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How to do a proper headphone review on Youtube (Oluv's Gadgets)

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lashto

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I was quite interested in Oluv's Focal Elex vs HD800s comparison video. I have always thought of the HD800s as a reference pair of headphones but his perspective was that they are just "decent" but not worth the asking price. The Focal Elex's sounded a lot better compared to the HD800s via the binaural recording through my HD58x's. I just got the most recent Drop run of the HE4xx's and am pretty impressed by the sound of them as well... they sound better than the binaural recordings of the HD800s to my ears! I was totally expecting the HD800s to blow everything I had out of the water...
HD800S is a good HP if one can deal with its enhanced highs. Might just be the best for gaming because of the soundstage/imaging.
IMO, it is however seriously overpriced. Particularly when compared to H4xx at 1/10 of the price.
 
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lashto

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looks like Oluv is going patreon-only.
Understandable but not sure about how good that'll work. I tend to agree with the top-comments that say he should use Patreon for early access only and keep posting on Youtube. A sort of pay-per-video might work too. I'd pay a few $ to see videos/tests that I am interested in (mostly HPs & related gear) but otherwise those bluetooth boomboxes and most of his current tests are not particularly relevant for me.

Anyway, good luck to him. Hope he finds enough support to continue and he'll be happier in the paywalled community.
 

dasdoing

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The red curve is a loudspeaker equalized to flat in-room frequency response.
This is not how anechoically flat loudspeakers measure when placed in a room.

View attachment 77785

the bass boost wont happen in a treated room. and it doesn't happen in the room where music is produced. and it doesn't happen in a concert hall.
it doesn't sound natural/neutral...it isn't natural/neutral. Harmans "trained listeners" are just used to it; we all grew up with that unatural bass boost. it's ok, but it is not correct to call this natural or neutral. it's like calling light reflections on a TV screen neutral, just because we are used to it.
I am not saying people are wrong using a Harman curve; you don't discuss taste. But you are missing something with that boost, because every boost is an atenuation in the other frequencies.
also in practice the Harman boost is kind of an average of home room boosts. as if you average the size of all rooms. we are know that our rooms differ a lot in size and shapes. how much sense makes it to replicate an average bass boost? it would make much more sense to maintain the meassured boost in a room and just make the curve more even. then you would have to replicate you personal boost in your heaphones.


anyways. I am giving up on discussing this stuff here. It's a tribal thing
 
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lashto

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the bass boost wont happen in a treated room. and it doesn't happen in the room where music is produced. and it doesn't happen in a concert hall.
it doesn't sound natural/neutral...it isn't natural/neutral. Harmans "trained listeners" are just used to it; we all grew up with that unatural bass boost. it's ok, but it is not correct to call this natural or neutral. it's like calling light reflections on a TV screen neutral, just because we are used to it.
I am not saying people are wrong using a Harman curve; you don't discuss taste. But you are missing something with that boost, because every boost is an atenuation in the other frequencies.
also in practice the Harman boost is kind of an average of home room boosts. as if you average the size of all rooms. we are know that our rooms differ a lot in size and shapes. how much sense makes it to replicate an average bass boost? it would make much more sense to maintain the meassured boost in a room and just make the curve more even. then you would have to replicate you personal boost in your heaphones.


anyways. I am giving up on discussing this stuff here. It's a tribal thing
AFAIK, the Harman curve is not supposed to be 100% neutral, there is quite a bit of 'preference' included in there. Particularly in the bass area.
Also the HPs/inears do need a bit of bass boost because they do not have chest-thump feeling of the speaker-bass.
 

'Tusk'

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Oluv is great he does honest subjective listening just to prove to you that a iphone 6 sounds identical to a $1 million DAC

I can also concur my S7 Edge phone sounds identical to my previous topping D30 and Liquid Spark Amp
 

Jimbob54

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Oluv is great he does honest subjective listening just to prove to you that a iphone 6 sounds identical to a $1 million DAC

I can also concur my S7 Edge phone sounds identical to my previous topping D30 and Liquid Spark Amp

Im not sure one person doing subjective listening proves anything to anybody.
 

'Tusk'

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Im not sure one person doing subjective listening proves anything to anybody.

ooh but it is, the happiest day of my life is after 5 long months someone finally responded to my post for my D30 and Liquid Spark and I got back 80% of the money I spent. Ooh boy was I happy considering there was 0 difference between that D30 / Spark and my Xonar DG $30 sound card and my Samsung S7 Edge Qualcomm.

Everything else is confirmation bias and nothing more.

Although my current MSI Gaming Plus B450 motherboard the onboard sound is HOT GARBAGE and you can tell although you really have to listen to hear how inferior it is. If you can't tell the difference between 2 devices in a blind test then you are being scammed.
 

Jimbob54

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ooh but it is, the happiest day of my life is after 5 long months someone finally responded to my post for my D30 and Liquid Spark and I got back 80% of the money I spent. Ooh boy was I happy considering there was 0 difference between that D30 / Spark and my Xonar DG $30 sound card and my Samsung S7 Edge Qualcomm.

Everything else is confirmation bias and nothing more.

Although my current MSI Gaming Plus B450 motherboard the onboard sound is HOT GARBAGE and you can tell although you really have to listen to hear how inferior it is. If you can't tell the difference between 2 devices in a blind test then you are being scammed.

I think you need to reframe that argument a little . It mostly depends what you are trying to drive with any given equipment. A 600 ohm over ear headphone is different to a 32 ohm IEM in terms of power requirements and therefore engineering complexity.
 

'Tusk'

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^ Well yeah my headphone is a HD 58x Jubilee so it can drive really easy on just about anything. It is such an efficient headphone it truly is something
 

dasdoing

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AFAIK, the Harman curve is not supposed to be 100% neutral, there is quite a bit of 'preference' included in there. Particularly in the bass area.

that's more or less what I said


Also the HPs/inears do need a bit of bass boost because they do not have chest-thump feeling of the speaker-bass.

not so sure about that one. still haven't have the time to make a curve that matches my speakers, but it sure wont need a Harman bass
 
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lashto

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not so sure about that one. still haven't have the time to make a curve that matches my speakers, but it sure wont need a Harman bass
No need to DIY, just look at the latest review thread for the HP measurements gear. You have all the curves there, just adjust the bass part for your own taste and HPs
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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I've watched a bunch of Oluv's videos recently and I enjoy them. Also, another guy I found who is doing fairly in-depth reviews of bluetooth speakers - Alan Ross Reviews. Why does it seem that there's better reviews of bluetooth speakers on youtube than what the Steve Guttenbergs and John Darkos are doing for "real" speakers?
 

Zensō

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Why does it seem that there's better reviews of bluetooth speakers on youtube than what the Steve Guttenbergs and John Darkos are doing for "real" speakers?
I think what you're noticing is the difference between the highly subjective, overpriced audiophile world, and the more rational world of non-audiophiles who just want to listen to music.
 
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amanieux

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Personally, I think the whole shape of the ear thing is a meaningless concern. Our ears may all be different, but our hearing systems are all tuned to the same baseline - aka the world around us. We live our entire lives with our ears hearing the sounds of reality and our brains adapt to that so that the shape of our ears are essentially neutralized from the equation. To me it makes little sense to try and evaluate headphones based on the shape of an individual ear.
good question, i notice creative sxfi uses 3d head model from face/left + right ears photos in their android app ( http://nerdreactor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SXFI-face-mapping-800x419.jpg ) . is it useful or is it a marketing gimmick ? has someone info on that sxfi tech ?
 
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Frank Dernie

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Personally, I think the whole shape of the ear thing is a meaningless concern. Our ears may all be different, but our hearing systems are all tuned to the same baseline - aka the world around us. We live our entire lives with our ears hearing the sounds of reality and our brains adapt to that so that the shape of our ears are essentially neutralized from the equation. To me it makes little sense to try and evaluate headphones based on the shape of an individual ear.
This is certainly true of speakers which we listen to "naturally", with headphones the shape of the pinna has a big influence on the tiny acoustic environment it is trapped in, both from a change in volume and directivity pov. Even the skull shape around the ear makes a significant percentage change to the listening volume because it is so tiny.
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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This is certainly true of speakers which we listen to "naturally", with headphones the shape of the pinna has a big influence on the tiny acoustic environment it is trapped in, both from a change in volume and directivity pov. Even the skull shape around the ear makes a significant percentage change to the listening volume because it is so tiny.

Oh for sure. But again, it's individual for each person and each person has lived with that individuality their entire lives. The headphones are what they are. Essentially, to me it seems like measuring headphones in a fake ear is the same as measuring speakers in someone else's livingroom rather than anechoically.
 

Frank Dernie

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Oh for sure. But again, it's individual for each person and each person has lived with that individuality their entire lives. The headphones are what they are. Essentially, to me it seems like measuring headphones in a fake ear is the same as measuring speakers in someone else's livingroom rather than anechoically.
Maybe.
I just think no 2 people will get the same sound from the same set of headphones and we are not naturally used to listening to air pressure fluctuations in a tiny volume, rather than in the environment around us.
Mind you, whilst I have lots of headphones for some reason I don't like listening on them unless there is no other alternative.
 

NoSnakeOil2

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Oluv may be a bit testy at times, but he is honest in saying the limitations to his approach. He doesn't embellish his reviews with entertainment that have little to do with the headphones he's reviewing. There's a place for him in the more objective review and the Z reviews for sheer entertainment.
 

jmillar

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By the same token, Sundara sound too bright even listening though the warm LCD-3 and the neutral KH-310 to me, so it does tell me it's too bright for me.
Of course it's useful, we just have to "know our tools" and compare sound coming from the same trusted source that will maintain consistency.

But I have Sundara with A90 amp and it doesn't sound overly bright to me. Of all the headphones out there Sundara is one of the ones requiring the least EQ (I use none, myself) What Sundara has is weakish bass. It can be EQd if desired.
 
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