Piano music

I used both piano music and classical-based video game scores for my primary headphone comparisons when I was testing the Sennheiser HD600, the Sennheiser HD250II and the AKG K550 against one another. There are many nuances and microdetails with both piano and other orchestral instruments making it perfect material for revealing how close the transducer can get to reproducing real sound. After they had all had some use, the differences between the headphones was very apparent with the music that I listen to. The K550 was neutral but flat and uninvolving. The HD600 was involving but slowed, glossed over, had upper bass protrusion and a lack of frequency extension, although the midrange was really beautiful. The HD250II was both neutral and involving. Because the piano has the largest frequency range of all acoustic instruments (I think??) with REAL tonality, it will test all attributes of a transducer, not just a few properties. Combined with all the low level detail in the tracks, only sensitive balanced transducers will be able to convey it all.

I tend to use orchestral music in general as a system tester whether piano, string, etc as I find it easier to follow the start/stop/decay of notes. I smile when I can 'see' the musician playing the notes rather than just hearing the notes being played (if that makes sense)

To be honest, I don't even understand why anybody uses CD players anymore... What a waste of money...  I keep all my CDs immaculate in their cases as a back-up and only ever put them in a disc drive to rip them. WAV or FLAC file retrieval from a HDD or flash device should be equivalent to the CD reproduction, perhaps better with flash memory as you likely eliminate some electronics from the signal chain input, which can only be a good thing. Sometimes less is more.

Edited by Nuance_Ember - 17 Aug 2013 at 10:13am