Does it make sense to be an audio purist?

[codythelucario]

Personally, I am a purist because I buy the headphones with their sound signature.

However, knowing that nothing is perfect in life, I also can see the perspective that it is impossible to be a purist because no headphone is gonna be 100% to your liking.

So, does it make sense to be a purist? I recently had to EQ my HD600 to add some more sub-bass and its working wonderfully for an open back after. Made my HD600s sound good with free software but kinda defeats the purpose of buying headphones for their preferred signature.

What's your thoughts?

 

[Nkam]

Personally, I am a purist because I buy the headphones with their sound signature.

However, knowing that nothing is perfect in life, I also can see the perspective that it is impossible to be a purist because no headphone is gonna be 100% to your liking.

So, does it make sense to be a purist? I recently had to EQ my HD600 to add some more sub-bass and its working wonderfully for an open back after. Made my HD600s sound good with free software but kinda defeats the purpose of buying headphones for their preferred signature.

What's your thoughts?

Purist?

I am a stickler for setting up my speaker system as ‘ perfect’ as I can.
Even redesigned the crossover to make it phase coherent and much more linear. Yes it sounds better than stock.
I also have two rel subs.

But headphones?
No headphone is perfect as are no speakers. But headphones are a different animal because of physics. Everyone’s ear canal and shape is different. So most need to eq them to their liking

Not to mention the Harman curve is good for headphones but not as much as speakers.

EQ away and enjoy.

 

[codythelucario]

Purist?

I am a stickler for setting up my speaker system as ‘ perfect’ as I can.
Even redesigned the crossover to make it phase coherent and much more linear. Yes it sounds better than stock.
I also have two rel subs.

But headphones?
No headphone is perfect as are no speakers. But headphones are a different animal because of physics. Everyone’s ear canal and shape is different. So most need to eq them to their liking

Not to mention the Harman curve is good for headphones but not as much as speakers.

EQ away and enjoy.

I agree

My hd600s lack on sub-bass a lot. So I EQ'd them and they're more vibrant now.

The DT990s also had to be EQd to avoid the shouty highs

 

[TMRaven]

This isn't the 70s and EQs won't add any discernable amount of distortion of phase effects to your music to 'lessen' its purity. I think if you aren't EQ'ing these days to correct small issues you aren't tying to go for purity.

 

[Whazzzup]

purity is straight line, imo

 

[dunring]

I usually just EQ some bass in a music player and play games out of the box on most things. There's many good choices you can usually get really close to your preference at affordable prices.
If you want pure then the Beyerdynamic MMX Gen1 is flat as a pancake as it's based on the Signum HD400 avionic headset that they train with in the EU space program. The Gen2 is more like the DT770 tuning.
I used one for years and still have the manual with its frequency chart. It's a straight line out to 13.8khz where there's a small 4db spike. Hard to find in good condition though.

 

[Philimon]

Personally, I am a purist because I buy the headphones with their sound signature.

Personally, I am a purist because I buy the headphones with their sound signature then I adjust them accordingly.

 

[geek707]

Define purity.

 

[Philimon]

Define purity.

Its the first sentence of op. Defining your personal form of purity is the point of the discussion. Any answer you give could be argued as impure by someone else if they wanted.

Personally, I am a purist because I buy the headphones with their sound signature.

 

[Nkam]

Its the first sentence of op. Defining your personal form of purity is the point of the discussion. Any answer you give could be argued as impure by someone else if they wanted.

 

[Philimon]

Good point.

 

[bagwell359]

Personally, I am a purist because I buy the headphones with their sound signature.

However, knowing that nothing is perfect in life, I also can see the perspective that it is impossible to be a purist because no headphone is gonna be 100% to your liking.

So, does it make sense to be a purist? I recently had to EQ my HD600 to add some more sub-bass and its working wonderfully for an open back after. Made my HD600s sound good with free software but kinda defeats the purpose of buying headphones for their preferred signature.

What's your thoughts?

IRL there are few absolutes. There is a lot of process, iterations, development towards - "better"

Then there is how I see being a purist - listening to live unamplified music in excellent acoustic spaces and with the best recording techniques. How else can one tell what the proper timbre of instruments are? I've spent a lot of time and money on trying to get the closest I can - and never once has it ever met that goal, although I was satisfied to some extent a few times. Being retired has crimped my assault more recently.

Stereo equipment is made to entertain and in some cases to get near the purist goals. Modifying crossovers, changing drivers, AC purifiers, EQ, improving capacitors, room treatments - even designing rooms for audio are all things one can do with speaker systems. All of those and more are valid actions to take to get closer to the goal.

With headphones - pads, cables, amps, anti resonant materials, protective screens changed or removed, etc. are similar. Of course this means you have to be familiar with what sound you are seeking, and either pay someone or know yourself how to make these changes and evaluate it.

I have read and responded to a number of your posts. For me, there is nothing one can do to the HD-600 to get satisfactory low bass, and as I have one, I went ahead with other headphones with better bass and different profiles and modified them too, and also adding an OTL amp.

 

[Nkam]

The issue with EQing is not doing it ‘ right’.

I know I know that sounds all haughty taughty
But it means that our headphones like other transducers can distort.
Some headphones take to EQ better than others.

Usually what we want to do, is lower freq, and try and avoid raising freq. or raising them too high.

so general rule of thumb is to not have things distort.
The rest is hoopla. You can EQ anything.
Well except speakers which don’t measure well off axis. Then you will get a mess.

 

[Nkam]

Good point.

Are you Greek?
I’m asking from the name
My post was of course sarcasm
If you are Greek I get it cause I am and we offer philosophize

 

[Philimon]

Are you Greek?
I’m asking from the name
My post was of course sarcasm
If you are Greek I get it cause I am and we offer philosophize

I see now. Thanks