Have people found over time that their tastes/preferences change regarding headphone listening? I had a strange experience the other day, and am at a loss to work out why.
Pulled out the HD 650 to listen to Tchaikovsky Nutcracker (Mercury Living Presence remastered). It just didn’t sound right. Tried with and without EQ. Didn’t help. It’s hard to explain what was wrong, but it sounded a bit depressed in the presence region. I’ve been noticing this more often with a lot of dynamic headphones and symphonic music. Rock/Blues music on the other hand does not seem to suffer this issue.
Switched to the Abyss Diana V2 with the most recent version of the ear pads, and voila, the sound was suddenly more like I would expect it to be. The orchestra now sounded much closer to what one would expect. Went back and forth a couple of times to confirm the results.
Was wondering if others have experienced a similar experience, where a headphone you liked becomes less enjoyed over time with one or more genres?
The DAC/AMP combination used was the Topping DX9 Discrete.
I have been seriously into headphones and audio for more than 10 years now. And tastes are still pretty much the same as they were in the beginning.
My hearing is probably getting worse though. And as some people age, they also begin to experience the “cocktail party effect”. Floyd Toole talks about that a bit in his books and articles.
Ear burn-in also real imo. You listen to a headphone for awhile, and your ears adjust and adapt to its idiosyncrasies. And then after awhile you listen to something else, it sounds off because it lacks the idiosyncrasies of your daily or more used drivers.
There could be changes in the sound of the headphones over time as well. The HD650 will probably get a bit darker sounding as the pads wear in, for example. And maybe some new pads would bring some of the treble back.
The volume you listen at can also affect your perception of tonal/timbral balance.
I use the same headphones and tunings for all the music and genres I listen to btw.
Some good points made. I do think the brain does adjust to what one is listening to over time.
My experience is that with some headphones, the measurements posted don’t match up with what I hear when listening. This is definitely the case with the Abyss Diana line of headphones. I have also noticed that my preferences over time have shifted towards planar magnetic headphones over dynamic versions. The thing with planar headphones is that they require more power (current) to drive them for optimum performance. After changing out headphone amps to get more power, the planar headphones on hand sounded a lot better. Since then, have been noticing that the planar headphones DO have a different sound to dynamic headphones. It’s more noticeable with acoustic music than amplified music.
And then there is recording “quality”, I use quotes as some of my perceived poor quality may be by design.
I listen on Planar Dynamics, Arya and more recently (3 weeks) He1000SE driven by a Naim Uniti Atom HE so no shortage of power. Also its all I have listened on , but I do agree with “ear burn in”
On Friday I listened the new Stones album, I got 3 tracks in before I gave up, it was raw distorted in the hi frequencies, this being a new record by a band who wouldn’t need to skimp on studio costs can only believe it’s deliberate. Similarly I listened Annie Lennox - Diva with the same effect.
It’s not the kit , I have listened to literally 10’s of albums since I got them , many quite old 1970 DG Piano recordings . All are demo quality thro this pairing.
I do find orchestral music can demonstrate almost distortion in the high strings BUT not all. Am I alone ?
Went and changed out the ear pads on the HD 650 back to the stock version. Tried the Nutcracker again with a different DAC/AMP setup (Canever ZeroUno/GR Reserch OTL headphone amp). Sounded more like one would expect the HD 650 to sound. Quite enjoyable.
I guess I’ll stick to the tube headphone amp when listening to the Sennheiser HD 600/650, along with the Grell OAE2/1. The planar cans will stick with the high powered SS setup.
