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"You can See how headphones sound"

_thelaughingman

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Crinacle uploaded a good infotorial video on how to read graphs on six basic levels when it comes to “seeing how headphones sound”, based on graphs. It's a good, dumbed down version of explaining the various nuances and subtleties in headphone measurements and graphs.


 

ZolaIII

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You can only see what you could expect and only if you have experience (training). What you don't see and because 90% of measurements are not complete is impulse response and ISO 226 (newer 2003 - 2009) normalization equal loudness level's. When you take those in consideration the so called curves become hilarious. Even when there is all there measurement deviations will be present both from used gear (measurement and simulation system) and from variations on mesured product side.
Didn't watch the video, unfortunately did read the article.
In the end you really need to listen to them without prejudice and pretentious (which is actually hard).
 

lawk

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I cant read bass texture, (sometimes bloom), speed, dynamics, grain, sparkle, imaging, soundstage from headphones.

Graphs are nice, ear is king.
 

Merkurio

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I cant read bass texture, (sometimes bloom), speed, dynamics, grain, sparkle, imaging, soundstage from headphones.

Graphs are nice, ear is king.

At least half of those terms don't even have an established consensus of what they are (or stand for) at the level of what we hear.

¿What is a "grainy" sound? ¿A "sparkle" one? ¿How a "speedy and dynamic" headphone should sounds like? ¿How do we know that all of this stuff it's not already determined by measurements?
 

lawk

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You are correct, there is not always a consensus, or other elements of objectivity to it.

But if you can perceive differences for yourself thats sort of enough.

A 7506 is grainy, many titanium plated drivers have textured bass, biocell drivers sound more organic

These are qualities that exist to me, and cannot be identified by FR alone. (In many cases)
 

Merkurio

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You are correct, there is not always a consensus, or other elements of objectivity to it.

But if you can perceive differences for yourself thats sort of enough.

A 7506 is grainy, many titanium plated drivers have textured bass, biocell drivers sound more organic

These are qualities that exist to me, and cannot be identified by FR alone. (In many cases)
Maybe they can be identified and we not figure it out yet (certain interactions in the FR spectrum producing those qualities, like the HD800 with their magic soundstage vanishing if you EQ down the upper-treble region), maybe they're other factors implied such as the distortion and group delay plus the FR... :)

That's the point of measurements, consensus and overall science, we're beings whose brains are easily manipulated (ever more so in the realm of psychoacoustics) and we need a point of reference in order to know what is real and what only exists in our brains.
 

lawk

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Air region treble is good for staging, I thought that is less controversial?

It would be epic if all of it was quantifiable and could be visualised.

But sometimes blind studies in science are the way to go for less chance of bias.

Some people are often seeing the graph and then explain how the headphone sounds exactly like that. Which in my opinion just isnt the case sometimes.
 

Earfonia

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This is how I 'read' IEM frequency response graph:

M00 EITC-2021 v2 - 1920px.png
 

makinao

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"Anything that measures like Harman should sound good .... theoretically." I disagree. The Harman curve represents the preferred sonic characteristics of headphones among listeners surveyed in a 2013 Harman Corporation study. "Good" and "preference" are not the same thing.
 

Vict0r

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"Anything that measures like Harman should sound good .... theoretically." I disagree. The Harman curve represents the preferred sonic characteristics of headphones among listeners surveyed in a 2013 Harman Corporation study. "Good" and "preference" are not the same thing.
He has a pretty thorough disclaimer about this. It sounds good to him. He prefers the Harman curve.
 

Blockader

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Maybe they can be identified and we not figure it out yet (certain interactions in the FR spectrum producing those qualities, like the HD800 with their magic soundstage vanishing if you EQ down the upper-treble region), maybe they're other factors implied such as the distortion and group delay plus the FR... :)

That's the point of measurements, consensus and overall science, we're beings whose brains are easily manipulated (ever more so in the realm of psychoacoustics) and we need a point of reference in order to know what is real and what only exists in our brains.
Without understanding how auditory masking works, I don't think understanding tonality and detail from FR is possible. Group delay/excess phase is also something people should take under consideration more rather than *biodynas have better bass, titanium sounds more textured* etc.
 
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