Best Overtone Accuracy, Harmonic Coherence?

[Cyberius]

Which phones have the best overtone accuracy and/or harmonic coherence?

I don't see much discussion on this aspect of headphones, so I figured I'd start a thread about it.

I'm still trying to figure out all the semantics around this, so feel free to throw in your definition of Overtone Accuracy/Harmonic Coherence/Harmonic Phase Coherence.

 

[Wodgy]

That's a hard question to answer without measurements of headphones' phase response. If you find a resource that has this information, let us know. It would be interesting to see. I'm guessing that electrostats would be the best.

Harmonic distortion measurements are probably loosely relevant. From Headroom's recent measurements, it looks like the HD650 has the lowest THD numbers by a significant margin. However, they haven't measured the Grado HP-1000, Sony R-10, or electrostats.

 

[Sentral Dogma]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wodgy From Headroom's recent measurements, it looks like the HD650 has the lowest THD numbers by a significant margin.

Does a lower number automatically mean harmonic coherence? The graph for the beyer dt880 seemed to have nice steadily decreasing harmonic distortion that went all the way out to the right. I've heard neither phone, just commenting on a pretty graph.

Also, does that huge second harmonic for the grado's somehow tie in with grado's attack and speed?

 

[pspivak]

Hi,

When it comes to sound and things like harmonic coherence or other such numbers I have to ask myself the question, “what does the number really mean?” IMHO, it is the sound that counts and the ability to reproduce the music. Forget the numbers, listen to the music!

Someone told me one time that the only specification that mattered in audio equipment was its physical dimensions and its weight. Could it fit on my shelf and would it tear the shelf out of the wall?

p.

 

[Cyberius]

Quote:

Originally posted by pspivak Hi, IMHO, it is the sound that counts and the ability to reproduce the music. Forget the numbers, listen to the music!

And for certain kinds of music, this is a key, element between something being "just sound" or "music".

How often do we hear peoople say "These phones are very bright", they're not talking about the numbers.

The human ear is a perfectly usable instrument for making relative statements about how well different phones handle this.

My ears tell me there is a night and day difference between grados (yuck) and beyerdynamics (good). There are styles of music where overtones are the key element. For example drone based music, instruments like sitars, or vocalists who do overtone chanting (Sheila Chandra, David Hykes, Tuva)