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The only difference the larger distance of the sound source to your ears can make in a closed housing is the ratio between direct and indirect sound -- so any perceived spaciousness may indeed have to do with («artificial») reverb created inside the earcups. |
No, the difference as I explained, is that the R10s let you be less aware of the action of the driver. My point is that this adds to the illusion of the "disappearing headphone". Quote:
Now that the music reproduced with headphones actually is meant to be reproduced with speakers, implying reverberation arising from room-wall reflections, additional reverberation created during headphone reproduction can't be clearly called falsification or coloration, but may even help to create a credible soundstage. On the other hand, due to their very short run-time (also in comparison to speaker reproduction in a living-room, not to speak of concert-hall conditions) they may also be perceived as artificial and transient-smearing by some ears. |
Take a listen to the R10 and the CD3000, before you leap to conclusions about "smearing". Compare them to your wooly HD600s, you'll clearly hear that they are much more defined, much higher resolution/detail, and altogether more "clear" and "clean" sounding. Ask around, you'll find plenty of people who describe the CD3000 this way, it's not just me. How could this be if there were all these phantom reflections, smearing, and resonances supposedly making the sound all muddy and blurred?
Also, as any CD3000, and to a lesser extent R10 owner can attest, these "closed cans" (and MacDEF will argue they're actually "open" anyway due to a small ring of open space at the base of the enclosures) leak almost as much sound as open cans. My feeling about these enclosures and the materials they are made of is that they actually act as sound *absorbers* and energy/resonance dissipators, and releasers. They're more like a sieve or filter than a hard wall. The CD3000s enclosures is of a soft biological material with sound dampening on the other side. Their purpose is not to produce reflections. Here's what Sony says about the R10 enclosure design/material:
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After extensive testing of materials from all over the world, the heart-wood of mature Zelkova trees was selected as most suitable for the housing of the MDR-R1O. Evaluation was made in terms of hardness, timbre, weight, and overall sound-transferability characteristics. In order to overcome the problem of designing housing that could produce a natural, distortion-free sound, engineers used the FRESDAM (Freeform Shape Design and Manufacture) computer-aided design system. A delicate waveform was carved out of the interior wall, achieving sound expansion and acoustics equivalent to that of a concert hall. |
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I don't think such a generalization is justified. |
I agree as is clearly stated in my next post you didn't quote. I was speaking of the "certain headphones", i.e. HD580/600/590.
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Using those two obviously «juicily» timbred headphones as a measure for the open/closed comparison isn't adequate anyway. |
Why? Because they've obviously solved what you see as "inherent problems" with closed designs, they can't be used in comparisons? How many quality cans do we have to choose from to draw comparisons with if we discount them? To make it clear, I'm comparing the CD3000 and R10 (as the topic of this thread is asking about, but you can throw in the W2002, the other closed can I owned as well) to the open HD600 and its brethren. So you feel I can't make such comparisons and draw any tentative theories about these headphones I've owned, but you are free to speculate about smeared or revereberant sound in cans you don't know?
Oh well.... Quote:
It isn't possible to design a reasonably sounding electrostat in a closed housing. |
I'd like to introduce you to the Stax 4070, IIRC, it costs almost as much as the Omega 2 headset:
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So why build closed headphones at all? Because in some cases isolation is desired. Apart from that, there's no reason from an audiophile point of view. |
Heh, tell that to the Sony R10, the CD3000, the W1000, the W2002, the L3000, the Edition7....
Wow, what dummies for creating such obviously flawed high-end cans that could never win the hearts and minds of true headphone lovers and audiophiles!
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In fact the closed design has no real advantage if you're looking for neutrality, while the open design has no real disadvantage -- this BTW in contrast to speakers. So why go for closed headphones? |
Ummmmmm... because every closed phone I've owned, CD3000, W2002, R10, sounded better to me than every other open can I've owned/auditioned (590/580/600, RS-1). Sure, this could be purely coincidental as it is such a small sample size, but again I've pointed this out elsewhere numerous times in other arguments over whether closed or open design makes for a better headphone. There are people who like to argue against closed phones as a matter of faith-- they have plenty of reasons they believe make them inherently inferior. I like to present the other side, which isn't based on conjecture, but from actual listening.
As I state in this thread, I don't have (and I don't think anyone has with the small # of quality cans at our disposal), sufficient evidence to conclude with *certainty* any generalizations about closed vs. open cans. I do have enough info to speculate about the cans I have heard, and potential ways their design features can contribute to the sound they make.
My *theory*, based only on listening, is that the insubstantial, veiled, overly airy and light-weight sound produced by the HD600 *may be* related to its open design. Your *theory* about the CD3000/R10 (have you heard them?) is that their closed design is responsible for their more substantial, more "present" and meaty sound and better soundstaging capabilities is due to their enclosures. I actually agree there's some relationship. But where we disagree is that you think this more substantial sound is the result of distortion/reflections/resonances, call them what you like, produced by the enclosures. I think the enclosures can be "heard" in a sense, but not as reflections/resonances or vibrations smearing and distorting the sound. They can be "heard" in the sense of the space they (CD3000/R10) convey.
Mark