PEQdB Diamond Target Curve - New Stanford white paper

[Chagall]

He did a shootout and people chose his target over others. It is funny when some targets in the community get destroyed in the shootouts that people vote for on his website. But there is a suspicious pattern that every target he makes gets top rated over everything especially when they have been wildly different.

Looks like a typical showroom tuning - big bass and sparkly highs. Sounds impressive in a quick demo so no wonder it "wins".

 

[Apples]

Looks like a typical showroom tuning - big bass and sparkly highs. Sounds impressive in a quick demo so no wonder it "wins".

View attachment 543480

His target is Knowles with the 10khz hole filled in. He wants to steal the credibility of both harman and Knowles kinda like Knowles piggybacked on harman for credibility lol

And before you give him credit for filling in the hole. He stole that from the endgame target that did well in shootouts

 

[nereis]

Sharur recommends the US$13 AKG EO-IG 955, which he prefers over any other IEM because of its much lower occlusion effects compared to conventional IEMs.

I have the ia500 variant, bought mine from local retailor, tiny white paper box, assume is genuine.

They are good as in have good bandwidth, I can hear sine sweep from 20hz to about 13khz at low volume, and up to 14.5khz if I turn up the treble volume, frequency response is not peaky and responds well to EQ, just 2 or 3 bands can make them sound better than stock, but that is probably more about EQing to fit my anatomy/ear response not criticism of stock tuning.

They are good but I don't really see why they are technically superior to another set of well designed/built dynamic driver iem. I can get a good fit with larger silicone tips in shallow insertion, I find the stiffer ones maintain better seal, never tried Spinfit tips. Did try wearing them backwards, only seems to help loop cable over ear to reduce microphonic effect when moving around, if sedentary I prefer to wear earphones cable down. There can be so much variation in people between preferred sound/anatomy/fit, I can say what worked best for me, but I doubt it is also best for everyone else.

Coming from Etymotic I am not the least bothered by occlusion effect, honestly not sure why having no occlusion effect is going to make music sound superior, if anything I should prefer to have passive isolation and reduced ambient noise...?

 

[Mocie]

How are we supposed to know he hasn't manipulated results or otherwise conducted the studies in a manner unbefitting of an unbiased scientific endeavor? We can't, because he has a years-long history of being a dishonest troll who's perfectly happy to say complete bullshit just to spite others. So no one should take him seriously.

When is the AKG review? I see the Samsungs on your Squig, so I'm assuming you actually have looked into the claims he's making.

 

[RogerSmith]

Saurav Chala aka Sharur has made a nice YouTube video in which he introduces his Stanford Master Thesis.

So the standards to get a Master´s degree at Stanford do not seem to be that high...

 

[Apples]

So the standards to get a Master´s degree at Stanford do not seem to be that high...

He did attend his graduation shirtless afrerall

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

The ultimate headphone target research paper" ... "MUST READ"

Any time I see “must read” I’m inclined not to read. If it’s in caps, then for sure I won’t read it

 

[Apples]

When is the AKG review? I see the Samsungs on your Squig, so I'm assuming you actually have looked into the claims he's making.

I told him about the samsungs several years ago. they are good. They're essentially their buds pro line just wired and cheap as dirt. The treble is pretty good even with tips and eq theres better chifi for 100+ but for 15 dollars its a steal and a learning experience for many if you measure them yourself. Its the ultimate nerd project for audio enthusiasts and as a business major he is milking it hard. He offers customers the knowledge of tips changing the sound, that price means nothing in the iem world, that 2 drivers is sufficient for bass and treble support (although ive seen single driver iems smoother but having similar 8khz peak problems), instructions on how to buy measuring tools and tune the iem, etc. This is more than most iems offer along with their products.

 

[listener650]

When is the AKG review? I see the Samsungs on your Squig, so I'm assuming you actually have looked into the claims he's making.

I measured these years ago bc a friend had em, no reason other than that (and no plans to review them or the AKG version).

 

[ruben1]

Looks like a typical showroom tuning - big bass and sparkly highs. Sounds impressive in a quick demo so no wonder it "wins".

View attachment 543480

If it sounds impressive then what is the issue? Why would anyone want to listen to something that doesn't sound impressive?

Also a quick demo will always sound the same as listening to the same gear after 1000 hours. The sound doesn't change. If it sounds good once it will always sound good

 

[ruben1]

There is a basic assumption we all make for any researcher undertaking a scientific endeavor—the assumption of good faith & honesty in reporting results.

IMO we cannot extend this assumption to Sharur given his history of pathological dishonesty. He has contradicted himself, spouted misinformation, and lied so consistently over such a long time period that it's impossible to trust anything he says or does.

How are we supposed to know he hasn't manipulated results or otherwise conducted the studies in a manner unbefitting of an unbiased scientific endeavor? We can't, because he has a years-long history of being a dishonest troll who's perfectly happy to say complete bullshit just to spite others. So no one should take him seriously.

I'm sure if he knew back then that people would remember his childish behavior and that would mean it was virtually impossible to take any of his future "scientific" endeavors seriously, he'd have thought twice about making his whole online persona "edgy overconfident jerk." Some bells can't be unrung.

In what way does his online personality matter? This thread is about audio quality.
Also you can't really fake the results for a target curve. If it sounds good then it sounds good.
Let's say that the results are completely fake for the target curve comparison. Then don't look at it. Look at the target curve and listen to it. It sounds so much better than JM1 + tilt or whatever is the "meta". Literally listen to the target curve and evaluate what you think about it instead of attacking his personality.

 

[Garfunkiest]

If it sounds impressive then what is the issue? Why would anyone want to listen to something that doesn't sound impressive?

Also a quick demo will always sound the same as listening to the same gear after 1000 hours. The sound doesn't change. If it sounds good once it will always sound good

Listening fatigue.

 

[ruben1]

Listening fatigue.

I get absolutely zero listening fatigue when using the peqdb diamond target. With any other target for any headphone for longer times I get listening fatigue, if the response is too off from peqdb diamond

I can listen at higher volumes than i can with other targets because of how neutral and transparent it sounds.

Listen to the target

 

[Tell]

Looks like a typical showroom tuning - big bass and sparkly highs. Sounds impressive in a quick demo so no wonder it "wins".

View attachment 543480

Half a second look and it's obvious that this will sound crap, but I wouldn't expect anything else from Sharur, he's an idiot and a troll.

 

[ruben1]

Half a second look and it's obvious that this will sound crap, but I wouldn't expect anything else from Sharur, he's an idiot and a troll.

Try to listen to it without bias.
You can have the opinion that he is a troll but why would be listen to crap sound on purpose?

 

[Mocie]

In what way does his online personality matter? This thread is about audio quality.

Listener and co also don't believe in reviewing or discussing the Verum 2 because the creator is an edgelord, something several users on this forum tried to persuade Amir to follow.

THS make great content, but I can't take you seriously as a "scientist" if you're letting stuff like that dissuade you from giving a genuine analysis on what is considered the lowest distortion planar in the game. Amir handled the topic with grace at the time.

I shudder thinking about what we'd be missing out on if Olive and co said mean words once on the internet based on the kvetching about several people in the space. Voting with your wallet is more than acceptable, but neglecting science isn't.

 

[Garfunkiest]

I get absolutely zero listening fatigue when using the peqdb diamond target. With any other target for any headphone for longer times I get listening fatigue, if the response is too off from peqdb diamond

I can listen at higher volumes than i can with other targets because of how neutral and transparent it sounds.

Listen to the target

I'm good, I'm sensitive to sibilance and this has way too much energy in the 6-8k region, even Harman around 6k is too much for me, so I can already tell this would get painful real quickly.

 

[gzost]

In what way does his online personality matter? This thread is about audio quality.
Also you can't really fake the results for a target curve. If it sounds good then it sounds good.
Let's say that the results are completely fake for the target curve comparison. Then don't look at it. Look at the target curve and listen to it. It sounds so much better than JM1 + tilt or whatever is the "meta". Literally listen to the target curve and evaluate what you think about it instead of attacking his personality.

Since he is a troll and cannot be trusted all we have is you reporting that you like this target curve, i.e. n=1, and in sighted listening at that. Since we all have different HRTFs and tastes that is not really useful data.

To add my own anecdote, for me JM-1 sounds quite neutral up to 3 kHz, after which I like to add a little raise that extends to around 6 kHz. For me that improves instrument placement at the expense of everything becoming a bit hyper-detailed and "glassy".

 

[ruben1]

Listener and co also don't believe in reviewing or discussing the Verum 2 because the creator is an edgelord, something several users on this forum tried to persuade Amir to follow.

THS make great content, but I can't take you seriously as a "scientist" if you're letting stuff like that dissuade you from giving a genuine analysis on what is considered the lowest distortion planar in the game. Amir handled the topic with grace at the time.

I shudder thinking about what we'd be missing out on if Olive and co said mean words once on the internet based on the kvetching about several people in the space. Voting with your wallet is more than acceptable, but neglecting science isn't.

I agree

 

[ruben1]

I'm good, I'm sensitive to sibilance and this has way too much energy in the 6-8k region, even Harman around 6k is too much for me, so I can already tell this would get painful real quickly.

As you can see here, peqdb diamond doesn't have a 6khz peak like Harman ie 2019 does.

Your method of listening to these targets is very important. If you use a headphone with strong peaks and dips in the treble it will be very difficult to EQ it to any of these targets.
Also if your measurements are too smoother out, and you boost treble to hit the target, then you will many times miss these strong peaks.
It also matters how you EQ them. If you just do squig.link autoeq, it will try to remove the peaks and dips in the treble even though those vary from user to user. Instead use peqdb autoeq which retains the treble quality.
I thought I was sensitive to the 6-8khz until I experimented with the peqdb diamond target curve and headphones that are even in the treble and have good extension.