T+A Solitaire P-SE

[Bow_Wazoo]

As many have already noticed,

T+A will launch new headphones at 25 January: Solitaire P-SE

https://www.ta-hifi.de/kopfhoerer/solitaire-kopfhoerer/solitaire-p-se/

I can't say much about the sound yet, as I want get the HP in 2 Weeks.
However, I wanted to ask in advance whether there is a program, with which I can find EQ settings according to the Hamann curve.

I would like to use this measurement diagram as a basis for this.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Unfortunately, because the measurement conditions are unknown, it's not possible to use that measurement to produce an EQ curve to meet the Harman target response.

There are basically two reasons for this. Firstly, it's not clear whether or not a compensation curve has already been applied (which is common for headphones, and appears probably to have been done here). And secondly, headphones measure radically differently depending on which measurement rig is used (because each rig has different dummy head and ear shapes/materials etc). So it's not really possible to use measurements from a rig other than the one Harman used (or similar).

FWIW, I looked up the Stereoplay website, but couldn't find any information about their measurement conditions or whether they use a compensation curve.

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

Oh, I see.

Is it possible to make a rough estimate using the diagram as to which settings amicu should make?

 

[andreasmaaan]

Oh, I see.

Is it possible to make a rough estimate using the diagram as to which settings amicu should make?

It would involve a lot of guesswork. If you assume that the measured response is based on some kind of compensation curve for the specific rig the headphones were measured on, you could begin by trying to EQ it flat. That may or may not be a good idea, but it's probably the best suggestion I can give you as a starting point, sorry...

 

[jacobacci]

Fidelio has done a review here. It sounds like the only place where EQ would add anything would be deep bass. Maybe just try a bit of low shelf below 100Hz

 

[smodtactical]

Did you get it?

 

[FrantzM]

MSRP?

 

[3125b]

MSRP seems to be 2800€.

The measurement shown above looks pretty much like the opposite of the Harman curve, wich makes me suspect that it was performed without an artificial pinna.

 

[chi2]

According to this article (https://www.pressreader.com/germany/stereoplay/20190712/281694026342269) the Stereoplay "Testlab" uses the 4153 by Brüel & Kjaer (https://www.bksv.com/-/media/literature/Product-Data/bp0265.ashx). The larger coupler for headphones (DB 0913) features a defined resonance volume of 6 cm^3 which corresponds to an ANSI/IEC norm for headphone measurement. This suggests results similar to those of a more human shaped artificial ear and, as a result, makes it necessary to apply a compensation function on the raw data in order to get a linear frequency response diagram.

Despite being all about headphone measurements, the article fails to mention if the graphs show raw data or data on which a correction curve has been applied.

The diagrams themselves look ambiguous. While the first one, for which no headphone name is given, looks like raw data, the one for the Audeze Sine seems to be the result of the application of a correction for pinna and ear canal gain in the upper mid frequencies. This is corroborated by the comment on the Audeze Sine which is said to have a very even frequency response.

No matter what rig and correction curve has been used for the T+A Solitaire P-SE chart printed in Stereoplay, I suggest using your own ears for correcting tonal balance and smoothing out any possible resonance peaks by listening to sine sweep tones. The perception of higher frequencies strongly depends on one's own size and shape of the pinna and inner ear and your ears may be quite different from the ones underlying any norm. Therefore, only you can optimize a headphone using eq.

Experience suggests that it is easier and gives better results to (somewhat) suppress strong resonance peaks than to fill in dips, especially if they are narrow. A strong increase of level in a certain frequency range may result in hearable distortion, easily making things worse than when leaving things uncorrected.