[utir]

I am new in head fi , so i don't know if this is the right place to post this thread. If not , my apologies in advance. I'm somewhat new too in the field of audio equipment , so i don't know many things or get often confused between audio terms. recently i got confused about neutral and flat sound. i searched in google and they seem like they are same thing but still i couldn't find a proper answer to extrude my confusion. so im asking the question here , if you know the answer , I'd appreciate if you enlighten me. Are neutral and flat same thing in headphone terms? if not, what are the difference? Thanks in advance.

 

[DynamicEars]

No, Neutral starts with N, and Flat starts with F.

joke aside,
my understanding about Flat is that an earphone have Flat, like straight line from 20 hz to 20khz
and about Neutral, can be Neutral to some target, be it DF target, Harman Target or any other even your own target, if Neutral can be flat if you are using flat target but for IEMs, they wont sound good because of sound reproduction inside ears, they need some boost on certain frequencies to be sounded neutral.
and for additional, balance for me isn't same with neutral, they can be mild V shaped, but overall FR will sounded balanced between bass mids and highs, with no certain frequency areas is dominating others.

Of course these kind of terms are subjective and can be vary among different people.

 

[buonassi]

Flat is even SPL across all frequencies.

Neutral is perceived flat across frequencies. There needs to be a gain in the upper mids to sound neutral.

Agree with above poster, that neutral is relative to a target. Until recently that was the diffuse field compensation curve. Now it's more the Harman target.

 

[SilverEars]

Watch this and look up Fletcher and Munson Equal loudness contour.