fiddler
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2001
- Posts
- 1,930
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- 30
I was measuring the output impedance of output sources at my disposal, discovering that my laptop headphone jack has a rather high output impedance, explaining why my Porta Pro sounds a good bit boomier than out of other sources, due to its impedance spike at 100hz.
I had the idea that it might be useful to the entire headphone enthusiast community if there was a database of output impedance measurements, because product spec sheets usually don't make any mention of this. Only decent dedicated headphone amp manufacturers bother to make a mention of this, even though it can have a significant impact on sound quality. Since a lot of us would like to get decent sound quality straight out of a smartphone, I thought it might be of interest to audiophiles who are looking to purchase a new device, and want to know a little more about the quality of the headphone output.
The required equipment for making this measurement is not very much, but it does require a few basic electronics DIY supplies, and a general interest in headphones - which is why I thought it might be a good idea to ask here.
Everybody with a multimeter capable of measuring low AC voltage (0-10V, as opposed to 120V/240V mains voltage), a resistor to act as a dummy load, a sine wave test track within the frequency response of your meter, and a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm interconnect cable to faciliate measuring voltages between signal and ground, and some source equipment to test and add to the database is all the equipment required for this.
Would there be any interest in taking part in this project? I think it'd be a pretty cool project once we get a few people interested, and start compiling data for most common types of sources. I will write up step-by-step instructions on taking the measurement, which just takes a few minutes of your time.
Update: see the tutorial in the next post.
I had the idea that it might be useful to the entire headphone enthusiast community if there was a database of output impedance measurements, because product spec sheets usually don't make any mention of this. Only decent dedicated headphone amp manufacturers bother to make a mention of this, even though it can have a significant impact on sound quality. Since a lot of us would like to get decent sound quality straight out of a smartphone, I thought it might be of interest to audiophiles who are looking to purchase a new device, and want to know a little more about the quality of the headphone output.
The required equipment for making this measurement is not very much, but it does require a few basic electronics DIY supplies, and a general interest in headphones - which is why I thought it might be a good idea to ask here.
Everybody with a multimeter capable of measuring low AC voltage (0-10V, as opposed to 120V/240V mains voltage), a resistor to act as a dummy load, a sine wave test track within the frequency response of your meter, and a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm interconnect cable to faciliate measuring voltages between signal and ground, and some source equipment to test and add to the database is all the equipment required for this.
Would there be any interest in taking part in this project? I think it'd be a pretty cool project once we get a few people interested, and start compiling data for most common types of sources. I will write up step-by-step instructions on taking the measurement, which just takes a few minutes of your time.
Update: see the tutorial in the next post.