quadpatch said:
Great review!! Nice to see you have gotten the HP200 and enjoyed it.
Actually I am enjoying it very much. But it's bright. Really bright. Looking right at the box it came in, Soundmagic publishes the test curve:
There's a 20(!) db drop between the emphasis around 90 to 300 hz, and 1500 hz. Then we see a huge broad rise to at least 10(!) db above the *average* midrange value, between 3 khz and 10 khz. This is not a free-field curve obviously, nor an Innerfidelity-type curve. I would concede if argued that the extremes might somehow be exaggerated, but why Soundmagic would publish exaggerated treble peaks right on the product box makes no sense. In any case, whatever the true amplitudes, this curve agrees with my ears in its general shape. And while some of my music tracks sound good played flat, and perhaps a few more sound OK, there are more than a few that are ear-burners. My hearing is probably down from most 25-y.o. people about 3-4 db at 12 khz and 10-12 db at 16 khz, but it's definitely full strength up to 11 khz at least, and so I expect anyone else would hear what I hear here. (Hear, hear, heh). So anyway, I just hit the treble reduction, which is a far better curve than any booster curve in terms of distortions, and it sounds darn good. In fact, much better than the M100, significantly better than the Momentum in the upper bass, mids, and (adjusted) treble, and marginally better than the DT770LE, since the soundstage with the HP200 is more natural. I also like the general sound of the HP200 much better than the HP100, which I thought was too lean. The Momentum is a little too rich sounding, the Amperior is ridiculous, the DT770LE is OK but cavernous, and the (adjusted) HP200 has very little fault. The HP200 plays very well on the desktop with DACs, or even from some headphone outs, but it gets a bit boomy straight out of ipods etc., and the analog amps don't do a lot for that.
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