Looking for closed-back bass kings at around 500

I’ve got a few candidates already lined up

  1. the Fostex X00 family, though I’m having serious trouble deciding between the ebony and mahogany. I want a lot of bass but I hear the Ebony has less, though with better detail, mids, and soundstage… maybe an ebony with a bass boost EQ?

  2. The NDH20’s, they’ve got a good sound with a bass hump but I’ve heard mixed things about them overall, also not sure I want the ‘clinical’ sound they bring, I’m definitely want fun in this set.

To those who own both the ebony and mahogany, do you have a preference, or do you think the NDH20’s are a better overall headphone? Are there any other suggestions?

P.S. Sound isolation does not matter to me, as these will be desktop only, as long as I can’t hear a pin drop I’ll be satisfied. Thanks!

Do you wear glasses? If not, 177x is pretty sweet (there’s a little less bass with glasses). Great bass and detail.

If you do wear glasses, I’ve recently discovered the wonders of modding T50s. Sealed up half of the ports around the driver, stretched brainwavz angled pleather to seal around the mounting slot and rotated them 45 degrees to get a better seal on my head, and put some foam behind the driver. It sounds like my Klipsch 2.1! Lows for days and still plenty of details left over.

DT 770, custom one studio, as well as meze 99 noir . I know they are significantly cheaper but are great options for bass cans

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If you are looking for the absolute bass king the purple heart is the winner. Honestly I think at this price it’s probably the best out there. Better then the ndh 20 or Beyer’s for sure imo

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I haven’t heard any of the headphones discussed…but from all the reviews and impressions I’ve read, M0N is dead on with saying the Fostex is the winner.

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Honestly it’s a true bass head headphone, really not much can compare if you don’t consider eq or mods, and with eq it’s crazy.

Problem with the Fostex cans is that they’re prone to breaking in an unrepairable spot. I would have had one if this wasn’t an issue, but it’s very common.

I have not had it happen on multiple fostex pairs. But it is a known flaw. If you baby it a bit I don’t think it’s something to worry about

My main worry about the PH is that the mids will be so drowned out that any music besides edm or hip hop will sound like its coming from another room. Are the reports of it being super V-shaped over-exaggerated? Another concern is that if the ebonies are just technically superior with tamed treble, as many have said they are, why not EQ the bass up a bit to a level comparable to the PH?

Beyer’s (mainly their treble) usually aren’t my thing unfortunately, their bass is usually pretty nice though.

I would agree they have a pretty strong v shape, and TBH I think the best bass with balance might be the mahogany’s, as imo the most refined are the ebony, but the mahogany’s sit in the middle of the ph and ebony for v shape level. I actually think all of them have the same level of detail, just different tuning

That makes sense considering they’re the same headphones just with different wood (or so I’ve heard). I’m thinking the mahogony’s may be best with some EQ for the treble, especially with the fact that they’re $100 cheaper, but I’m still quite torn.

I would say all of them are enjoyable, and if you plan on eq’ing them I would just say go for the mahogany because if the treble bothers you it can just be eq’ed out

Also do you plan on using these portable, or need isolation, because just a warning they don’t isolate too well and are kinda a pain to take portable

Nah, these’ll be desktop cans. I don’t need good isolation, just more than the edition XX’s I own right now, which are literally see-through lol. I’ll do a little more research but overall I think the mahogany’s are at the top of the list for now.

Yeah, you should be fine then lol

Aaand after a few minutes I’m back on the Ebony’s… lol. The FR graphs are eerily similar but the ebony has better extension and less mid-bass (like 1-3 db less, which can be EQ’d back in pretty easy I think). More importantly, the mid dip is also a lot less harsh. I’m really feeling like that the ebony’s mid-bass might just need some love on the EQ side and it becomes a mahogany that’s suits my needs better… Hmm…

Here’s the FR graphs:

Of course, FR graphs aren’t everything, but seeing how these are the exact same drivers, I think they can be trusted quite a bit here.

lol welcome to audio where you flip flop on options and probably at some point in life end up just getting both ᵢₙ ₘᵧ 𝒸ₐₛₑ ₐₗₗ ₃ ₒₚₜᵢₒₙₛ

The ebony’s also have a wider presentation from my experience vs the ph and mh

That’s what I’ve been hearing… That’d be real nice for games too. I’m thinking ebony’s with a bit of a bass boost EQ is likely the right choice for me considering these headphones will have to cover a pretty wide range of music beyond bass-oriented genres.