HD800s are painful. - Page 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by B0b 

 

I would be highly curious to know what DAC/AMP could lower down this brightness and, if so, how significantly.

Tubes will roll off the highs.

Contrary to popular opinion 70dB in a headphone is pretty loud.  I rest my dB meter on the wire mesh, B and slow setting, play something that is mixed at 0dB and set it to 70dB.  The problem as said is the massive ear piece means bass goes away unnaturally fast and you get an overall feeling of lower dB, so you turn it up but the treble comes along.  Its why I find the 800 great for simple music with lots of dynamics but not for wall of sound types.  Lesser amps actually have more bass content presumably because they aren't as capable at getting the drivers to stop.  So the Concerto is more punchy and bloomy than the b22 but in comparison sounds one notey.  

BOb:

Use white noise to test. 

Also test SPL (ESPECIALLY if you are measuring music!) using C-weighting.

Average speech is in the 60db range. put the headphones on, set them to that level and measure. have a few co-workers talk at a comfortable level for them at a few ft range.

As another method: measure something totally different :) stand in front of your car and have someone honk the horn for example. at 3ft from the bumper the SPL should be well in excess of 80db.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acix 

Tubes will roll off the highs.

Sorry, no.

If the amplifier has rolled off highs it is because it has rolled off highs. There is no (none) inherent reason that tube amps roll off highs as a rule. 

If the designer of the amp did not take precautions to maintain wide bandwidth ANYTHING (SS too) can have rolled off highs before 20Khz.