headphone tonality test

[muza_1]

That would be a really good tool for selecting headphones and IEMs once you know your target preference, especially for people that don't EQ but also is not good for business, people wouldn't try so many sets in search of that elusive preference.

Edit. I think most people who more o less care about sound buy thinking that the more expensive, esoteric or more drivers sound better, marketing is wining this battle.

 

[Thomas_A]

There are many more AVO sessions that are worth listening/seeing.
It shows how good artists really are when playing live.

I wonder if mix has deliberate a bit more mid bass (similar to "six blade knife" it is a bit mid bass heavy as well). That said I found the Stealth the worst since especially mid bass was overly exaggerated and almost dominated the mix. But as mentioned, I retain some of that 100-200 Hz hump in my DT150/DT100 pads combination on my head (while other heads do not), so I would get both that + Stealths mid bass hump added.

 

[solderdude]

I have no idea if the mix is coming directly from the mixing console (so what the audience heard through the sound reinforcement) or that all mics/instruments have been recorded and mixed afterwards.

There were songs that weren't as bass heavy but selected this track so bass-lighter headphones might still have some 'body' to the sound.

 

[Jimbob54]

Didnt get round to doing it before the reveal so take my observations with salt. Not sure I could ever have picked the original. Just put all the samples on a repeated shuffle and let them play through for a bit. 3 and 1 were the stand outs when they came on. As others have said Stealth sim 1 is too bloated , Susvara 3 is far too much on the cymbals.

This was just on a pair of Moondrop Chu 2 with a bit of EQ

 

[majingotan]

If you e.g. would use Springsteens album ”Born in the USA” to anyone that have not heard the album before, you might end up with more bass boost judged as the original.

Using Susvara NO EQ or DSP from DAP to USB DAC -> tubes -> Susvara, I find the album perfectly balanced to my subjective preferences and not even bass light or not even bright sounding. Then again, my preference is Linear Bass Target and not Harman Bass. I have high confidence I would still prefer the original with this track over any EQed samples.

 

[Chagall]

Using Susvara NO EQ or DSP from DAP to USB DAC -> tubes -> Susvara, I find the album perfectly balanced to my subjective preferences and not even bass light or not even bright sounding. Then again, my preference is Linear Bass Target and not Harman Bass. I have high confidence I would still prefer the original with this track over any EQed samples.


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I've just listened to the song with my HD800s, with 3 tunings. I've heard the song before just never really paid attention to it, not a fan.

HD800s Optimum = basically Susvara's tuning
To me, it does sound a bit light. Fine, and inoffensive, but light. The kick drum at the beginning (0:32) was meh..no body to it, as they say, just was kind of there.
HD800s Harman
The kick drum now had impact, but the bass guitar around 48 seconds was too much. The song was now bass-heavy.
HD800s Haman -3dB
Now we are talking, now it's balanced.

I usually have Harman bass shelf all the time, but may leave this equalization, because I've been noticing some bloat lately with the music I listen to.

 

[Thomas_A]

Using Susvara NO EQ or DSP from DAP to USB DAC -> tubes -> Susvara, I find the album perfectly balanced to my subjective preferences and not even bass light or not even bright sounding. Then again, my preference is Linear Bass Target and not Harman Bass. I have high confidence I would still prefer the original with this track over any EQed samples.


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In my ears, this album (original CD release) suffers from poor weight in bass and exaggerated mids, making it sound metallic and bright. It's like they mixed the bass and mids-highs separately and added them.

 

[Shadrach]

@solderdude
Could I ask for Flac rather than CBR or VBR please.

 

[solderdude]

It is too big so would have to be using some free file transfer method for which I will need an e-mail address.
You can PM me the e-mail address and will mail the WAV's

You need to realize that these WAVs are from the linked YT video so the SQ cannot exceed whatever YT used to get the files to me.
It was downloaded using a YT downloader that allows the audio download to be done in WAV. NO idea how the audio from that video is stored.

It seems the 48kHz original was (Audacity) converted to 44.1/16 (default setting) for all the files. The original BW seems capped at 18kHz anyway.

 

[Thomas_A]

probably squashed to death and won't look like the YT version (see above post)
Notice I lowered the original -3dB to allow for the Stealth EQ midbass hump EQ.
I find the recording quite enjoyable in SQ.

Hm I was replying regarding the Bruce Springsteen album “Born in the USA”. It is not squashed but is mid heavy.

 

[ZolaIII]

Hm I was replying regarding the Bruce Springsteen album “Born in the USA”. It is not squashed but is mid heavy.

It's mixed with NS10's primary and bass whose done with something else. To me it sounds OK, bass is definitely there and in line. There is a main uper bass note at 211 Hz making it seam as you describe it as it's partly making both lower mids and lower bass.

 

[isostasy]

Going to post my answers with reasons before checking so I can't hide if I'm completely wrong

Best - worse: 4, 5, 3, 1, 2.

4 and 5 sounded very similar to me, latter a bit bassier hence why I rated it lower. 3 sounded good but too bright, whilst 1 was simply too boomy. I thought something was up in the mid-range of 2 which made the whole spectrum sound off and the distant.

Naturally I thought 4 was also the original.

 

[Jimbob54]

Going to post my answers with reasons before checking so I can't hide if I'm completely wrong

Best - worse: 4, 5, 3, 1, 2.

4 and 5 sounded very similar to me, latter a bit bassier hence why I rated it lower. 3 sounded good but too bright, whilst 1 was simply too boomy. I thought something was up in the mid-range of 2 which made the whole spectrum sound off and the distant.

Naturally I thought 4 was also the original.

Nearly right.

 

[isostasy]

Nearly right.

Surprised myself! Interesting I got HD650 mixed up with the original, and that I only preferred it due to the lower bass which indeed is a characteristic. I own a HD6XX and do in fact prefer it without any bass EQ for some music.

I used an Etymotic ER2XR with some EQ to bring it closer to Harman 2019v2 from 20Hz - 3kHz but left the rest as is as I find it too bright to lift the treble any closer to Harman.

Charted the results I could gather though @MayaTlab and @LTig you didn't rank all the headphones so I couldn't include you despite you both guessing correctly!

Those who hedged guess (e.g. "not sure, could be 5 or 2" etc.) I counted as "wrong" even if 5 was one of the guesses.

Interesting points:
- Original recording was preferred on average regardless of whether it was correctly guessed as being the original.
- DCA Stealth much more preferred on average by those who correctly guessed the original recording.
- Hifiman Susvara was much more preferred on average by those who incorrectly guessed the original recording.
- ZMF Caldera and Sennheiser HD650, two very differently measuring headphones, were rated similarly on average by those who failed to guess the original. HD650 was rater much higher than Caldera by those who guessed correctly, however.
- Only ones bringing down the average preference of the original recording were myself and @OnLyTNT . We were also both the only members who solely relied on IEMs for the experiment, and quite similarly measuring ones at that (once you take my EQ into account, see below). We both voted HD650 opposite however (me 1st, them last).