Album Rating: 4.0

I'll try them again, thanks

Album Rating: 4.5

'I want to hear more music that sounds like the ending of Higher. just awesome.'



amazing stuff....very unique

Album Rating: 3.5

I keep seeing comments on reddit stating the mix sounds fine. I'm really confused by this. With my ER4SRs, this album sounds horrendous. Uneven, distorted, lacking bass, too bright, etc. I feel like the people saying it sounds good are just using headphones that naturally mask problems in badly mixed music (as in, super bass heavy). Try a pair of neutral headphones and this album will sound like blending metal scraps.

Album Rating: 4.0

People are surprised to hear a mainstream metal album that isn't terribly loud, but yeah I'm not huge on it either and I think I said it back then too. My main problems are the sound of the drums and the sense of flatness (often thanks to the drums splattered all over). The bass guitar lacks some bite though admittedly you can always hear him play, the second half of Exist is a prime example

Album Rating: 3.5

I'm hearing weird frequency peaks, probably somewhere in the treble. And the music is really lacking any kind of warmth. To my ears it's just really unpleasant to listen to. Imagine if this were well produced.

Album Rating: 4.0

to me it's top5 production all time... lmao

Album Rating: 4.5

what format are you guys jamming? i bought the cd and it sounds great on my home system, on the senns, and in the car.....my car does have a pretty good sound system that i opted for though

Album Rating: 3.5

I'm using Spotify premium with Etymotic ER4SR. The album sounds like all treble, high distortion and flat, no low end impact or dynamics. I feel like this album would only sound good on systems or headphones with significant warmth and enhanced bass; the ER4SR are neutral, studio earphones, which are known for revealing flaws in production. With my headphones, the album is so bright it's legit painful to listen to, despite the music itself being great.



I will also disagree with claims that this album isn't "loud." It's incredibly dirty and compressed sounding by modern metal standards. It isn't doing anything to solve the "loudness" problem in metal, and really is just making it worse. You want REAL high dynamic range in metal, go listen to Korn's first album. If it was the producers point to make The Stage less loud, they did nothing to fix the actual problem and rather said hey, lets remove the entire lower half of the frequency spectrum, boost 6-8 KHz a bit for who fucking knows why, and say we made an album less loud.

Album Rating: 3.5

I think I've figured the whole EQ problem out: this album most likely wasn't mixed with flat studio monitors. It was mixed to sound good on quite non-standard speakers or headphones, which most likely had a dip in the lower to mid treble region and were really peaky in general. This is really bad.



A7X if you're listening: please remix properly!

Yeah it's been mixed pretty badly, don't really want to listen to the album because of that reason.

Album Rating: 4.7

I actually enjoyed the production a lot... it's probably my favorite production and mixing of any Avenged album, in fact. Sounds very aggressive and crunchy, and it compliments the guitar tones well

Album Rating: 3.5

SoccerRiot, specific audio equipment you're using if I may ask?

Album Rating: 3.5

So I was testing with a few different pairs of headphones and found that while the compression artifacts are ever present, the shape and intensity of the specific headphone's treble response matters greatly for how good The Stage will sound.



With Etymotic ER4SR: too bright, and peakiness is very obvious

With Etymotic ER4P: actually pretty tolerable, to the point of approaching Nightmare (which IMO is A7X's best produced album) in terms of frequency balance. Distortion and compression artifacts still apparent.

Philips SHE3950: Possibly as bad or worse than the ER4SR, since the Philip's mid/upper treble response at around 6 KHz (http://www.changstar.com/www.changstar.com/she3590_distortion_leftf4d1.jpg?action=dlattach;topic=1580.0;attach=6338) stands quite strong despite the headphones being overall bassier than the Etymotic ER4 series.

My car speakers: Pretty listenable. There's a quality about speakers that seem to make distortion and peakiness a bit more tolerable than with headphones, not exactly sure what factors go into that though.



The reason the ER4P sounds tolerable with this album is because it has a weaker treble than the other examples here (http://i.imgur.com/EbC1kJp.png). So, what do you need to enjoy this album without your ears bleeding? Either have a liking for sibilant treble or use headphones with weak treble response.

Album Rating: 3.5

i'm using a humble sony mdr7506 but this record is easily their best sounding along with the previous one. a dream to play at near max volume.

Album Rating: 3.5

https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDRV6.pdf



Seems like the treble has the correct dip at around 5-6 KHz, but it still looks pretty hot up there overall. Am I just more sensitive to sibilance? Because even on my ER4Ps this album still sounds obviously more peaky and compressed than their other albums. And Hail to the King imo sounds WAY different than the Stage.



Honestly though, I think my biggest problem is moreso the horrible compression. Like, the treble peakiness sucks for me, but damn does the music sound like it's been pounded and converted a hundred times. And apparently with the mix coming from Andy Wallace, one of the well known producers in the industry, how he let this get past him is beyond me.

Album Rating: 4.5

Whoever says an album is drastically better or worse based on the headphones one is sporting is an absolute prude

Album Rating: 4.5

seeing these guys tomorrow night....no doubt it will be a good performance

Album Rating: 3.5

seeing em for like the sixth time on friday. much more pumped for metallica but these guys always put on a good show

Seeing the same show on the 16th

Album Rating: 3.5

Neekafat, being a prude isn't relevant to being able to state a fact about headphones and music listening. It just so happens that yes, a factor for how good an album will sound to an individual is the headphones used, and the difference can be drastic if the two headphones being compared are drastically different. The Stage is even more of an issue because the frequency response is quite bright even by metal standards, let alone how compressed it sounds which will be apparent on most if not all headphones and speakers.