I’m new here. Gonna need some time to navigate and find things that are interested and handy. Yes, I have heard about approach to measurements and tests performed on this site hence the reason to my signing up and hopes to learn something. Guys on here seem to be doing great job and I surely appreciate it and I surely will follow their new ventures.
Welcome, it's a great place if you want objective measurements and straight talk about stuff, not a bunch of gobbledygook and flowery words describing audiophool shit no one but bats could possibly hear.
Can you tell us what headphone connector(s) this amp will have? I want its mate on one of the cables on my next headphones, to be acquired in the near future.
It’s a great concept, find the cheapest products with the best measurements. Yet many of the best measuring products are not very enjoyable to listen to. Better measurements does not mean you will enjoy the product more.
Cheapest products with greatest measurements, user interface, functionality, feature, appearance.
Lol got ya. And thanks.
It’s a can of worms. I personally know guys that design their products with two opposite approaches. Specifications, circuitry first and foremost and those who tune it by ear (within certain spects and principles of cause) and work on industry standardized spects later. For example, DartZel
I don’t even know what “neutral” or “accurate” means. I don’t think anybody does. Lol
That’s frequency response of component in question. Does it tell the whole story and is it an indicator of accuracy of music reproduction in inherently flawed chain of components? Headphones and speakers are notorious for harmonic distortion. They are the last in music reproduction chain and are probably the most coloration prone of any components. Given theoretical scenario of every component being virtually flat and uncolored by component choice, power supply or design topology, you still have to deal with the weakest link, speaker/headphones. It makes more sense to compensate shortcomings of speakers/headphones with components that could minimize those shortcomings or ....... tailor the sound to what YOU perceive as “right” and “accurate”. However, when I said “neutral” or “accurate”, I wasn’t necessarily referring to frequency response but to mirror image of what mastering engineers intended for particular composition to sound like. Also, it’s their own interpretation of “rightness” with often very little feedback from actual artists. Measurements don’t mean much if it doesn’t sound correct and music struggles to connect with you on the personal level. It doesn’t mean that spects don’t matter, THEY DO. But there are many variables that play part in this quest for “perfection”.
Those components are not dacs and amps. As other people said, this is what equalizers or hardware DSP is for. So that you can change how your headphones/speakers sound like without blowing hard earned money each time you buy a new pair of headphones or have a change of mind in what you want your setup to sound like.
You mean mastering engineers who typically work with "clinical sounding" audio interfaces that no audiophile will touch with a 10 foot pole?
I partially agree, however. As you well know there is such a thing as component matching and “synergy”. And if your transducers (cans or speakers) can compensate from component “coloration“ or emphasis/rolloff at any specific frequencies then it could potentially benefit overall experience if linearity is the goal. One thing I do have reservation for in your comment is actively EQing signal to compensate. I’m not against it, I am just not convinced that it’s a solution that would be appealing to most enthusiast out there (especially “purists”). In extreme cases where nothing can be done to fix anomalies in question, yes, there are not many tools that can do a better job then quality EQ. But I would probably try to stay away from any transducers that require that much effort and investment to get it close to being “right”.
