k. Dialing it down by 4.5 db made them sound a lot smoother. Guess I'll keep them for now.
It feels embarrassing now that I never even tried this option before. I think I've been avoiding any realtime sound processing utilities for some possibly superstitious reasons that they may degrade sound or something.
thomasjast
Active Member
Current lineup:
Sennheiser HD 58X
Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT
Sony MDR-7506
Grado SR80i
Apple AirPods
Apple EarPods
Sennheiser HD 58X
Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT
Sony MDR-7506
Grado SR80i
Apple AirPods
Apple EarPods
Quick update. Just discovered that the "Graphic EQ" module did add some kind of rattling in the subbass. Granted, I noticed it while listening to pure sine waves and not actual music, but now I know that my fears weren't entirely unfounded and it may actually cause some unwanted noise to appear. Replacing the Graphic EQ with a couple of Peaking Filters seems to have fixed it though.
thomasjast
Active Member
I assume you mean K7XX?
How do you find them? I can’t dodge the feeling that I need to try them, but it’s a lot of money to get them in Canada.
Nango
Major Contributor
They are cheap in Europe, Amazon.de listed at US-$130-140, plus shipping lets say US-$40-50 that is around half the price in the U.S.
Yeah, I know about this. I made sure it didn't exceed 0 db and even tried to apply -3 db more preamplification but it didn't help.
It doesn't even sound like distortion to me (or it may be some other kind of distortion I don't know of). It's more like subtle "sparkling" that doesn't seem to correlate directly with the frequency of the signal (but does get modulated somewhat). It can be clearly heard e.g. with <40 Hz or >15 kHz sine waves but disappears in some other ranges.
