need help choosing new headphones for sansa clip+

[JK98]

Apparantly there is a new version of the ATH-M50 which is a studio monitor, and has less bass than the original. I read this on head-fi. Some might be happy about this, while others will be unhappy about it. The older version of the ATH-M50 might become hard to find unless they reintroduce it.

[CrowdAds]

[Limp]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

I had the Shure SRH840 along side my ATH-M50's and I thought they Shure's sounded off. I didn't like one aspect of their sound signature, it was boring and seemed to be veiled across the entire frequency range. And they were less comfortable than the KRK or the ATH-M50's.

That doesn't sound unreasonable at all.
One persons 'sparkle' can be another persons 'glare', but I suspect you'd find the HD280 even more veiled and boring.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by JK98

Apparantly there is a new version of the ATH-M50 which is a studio monitor, and has less bass than the original. I read this on head-fi. Some might be happy about this, while others will be unhappy about it. The older version of the ATH-M50 might become hard to find unless they reintroduce it.

Do you have a link? Especially since my ATH-Pro700MK2's are supposed to be the update from the ATH-M50's. And yeah, I know about the ATH-Pro700's as well,...

[JK98]

I seem to recall some referring to the newer ATH-M50 as white box, and the older one as black box. They should have given the new version a completely new name to avoid confusion. I guess the new version is meant to compete against the Sony 7509 and the Sennheiser HD380 pro for those who want a neutral refrence monitor. Those are all around $150. I guess some seek out the extra bass of the old one, while some want a reference monitor.

[Marvin the Martian]

On Amazon they have listed an ATH-M50, and an ATH-M50s....whether there is a difference or not, I don't know.

[cnhardwick]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

On Amazon they have listed an ATH-M50, and an ATH-M50s....whether there is a difference or not, I don't know.

ATH-M50s has a straight cable. ATH-M50 has a coiled cable.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by cnhardwick

ATH-M50s has a straight cable. ATH-M50 has a coiled cable.

What he said,...

[avk_dh]

ended up buying the KRK KNS 6400 (found them quite cheap and with "fast" delivery to Chile). Decided to spend not so much util I've tried a least a few more headphones and experienced different sound signatures.

Now for the horrible "track mail order every hour" weeks :P

[IDvsEGO]

that is a good way to approach this hobby. let us know what you think of them.

[avk_dh]

Originally Posted by IDvsEGO

that is a good way to approach this hobby. let us know what you think of them.

I will as soon as i get them (actually, as soon as I hear them :P).

Yesterday mi sansa clip+ arrived, I'm happily surprised with the SQ even with the stock earphones :S (my mp3 player used to be a 20 bucks LG cellphone). also, is even smaller than what I had imagined. The krk's should arrived this week, can't wait to try them on the clip+.

[avk_dh]

ok, so the krk's arrived yesterday , very happy with them, the sound is very detailed, I actually stayed up very late listening to all my favorite music (i was just amazed listening to all the detail the I was missing before), it's quite shocking the amount sound that is simply lost on regular speakers or earphones.

About the sound signature of the headphones, i find the bass to be very detailed (I can actually hear the bass guitar string making a sound and not just a bassy tone) and not aggressive. Mids sound very natural, things like acoustic guitars or acoustic instruments in general sound very realistic. treble is also very detailed but has somewhat to much presence (too forward i think is the correct word for this?) which makes it sound not so natural.

Overall very happy with the sound, also they are very comfortable and the noise isolation is quite fine, used them today on my way to work and I could hear my music perfectly fine while walking on the sidewalk of a heavy traffic street.

on a side note, I know that this might be a controversial topic, but the first songs I heard sounded like crap XD, almost no bass and the treble was extremely unnatural and actually painful to hear :S (I had to turn the volume up to hear the mids and bass of a song, which made the treble piercingly loud), I don't really care if my head and hearing got used to it or if something actually changed on the phones, but after an hour or so the phones sounded completely different to me, and it seems they have gotten better the more I use them.

[IDvsEGO]

burn in? ban him

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by avk_dh

... after an hour or so the phones sounded completely different to me, and it seems they have gotten better the more I use them.

Originally Posted by IDvsEGO

burn in? ban him

Whether you believe in headphone burn in or not, I doubt drivers will flex enough in an hour. Most that claim to believe say at minimum 50 hours is needed. Chances are it is more likely that you became accustom to the sound signature in such a short period.

[skip252]

I'd guess that any one that has listened in more than one set of headphones has noticed the sound changes some in the first few hours. How much is due to physical changes, burn-in, and wrapping your head around the differences, brain-in, is where a big part of the controversy come in it seems. The claims of huge differences that come with hundreds of hours don't make much sense to me either.

I'd just keep doing what you're doing now. I'd stay away from any of the brown noise, pink noise, frequency sweeps and other exotic burn-in routines you may have read about. Listen to them and enjoy any changes you might hear. To me that's one of the most fun parts of getting a new set of headphones.

[IDvsEGO]

I believe in brain-in for sure. I have readenough articles about surround sound configurations and your brains perception of sound to know it is a huge part of your listening experience. I also believe that detail oriented cans reveal things we never heard before ...and they aren't always good. eventually we become accepting of these flaws.

[avk_dh]

Guys, I still find the headphones are a little fatiguing, too much brightness I think. Is it just me or other owners of this phones have found the same? Is there a way to make the phones less fatiguing to hear through equalization?

[JK98]

Let the headphones play overnight at a slightly higher than normal volume. Perhaps tomorrow they will be better. Give them an overnight workout for around a week.
Using the equilizer on your player to lower the treble might help.