[timechaser]

I have been an avid follower of this forum, and have been reading a lot of the debates. I am a relative noob to the scientific method - so (to my shame) I do own moderately pricey cables and all.

I thought I would try and do some listening tests on my equipment. Do bear in mind that I was merely trying to do A/B tests, not double blind - way too much work for me, and likely will not change what I have. Might learn, but...

I have the following equipment (becomes relevant shortly)

1. Astell and Kern T8ie Mk2 - with custom cables (mmcx / balanced 2.5mm)
2. IE 7 (yes the old ones), which have been modded to accomodate mmcx running another custom cable (single ended 3.5mm)
3. Samsung buds pro
4. A Fiio BTR5
5. A cheapo dongle (which claims to have a realtek dac)
6. Audio source is a Samsung galaxy S21 running spotify

Apart from a hiss I hear when I use the dongle (downside of running cheap stuff I guess - poor construction), I am NOT able to hear much (if any) difference between any combination of the equipment mentioned above.

Which leads me to the questions

1. Am I sonically blind?
2. Am I right, and there is no difference really : because - you know - there potentially might not be anything at all?

I thought - perhaps wrongly - that I might at least hear some difference between the IEMs as they might have been set up (tuned?) a bit differently from each other.

But the differential is zip, nada. The sole thing is that as I raise the volume (whether balanced or single ended), everything appears nicer, clearer and dare I say fuller? And then there comes a point where my ears start protesting.

At that high-ish volume sweet spot - everything sounds roughly the same (yes even the Samsung buds)...

How - IF - can I try and dig deeper and perhaps (maybe) see if there might be any differences in the various combinations I have?

Cheers!

P.S. This is now purely out of intellectual curiosity and learning. I used to believe that more expensive equipment potentially sounded better, but my ears have let me down!

 

[mugbot]

It's a matter of some controversy. You have found that many of the differences in equipment are massively exaggerated in reviews etc.
There will be some differences in IEMs (depending of course on how much their frequency response etc. differs). Perhaps listen to tracks with eg. a notable bass line or vocal section and the differences will become more apparent.

 

[IDrinkLava]

The easiest way to train yourself to hear differences would be to take the Harman How to Listen tests. Aside from that, I'd suggest listening to known reference tracks like Tracy Chapman - Fast Car, Jennifer Warnes - Bird on a Wire, and James Taylor - That's Why I'm Here that are used for evaluating audio equipment.

The sole thing is that as I raise the volume (whether balanced or single ended), everything appears nicer, clearer and dare I say fuller? And then there comes a point where my ears start protesting.

At that high-ish volume sweet spot - everything sounds roughly the same (yes even the Samsung buds)...

There's a simple explanation for this. It's called the Fletcher-Munson curve.

 

[bigshot]

You will hear differences between transducers. As long as you’re using them right, you shouldn’t hear differences between wires, DACs or amps. If you do, something is probably wrong somewhere.

 

[timechaser]

You will hear differences between transducers. As long as you’re using them right, you shouldn’t hear differences between wires, DACs or amps. If you do, something is probably wrong somewhere.

Thank you. The issue though - is that I am not even able to differentiate between the transducers (I assume that fancy word means the speakers, drivers etc. which try and produce sound inside my earphones).

 

[bigshot]

It’s hard to get a bead on headphones or IEMs because of the time it takes to pull one set off and put another on. I generally just look for transducers I like. I don’t know any way to reliably do a direct comparison. It is easier with speakers.

 

[gregorio]

The issue though - is that I am not even able to differentiate between the transducers (I assume that fancy word means the speakers, drivers etc. which try and produce sound inside my earphones).

Transducer is a useful term, it means any device that converts from one form of energy into another. It’s useful because this single word therefore covers all speakers, headphones and IEMs, regardless of the different types of technology they employ to accomplish this task. Note that it also includes all microphones as well.

Regarding your listening skills, that’s a tricky one, it’s a never ending road. In the beginning though it’s often a series of steps. Eg. You suddenly realise what you should be listening for, and thereafter it seems really obvious. Having someone show you to start with can be a great help. Note though that even with the relatively big differences between transducers, sometimes the differences can be fairly subtle. In this case or if I’m trying to identify exactly what the difference is, it’s usually best to concentrate on one thing at a time. For example, picking a particular instrument in the mix and concentrating on that. In the case of popular music, I find that concentrating on the kick drum an be very revealing, other instruments in subsequent passes can be particularly useful too, the bass guitar, snare drum and hi-hats for example.

G

 

[timechaser]

Thank you very much. I tried to focus on bits as you suggested, using the songs recommended here. Interestingly, I did notice some differences. From a curiosity perspective - they were interesting. From a real world perspective - i.e. impacting my enjoyment of music and/or making me cringe because something is wrong - there remains no difference. I guess I have a long journey ahead of me to learn. Might come to naught, but at least it will be interesting.

Keeping close to this topic, but twisting it - right now I am using the Fiio BTR5 as the connection point to my phone (Spotify, downloaded, is the source). I wonder if there is any chance of observing differences if I were to say try out other DACs - wired or not. My IEMs are sensitive enough that even with the Fiio I am running them at ~50% of the volume. So a higher volume is not going to be a draw, but if I do go down to try some other DACs, would it be (a) worth it and (b) what would I want to look for?

Thank you all very much once again.

 

[bigshot]

See post 4.

 

[timechaser]

Thank you. That implies that as long as the Fiio does what it's supposed to do, I should observe no differences (unless I start hallucinating ). Also, following other posts (including yours), I believe the consensus now is that bluetooth is transparent and sufficient enough to obviate the need for wires (preferences aside).

 

[Stevko]

Be happy and enjoy.
Beyerdynamic DT770/DT1770
Grado 225/rs2
Yes,1770 and rs2 is better. But double price +
And only a little bit better.not double
Same with all stuff.

 

[timechaser]

Be happy and enjoy.
Beyerdynamic DT770/DT1770
Grado 225/rs2
Yes,1770 and rs2 is better. But double price +
And only a little bit better.not double
Same with all stuff.

Err... What?

 

[bigshot]

Older bluetooth codecs weren't transparent, but in the past years, it has gotten much better and has achieved transparency. The same goes for modern lossy codecs like AAC and MP3 LAME.

People who don't do any testing and rely on their subjective impressions might hear small differences, but that is expectation bias, not actual sound quality.

 

[timechaser]

Thank you. Confirms my suspicion. In the limited testing (though I can hardly call it that, rigorous it certainly wasn't), I was not able to detect any differences in using the Fiio tethered via USB versus via Bluetooth.

 

[bigshot]

Limited testing is better than none. There are plenty of rigorous tests on the internet that you can look up to verify (or contradict) your casual conclusions. But casual tests are still better than relying 100% on subjective impressions. You found out what matters and what doesn't matter to you. That will help you make buying decisions.