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N5005 Sounds so plastic

Puzzle

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AKG and Harman recently have big deals on N5005 at 199 bucks, and I went blind for one. Everything is fine except no matter which filter I use, the texture of its sound is so plastic and when you hear the detail of music, my ears also suffer from some filling like coarse texture. I saw the Crincal's review and he also mentioned the plastic tremble though I am not sure if that's the same thing I mentioned. Anyone has same feeling?
To make comparison, I currently also have sony mdr-exk, logi ue900s, vsd9, and truthear zero, none of them feel as plastic as n5005, and the most comfortable sound comes from zero. (Using dx200 and fiio k7 as test devices)
 

threni

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Someone should compile a list of all these descriptions, or perhaps construct some sort of tutorial describing different audio artifacts so we can all use the same term for the same thing. I can't tell my plastic tremble from my plankton!
 
OP
Puzzle

Puzzle

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Someone should compile a list of all these descriptions, or perhaps construct some sort of tutorial describing different audio artifacts so we can all use the same term for the same thing. I can't tell my plastic tremble from my plankton!
I would say yes it's kinda weird to describe sound as 'plastic', but that's the most close description after I found after reading Crinacle's description for its timber. Sound can be really arbitrary to talk about, and that's why measurements sometimes help a lot.
 

threni

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I would say yes it's kinda weird to describe sound as 'plastic', but that's the most close description after I found after reading Crinacle's description for its timber. Sound can be really arbitrary to talk about, and that's why measurements sometimes help a lot.
Solderdude often links to this useful chart:
which mentions plastic. I guess you could try playing with EQ and see if that affects the plasticity. If so, it means maybe that there's a bit of a peak at around 1k.
 

BR52

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Someone should collect all this "blurb" phrases, program a text generator with random mixing and sell the output in a polished "high-end HIFI magazine". Seems to be still a good business idea.
 

JSmith

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Someone should collect all this "blurb" phrases, program a text generator with random mixing and sell the output in a polished "high-end HIFI magazine". Seems to be still a good business idea.
Oh that's how I got my new side gig at WHF;
@threni, I will need to remember that one... plasticity, nice. :cool:


JSmith
 

BR52

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Did not read it, sorry, you have the for sure the copy right.:rolleyes:
 

BR52

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Someone should compile a list of all these descriptions, or perhaps construct some sort of tutorial describing different audio artifacts so we can all use the same term for the same thing. I can't tell my plastic tremble from my plankton!
To widen up the ASR reader base, we can write a translator "measurement to phrase". It will be a hard work to combine the two worlds, and I am not sure the non-technical world will accept it. Because a fact based language is not for everyone.
 
OP
Puzzle

Puzzle

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Only if you guys could comes with a more proper word to describe it, I would say it's a really vivid when I saw his description. Otherwise, how do you guys describe tone color or tone quality from different instruments or singers at same level of musical note? I am not gonna say this frequency is displayed by square wave and that is by sine way so they sound different, except you guys could hear and define the shape of wave by ear.
1669987488797.png
 

threni

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Oh that's how I got my new side gig at WHF;
@threni, I will need to remember that one... plasticity, nice. :cool:


JSmith
 

sergeauckland

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I would say yes it's kinda weird to describe sound as 'plastic', but that's the most close description after I found after reading Crinacle's description for its timber. Sound can be really arbitrary to talk about, and that's why measurements sometimes help a lot.
Plastic or timber? Can you have both?

S.
 

GaryH

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AKG and Harman recently have big deals on N5005 at 199 bucks, and I went blind for one. Everything is fine except no matter which filter I use, the texture of its sound is so plastic and when you hear the detail of music, my ears also suffer from some filling like coarse texture. I saw the Crincal's review and he also mentioned the plastic tremble though I am not sure if that's the same thing I mentioned. Anyone has same feeling?
To make comparison, I currently also have sony mdr-exk, logi ue900s, vsd9, and truthear zero, none of them feel as plastic as n5005, and the most comfortable sound comes from zero. (Using dx200 and fiio k7 as test devices)
That's likely due to the peak around 5 kHz. Try this EQ:
 

TrevC

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I would say yes it's kinda weird to describe sound as 'plastic', but that's the most close description after I found after reading Crinacle's description for its timber. Sound can be really arbitrary to talk about, and that's why measurements sometimes help a lot.
Timber? So it's woody as well!
 
OP
Puzzle

Puzzle

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That's likely due to the peak around 5 kHz. Try this EQ:
It actually helps! I tested it with no EQ and I think the strange sound is located around the 5khz, though EQ cannot completely fix the problem but it makes the sound at that point not sticking that out. Great thanks~
 

GaryH

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It actually helps! I tested it with no EQ and I think the strange sound is located around the 5khz, though EQ cannot completely fix the problem but it makes the sound at that point not sticking that out. Great thanks~
You can also try decreasing the gain of the high-shelf filter (Band 5) if you still think the treble is a bit much.
 
OP
Puzzle

Puzzle

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You can also try decreasing the gain of the high-shelf filter (Band 5) if you still think the treble is a bit much.
Great, I would definitely try that, I found sometimes the treble is still a bit too intensive for me, but the overall condition is.way better with EQ.
 
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