NAD Viso HP50 Review (headphone)

[solderdude]

Interesting. Do you know how to tell which headband a pair has?

The the flatter one on the left is the early version,the rounder one on the right is the later version.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I have a question
If it sound neutral or harman neutral, you cant recommend it? I mean there is a lot of headphones that arent made for neutral or harman neutral FR.
For example lcd 4 and MEZE. Empyrean arent neutral and the people dont wanna these headphones neutral.

 

[infinitesymphony]

I have a question
If it sound neutral or harman neutral, you cant recommend it? I mean there is a lot of headphones that arent made for neutral or harman neutral FR.
For example lcd 4 and MEZE. Empyrean arent neutral and the people dont wanna these headphones neutral.

The NAD Viso HP50s didn't sound or measure close to neutral without EQ and they still got a recommendation. It just depends on achievable performance, price, and competition.

 

[LightninBoy]

You are correct. "Room Feel" was the (goofy) marketing name given to following the harman target curve.

With the left and the right FR being completely different, plus this result being quite different than other measurement on record, I'm not sure if we can read much into this FR. I used the oratory EQ settings as a baseline and got very good results and those are based on much different FR measurements that tracked close the the harman curve. I'll try amir's eq later and report back.

First a quick correction - I am currently using the parametric EQ settings documented here ...

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/Au...ratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/NAD Viso HP50

So, I tried amir's EQ settings on my HP50s and compared them to the above and no eq. Amir's eq settings sound great to me - better than the AutoEq settings above based on Oratory's measurements.

I'm surprised. Here's my *theory* on what's going on: the HP50s measure close to the harman curve in a controlled lab setting. But more than most headphones, getting that ideal placement and seal is tricky with the HP50s. Amir's measurement techniques (however he is doing the averaging) gets closer to the real world experience under typical usage and his simple EQ settings focus on the gross errors instead of micro corrections that may not be entirely accurate.

Or, I'm just reacting to a FR balance that sounds good to me simply because its different. <shrug>

 

[bobbooo]

First a quick correction - I am currently using the parametric EQ settings documented here ...

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/NAD Viso HP50

So, I tried amir's EQ settings on my HP50s and compared them to the above and no eq. Amir's eq settings sound great to me - better than the AutoEq settings above based on Oratory's measurements.

I'm surprised. Here's my *theory* on what's going on: the HP50s measure close to the harman curve in a controlled lab setting. But more than most headphones, getting that ideal placement and seal is tricky with the HP50s. Amir's measurement techniques (however he is doing the averaging) gets closer to the real world experience under typical usage and his simple EQ settings focus on the gross errors instead of micro corrections that may not be entirely accurate.

Or, I'm just reacting to a FR balance that sounds good to me simply because its different. <shrug>

AutoEQ does not use the proper Harman target. Here are the EQ settings to take the HP50 to the actual Harman target from Oratory himself.

 

[LTig]

Impedance is more or less flat:

View attachment 104018

I totally agree that impedance is flat but the graph suggests otherwise, due to the blown out y-scale with large offset. One really has to study the y-scale to see it. Edward Tufte calls this a lying graph in his book The Visual Display of Quantitative information. May I suggest that future impedance graphs always start at 0 Ohm (preferably also for the speaker reviews)?

 

[solderdude]

I had the following issues with the HP50:
Difficult to get a good fit/seal.
Too 'warm' in sound, lacking clarity.
Blown driver.. it is only 20mW rated, luckily found 2 of the last available original 2nd hand drivers.
Cable in the headband broke so had to buy a split cable and could not use the single entry.
Fixed all the issues and gave it away to someone who seemed happy with it.

 

[solderdude]

I totally agree that impedance is flat but the graph suggests otherwise, due to the blown out y-scale with large offset. One really has to study the y-scale to see it. Edward Tufte calls this a lying graph in his book The Visual Display of Quantitative information. May I suggest that future impedance graphs always start at 0 Ohm (preferably also for the speaker reviews)?

Looks like the graphs are generated using auto-scaling. Maybe Amir can set it up differently. I too always have to look carefully at the scales.

 

[vkvedam]

Thanks for another review @amirm, how come you haven't thought of reviewing your Ether headphones yet?

 

[Jimbob54]

File this one under "no point me trying, cant use small cups/ pads". Which should be question no 1 for all headphone considerations.

Seems like this one has long been known as a hidden gem. EDIT- scratch what follows Note to readers- apparently the HP70 wireless (currently / recently seend on Drop) are NOT simply a wireless HP50- so dont go thinking your are getting this with Bluetooth.

 

[amirm]

Thanks for another review @amirm, how come you haven't thought of reviewing your Ether headphones yet?

Giving priority to member products first. This one has been here for two months and at the end of its return period.

 

[Chnoeldh]

No, no. If you randomly place the headphone on the fixture, you will get large variations. But I am able to dial out 90% of that with ease with headphones with lager cups. So far, these NADs have been the worst in this regard. Just touch them and response changes massively. I am talking 10 dB up and down.

We will have to see how common this problem is as I keep testing more headphones. So far I am hopeful that it is not a big barrier. Even there, I had no trouble coming up with good equalization so using some intuition and judgement helps.

I don’t know if you already do so, but for sealed headphones I can recommend to “calibrate” the placement by using a a low frequency single tone (30 Hz or so) and move the headphone slightly until a peak value is reached. This can only be done one side at the time.

 

[bobbooo]

File this one under "no point me trying, cant use small cups/ pads". Which should be question no 1 for all headphone considerations.

Seems like this one has long beeb known as a hidden gem. Note to readers- apparently the HP70 wireless (currently / recently seend on Drop) are NOT simply a wireless HP50- so dont go thinking your are getting this with Bluetooth.

The HP70 doesn't differ too much from the HP50 actually, both matching the Harman target quite well, although the former is lacking in sub-bass.

 

[Jimbob54]

The HP70 doesn't differ too much from the HP50 actually, both matching the Harman target quite well, although the former is lacking in sub-bass.

What I read was more about the components than the response.

 

[bobbooo]

What I read was more about the components than the response.

Well it's the final acoustic response that matters to the listener, not how and with which components you get there.

 

[Jimbob54]

Well it's the final acoustic response that matters to the listener, not how and with which components you get there.

I think we might have to agree to disagree on that.

 

[Robbo99999]

I've got this headphone, it's not my main headphone, but it's my third favourite after K702/HE4XX, so I actually enjoy it more than my HD600, it has a better soundstage than my HD600 and a cleaner and lower reach into the bass....talking EQ'd though. You can try my EQ based on the Oratory measurement if you like (or just use his), mine's also to the Harman Curve:

I find this a very smooth headphone, the earcups are indeed small and my ears fit just really snugly inside so not overly difficult to position, but there is only really one position that it fits exactly, no room for movement. It's my only closed back headphone, but obviously from what I've said it competes well with my open back headphones, so I would recommend this headphone as a closed back headphone, but check your ear size!

I might do an EQ on this headphone based on Amir's measurement if it sufficiently different from Oratory's, I'll take a look at it sometime.

 

[Jimbob54]

Well it's the final acoustic response that matters to the listener, not how and with which components you get there.

Actually, that will teach me to forget where I read something . Was from a Drop comment/ review but the guy then started talking about the 70's having "glare"- so I'm deleting that post full stop. I recalled it being a more comprehensive post about how they differed physically etc. It wasnt.

 

[SMc]

It's great the last two headphones measured are models I own. The depressed low treble is no surprise, heard in both a lack of sparkle and a relative lack of fatigue for me. I can hear the bass muddiness when I use the NAD for keyboard practice. That's also an easy way for a musician to identify frequency ranges.

I do like them overall and would recommend them at current bargain prices.

 

[Newman]

The the flatter one on the left is the early version,the rounder one on the right is the later version.

Based on your photo above, which version is mine, below?

Purchased in Feb 2015, so 6 years old....