bigshot
Headphoneus Supremus
I answered your point about impedance, I posted a link to measurements of the Apple dongle, and every one of my posts talks about how to determine teansparency. I’m not keen on going in circles.
We’re discussing differences between DACs and DACs convert a digital signal to an analogue signal, they do not produce any sound, transparent or otherwise. If you want to discuss what happens before or after the DA conversion, say with the transducers, that’s another topic. How many times?What is transparent sound when transducers are the most coloring thing in audio chain ?
Then why are you?No reason to go in circles... and knocking myself.
There’s already a current thread on HP and Amp impedance, if you want specifics go there. Why go off-topic and round in circles here?I've seen the ref, it cites two upper limits on transducer impedance (that is why I tried to ask about calculations, but I understand that general statements are easier...),
Clearly it’s not already known or understood by everyone, otherwise why would you be arguing?and then if everything is already known - what is to discuss here.
It sounds like your measurements are wrong. Some headphones can vary in response as much as 5dB from copy to copy. Your set might have a different response in some areas than the one that was measured to make the published response curve.
Also, bass is the wild card. You cant squeeze blood out of a stone. If cans just don’t have the same bass extension, you can’t match them in that area.
In my limited experience, the amp transients (the ability of the fast current modulations, at least with the portable devices) can be limited, but surely the regulars of this forum know better (Shannon, null hypothesis, light bulbs...)Might be that variation caused these differences, but as a whole headphones signatures had large difference and I couldn't bring them close. Dynamics, transient response felt sluggish on HD650, all build-up in songs and intense music in general were boring compared to utopia. Stereo image was miles behind too. The issue was a bit artificial timbre which I fixed with coloring DAC filter.
I do think that transducers simply hit their design limitations of what they can achieve.
Also a bad example. It’s actually complicated to have 2 headphones giving the same FR at you eardrum. Matching for the dummy head is easier but still not that consistent. And that EQ accounts for the dummy’s ear, not your own. There is also the way you’ll place the headphones on your head compared to how they sit on the dummy. How a weaker seal(shape of the head, hair) may have different consequences on each headphone.When I have measurements of both headphones it is not a rocket science to match their sound with EQ, however yet still they sound so different.
I played with Utopia/HD650 couldn’t bring bass/dynamics/imaging to hd650. Both uses DD driver
Now going further even certain frequency is reproduced differently. 30hz on one headphone had way more pressure than the other. Other freq bands sounded slightly different too, especially in treble area
Plugging them in transperent source HD650 sounds okay, Utopia even technically superior can be pain to your ears. Now once you plug into warmer source it is a no contest between two.
DAC is not just a chip and I do not see a problem with coloring source if it fits your purpose. Transducers colors the sound way more intensively even if you match them with EQ