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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 24th, 2023

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  • When it comes to bass alone then the older models are better because the bass impact/slam is stronger. On the technical side the newer models might be better but as always that’s also subjective.

    I’m sure there are a lot of reviews if you are searching for them.

    Personally I try to demo every headphone I’m interested in because a review from someone is also just a subjective opinion from someone and can be different to my own impression of a headphone.





  • Skullcandy Crusher xD

    The only thing that headphone is doing right is the bass but everything else is just bad with this headphone.

    Meze 99 Classic/Neo/Noir has a lot of bass but is very warm and sounds soulless…

    Fostex TH 900 MK2 sounds really good but is of course really expensive…

    Then there is maybe the E-Mu Teaks which are okay for their price if you are listening mostly to EDM and Hip Hop.

    The older Denon row like AH-D2000/5000/7000 have a really strong bass but as you have already mentioned are discontinued so you would have to get like 10-12 year old headphones from classifieds.

    I found the bass from the Focal Elex impressive although it’s an open back headphone and some of the ZMF headphones like the Atticus are also great.




  • That’s what I personally dislike about this hobby even though you are absolutely right but I am finding myself in this position since the beginning of this year… Need a new headphone because my old one is falling apart after 13 years of usage and thought: “Well I will just read a few reviews and try to get some recommendations and the ones that are in majority will be the ones that I am going to buy.”

    Turned out that this is a really bad idea. You have to demo a lot of headphones in order to understand what you really prefer and this becomes a challenge if you don’t have a good hifi store in your location. I don’t have the option to test good brands so I tried to learn how to read frequency responses in order to narrow some options for me down but then there are so many contradictive opinions you can read about on the internet that you are slowly losing your mind because you are starting to despair.

    It’s really horrible.




  • One thing beforehand: Others will tell you that your brain needs some time to adjust to the new sound from a new headphone. I could never understand this statement because it is simply not true. The moment you are listening to a new headphone (be it on a hifi store or from a friend) you will notice immediately the difference to your old headphones. These differences will not magically fly away the longer you are listening to the new headphone.

    What you are experiencing is that you simply don’t like the sound signature of the Sennheisers. They are flat, neutral and very analtical headphones with very little sub-bass. If you don’t like that it means you prefer something that is more straight forward like an Audio Technica headphone for example. I also like this kind of sound signature way more and think that flat and neutral headphones sound boring if you’re listening to things like metal and rock. So what you can do is to search for headphones that are v-shaped and have maybe a slight emphasize on the treble and midrange. Beyerdynamics might be too harsh but their midrange is also a bit recessed and muffled, sounds very strange.


  • The next bigger stores here in my area are a few kilometers away but they are only selling stuff from JBL, Bose (bluetooth only), Sony (bluetooth only), Beats and a lot of noname stuff that the mainstream seems to prioritize. A few Sennheisers and AKG’s are there as well but that’s about it.

    No Focal, no Denon, no Fostex, even no Audio Technica’s except one model that is really bright (the MSR7b), no Beyerdynamics (I had to drive a little longer to find a store where I was able to test them and I didn’t liked them), no Hifiman, no Audeze, no Meze… Nothing.

    There are a few other smaller stores but they mainly only have speakers and amplifiers from Denon or Marantz for example.

    I wish I could demo the Denon AH-D5200 because I’m interested in them. They could fit my tastes but I’ve read some contradictory things about their midrange. Some say it’s a bit distant and others say they are not. Some say it’s about the amp some say you don’t need one. This can be frustrating at some times.