"Mean_Chlorine" wrote in message
news

The other possibility is that you've just grown accustomed to listening
to
music with a big bass hump in it.

Yeah, it's possible that the recordings were intended to have weaker
bass and still weaker treble than my old headphones and speakers
produce, and the Sennheisers merely faithfully reproduce the
recording. That, basically my speakers and old headphones had
permanent loudness in-built.

I've no way of testing that theory.

The best way, to quote the almost-cliche from the audiophile magazines, is
to listen to live acoustic music, and compare to recordings. For studio
produced rock music, it's tough. But if you ever get a chance, listen to
someone playing drums live. Like go to a music (instrument) store and ask
if there's a time you can hear someone playing drums. Then compare that to,
say, the Sheffield Drum Track CD. Or just listen to some acoustic jazz
sometime, and pay attention to the cymbals and bass. One thing that
Sennheisers (at least 580/600) have is deep bass extension, which is not to
say they sound bloated or exaggerated. Some headphones that have a peak
around 60 or 80 Hz might sound better for rock, but in fact they trail off
quick below that. Others are flat all the way down to below 30 (this is a
lot easier with headphones than it is for full size speakers.) Organ music
also shows this off. On the other hand, there's no peak in the treble, yet
the treble is very extended (goes flat well past 15,000 Hz without peaking
near 8,000)