DROP + GRELL OAE1

[Rob80b]

Got my living room back for a week or or two and just happened while having my morning coffee to do a quick comparison listening to the OAE1 and the stereo, obviously different experiences but not a huge stretch of the imagination to see hear what the Grell is trying to accomplish.

Also the Bryston BHA1, (which I haven't had access to in months as) is a better match for the OAE1's 38 ohms impedance although the HDVD800 wasn't bad considering it was optimized for higher impedance phones such as the 300 ohms HD800/S.

….and I continue love listening to BBC3 live with these.

 

[Jermo K]

A new episode of Grell Sound Lab is out! We talk about the tuning philosophy of perceptively neutral sound that was employed at Sennheiser for the beloved HD 580. In my opinion, it's likely still the most reliable way of achieving a sound signature that will be pleasing to a lot of people, and is unlikely to shift over time compared to preference targets, as well as incorporating many psycho-acoustic effects we can't measure yet. The loudness diffuse field method is rather simple, doesn't require a lot of investment, but depends on a wider pool of skilled listeners to produce useful results.

 

[The Bard]

Got my living room back for a week or or two and just happened while having my morning coffee to do a quick comparison listening to the OAE1 and the stereo, obviously different experiences but not a huge stretch of the imagination to see hear what the Grell is trying to accomplish.

Also the Bryston BHA1, (which I haven't had access to in months as) is a better match for the OAE1's 38 ohms impedance although the HDVD800 wasn't bad considering it was optimized for higher impedance phones such as the 300 ohms HD800/S.

….and I continue love listening to BBC3 live with these.

Rob - for the speaker to headphone comparison were you able to identify a spacial similarity? For my bookshelf speakers, the audio tends to stop right in front of my face and there is a bit more bass (This also depends on room configuration). This is a similar experience with the OAE1 (I keep the back of the ear pads touching underneath the ear lobe).

I also own the HDVD800, but the imaging was not the same as when I ran it through an iFi Gold Bar. The latter tends to project the audio more in front of the face vs left and right. Moreover, the HDVD800 gives a bit more bass and a tinge of veil compared to the iFi (my opinion).

 

[Rob80b]

Rob - for the speaker to headphone comparison were you able to identify a spacial similarity? For my bookshelf speakers, the audio tends to stop right in front of my face

How close are your speakers, If as you say “ the audio tends to stop right in front of my face” are you listening near field?
For a stereo the sound stage should be set well back, I’m sitting 10 feet from the Dynaudio Special 25s and the imaging starts from there and extends farther back and depending on the recording the depth can go way back and width appears to extend past the side walls some times, so rather expansive. With the Velodyne sub the bass is rather flat all the way to 20hrz and omnipresent if it’s in the recording, in that besides and bass notes from the instruments one senses the acoustics of the venue.
So overall. depending on the recording one is basically “psycho acoustically” attending the event.

Obviously no headphone can come close to recreating this but IMHO with the OAE1 my brain can fill in some of the missing pieces.
With traditional headphone driver placement, like the HD600 for example, this is just not possible, we can still immensely enjoy the music but it is a much more intimate and personal listening experience.

Now on the other hand if we are speaking binaural audio no stereo speaker system can do this as well as headphones, even multi-channel home theatre set ups can’t put you in the barber’s chair.

 

[The Bard]

How close are your speakers, If as you say “ the audio tends to stop right in front of my face” are you listening near field?
For a stereo the sound stage should be set well back, I’m sitting 10 feet from the Dynaudio Special 25s and the imaging starts from there and extends farther back and depending on the recording the depth can go way back and width appears to extend past the side walls some times, so rather expansive. With the Velodyne sub the bass is rather flat all the way to 20hrz and omnipresent if it’s in the recording, in that besides and bass notes from the instruments one senses the acoustics of the venue.
So overall. depending on the recording one is basically “psycho acoustically” attending the event.

Obviously no headphone can come close to recreating this but IMHO with the OAE1 my brain can fill in some of the missing pieces.
With traditional headphone driver placement, like the HD600 for example, this is just not possible, we can still immensely enjoy the music but it is a much more intimate and personal listening experience.

Now on the other hand if we are speaking binaural audio no stereo speaker system can do this as well as headphones, even multi-channel home theatre set ups can’t put you in the barber’s chair.

I would say about 7-8 feet max. Unfortunately I'm not much of an audiophile, so I can't respond if its near field or not. Maybe its speaker placement/room setup or just a "psycho-acoustic cognitive bias" (probably wrong terminology here), but I've noticed this recently listening to a small live concert in a 4x4 room where the audio stops in front of my face. Now in a larger amphitheater and/or concert hall - its everywhere.

On another note - I ran an interesting experiment where I was listening to speaker setups via YouTube. During this experiment I ran a parallel test between the Grell OAE1 and the Sennheiser HD600 (plugged in via headphone jack of a MacBook Pro). What I noticed is the sound felt like it was moving, via the camera pan with the OAE1, but not so much with HD600. I wonder what is happening here.

40 - 1:07 mark ​

 

[Rob80b]

I would say about 7-8 feet max.

Lol..at first I saw this and said I am not worthy. ......

a small live concert in a 4x4 room where the audio stops in front of my face.

I would think in a 4 x 4 room everything would be.

On another note - I ran an interesting experiment where I was listening to speaker setups via YouTube. During this experiment I ran a parallel test between the Grell OAE1 and the Sennheiser HD600 (plugged in via headphone jack of a MacBook Pro). What I noticed is the sound felt like it was moving, via the camera pan with the OAE1, but not so much with HD600. I wonder what is happening here.

The HD600 although great tonally were/are always known for their 3 blob in the head sound-staging, the OAE1 are more out of the head, so makes sense.