Flat sound vs. "fun sound"...so flat isn't fun?
Apr 11, 2011 at 6:14 AM Post #17 of 90
Yeah, this is really a subjective question which will get a subjective answer.  Some like a more equalized sound while others like more flat.  The optimal "in ear response" is a hot topic.  I prefer a mostly flat for most fun.  It depends on what I am listening to.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 7:58 AM Post #18 of 90
+1
 
FUN = FLAT. The flatter the better. I want my recording to sounds like what it suppose to. Bad recording should be bad and a good one should be good.
Quote:
+1
 
Flat response just means that you will have just the fun that the music provides. My UM3x can sound very different depending on the recording played. Gotta love that.



 
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 9:21 AM Post #19 of 90
Problem with that mindset is that you can have a "good song" that is recorded suboptimally...but you can still enjoy it with some EQ tweaking or different transducers. Gives you the option if enjoying a wider range of music instead of just saying..."that song was mastered with a weird balance...so I'm just not going to listen to it."
 
Heck man, the crossfeed function on Rockbox is the only thing that saved VanHalen for me. (I know that I'm not talking Freq response anymore, but similar topic)
 
When I'm wearing q460's, I can't stand to listen to most rock...but I love rock, so I switch to my PortaPro's. When I'm wearing my PP's, I really hate listening to electronic music...but I love electronic...so I wear Turbines.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 11:16 AM Post #21 of 90


Quote:
Yeah, this is really a subjective question which will get a subjective answer.

Indeed.
 
Also as far as flat most phones don't do the ultimate flat I'd rather have all three frequencies present so I can hear it all.  Some people just like a balance of mids and highs with no bass. I'll pass over that every day.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 11:33 AM Post #22 of 90


Quote:
Indeed.
 
Also as far as flat most phones don't do the ultimate flat I'd rather have all three frequencies present so I can hear it all.  Some people just like a balance of mids and highs with no bass. I'll pass over that every day.


Bass that is naturally proportioned to the rest of the frequency range is not "no bass". 
 
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 12:31 PM Post #23 of 90


Quote:
Bass that is naturally proportioned to the rest of the frequency range is not "no bass"
 

Indeed, which is not the same thing as a balance slanted toward mids, and highs. 
rolleyes.gif

 
 
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 12:52 PM Post #24 of 90
The bottom end of an orchestra heard in a typical concert hall simply doesn't make anything like the booming noise produced by a lot of consumer headphones and earphones. That's one of the things I most disliked about the DT990 I owned for a while. The bass was way north of any realistic level, and for me that really compromised the listening experience.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 1:05 PM Post #25 of 90
the thing is i prefer flat sounding headphones for 2 reasons.
number 1 is that flat headphones sound the way they are supposed to.
number 2 is that flat headphones respond to eq'ing better then colored headphones. i tend to have rock eq on my shure srh840 enabled in rockbox.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 1:33 PM Post #26 of 90
I find that for well produced music, flat headphones can sound good with everything but colorations can be a hit or miss.  Also, I think dynamics play a bigger part in contributing towards a "fun" sound than the overall balance.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 2:55 PM Post #27 of 90
Flat is supposed to mean a db chart is "flat" to a correction of +- 3db
 
So many speakers and other products dont add that little "+- 3db" which makes all the charts just junk.
 
The lower a device can go +-3db the better the true bass response is, headphones are full of fail in this regard.
 
Another thing that makes headphones hard to measure is the without a properly calibrated mic than can detect such low DB of sound - its very hard to get a decent measurement.  Heck full size speakers need a $100us mic and properly tuned software and they are easy to measure.
 
I would rather have flat response that doesnt roll off too high and goes as low as possible as +-3db instead of colored...plus its fun to play with the sound.  If you start with a big bass hump at 100hz, you can never really fix that.
 
I find the whole "loudness war" more damaging than "OMG this isnt a flat response curve".
 
My advice = buy the FOTM and get rid of it quick if you dont like it - very little lost time and money to experiment.
 
Apr 11, 2011 at 3:18 PM Post #28 of 90
 
Quote:
the thing is i prefer flat sounding headphones for 2 reasons.
number 1 is that flat headphones sound the way they are supposed to.
number 2 is that flat headphones respond to eq'ing better then colored headphones. i tend to have rock eq on my shure srh840 enabled in rockbox.


Second part is arguable. The Ultrasone HFI 580 had the best response from EQ that I have experienced. I don't think flat headphones respond that well to EQ actually. The drivers or the overall design of flat headphones usually doesn't allow for higher levels of bass to get eqed in
 
 
 
Apr 13, 2011 at 9:10 AM Post #29 of 90
Flat freq response is cool but dont forget about harmonic distortion. Even if a headphone has perfectly flat response curve it may still sound coloured i.e. if it has high odd harmonics distortion sound will be cold/shrill. Even harmonics have their own flavour too, so you can't fix everything with EQ. That's probably why high end headphones may (never auditioned one so don't really know) still sound better than EQed "flat" lower end ones- they are technically better and add least possible distortion apart from FR.
 
Apr 13, 2011 at 9:21 AM Post #30 of 90
Whatever people will say I think it's all down to personal preference. For people that flat sound is their thing it'll probably also be "fun". For me for example the most important character in the sound isn't wheter it's flat or not but if it's forward or laid-back, forward sound always does it for me and is fun sounding wheter it's flat or not but laid-back sound is boring to me to listen to. For another person warm vs cold/bright sound might be another important factor, it's down to personal taste.
 

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