[AdamCalifornia]

I am confused by reading of the specs printed on
the boxes which came with my headphones.
What strikes me is that the specs say that
the Total Harmonic Distortions of
Beyer's DT880's and Sennheiser's HD595 are les than 0.2 and 0.1 respectively!

Does this fact mean that the DT880s distort more than the HD595s?
What I've read is that sometimes companies measure those distortions at
'different levels of power, frequencies and SPLs'. So I f we made
a common denominator would the THD of the the DT880s be still less than 0.2?
Has anyone actually measured the THDs of those two headphones?
How aboot other Sennheisers HD580 - HD650? How about AKG K701 or Sony SA5000?

Here are the relevant specs:

Beyerdynamic DT880:
Nominal impendance: 250 Ohm
Nominal SPL: 96 dB
Power handling capacity: 100 mW
Nominal THD < 0.2%

Sennheiser HD595:
Impendance: 50 Ohm
Max SPL at 1kHz, 1Vrms: 112 dB
Long term max. input power: 500 mW
THD at 1kHz, 10dB SPL < 0.1%

Also in the Sennheiser HD595 case the following is printed inside the box:

- Highly constant, compressed cellulose fleece reduces total harmonic distortion <=====
- Special diphragm geometry reduces intermodulation distortion

Note that Sennheiser elaborates on the issue of the THD, while Beydynamic is quiet about it!

Clearly both Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic use different language
and perhaps diffrent measurements to address their THDs.

See you,

Adam

 

[JahJahBinks]

One says nominal, one says at 1kHz, so you can't compare the numbers directly.

It is like LCD manufactures list the response time of their monitors, some is grey-to-grey (in fact most are because this number can make their product look better but it is regarded by most people pointless), what's useful is black-to-white-to-black.

 

[warpdriver]

THD of less than 1% is difficult to hear. Don't worry about it.

 

[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver THD of less than 1% is difficult to hear. Don't worry about it.

Yup. My bedside-fi tuner is spec'd at <=0.5% THD in stereo, and it took me a while to figure out that it's a *bit* rougher sounding and brighter than its significantly better spec'd and sonically well-reputed colleague in my main setup (<=0.15% stereo) - and then it might still be a bit out of alignment IF wise (plus the output stage is very simple). It should be noted that measurement sound levels and actual harmonics distribution are quite important (you generally want harmonics to decrease quickly in amplitude, and as few high-order harmonics beyond about the 5th as possible). Oh, and the more complex the material played, the more important low IMD is.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JahJahBinks One says nominal, one says at 1kHz, so you can't compare the numbers directly. It is like LCD manufactures list the response time of their monitors, some is grey-to-grey (in fact most are because this number can make their product look better but it is regarded by most people pointless), what's useful is black-to-white-to-black.

Yeah, I know this 'grey-to-grey' and 'black-to-white-to-black' trick.

Anyway, this is a more general question. Companies flash their specs at consumers
and those specs are somehow incompatible.

However in this case Sennheiser elaborates on the THD while Beyerdynamics does not?
Do we know how Beyerdynamics measured their THDs - at what frequency, power, SPL?
How about DT770, DT990 Pro, DT990, new DT880 and DT990 Pro?

See you,

Adam

 

[milkpowder]

These specs mean so little to me. As long as they sound good, then there's no point in scrutinising.

 

[Andrea]

Btw, by evaluating Headroom's distortion graphs (when they were available), one would say that the HD595 and the DT880 distort equally. In some spot of the spectrum the 595 does better, in some other the 880, overall roughly the same. The HD650 pretty obviously distorts less than both.

 

[JunktionFET]

As others have pointed out, this isn't comparing apples to apples because the test conditions stated are not the same. Also, Beyerdynamic might also be more conservatively rating their product. The nonsensical techno-talk on the Sennheiser package is similar to what you'll find at Beyerdynamic's website:

"The reduced weight of the diaphragm and moving coil result in a similar pulse characteristic as electrostatic headphones, and in combination with a carefully tailored frequency response offer a natural and balanced sound."

Taken literally, this would imply the Beyers have very low transient intermod distortion. Everyone has a fancy way of bragging about their specifications.