[mainguy]

And why is that? BT is developing constantly. If it can transmit lossless data than what is the advantage of a cable?

It's also due to geometry. The BT headphones are more compact, while the cups are also packed with electronics. This is a big engineering constraint and certain features like the pyramidal pattern on the inside of the full size focal closed backs is not on Bathys, and that pattern breaks up back waves. I also believe driver range of motion is less in these smaller designs, and they're not ported in the same way either.

 

[hanumanbob]

It's also due to geometry. The BT headphones are more compact, while the cups are also packed with electronics. This is a big engineering constraint and certain features like the pyramidal pattern on the inside of the full size focal closed backs is not on Bathys, and that pattern breaks up back waves. I also believe driver range of motion is less in these smaller designs, and they're not ported in the same way either.

In Bluetooth speakers, headphones, or earphones, interference from adjacent devices can cause the audio to skip. You may also notice the sound cutting off randomly. In many other cases, there’s an annoying buzzing or static sound.

 

[JML]

I have a Bathys on order. Does anyone know there's an OTG adapter to use with an iPhone lightning port to allow connection with a USB-C cable? I have cables like this, but they're very short and meant for use with an external DAC/amp, and obviously won't work to use with a Bathys' USB-C port unless I hold the phone 2" from the headphones. I have a USB-C 3.1 extension cable, but it's not as flexible as I'd like.

 

[rael67]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/foc...arly-impressions.965153/page-32#post-17227303

 

[Zdzichon]

BT cant transmit lossless yet

It's almost there -> LDAC, aptX lossless soon

Because it can be measured and is science.

Cable is science... and BT transmits data via fairy dust?

It's also due to geometry.

Sure, that's where DSP comes in. Focal just gave a great example - Mimi, which I have dismissed at first and use constantly now.

You may also notice the sound cutting off randomly.

Only happens to me in a city environment and very rarely I might add.

many other cases, there’s an annoying buzzing or static sound.

Not necessarily, an also had these in all manners of stationary wired equipment too

 

[mainguy]

Sure, that's where DSP comes in. Focal just gave a great example - Mimi, which I have dismissed at first and use constantly now.

Yet it doesn't, because professionals still treat their rooms as a very important factor in the audio output. They don't use a garbage room/cavity and throw DSP on it. Theoretically I cannot see sufficient evidence that DSP could ever somehow magic away cavity constraints, anymore than it can magically turn a closed back headphone into an open back headphone...

 

[Zdzichon]

Yet

 

[hanumanbob]

I have a Bathys on order. Does anyone know there's an OTG adapter to use with an iPhone lightning port to allow connection with a USB-C cable? I have cables like this, but they're very short and meant for use with an external DAC/amp, and obviously won't work to use with a Bathys' USB-C port unless I hold the phone 2" from the headphones. I have a USB-C 3.1 extension cable, but it's not as flexible as I'd like.

you should get a used one here. Much cheaper.

 

[mainguy]

Yet

I can't see how it ever could theoretically unless the headphone driver approaches infinitely low mass, or we use superconducting coils for drivers (never going to happen). Even then with a perfectly responsive driver, I'm also not sure the DSP signal would travel fast enough, in theory, to make up for back waves, resonances, etc, of a closed back. You'd have to do calculations. Off the hip though I'm fairly certain it's impossible even imagining tech far beyond what we have.

 

[Zdzichon]

Sound processing happens before you send it into the driver so why the high driver requirements?
The cavity issue can also be diminished with time. 10/15 years ago electronics that fit in Bathys would have to be a box of considerable size on your desk. We have R2R DAC/AMPS the size of an AAA battery, dongles that output 0,5+W of power. Who said that in the next 5/ we can't fit the electronic in the headband? Nothing is impossible

 

[hanumanbob]

A $300-700 wireless cannot and never will be able to compete with a high end wired one. no matter how the Bluetooth tech may improve. Not in this lifetime.

 

[Zdzichon]

Yeah, well... we'll see, won't we?

A few years ago I heard that a hifi BT headphone is out of the question and yet here we are in a hifi BT headphone's thread.

 

[jsmiller58]

I can't see how it ever could theoretically unless the headphone driver approaches infinitely low mass, or we use superconducting coils for drivers (never going to happen). Even then with a perfectly responsive driver, I'm also not sure the DSP signal would travel fast enough, in theory, to make up for back waves, resonances, etc, of a closed back. You'd have to do calculations. Off the hip though I'm fairly certain it's impossible even imagining tech far beyond what we have.

Actually I think that what it takes is not that far outside the realm of the possible…. It should be possible to calculate or measure for the geometry of a headphone the responses of any wave generated by a transducer and the resulting reflections between a (model) head and the earpads, cups, etc., then to calculate what the corrections for those interactions need to be. Combine all the waves and required corrections and you can cancel out any unwanted interference. This is in theory not complicated at all, and could be done for every possible headphone, and applied as a standard correction for each headphone model. Theoretically you could even do this on a per headphone and user pair with built in microphones in the earcups, test sound waves, and sufficient computing. These corrections could be mixed with the actual sound to be played.

Theoretically doable, yes. Practical and affordable? No. Will it be the case one day? Who knows!

 

[hanumanbob]

Actually I think that what it takes is not that far outside the realm of the possible…. It should be possible to calculate or measure for the geometry of a headphone the responses of any wave generated by a transducer and the resulting reflections between a (model) head and the earpads, cups, etc., then to calculate what the corrections for those interactions need to be. Combine all the waves and required corrections and you can cancel out any unwanted interference. This is in theory not complicated at all, and could be done for every possible headphone, and applied as a standard correction for each headphone model. Theoretically you could even do this on a per headphone and user pair with built in microphones in the earcups, test sound waves, and sufficient computing. These corrections could be mixed with the actual sound to be played.

Theoretically doable, yes. Practical and affordable? No. Will it be the case one day? Who knows!

Just like going to Mars. Theoretical yes.

 

[jsmiller58]

Just like going to Mars. Theoretical yes.

Well, the theoretically possible is only something that hasn’t happened yet…

By the way, this same technique can be applied to wired headphones as well, where the corrections are applied at the source, rather than in DSP in the headphones…