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How to read a frequency graph?

post #1 of 10
10/19/10 at 12:43am
Thread Starter 

for fun i looked at hd555 and ad700.  people say ad700 has more bass, and the 555s are for sure weak on bass.

 

but at http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php

 

The graphs show the 555s way higher at the low end, yet they have less bass... im lost.

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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Sennheiser HD 555 Headphones
Audio Technica ATH-AD700
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post #2 of 10
10/19/10 at 12:52am

Who says HD555's have less then AD700?

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post #3 of 10
10/19/10 at 12:57am

You are looking at AHD7000, not the AD700.

 

I don't think I've ever heard anyone that said AD700 has more bass than the HD555.

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post #4 of 10
10/19/10 at 12:58am

The frequency response curve essentially tells you the level of of the output you would get if you gave it an input that was of equal magnitude and also contained all possible frequencies. So really, rather than looking at the absolute value of the magnitude of a frequency response curve, you should look at the relative portions of the graphs. In the case of the HD555s however, I suspect something different is at work. Specfically, if you look instead of at the frequency response curve, at the Impedance vs. frequency curve, you can see that the HD555s have a signifcant impedance spike in the bass range. What this effectively means is that relative to other frequencies, your player has to put a lot more power into the low frequencies in order to maintain the same level of current flowing to the driver. This will result in 'quieter' bass, as there are very few players (I would suspect) that will have THAT much more emphasis on the low end output than on the mids or highs.

 

Comparatively, the AH-D7000's impedance graph is flat, meaning you can essentially neglect it and look only at the frequency response curve.

 

Hope I was of some help, feel free to PM me or something if you didn't quite understand my explanation... I'm a little delerious from not enough sleep because of lab reports XD =D

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post #5 of 10
10/19/10 at 1:31am
Thread Starter 

Anomaly10 thank you that made perfect sense.

 

Guys, I was not looking at AHD700, and I searched the forum as to which headphones had more bass and most said ad700 had more than 555.  These 2 were not the only ones i compared, i also compared the 555s to the 202s which i owned both, and my 202s have 10 times the bass, but the graph didn't show this, of course Anomaly10 explained why this is. 

 

I found a post of someone who compared the 555s to the 595s and said the differences were from the 555s smaller drivers, and of course we now know the 555s and 595s use the same driver... lol. 

 

but some said 555s bass was more than ad700's,. that probably wasnt the best comparison to use but Anomaly10 answered my question anyway, and thanks for the help guys.

 

Edit - Looking at the impendance/freq graph, seems all Sennheisers are like the 555s, with that spike in the low frequencies, is that considered a flaw? I would think thats a major flaw in the headphones, or does that not matter with a proper amp?


Edited by matmal - 10/19/10 at 1:44am
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post #6 of 10
10/19/10 at 11:55pm

slightly OT, but have anybody been wondering why is it the frequency interval uneven? what does it mean?

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post #7 of 10
10/20/10 at 12:15am
Thread Starter 

yea i was wondering that actually, the ticks from 10 to 100 to 10,000 are not evenly spaced.

 

I dont get it because there is a lot of space between say, 0-10-20-30 (which dont matter that much) so i dont see why it isnt just evenly spaced, i cant imagine it would make the graph look any different...

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post #8 of 10
10/20/10 at 12:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by miku39 View Post

slightly OT, but have anybody been wondering why is it the frequency interval uneven? what does it mean?





Quote:
Originally Posted by matmal View Post

yea i was wondering that actually, the ticks from 10 to 100 to 10,000 are not evenly spaced.

 

I dont get it because there is a lot of space between say, 0-10-20-30 (which dont matter that much) so i dont see why it isnt just evenly spaced, i cant imagine it would make the graph look any different...



Because that is a semi-log graph, i.e. one of the axes (the x-axis in this case) is in logarithmic scale, while the other axis (y-axis in this case) is regularly scaled.

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post #9 of 10
2/4/11 at 1:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by matmal View Post

Anomaly10 thank you that made perfect sense.

Guys, I was not looking at AHD700, and I searched the forum as to which headphones had more bass and most said ad700 had more than 555. These 2 were not the only ones i compared, i also compared the 555s to the 202s which i owned both, and my 202s have 10 times the bass, but the graph didn't show this, of course Anomaly10 explained why this is.

I found a post of someone who compared the 555s to the 595s and said the differences were from the 555s smaller drivers, and of course we now know the 555s and 595s use the same driver... lol.

but some said 555s bass was more than ad700's,. that probably wasnt the best comparison to use but Anomaly10 answered my question anyway, and thanks for the help guys.

Edit - Looking at the impendance/freq graph, seems all Sennheisers are like the 555s, with that spike in the low frequencies, is that considered a flaw? I would think thats a major flaw in the headphones, or does that not matter with a proper amp?


Edited by matmal - 10/19/10 at 1:44am



Now I understand more about it, It's very valuable, Thanks for your sharing! It is exactly what I need.
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post #10 of 10
2/4/11 at 4:32pm

Does anyone know how this Japanese guy gets his graphs?: http://www.geocities.jp/ryumatsuba/review.html

 

Those look a lot more like speaker FR graphs than the Headroom graphs do. They look actually readable and useful, whereas the Headroom graphs look illegible for anything other than relative comparisons between phones.

 

Granted, those Japanese ones use a big vertical scale that makes them look flatter, but still, they look legible and reasonably easy to interpret as opposed to headroom graphs which are all over the place for all headphones.

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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Sennheiser HD 555 Headphones
Audio Technica ATH-AD700
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