chewy4
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2011
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Thanks. It's a shame that these measurements are so rare, they seem pretty important.
Thanks for the examples.
Do you know of any websites that actually do these IMD measurements for headphones?
I have a question which isn't entirely topical, but I was reluctant to start a new thread for it and this seems to be the best place for it.
How relevant is a frequency response graph to listening experience? Or rather, how do I pair frequency response with harmonic distortion?
Take for example a comparison between two relatively inexpensive (or even cheap, depending on who you're asking) headphones. The Sennheiser HD 25 II's, and the AKG K81DJ:
Despite all this the K81DJ's bass kind of over-runs the rest of the music, whereas in the HD25's, the bass is more controlled and the highs better defined and instrument separation is leagues better. Yes yes, the AKG's are by far the cheaper headphones but this seems to negate the graphs, which shows a lower dB bass response. Shouldn't this, in theory, translate into a weaker bass?
the senns seems to be more neutral, while the akg exhibits the usual dip in the mids typical of basshead cans
My query, the issue at hand for me, is that the AKG's exhibit a much lower bass volume on the graph, but in practice, their bass is very dominant, whereas the HD25's while more neutral, show a higher dB bass response, yet the bass does not dominate the sound like in the AKG's. This defies the graphic readings. I am seeking an explanation for this phenomenon if anybody should venture to offer one
The AKGs seem to be quite sensitive to sealing, this can be seen on the "raw" graphs which show the frequency response with several different positions of the headphone on the dummy head. The averaged graph may therefore underestimate their bass response because of this. But it also means that the bass will be different for each person because of different head sizes and shapes, wearing glasses or not, etc.
I'm not sure I follow my good sir (or ma'am), shouldn't the measurements take the sealing into account? Surely the driver membranes are not tested separately from the ensemble of the whole headphone?