Headphone upgrade/change

[zuglufttier 0]

Hi everybody!

 

Quite a long time has passed since I posted here... Well, I was playing around a little bit with loudspeakers and almost found my peace with horn speakers, namely a Fostex 103e in the recommended horn. Sounds really very very good. If you build it on your own, it might cost you about 150 Euro. Simply the best speaker I ever heard. Currently I was thinking of upgrading to the Jericho horn also with Fostex drivers.

But here comes my problem Actually my ears seem to be the problem. I never ever get precise imaging from loudspeakers

The middle is always a little bit on the right side. And this get really annoying if you listen for longer periods. It's alright for about 10 minutes but then the center starts to shift somehow. And all the good sides of a conventional speaker are gone and I must stop listening. Oh well, the better the speaker, the less the effect. I tried playing around with speaker positioning and also using the balance. Nothing helped, so I put on my trusty Sennheiser HD 600 again and everything is fine

But even these Sennheisers do have their problem at least with me... My head starts to hurt after a while. Maybe they are too tight on my head. I didn't notice this within the first few month. But well, these are my problems.

 

My first questions is: Is there any way to make the Sennheisers clamp my head less tight? I heard that you just should put some thick books between the headphones and leave it like that for some time. But won't this wear out the headphone?

 

Second question (if question number one cannot be answered in any nice way ) : Is there another headphone around that has a sound quality that is comparable to the HD 600 and within the range of 200 - 250 Euro? Of course that one must be very kind to my head from the beginning on I could live with a change in sound. I like the dry and rather bright sound of the horns. They have a very good and dry bass. If you know what I mean... The HD 600 are rather on the warm side.

 

Well, I hope someone can help me

Edited December 23, 2004 by zuglufttier

[N@Z 0]

I can't answer you 1st question as I've never tried.

 

By dry do you mean lean?

 

I can only think of the AKG K501 which has that superb comfort eventhough it doesn't look like it. It's not dry sounding (airy like the HD600) though but it doesn't sound warm to me. If it's still within your budget the Beyer DT880 might fit your bill too. Great comfort & not warm sounding either.

[Mackie 0]

If Beyer DT931 is still available, it might be your cup of tea. Please note this model is no longer in production but since U live in Germany, I'm sure U have better luck in getting hold of a pair than us in the East. DT880 is also a likely candidate.

 

In fact, Beyer pro headsets (eg DT150 - close design) tend to sound dry (devoid of warmth and bloom in all parts of the spectrum) to those users who are more accustomed to audiophile headphones. But since comfort is an issue, I recommend DT931 and 880.

 

There are many factors contributing to the shift in center imaging of your speakers. In your case, my guess is U have heavier/more furnishing on the left which absorbs more of the sound energy from your speakers.

 

If this is not true, the other would be speakers positioning and also your sweet spot. Ensure your seat is at equal distance from the left and right speakers and try to attain an equilateral triangle. Toe in your speakers to intersect at a spot about 1 feet in front of your seat. Play a mono track and listen. U should have a strong center image within very tight area.

 

Unless your room is symmetrical, ie. space/furnishing on the left and right of your speakers are similar, U should move one speaker outward at a time eg. shift right speaker to its right. Listen again and your objective is to ensure the center image stays but center spot expands slightly to the right. Stop toeing out your right speaker when U think the right-center image is too wide. Do the same for the left speaker but not necessary to the same angle as the right unless your room is completely symmetrical. Try to attain a similar center-left area to that of center-right. The final outcome should be a strong center image with a slight expansion to the right and left (usually less or about the width of your hifi rack on stereo playback). This will give U a rough balance of soundstage and imaging. Their relationship is such that a stronger center image spot usually results in narrower soundstage eg. speakers toe in to 1 foot in front of sweet spot. By toeing out your speakers from this spot, U can achieve a balance between imaging and soundstaging.

 

From my experience, if your speakers and seat form an equilateral triangle, toe in the drivers to intersect about 2 feet behind your seat to achieve this balance. If U are able to get hold of Sheffield Labs-XLO Burn in disc, buy it. It has a track (amongst others for different purposes) that is recorded out of phase. The point is to toe in your speaker to the angle when the center image begins to disappear and the sound seems to come from all over the room. Once this is done, U would have achieved an optimal balance between soundstaging and imaging.

 

If your center image still shifts to the right while listening to a mono track (use vocals) on headphones, try this first........... dig your ears or visit the doc to have them flushed. No kidding.

[Firefox 0]

Just place some books between the 2 ear-cups of the HD600. That will stretch the headband a little. The HD-600's are more comfortable for people with chubbier heads. At least that's what I notice. Alternatively, you can use a computer casing instead to stretch the headband a little.

 

I believe what you meant by a dryer sound is that the sound is less mushy and more clinical/ sterile. In that case, you can try the HD-590 if you wish to stick with Sennheiser. If your headamp is fairly dynamic and neutral, you'll get a more impactful bass response which isn't muddy sounding.

[zuglufttier 0]

Thanks at first for the answers. With the word dry I meant a rather "live" experience of the music. In my opinion the Sennheiser does make the music sound a little, err, nicer I mean my horns sound more natural for me while the Sennheiser tends to soften the sound. I cannot say what I really prefer. I have about 200 CDs and they range from Punk to Metal to County to Blues to electronic stuff and many more styles. In so far it might be the best way to stick to a headphone like the HD 600 that makes every music sound good. Surely they are not the best for rock or punk but they are surely lovely when it comes to some electronic stuff.

 

Btw, I solved the problem with my ears, well, at least I know what's going on. My family seems to have problems with their ears

My mother does hear louder on her right ear and so does one of my brothers. I guess it's a thing that cannot really be helped

Speaker positioning, toeing in and all was done by me. I read quite a lot about positioning because only then you get the most out of your loudspeakers. I noticed big differences and have a great sound. At least that's what my friends say

[Rameish 0]

Move the right speaker futher back a little (as compared to the left. Depending on which frequencies you are hearing louder, speaker grill cloth might help as well (it's look weired though but then hey you're listening to music not looking at speakers.

 

The most precise option is to get yourself checked by an ENT (ear nose and throat) specialist and accertain the difference between your 2 ears.

Then get some CD Attentuated Interconnects from russandrews.co.uk (ask for sightly more attentuation on the right interconnects).

 

 

[zuglufttier 0]

Hmm, this seems to be a rather good solution. I might try using my soundcard and see how much dB difference there is.

 

Btw. I put some books between my HD 600 and yesterday I could wear them for 3 or more hours and sometimes they disappeared completely from my head again

 

Does anybody know why I don't notice a difference in loudness while wearing headphones? I think that the difference should be even greater then. Maybe it has something to do with the shape of the ear??