This is a review, listening test, EQ and detailed measurements of the Panasonic RP-HT16. It is on kind loan from a member and goes for US $8 to $10 on auction sites.
I am told this is the headphone that was bundled with likes of discman in the olden days when those products were popular. The RP-HT16 naturally weighs very little and was very comfortable to wear during my testing.
Fitment of the on-ear headphones on a measurement fixture is tricky as there is no clear guidelines for where it should land on the artificial ear. Lack of a sealed enclosure means bass response is not going to be there (same is true for listening). So accept the following measurements as grossly accurate but not in the micro detail.
If you are new to my headphone measurements, please watch this video first.
Panasonic RP-HT16 Headphone Measurements
As usual, let's start with our headphone frequency response measurement:
Wow, it is hard to miss that massive peak at 2.6 kHz. It stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. You will notice its impact in just about every measurement you are about to see. Outside of that we lack bass as noted and treble energy between 4 kHz and 10 kHz. EQ will therefore be mandatory to pull this headphone out of the gutter:
Clearly this headphone is not meant to play loud:
Even at 94 dBSPL, we have distortion rising to 1% between 1.5 and 3 kHz. Fortunately we will be using EQ to pull some of that region down so that should help.
You can see the correlation of distortion and frequency response quite well in absolute distortion measurements:
Whoever says distortion measurements are not instructive in testing headphones needs to take a look at the RP-HT16.
Our friendly resonance also shows up in group delay:
And even in impedance graph:
The RP-16 was also surprisingly insensitive for this class of headphone:
Still, you should be able to get decent volume out of typical portable device.
Panasonic RP-HT16 Listening Tests and Equalization
I usually stop listening to my everyday music and go to my reference test tracks for testing headphones/speakers. But here, I was in the middle of a nice album and thought I just disconnect my Dan Clark Stealth headphones and switch to Panasonic RP-HT16. I forget the track/album but I will never forget that I heard the worst sound out of any headphone I have tested! Not only was the tonality wrong but there was this streaky/scratchy lower treble that completely ruined any enjoyment to be had out of that track. The measurement foretold a bad response but hearing it was a completely different matter. So out came the EQ tool:
The low hanging fruit was that resonance so I installed filter Band 2. The difference was incredible! Gone was the screechy distortion and very odd tonality. You could stop there and congratulate yourself for a job well done. But the the sound was now dull and not exciting. I attempted to pull up the bass and it basically did nothing to help there but add some distortion at higher levels. So changed the shelving filter for band 1 to a PEQ and just rose it enough until I got some warmth and then stopped.
There was a bit of boominess that filter 5 took care of. The sound was made more open using 6.5 kHz filter with 1 kHz band 4 adding a bit of salt to our mix.
Once there, the headphone was transformed with nigh and day difference. You could almost call it high-fi!
FYI the resonance needs content to hit it. In the middle of testing someone sent me a youtube clip to listen to (which doesn't go through my EQ set). That did not hit on the resonance and the sound even without EQ was fine. This is why it is critical to listen to the right material to test speakers/headphones.
And oh, good luck knowing about that resonance at 2.6 kHz by just listening. No way you would know the problem and of course, how to fix it with EQ. In my book, listening to speakers/headphones without benefit of measurements is just wrong.
Conclusions
I can see how the RP-HT16 would need to cost $2 to $3 to make leaving a budget of a few pennies for each driver. Still, I wish a bit of work had gone into fixing that nasty resonance. That alone would have made a dramatic improvement in the clarity and tonality of this headphone. Fortunately we have EQ tools and pulling down a resonance not only fixes the frequency response, but also drastically reduces distortion. Result is more clarity and better tonality. Compliance with our target required a few more filters. Once there, you could sit back and enjoy these dirt cheap headphones comfortably.
Not that you would want to rush and buy these but sticking to protocol, I can't recommend the Panasonic RP-HT16.
---------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
If you have audio gear you want me to review, please read this post: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/we-measure-audio-equipment-for-free.1995/
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I am told this is the headphone that was bundled with likes of discman in the olden days when those products were popular. The RP-HT16 naturally weighs very little and was very comfortable to wear during my testing.
Fitment of the on-ear headphones on a measurement fixture is tricky as there is no clear guidelines for where it should land on the artificial ear. Lack of a sealed enclosure means bass response is not going to be there (same is true for listening). So accept the following measurements as grossly accurate but not in the micro detail.
If you are new to my headphone measurements, please watch this video first.
Panasonic RP-HT16 Headphone Measurements
As usual, let's start with our headphone frequency response measurement:
Wow, it is hard to miss that massive peak at 2.6 kHz. It stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. You will notice its impact in just about every measurement you are about to see. Outside of that we lack bass as noted and treble energy between 4 kHz and 10 kHz. EQ will therefore be mandatory to pull this headphone out of the gutter:
Clearly this headphone is not meant to play loud:
Even at 94 dBSPL, we have distortion rising to 1% between 1.5 and 3 kHz. Fortunately we will be using EQ to pull some of that region down so that should help.
You can see the correlation of distortion and frequency response quite well in absolute distortion measurements:
Whoever says distortion measurements are not instructive in testing headphones needs to take a look at the RP-HT16.
Our friendly resonance also shows up in group delay:
And even in impedance graph:
The RP-16 was also surprisingly insensitive for this class of headphone:
Still, you should be able to get decent volume out of typical portable device.
Panasonic RP-HT16 Listening Tests and Equalization
I usually stop listening to my everyday music and go to my reference test tracks for testing headphones/speakers. But here, I was in the middle of a nice album and thought I just disconnect my Dan Clark Stealth headphones and switch to Panasonic RP-HT16. I forget the track/album but I will never forget that I heard the worst sound out of any headphone I have tested! Not only was the tonality wrong but there was this streaky/scratchy lower treble that completely ruined any enjoyment to be had out of that track. The measurement foretold a bad response but hearing it was a completely different matter. So out came the EQ tool:
The low hanging fruit was that resonance so I installed filter Band 2. The difference was incredible! Gone was the screechy distortion and very odd tonality. You could stop there and congratulate yourself for a job well done. But the the sound was now dull and not exciting. I attempted to pull up the bass and it basically did nothing to help there but add some distortion at higher levels. So changed the shelving filter for band 1 to a PEQ and just rose it enough until I got some warmth and then stopped.
There was a bit of boominess that filter 5 took care of. The sound was made more open using 6.5 kHz filter with 1 kHz band 4 adding a bit of salt to our mix.
Once there, the headphone was transformed with nigh and day difference. You could almost call it high-fi!
FYI the resonance needs content to hit it. In the middle of testing someone sent me a youtube clip to listen to (which doesn't go through my EQ set). That did not hit on the resonance and the sound even without EQ was fine. This is why it is critical to listen to the right material to test speakers/headphones.
And oh, good luck knowing about that resonance at 2.6 kHz by just listening. No way you would know the problem and of course, how to fix it with EQ. In my book, listening to speakers/headphones without benefit of measurements is just wrong.
Conclusions
I can see how the RP-HT16 would need to cost $2 to $3 to make leaving a budget of a few pennies for each driver. Still, I wish a bit of work had gone into fixing that nasty resonance. That alone would have made a dramatic improvement in the clarity and tonality of this headphone. Fortunately we have EQ tools and pulling down a resonance not only fixes the frequency response, but also drastically reduces distortion. Result is more clarity and better tonality. Compliance with our target required a few more filters. Once there, you could sit back and enjoy these dirt cheap headphones comfortably.
Not that you would want to rush and buy these but sticking to protocol, I can't recommend the Panasonic RP-HT16.
---------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
If you have audio gear you want me to review, please read this post: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/we-measure-audio-equipment-for-free.1995/
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
