I respect Toole and Olive’s research and I understand that these are preferred response in blind test, though I do think Olive’s sample size is too small (usually 200-300 people in his various papers and only 50-60 in each strata like region, age etc) to safely establish a solid standard/target.
I personally like flat speakers more than coloured speakers (though not the case for headphones, I always feel harman curve having too much bass, I don’t need to eq my HD800s’s bass at all.)
But Are these preferred frequency response necessarily close to individual’s actual favourite response? I mean is it possible that an individual prefers flat and harman but at the same time prefer some different response more?
If that’s the case, wasn’t visiting shops and having as many demo as possible a more effective way than spending time reading measurements and analysing deviation from target(flat/harman) to find your favourite speakers and headphones, especially for non-professionals?
Then it circles back to just listen to the device...
I personally like flat speakers more than coloured speakers (though not the case for headphones, I always feel harman curve having too much bass, I don’t need to eq my HD800s’s bass at all.)
But Are these preferred frequency response necessarily close to individual’s actual favourite response? I mean is it possible that an individual prefers flat and harman but at the same time prefer some different response more?
If that’s the case, wasn’t visiting shops and having as many demo as possible a more effective way than spending time reading measurements and analysing deviation from target(flat/harman) to find your favourite speakers and headphones, especially for non-professionals?
Then it circles back to just listen to the device...
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