Quote:

maverickronin said:

The headphone isn't flat either, in other words, you are not listening to the original sound, but the sound you personally prefer.

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That's why I buy some expensive headphones with the most accurate flat response, such as HD800.
But of course, there's no such thing as a perfect headphone.  ---> Hi-end = Low distortion.
 
If u hv a nice head-fi/speaker setup, the ultimate aim is to produce the original sound with the least distortion.
Tuning EQ makes no sense in this case~

Some of you people are seriously confused about what "the original sound" is. There is no such thing as "original" except a live performance. ALL microphones, headphones, amps, etc. are colored in one way or another -- compounding so that what you hear is never going to be truly perfect. Every recording is going to be different, no recording is going to be perfect, etc. etc.
 
The closest way to have "the original sound" is in fact WITH an equalizer, not without -- and you would have to tune your EQ for every single individual song you have, because they're all different slightly.
 
Even if you just want a flat response from audio file to your ears, that's only possible with EQ also - because it's well known that no headphone is perfect. The only way to get a perfectly flat response is with EQ -- but often times people don't even care that much about flatness when sometimes a slight coloration is good for certain music.
 
This whole argument that "no EQ = original sound" is absolutely misguided and wrong, unless by "original sound" you refer to the coloration of your headphone and gear, rather than what a live performance would sound like.

Quote:

dennis said:

That's why I buy some expensive headphones with the most accurate flat response, such as HD800.
But of course, there's no such thing as a perfect headphone.  ---> Hi-end = Low distortion.
 
If u hv a nice head-fi/speaker setup, the ultimate aim is to produce the original sound with the least distortion.
Tuning EQ makes no sense in this case~

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Accurate compared to what?  The HD800's FR isn't particularly close to either free or diffuse field EQ which are closest defined targets for "accurate" headphone FR.

 
Quote:

achristilaw said:

 


  Well....it's not a good match. The qualities the phone can offer are smothered via the Slim. The space, focus and dynamics's are squelched using the small amp. I used the "high" (and others) setting and the amp was under duress all the while. Sorry Man! It makes noise of course...and you do recognize it's attempting to play Music...just very underwhelming. I tried two of the Xin's and an early Portaphile also...no... (IMO).
 
  Maybe.....your reading this and you own the slim and 940....and it's the best you ever heard! No hollering please!?! 
 
  If I heard the 940 under those circumstances, and wasn't aware of better (read: more compatible) amps existed....I would hate the 940!
 
  

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Thanks for your impressions! Strange, I would've assumed a brighter, dryer headphone would benefit from a lush, warm amp like the slim but you never know with these things unless you pair it. I remember trying the 940 with my iPhone briefly and being slightly underwhelmed so I do wonder how they fair with other amps/sources. Anyway, thanks again and no need to worry about any hollering from me.
 
 

Quote:

dennis said:

EQ = Distortion, in other words, you are not listening to the original sound, but the sound you personally prefer.

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Yes. EQ is adding distortion and coloration. But some people obviously like distortion and coloration.
 


Quote:

ac500 said:

 
The closest way to have "the original sound" is in fact WITH an equalizer, not without -- and you would have to tune your EQ for every single individual song you have, because they're all different slightly.
 

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What utter nonsense.

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beagle said:

Yes. EQ is adding distortion and coloration. But some people obviously like distortion and coloration.
 
What utter nonsense.

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It all depends on what sort of FR the track was mixed to be played on and what the frequency response the headphone has in the first place.

wow

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beagle said:

What utter nonsense.

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Oh, so you would claim that every single song recorded has a perfectly correct and natural frequency response, which if reproduced with theoretically perfectly flat equipment, will sound IDENTICAL to the real life performance?
 
Now THAT is what you would call naive utter nonsense
 
Seriously though, you're quite alone here if you think recordings are perfect, and you're going to have to say more than just "wow" to explain your side, to be taken seriously.

 
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ac500 said:

Quote:

Oh, so you would claim that every single song recorded has a perfectly correct and natural frequency response, which if reproduced with theoretically perfectly flat equipment, will sound IDENTICAL to the real life performance?
 
Now THAT is what you would call naive utter nonsense
 
Seriously though, you're quite alone here if you think recordings are perfect, and you're going to have to say more than just "wow" to explain your side, to be taken seriously.

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Recordings may or may not be perfect but they are what they are. No recording of a live performance can ever sound identical to that performance. If you want to EQ everything to sound the way you think it ought to (even though you were not present to even hazard a guess), have fun. 
 

Quote:

dennis said:

EQ = Distortion, in other words, you are not listening to the original sound, but the sound you personally prefer.

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You mean the original sound that was already EQed by the recording engineer because his micrphones  weren't flat, EQed by the mixing engineer to achieve the effects he wants and EQed by the mastering engineer to give the general tone of the track, right?
Let's drink to un-EQed, original sound
 

Not to mention that EQ does absolutely nothing substantial for timbre and soundstage, among other things.

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anathallo said:

Not to mention that EQ does absolutely nothing for timbre and soundstage, among other things.

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It does!
 
Soundstage is debatable and the mechanics of how EQ change soundstage are fairly complicated, so I won't get into it.
But timbre is literally defined but the proportions of the harmonics compared to each other and the fundamental over time, if you EQ, the proportions are changed, thus the timbre is necessarily changed
 
 
 

I think decay and probably some other things as well also have something to do with timbre or tone.  I don't think you could possibly EQ an HD800 or DT880 or HE6 to have warm tone like the LCD-2 or HD650 no matter how similar you got their FR with EQ. 

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rhythmdevils said:

I think decay and probably some other things as well also have something to do with timbre or tone.  I don't think you could possibly EQ an HD800 or DT880 or HE6 to have warm tone like the LCD-2 or HD650 no matter how similar you got their FR with EQ. 

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I agree with you, that's why "over time" was included in my earlier post. EQ won't make a a HD800 sound exactly like an LCD-2, but saying that EQ won;t change timbre is simply false.
 
 

Quote:

rhythmdevils said:

I think decay and probably some other things as well also have something to do with timbre or tone.  I don't think you could possibly EQ an HD800 or DT880 or HE6 to have warm tone like the LCD-2 or HD650 no matter how similar you got their FR with EQ. 

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I think the driver's distortion products are probably more important than any reasonable changes made to a headphone that already has a reasonably flat FR.