Harman preference curve for headphones - am I the only one that doesn't like this curve?

[ZolaIII]

With regards to speakers - of course. As for headphones, the field looks like it's barely being explored, honestly which is precisely why the Harman discussion looks strange. As such, DSP limits in HP still looks hard to assess, discuss even. It's because the headphone research in general is neglected to an extent where anything more 'objective' stirs the brew.

I'd call that successful consumer conditioning.

I don’t think headphones are neglected regarding experimental studies. In generally there is too little experimental studies and zero major one's with significant patern (number of participants). Hopefully one day that will change. For now at best we can sum those which turned to be consistent with each other (both conducted on speakers and headphones) like equal loudness one's. Even so cumulative participants number is still less than 1000 (in over 100 studies) and not significant enough.

 

[markanini]

For speakers a flat anechoic response, with an even dispersion is a well established target.

With headphones you would want to match the eardrum frequency response of the speaker above, in a real room. The outer ear has complex acoustic interactions vs. an omnidirectional microphone used for speaker measurements. That poses a challenge, on top of that headphones on their own can't reproduce inter-channel effects. It all has to be approximated with frequency response by proxy.

So Harman went ahead a did a good job at quantifying the required FR. Fantastic. But before even considering everything that diverges from Harman to be deficient,
consider that significant mismatches between eardrum responce and ear simulator do exist. significant unit variation exist. Few listeners strictly adhere to 83dB SPL, sitting down in a quiet room. Definitely consider all of that, show that you understand the real world variables, before even suggesting someone is backwards for not being 100% onboard with Harman in every single situation. Unless you want to give sceptics a valid objection. I sure don't.

 

[GaryH]

They're not the one showing ignorance.
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AES Conference Papers Forum » The Preferred Low Frequency Response of In-Ear Headphones

The AES Forum is where our members get to interact with each other in between conferences and section meetings.

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AES E-Library » A Study of Listener Bass and Loudness Preferences over Loudspeakers and Headphones

In order to study listener bass and loudness preferences over loudspeakers and headphones a series experiments using a method of adjustment were run. Listeners adjusted the bass and loudness levels of multiple genres of music to their personal preference in separate listening sessions over...

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There was a strong correlation between the difference in the mean bass levels by listener across playback methods with the difference in mean listener loudness levels across playback methods. In other words, listeners who turned up the bass over headphones or loudspeakers usually turned up the loudness as well.