Balanced Armature speakers are faster right? But...

Actually, saying that a driver is fast has no real meaning, consider the 30Hz square wave, it's composed of it fundamental frequency f, 3f, 5f... and by the its 10th tenth harmonic 21f = 630 Hz, it does really look like a square ware. Any driver can do a 630 Hz without straining.

Note how both the driver respond to the step function accurately, they both shoot up, how they behave afterwards is more a function of the restoring force (actually the damping factor). A ood step response at 30 HZ is more depends more on how the driver behaves with DC.

On the other hand a step function almost never occurs in natural music, so while being able to reproduce denotes a well designed driver, it doesn't means that the driver will sound more accurate at low frequencies.My best guess is that a good square response at low frequencies indicate that the drivers reproduce bass texture accurately. Still I think that the driver no oscillating under there 0 line is the absolute criterion to what the bass is concerned.
Edited by khaos974 - 7/25/11 at 8:31pm

Assumption 1: "The HD800's are regarded as one of the top headphones in terms of detail"

 True, though sometimes all it takes is a frequency-specific emphasis to make it seem that way.

 

Assumption 2: "looking at the graph above, the SE535's and SE310's which both utilize balanced armature technology respond to the 50hz square wave response faster than the HD800's"

 No and I don't see how you are inferring that from the graph. If you mean that there's a difference on the x-axis between the samples, that's only because it would be really annoying and useless to have to line up each headphone's data just right. There are marked differences in the magnitude of the leading edges and the geometry of their decay, but those shouldn't really be boiled down as a faster/slower thing.

 

Conclusion: "This then means those IEM's are capable of producing a more detailed sound than the HD800's, because they can respond to the amplifier's signal faster."

 No, this would be wrong even if the second assumption were true.

 

Instead of picking small bits of data to arbitrate competing preconceptions, ask yourself, what made you come to think of them in the first place?

Consider the two Shure measurements.  Are they equally detailed?  If not then perhaps you're using the wrong measurement.  That can't even be used to ascertain bass quality either.  Consider how the bass of the Shures are presented compared to the 56mm HD800 driver when properly amped.  No contest.  Surely detail retrieval must be a combination of variables and corresponding measurements.

 

Edited by BlackbeardBen - 7/26/11 at 1:17pm

detail doesn't equate to speed. You can have a diaphragm moving fast but not reproducing everything.

 

also square wave tell us nothing about harmonic distortion. frequency may bleed into one another with complex pieces reducing detail

 

armatures tend to roll off at both ends. newer vented armature have better frequency response at cost of speed/detail

 

 

multiple armature is suppose to solve both off these flaws.

I'd take the bass on the Shures myself...

That's okay.  Not everyone who's heard the HD800 has actually heard the HD800.    I'm still waiting on my amp so the HD800 sits around most of the time.  I can count on one hand the number of BA IEMs I've heard that can do natural sounding bass to my ears.  No Shures BAs among them.  

 

Woops, forgot.  I'm just supposed to link this or the Earth will cease it's rotation.  

 

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD800.pdf    

 

Well, I'd take the ES5's bass over the HD800's too if that makes you feel any better.

That would be one of the handful of IEMs, heh.  You might be surprised what the HD800 can do down there though if you ask the driver to stretch it's legs.  I was shocked doing an AB next to the LCD2.  Anywho, OT and all that.  Apologies.

 

Yeah.  I remember you saying that in another thread and I liked the ES5 demo quite a bit as well.  I don't think its not really that off topic though.

 

Well, my liking how something sounds could be a problem for some.  I don't have a graph of the HD800 hooked up to a Super 7.

 

 

If we had an curve of its output impedance we could calculate the FR.  The super 7 is an OTL right?  Based on the HD800's impedance I could see it adding a few dB to the mid bass and a little less to the high treble.  It will have a different damping factor too which might be enough to affect how the bass is heard as well.

It is not OTL.  Craig is sorting the transformers atm.  I was told output Z was said to be 3-5ohms depending.  I believe that's from the 6.3.  Not sure about anything else.  I'm also not sure how much deviation there will be from the production model and the prototype at the meet.  Only thing I can add is it used 6 Russian Tung-Sol 6SN7s and a NOS black gate driver I believe.       

 

Edited by Anaxilus - 7/26/11 at 5:22pm

That changes things.  With Zout that low that amp shouldn't have much effect on FR or damping factor unless the rest of it is "tweaked" in a rather strange way.

 

Some proper measurements would be nice.  I'd like some hard data correlating them to euphonics.