listeners, on average, prefer flat on-axis (neutral) loudspeakers in double blind tests just like how they prefer the harman target.

I never stated their preferred EQ has to be to the harman target. The goal of the Harman target is to reproduce the sound of anechoically flat loudspeakers in a SRF with frequencies below schroeder eq'd to preference. Whether you like it or not is a different question, but it is currently the...

It is very rare for a headphone to have good out-of-the box measured tonality (on a measurement rig) and good technical performance (leakage tolerance, response smoothness, reseat performance, distortion, etc.) The only headphone I can think of that probably meets this criteria is the Sennheiser...

Any EQ applied, which is necessary for virtually every headphone to achieve optimal sound, is not Bit Perfect If I meet you in Canjam, can I provide you with a blind test between bitperfect and resampled audio and upload it to my youtube channel? Regarding transient timing, the Mac OS SRC is...

An Apple House Sound member bought a unit for Oratory1990 to measure. Here are his results from measuring it on a GRAS45BC-10 KEMAR. Not a good look in the treble. For comparison:

They are attempting to compensate for a flat, directionally independent head-related-transfer-function (HRTF), diffuse field, and compare the response of the headphone to preferred steady-state loudspeaker curves. It makes sense at a surface level, in theory. But it does not hold up to too much...

This image shows 2013 as the earliest: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/harman-curve-delivering-consistent-accurate-sound-across-sumit-sonal/

From 2012? Can you show an image of what you are referring to? To my knowledge, the first official Harman headphone target was from "Listener Preferences for In-RoomLoudspeaker and Headphone TargetResponses" in 2013.

No one knows how to read raw graphs on the B&K 4128 anyway since there is no reference point for preference. GRAS 45CA-10 measurements compensated for the Harman 2018 target or raw with Harman 2018 overlayed are easiest to analyze. Also, the graphs headphone show displays are heavily smoothed...

I really wonder why they would make a supposed professional monitoring headphone have this issue. I wonder if MM-500 suffers from this issue because my LCD-5 doesn't. I can easily hear the difference between correct vs inverted absolute polarity in blind tests and believe it is important to...

You are sure the polarity is incorrect and it is not your measurement equipment?

@TeamHiFiMAN can you please publish a graph of this headphone?

The accuracy isn't really a "claim" but an objective fact. I showed the predicted preference rating score difference and this is derived from a mathematical formula.

The only good headphone in the world that needs more power than the Apple Dongle for adequate loudness is the DCA Stealth.

Why not use an Apple Dongle?

No Also, it's very important that the frequency response of the IEM is very close with the aftermarket tips or you're going to get worse sound quality. I personally recommend using the stock foam tips, but comply TX-100 and shure black olive small work as well.

Please name me an IEM at any price that is better than Etymotic ER2SE. I have been looking at getting something more expensive, but haven't found anything as good.

foam tips

Find me a headphone under ten-thousand dollars that measures better than Etymotic ER2SE in BOTH Frequency Response (stock) and Distortion. What do I mean by better? I want ruler flat bass to 20 Hz, ear canal gain around 2.7 kHz, THD < 0.1% full spectrum at 104 dB, ZERO peaks in the treble, and...

There's no need to sugarcoat it... Etymotic ER2 is the best IEM at ANY PRICE.

Get ER2SE for 49 dollars here https://www.adorama.com/etyer2se.html?emailprice=t

nope. planars that ring have rough frequency responses (almost all of them).

false. smooth FR = no ringing

Apple Dongle.