Sound & Signature

Bass: Frequencies in the range of 0Hz-256Hz are the very low notes that make your head vibrate and your room shake (commonly referred to as “the Wub Wub”). Bass is very enjoyable and usually what makes a "fun" headphone for popular music. Unfortunately, companies tend to overdo it and other very important frequency regions suffer because they become "muddied by bass".

Mids: This is where the magic happens. Mids are frequencies between roughly 250Hz and 2000Hz and very important for a natural presentation of sound. Especially voices and vocals fall within this part and headphones with an unnatural midrange may sound “off” or vocals sound “distant”. If a headphone has too much boost in the midrange and the sound is colored it can sound nasally, shouty or honky.

Treble: This region refers to the highest tones in the frequency range and starts at 2.048Hz and ends at the hearing limit of the human ear at 20.000Hz (most adults can’t hear beyond 16 KHz though). Treble is what gives a headphone detail and clarity, this means using headphones with a very good treble resolution is like using a microscope for your ears. They will bring out every little detail in your music and make flawed recording and bad mastering very audible. Listening to treble heavy headphones can be exhausting and fatiguing, because music with predominantly high tones may sound ear-piercing and shrill.

Some enthusiasts like to be more specific and have a finer grate:

Bass

• Sub-bass = 15-50 Hz
• Bass = 50-250 Hz

Midrange

• Lower Mids= 250-1000Hz
• Midrange= 1000-2000Hz

Treble

• High Mids = 2000-6300Hz
• High Freqs = 6300-20000Hz