Is that why certain songs in my music repository cause my headphones or ear buds to have a sort of rattling sound to them ? I wonder if these bad mixes is what kill cheap headphones or ear buds ...
Quite often yes... especially if you use high end headphones and listen to something with a bad mix. In a way, you can't even blame the ones responsible for the mix, since they're doing it on inferior equipment that might not give you the full spectrum of frequencies as sharp. (but it can be the other way around as well, I'll get to that in a bit)
Though sometimes it's done on purpose (or so I've heard in a few interviews) because the majority of the demographic for some music listens to music on crappy phone speakers and cheap headphones. You need to even make it sound good on that kind of hardware... and that leaves something to be desired on high end equipment at times.
It's quite annoying that even when I listen to music at friends (who clearly have more money spent on proper speakers) that some music just sounds horrible. And that has nothing to do with taste or preference, lol.
What kills headphones usually is playing music way louder than they're made for. Something that's more prevalent with earbuds rather than regular headphones in my experience.
And then there's the entire debate on music dynamics and how mixes in music get normalized way too much. That plays part in why bass has less definition and why music is equally loud everywhere (and most often peaking equally).
What might be important to check out in terms of a rattling sound; what format are you playing them in? Mp3? FLAC? CD? Some formats, especially Mp3 with a relatively low bitrate (even though Mp3 in general) are somewhat notorious for odd "artifacts" in the file. That might explain rattling as well.
Plenty of reasons for rattling and obviously they're cumulative as well. Bad headphones, bad file compression (low bitrate Mp3) and a bad mix in general make up for some rattling music.
And as for killing cheap headphones and such.. of course, money needs go round. You can't blame any company for not trying to devise a way to make you buy more even if it's making things break down faster (whether this is an ethical thing to do is a different debate alltogether). Do these tracks rattle on every headphone? And on speakers? Oh, and a lot of people play with an equalizer way, way too much. Leave it on neutral and see what that does to the songs in terms of rattling. You might mess with dynamic range through an EQ just as well.
I've found that when I'm working on a mix for music I've recorded that I tend to play it back on a few different systems (though money prohibits me from high quality speakers). It gives different dynamics on all of them. Trying to find a happy medium for them is what works best... but not everyone considers listening to a mix on 3 cellphones, low budget headphones and even through a gaming console to be options to find a sweet spot for audio dynamics. People assume that because they own a pair of KRK mixing monitors everyone has similar quality.
But that's just a few things that came to mind on the topic right now, heh.
Hmm, maybe that's why these sub-woofers make such good money ? I mean do bigger and louder kill them faster then the buyer thinks ?
Clearly... bigger is better (or so they say).
I don't want to generalize, but if I take a peek at the type of people that blast bass heavy music (especially) in cars, there does seem to be a certain stereotype. Perhaps said group is convinced that bigger is better.
Though I must confess that I quite enjoy heavy bass, even in a car (even if I don't drive/own a car). But only if it's done proper. I once was in a car of a friend of a friend and he asked me to bring an album I had which had some pretty fast paced low bases. We listened ot the album full blast. It had a crisp sound.. but then again, his stereosystem cost him more than his actual car and he tweaked it for such types of music so it gives best results.
