Hello all,
I have been getting into headphones thanks to this forum recently and am now looking into purchasing low distortion headphones.
Why distortion and not FR?
I like many have EQ available to tune a headphone to the Harman curve using either Amir or Oratory's settings, and would always use it. My own experience with DIY speakers lead me to the conclusion that low distortion at high SPL is the way to go there (I'm sure many will disagree, this is absolutely fine, but outside of the scope of this thread to start down)
So, I have spent some time with EQ and a set of Superlux HD681 phones with velour pads (thanks to Solderdude, and Oratory's EQ profile having a setting for velour pads!). The purpose was to get a grounding in what I like before spending significant money.
My preference is for more than Harman Curve bass levels, so I might be driving the chosen phones quite hard to get the bass up at high SPLs, other than that, the Harman 2018 curve is about right by my ear.
At the moment, I am also assuming somthing is lost when going over to closed headphones over open due to the reflections of the back-wave off the casing. Happy to be told I'm wrong, but as I have no specific need for closed headphones, I assume open would be better.
My ears are quite small, my hair is notably 'fine' and is cut short. Seal has not been an issue for me this far.
At the moment, top performing options I have found are the following:
Dan Clarke AEON RT: $500.00. Low distortion across the audio band (particularly low in the bass, extra points for doing this with above Harman target bass levels). Downside closed and not sure if they are angled drivers?
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-audio-aeon-rt-review-closed-headphone.19393/
Dan Clarke AEON open X. $500.00. not sure if they are angled drivers? I have not found any distortion data for these yet. I can only hope they are basically the AEON RT just with the back removed and hence possibly similar distortion levels..?
https://drop.com/buy/drop-dan-clark-audio-aeon-open-x
Audeze LCD-2F (Fazor): £749.00 0.2% in the mids and bass. 0.1% in the treble, Impressive. Considerable money. Not sure what this would offer over the Sundara unless it can handle more bass EQ without distorting.
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/audeze/lcd-2-fazor/
HIfiman Ananda: £504.32 Low distortion across the audio band (averaging 0.25%, peaking to 0.5%) and like the Dan Clarke Aeon RT, has low distortion in the bass range, but it appears that Dan Clarke has generally lower distortion levels over all. Some reports suggesting they distort when turned up loud compared to alternatives. Are they angled drivers?
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/ananda/
Hifiman Sundara £300.00. In many respects, this should be the winner. The current version is reported to have outstanding tracking of the Harman curve (see link), however, it shows a significant peak in 2nd harmonic distortion at 11khz. Does this matter being that you hear it at 22khz, and I'm only good out to 16.5khz with my hearing? probably not. How loud do they get? Do they distort if you EQ the bass up? Angled drivers (pad revision)
(see post 4 here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hifiman-sundara-vs-ananda.16627/
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/sundara/
Sennheiser HD650 £300.00. Very low distortion except for the bass which is probably to high for the headphone to be considered when the lower bass requires so much EQ to get to my preferred levels.. Do not have angled drivers. Bass distortion can be lowered a tad by dampening resonances in the headphone with Dynamat.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/sennheiser-hd650-review-headphone.18774/
How to lower distortion for this headphone: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...d650-dynamat-mods-proof-that-its-not-bs.2098/
So the first questions are:
1) How well does the Sundara take to high SPL and the bass EQ'ed up to above the Harman target?
2) Is the Ananda significantly more capable of being driven from a phone to good SPLs than the Sundara?
3) Does anyone have any information on the Dan Clarke AEON open X distortion levels?
4) Unless the answer to 1 is 'not well as it cannot handle much EQ' I'm not sure what the real value of the Ananda is over the Sundara. Am I missing somthing?
Any other advice is welcome!
I have been getting into headphones thanks to this forum recently and am now looking into purchasing low distortion headphones.
Why distortion and not FR?
I like many have EQ available to tune a headphone to the Harman curve using either Amir or Oratory's settings, and would always use it. My own experience with DIY speakers lead me to the conclusion that low distortion at high SPL is the way to go there (I'm sure many will disagree, this is absolutely fine, but outside of the scope of this thread to start down)
So, I have spent some time with EQ and a set of Superlux HD681 phones with velour pads (thanks to Solderdude, and Oratory's EQ profile having a setting for velour pads!). The purpose was to get a grounding in what I like before spending significant money.
My preference is for more than Harman Curve bass levels, so I might be driving the chosen phones quite hard to get the bass up at high SPLs, other than that, the Harman 2018 curve is about right by my ear.
At the moment, I am also assuming somthing is lost when going over to closed headphones over open due to the reflections of the back-wave off the casing. Happy to be told I'm wrong, but as I have no specific need for closed headphones, I assume open would be better.
My ears are quite small, my hair is notably 'fine' and is cut short. Seal has not been an issue for me this far.
At the moment, top performing options I have found are the following:
Dan Clarke AEON RT: $500.00. Low distortion across the audio band (particularly low in the bass, extra points for doing this with above Harman target bass levels). Downside closed and not sure if they are angled drivers?
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-audio-aeon-rt-review-closed-headphone.19393/
Dan Clarke AEON open X. $500.00. not sure if they are angled drivers? I have not found any distortion data for these yet. I can only hope they are basically the AEON RT just with the back removed and hence possibly similar distortion levels..?
https://drop.com/buy/drop-dan-clark-audio-aeon-open-x
Audeze LCD-2F (Fazor): £749.00 0.2% in the mids and bass. 0.1% in the treble, Impressive. Considerable money. Not sure what this would offer over the Sundara unless it can handle more bass EQ without distorting.
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/audeze/lcd-2-fazor/
HIfiman Ananda: £504.32 Low distortion across the audio band (averaging 0.25%, peaking to 0.5%) and like the Dan Clarke Aeon RT, has low distortion in the bass range, but it appears that Dan Clarke has generally lower distortion levels over all. Some reports suggesting they distort when turned up loud compared to alternatives. Are they angled drivers?
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/ananda/
Hifiman Sundara £300.00. In many respects, this should be the winner. The current version is reported to have outstanding tracking of the Harman curve (see link), however, it shows a significant peak in 2nd harmonic distortion at 11khz. Does this matter being that you hear it at 22khz, and I'm only good out to 16.5khz with my hearing? probably not. How loud do they get? Do they distort if you EQ the bass up? Angled drivers (pad revision)
(see post 4 here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hifiman-sundara-vs-ananda.16627/
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/sundara/
Sennheiser HD650 £300.00. Very low distortion except for the bass which is probably to high for the headphone to be considered when the lower bass requires so much EQ to get to my preferred levels.. Do not have angled drivers. Bass distortion can be lowered a tad by dampening resonances in the headphone with Dynamat.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/sennheiser-hd650-review-headphone.18774/
How to lower distortion for this headphone: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...d650-dynamat-mods-proof-that-its-not-bs.2098/
So the first questions are:
1) How well does the Sundara take to high SPL and the bass EQ'ed up to above the Harman target?
2) Is the Ananda significantly more capable of being driven from a phone to good SPLs than the Sundara?
3) Does anyone have any information on the Dan Clarke AEON open X distortion levels?
4) Unless the answer to 1 is 'not well as it cannot handle much EQ' I'm not sure what the real value of the Ananda is over the Sundara. Am I missing somthing?
Any other advice is welcome!
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