bfreedma
The Hornet!
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- Feb 3, 2012
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Maybe you should also mention the measurement graph differences between the GRAS rigs, which is the mostly used Harman reference rig and the 5128 rig that is being used by HeadFi. The measurements in this thread give wrong impressions to people that use a different reference in mind.
This is the crux of the issue - far to many people are making statements based on measurements and methodologies they don't sufficiently understand. The questions shouldn't be around the raw graph, they are better when related to audibility. Is a DAC A better than DAC B because DAC A's noise floor is -124db and DAC B's noise floor is -122db when both numbers are orders of magnitude below audibility?
Spikes? Audible impact nearly totally dependent on how much of an octave the spike covers - narrow enough and it's inaudible.
Headphone measurements are particularly difficult, not only because many posters are unfamiliar with the multiple models and methodologies but because headphone placement is so crucial to consistent results. A fraction of an inch of pad placement variance can have major impact on the measurements used as examples here.
The above is not intended to support the "believe your ears" camp, but to point out that most of the discussion of measurements I'm seeing here don't address audibility. This is a particular issue with those who come over from Amir's forum, where the level of understanding of the objective data generated by that site seems unfortunately low.
Even as a pretty firm objectivist, I don't believe that headphones should be bought on graphs alone. I do find that with a good bit of experience correlating graphs to very basic listening criteria, I can identify headphones that probably won't fit my personal preferences and can knock out perhaps 25-30% of the market without listening. The rest certainly need an audition to see if they are candidates for purchase. The fit on my head may result in significantly different sound due to my individual physiology and how the pads conform - not going to get that from any measurement, at least not yet.