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Expensive headphones that sound bad

Blujackaal

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Doing a headphone & In ear version, Since i don't use speakers. For £500 area the Westone W40 in my view they only shine with ohm adpator + EQ, That not counting the very cheap plastic they use?.
 

solderdude

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That was by far the best video he ever did and shows what +15dB at 6kHz does.
(https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/ultrasone-edition-10.php)

U10.png

I could design a nice filter for it ...
 
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Fluffy

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That was by far the best video he ever did and shows what +15dB at 6kHz does.

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I could design a nice filter for it ...
Looks like they were designed by an 80 year old that spent the entire sixties high and sitting right next to the stage speakers at festivals.

There are more headphones that sound bad than ones that sound good, but that's because it's a very individual thing. I personally can't stand most of the high priced Audeze line up. I think by far the most ridiculous low ratio in price to performance is from Grado headphones – they just have no bass at all. None.
 

maverickronin

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I personally can't stand most of the high priced Audeze line up.

The 2 classic and the vanilla 4 are by far the best of their full size range. Everything else just sounds "off".

The i4 sounds quite good too but there's almost no usage case for an open IEM...

Looks like they were designed by an 80 year old that spent the entire sixties high and sitting right next to the stage speakers at festivals.

Also applies to the Grados...
 

Ron Texas

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It's all in your head.
 

AnalogSteph

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Beyerdynamic T1
It's a long way from Beyer peak to "sound bad", IMHO.

A few more nuggets from the InnerFidelity archives:
oBravo HAMT-1 (you don't see a rollercoaster like that in an open headphone every day)
Flare Audio Reference R1 (big midrange dip, and where are the highs?)
The Sony MDR-SA series always was an acquired taste - has to be that peculiar double-humped mirange coloration. Also poor level handling in SA3000.
 

AnalogSteph

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But is this really worse than, say, an HD800?

If the response is smooth without internal resonances and distortion is low, then our "ear EQ" is surprisingly flexible. Both can be assumed in this case.

Mind you, this sort of obvious "flavoring" is why I've always been a bit skeptical of these >HD650 flagship phones.

This, this is what I call a dumpster fire:
hamt1-fr.png


Supposedly £5899. Ouch.
 

Jimbob54

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Ouch, what's that from, @AnalogSteph ? Least I can safely say at that price I don't own them.
 

flipflop

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But is this really worse than, say, an HD800?
HD 800 have the same problems, but the deviations in T1 are about twice as large, which makes them sound much worse.
If the response is smooth without internal resonances and distortion is low
The graph I posted is 1/3 octave smoothed. The treble is very jagged if you look at the raw response with minimal smoothing.
The treble spike is a resonance. It also shows up in the impedance graph.
Distortion is a non-issue for most headphones.
This, this is what I call a dumpster fire:
Those are probably the worst measuring headphones in existence. Beyerdynamic DT 48 E takes the 2nd place:
dt48e.PNG

My list should only contain models that are still in production.
 

majingotan

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Can't really say show that some expensive headphones or IEMs that sound bad objectively since there are people who absolutely prefer the $1100 Andromeda IEM sound over many more expensive IEMs and there are others and some members here at ASR who absolutely hate it to the point that they sound worse than any IEMs costing less than $10 USD.

As you can see on the graph, the 7K spike is where that "sparkle" subjective reviews are raving about ( I prefer that too subjectively ) but at the same time the treble is not "harsh". That's because it's rolled off past 8K (a good thing for extended listening to my preferences). The dip at 4K is what makes the sound "controversial" because that dip makes or breaks the sound signature especially to those that follow the Harman target closely. Following the Harman Target to me is still subjective a you can see that even the target curve is not perpetually static but the curve changes over time.

Andromeda-S2.jpg



Harman Target OE curve over time
180603-Overlaid%20Harman%20target-responses_0.png
 

Jimbob54

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The Audio Technica W5000 are my humble submission. BUT .... I dont hate them . Currently playing with EQ and they sound almost normal. A sound only a mother could love out of the box though.
 
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Blujackaal

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Can't really say show that some expensive headphones or IEMs that sound bad objectively since there are people who absolutely prefer the $1100 Andromeda IEM sound over many more expensive IEMs and there are others and some members here at ASR who absolutely hate it to the point that they sound worse than any IEMs costing less than $10 USD.

As you can see on the graph, the 7K spike is where that "sparkle" subjective reviews are raving about ( I prefer that too subjectively ) but at the same time the treble is not "harsh". That's because it's rolled off past 8K (a good thing for extended listening to my preferences). The dip at 4K is what makes the sound "controversial" because that dip makes or breaks the sound signature especially to those that follow the Harman target closely. Following the Harman Target to me is still subjective a you can see that even the target curve is not perpetually static but the curve changes over time.

Andromeda-S2.jpg



Harman Target OE curve over time
180603-Overlaid%20Harman%20target-responses_0.png

Don't be scared to be blunt on TOTL & the CA andro. The campfire hype was unbearable, The Andro FR looks like something i expect for <99$ chi fi IEM with grado/beyer treble tricks. When faced of with the ER4XR its a joke, 6db bass that colours the mids & a 6db boost in the 6 - 9.5K area to fake detail. Wouldn't shock me if that bit was flattend the ER4XR would still win on true detail.

No clue why its 5 BA either when the tuning wouldn't even stress a Single BA set up like the ER4XR uses?. Oddly the CA Comet is just the Andro FR with a 1 peak & rolls off past 12KHz, Pretty sure you could mimic it by fixing those 3 peaks & boost the treble past 12Khz. Which is very ironic when it's only using one BA.
 
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