goodsound
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 25, 2005
- Posts
- 290
- Likes
- 11
I got all these headphones while searching for a good earbud. After listening to them I thought I'd measure them and see if my subjective impressions match with objective measurements or not.
First is just a basic frequency reponse comparison -
JBL Tempo (Magenta)
JVC 150 Gumy (Yellow)
Ipod Touch 4th gen (White)
Senn MX 581 (Green)
From here on the next 4 screen shots are for each headphone individually. The Green trace is the frequency response and the multi color traces are the harmonic distortion of each order. See legend on right. So D2 is the second harmonic, D3 is the third harmonic and so forth. Notice how the MX581 is lower in senstivity but almost tracks the JBL Tempo in its midrange upto 1.5Khz and low freq response.
JBL Tempo -
I found these headphones very good in midrange and dass and quite lacking in the highs. All that is clearly evident from this chart.
Ipod Touch 4th gen -
I think I can attribute the boomy signature of this headphone to the bump in frequency response and distortion in the 100-200hz range. Midrange distortion not that great either. Rolled off highs - lack of airyness. Overall mediocre.
JVC Gumy 150 -
Nothing much to say. Doesn't do well in any particular area but for $5 not bad.
I saved the best for last -
Senn MX581 -
Nice balanced response all throughout. Low overall distortion and very low 2nd and 4th order. Its like a smaller JBL Tempo + highs. I love this headphone.
Method and equipment used for testing -
EMM6 mic + Avid/Maudio C400 usb interface + ARTA measurement software. I made my own sort of "ear canal" from a piece of 1" length of about 1/2" diameter plastic tubing where the earbud will fit snug from one side and the mic from the other side. The distance between the mic and the headphone was very small - a few mm. Not laboratory grade but good enough for relative comparisons.
First is just a basic frequency reponse comparison -
JBL Tempo (Magenta)
JVC 150 Gumy (Yellow)
Ipod Touch 4th gen (White)
Senn MX 581 (Green)
From here on the next 4 screen shots are for each headphone individually. The Green trace is the frequency response and the multi color traces are the harmonic distortion of each order. See legend on right. So D2 is the second harmonic, D3 is the third harmonic and so forth. Notice how the MX581 is lower in senstivity but almost tracks the JBL Tempo in its midrange upto 1.5Khz and low freq response.
JBL Tempo -
I found these headphones very good in midrange and dass and quite lacking in the highs. All that is clearly evident from this chart.
Ipod Touch 4th gen -
I think I can attribute the boomy signature of this headphone to the bump in frequency response and distortion in the 100-200hz range. Midrange distortion not that great either. Rolled off highs - lack of airyness. Overall mediocre.
JVC Gumy 150 -
Nothing much to say. Doesn't do well in any particular area but for $5 not bad.
I saved the best for last -
Senn MX581 -
Nice balanced response all throughout. Low overall distortion and very low 2nd and 4th order. Its like a smaller JBL Tempo + highs. I love this headphone.
Method and equipment used for testing -
EMM6 mic + Avid/Maudio C400 usb interface + ARTA measurement software. I made my own sort of "ear canal" from a piece of 1" length of about 1/2" diameter plastic tubing where the earbud will fit snug from one side and the mic from the other side. The distance between the mic and the headphone was very small - a few mm. Not laboratory grade but good enough for relative comparisons.
