Post by Rabbit on Sept 18, 2016 6:43:48 GMT
It's very easy to assume that the brightness could be that peak when in fact it's too high for what I hear. You are right, plant some heft in and it sounds way fuller,
It was the roll off, I think that made me feel it was heavily skewed to the top, Going to the V6 showed that the top in fact isn't emphasised anything like as much, but the bass on the V6 is blooming by comparison. It's just that bottom end that seems a bit mean.
Having said that, when you get a good recording, the bottom end seems to be excellent. In fact it's a really clear and clean bass with no 'hang over.' Maybe with the very bottom missing, that's what you get, but it gives a very different impression of the timbre with say, bass boost on or off. It's quite weird how altering one end of the spectrum can totally change your overall impression of the headphone.
The mids almost seem in your face. If a guitar for instance plays a 'crunch' chord with a pedal to compress or distort it, it seems to jump out at you in recordings quite dramatically. Listening to Led Zep remixes from 70s, showed Jon Bonham's squeaky bass pedal with ease but also, on some of the mixes, there is some very quiet speech before songs start, mixed in with sounds. I could almost hear what everyone was saying. If I had turned up, I would have been able to. I think the mids are one of the best things about this headphone.
The overall sound sometimes feels 'held' in. Almost compressed into a concentrated ball of sound. A bit like everything is too close in the middle and so gets mixed together. Yet, left/right pinpointing is very precise. On one track I listened to, there was an aeroplane flying over. I could hear it behind me and above clearly. It then went over my head and ended up in front. How that happens on a headphone, I have no idea!!
It's brilliant for folk music. Voices and acoustic music sound really natural. With orchestral, brass can rasp, but timps don't particularly rumble. (I'll listen to some more recordings though since orchestral can be extremely variable in depth and timbre) strings sound pretty good as long as you don't play too loud. Treble sounds start to dominate too much at high volume and it almost sounds like an electrical reproduction rather than natural. It goes 'hard'.
So it does a lot of things really well and now, I'm in two minds about the bass. I can hear very plainly now, that many headphones that I have give quite a big heft in the mid bass but not lower bass. The mid bass on the MSR7 is there ok but nothing like the bossy that so many headohones have, it's missing the deepest octaves, which is what I first felt uncomfortable with. That, and then a recording that is mixed badly can give you a very nasty listening experience where the same recording has the headphone sound planted all over it on others, so you don't notice so much. The mdr1a has this big fat sound (without tape) that is plastered over everything that it plays. That stops anything edgy on the recording being noticed. The MSR7 plays it in your face!!
So it's mixed for me. Things I really like a lot but sometimes miss the bass or would like the top a bit smoother. Depends very much on the recording. Speech is absolutely excellent.
One thing it really does well, is reveal detail and exactly what's happening in recordings. You can easily split your focus on different sounds in complicated mixes and follow them easily. Play it again and you can equally follow another line. I tried some Rite of Spring by Stravinsky and I could literally follow any instrument I chose when the texture was so thick that on some headphones, you get an overall impression of sounds blending. There are bits where polytonality, polyphony and all kinds of things happen at the same time, which are very noticeable when you play it, but don't get so easily revealed on recordings. The MSR7 gets in there so it is doing its job well, as long as you can adapt to its timbre.
[ this review is about a fake ATH-MSR7 as it turned out so keep this in mind]
It was the roll off, I think that made me feel it was heavily skewed to the top, Going to the V6 showed that the top in fact isn't emphasised anything like as much, but the bass on the V6 is blooming by comparison. It's just that bottom end that seems a bit mean.
Having said that, when you get a good recording, the bottom end seems to be excellent. In fact it's a really clear and clean bass with no 'hang over.' Maybe with the very bottom missing, that's what you get, but it gives a very different impression of the timbre with say, bass boost on or off. It's quite weird how altering one end of the spectrum can totally change your overall impression of the headphone.
The mids almost seem in your face. If a guitar for instance plays a 'crunch' chord with a pedal to compress or distort it, it seems to jump out at you in recordings quite dramatically. Listening to Led Zep remixes from 70s, showed Jon Bonham's squeaky bass pedal with ease but also, on some of the mixes, there is some very quiet speech before songs start, mixed in with sounds. I could almost hear what everyone was saying. If I had turned up, I would have been able to. I think the mids are one of the best things about this headphone.
The overall sound sometimes feels 'held' in. Almost compressed into a concentrated ball of sound. A bit like everything is too close in the middle and so gets mixed together. Yet, left/right pinpointing is very precise. On one track I listened to, there was an aeroplane flying over. I could hear it behind me and above clearly. It then went over my head and ended up in front. How that happens on a headphone, I have no idea!!
It's brilliant for folk music. Voices and acoustic music sound really natural. With orchestral, brass can rasp, but timps don't particularly rumble. (I'll listen to some more recordings though since orchestral can be extremely variable in depth and timbre) strings sound pretty good as long as you don't play too loud. Treble sounds start to dominate too much at high volume and it almost sounds like an electrical reproduction rather than natural. It goes 'hard'.
So it does a lot of things really well and now, I'm in two minds about the bass. I can hear very plainly now, that many headphones that I have give quite a big heft in the mid bass but not lower bass. The mid bass on the MSR7 is there ok but nothing like the bossy that so many headohones have, it's missing the deepest octaves, which is what I first felt uncomfortable with. That, and then a recording that is mixed badly can give you a very nasty listening experience where the same recording has the headphone sound planted all over it on others, so you don't notice so much. The mdr1a has this big fat sound (without tape) that is plastered over everything that it plays. That stops anything edgy on the recording being noticed. The MSR7 plays it in your face!!
So it's mixed for me. Things I really like a lot but sometimes miss the bass or would like the top a bit smoother. Depends very much on the recording. Speech is absolutely excellent.
One thing it really does well, is reveal detail and exactly what's happening in recordings. You can easily split your focus on different sounds in complicated mixes and follow them easily. Play it again and you can equally follow another line. I tried some Rite of Spring by Stravinsky and I could literally follow any instrument I chose when the texture was so thick that on some headphones, you get an overall impression of sounds blending. There are bits where polytonality, polyphony and all kinds of things happen at the same time, which are very noticeable when you play it, but don't get so easily revealed on recordings. The MSR7 gets in there so it is doing its job well, as long as you can adapt to its timbre.
[ this review is about a fake ATH-MSR7 as it turned out so keep this in mind]