Cans that favor bass

[kurth83]

Bought a new set of cans recently, they are a bit bass heavy, super-well defined low-end too, really handy for listening to bass lines on recordings.

This is my first blue-tooth set of cans, with mic and noise cancellation. Bought them for conference calls while working from home during lockdown. Wanted the noise cancellation for my very loud air-conditioner since summer is coming.

Last friday/saturday for fun I streamed a local radio station, and wow, wish I had done this a long time ago. The dead silence of the NC with crystal clear music being piped in was wonderful, I haven't heard music like this in years (my place is louder than I realized, always have air filters running, never realized how much of an issue that is).

They just happen to be Sony WH1000XM3's. They aren't studio quality or anything, more consumer oriented since the response isn't flat, but they are on the higher-end sound-quality-wise, and wireless is very freeing.

I found their response curve online, so with my 15/30 band GEQ (EqualizerAPO - a very nice download for windows) I can set them to flat response, which I did, and immediately regretted. Then I fattened them back up a bit, but not as much as they came from the factory.

They can best be described as having a shelving EQ boost at 250 HZ of 5 db, then an additional 3db at around 40 hz. The 40 HZ one drove me crazy, too much of a good thing, but I kept most of the 250hz and down boost (~4db), with a sizable cut below 40hz.

Now I am enjoying primo sound that I can wander around the house with music going.

Wondering if any of you guys tend to favor cans with some extra bass response and clarity down-low.

 

[BrianVengeance]

There's a pretty big difference between gaming, studio, audiophile, and more "work related" cans. Each one is designed with a different set of objectives in mind, so the qualities of one may make them less suitable for a different application.

For work, I've got a pair of Bose QC-35 II that have really good noise cancellation, work well for calls, and decent enough audio (I've gotten used to how they sound). Fairly decent bass response.

When I game, I use Sennheiser Game Ones - they are open backed, comfortable, have a really good boom mic, and have pretty solid bass response.

Lately for tracking and mixing, I've been favoring AKG K240s, but I wouldn't exactly call them bass heavy. Very accurate though.

For "audiophile" (and some recording related work) I'll gravitate towards my Beyerdynamic 880s or 990s. These are probably closest to what you're after, but there are also a ton of audiophile grade headphones to choose from. Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Grado, Sony, Klipsch, Shure, and countless others make really good gear. I'm eyeballing a pair of Sennheiser HD600s myself.

A set of closed back headphones can also do wonders for enhancing bass response, as well as a good headphone preamp.

 

[RyanKinBK]

+1 on the Beyer 880, 990, or even 770 as being really good cans for hearing bass instruments.

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

As said Beyer or Sony are nice studio headphones for bass. AKG are often bass shy although, I too like the K240s.

I only use studio cans personally, what people to listen music is not flat enough and tend to have mushy lows.

 

[DirkP]

As said Beyer or Sony are nice studio headphones for bass. AKG are often bass shy although, I too like the K240s.

I only use studio cans personally, what people to listen music is not flat enough and tend to have mushy lows.

One of my favourite cans - besides Sennheiser HD650 and AKG 701 - are the AKG Tiesto DJ cans. They were very expensive, but a bit less so on Massdrop. They have 3 different settings: studio, club and stage (yeah, a bit funny for the customers). Club has more bass than studio, and stage more than club. I like that. They didn't use an EQ for this, it is a mechanical change. Beyerdynamic offers something similar on some of their headphones. And both sides have mini-xlr connectors. Very handsome. These are my favourite closed cans. Not build anymore, I guess they were too expensive.