[High_Q]

I thought it would be interesting if it is possible to make one based on auditory tests.  I would be interesting to compare such frequency response and the frequency response of people's preferred gear.  There seams to be a lot of discussion on people's ears being subjective or people having different type of hearing, and I was thinking possibly people ears have different tonal responses which could be the reason why some people take frequency response graphs with a grain of salt.  What do you guys think?

 

[xxbaker]

Seems infeasible.  How would the test be conducted?  You can't tap into someone's brain and determine how loud they perceive a volume.  You could ask them how loud it sounds and write them all down, but that's still very subjective and it'd take a long to get a good sampling, people would get tired and over time people's definition of what is loud might change radically.  You could try but the results would probably be meaningless.

 

[b0dhi]

Some low resolution applets exist on the web to do this. There is some variability in the results, but that's the nature of what you're measuring - perceived loudness. Generally its pretty accurate though.
 
By the way I agree completely with this:
Quote:

and I was thinking possibly people ears have different tonal responses which could be the reason why some people take frequency response graphs with a grain of salt.  What do you guys think?

 
Here's a graph demonstrating the variance:

 

[Ro-amp]

I had a lot of fun comparing my SHR840 against the HD650 with this site...
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
Cheers

 

[Edwood]

Alrighty then!  We should all have to prove our hearing abilities before posting in this forum!
 
So everyone make an appointment with an audiologist or an ENT and post the results of your hearing tests.
 
Hmmmm.   I know I have mine somewhere.  I actually did post it here before....

 
-Ed

 

[Edwood]

Seriously, for those that are actually interested, make an appointment for a hearing test.  It's a good idea for a basic hearing health check up as well.  The hearing test results would be a good baseline control test as a basis for more specific and focused testing that could be created here.   I've found with the most recent hearing test I had with an Ears Nose and Throat doctor was probably not as detailed and comprehensive as it could be.  Their sound "proofed" booth was anything but as well.  I'm thinking a specialist like an audiologist that works with getting hearing aids and custom IEM's made would be an even better choice.  Of course this type of testing may not be covered by everyone's health insurance and such, but if it is, it would be an interesting thing to try.
 
Perhaps audiophile focused hearing tests could be something that could be offered at big events like CanJam and RMAF in the future if there is enough interest.  I know that Tyll from Headroom is bringing a headphone measurement rig/box to measure people's headphones, and there are usually several audiologists there to take ear mold impressions.
 
-Ed

 

[Jack C]

Perceived loudness curve should not affect the validity of a piece of equipment's frequency response.  For example, lets take an imaginary musical intrument of some sort that produced a tone of 0dB at 1kHz along with a -3dB tone at 2kHz.  Someone with a hearing of -6dB at 1kHz and -8dB at 2kHz would perceive the tones as having a loudness of -6dB and -11dB respectively.  To him, this is how this particular instrument should naturally sound.
 
If the sound of the instrument was played back through a piece of audio equipment, the *only* faithful reproduction of this instrument would be for the audio equipment to present a flat frequency response. Boosting/cutting to compensate for the listener's perceived loudness curve only serves to distort the way the instrument naturally sounds to the listener. 

 

[Edwood]

For some reason most of the images and links on this site are broken for me.  But it's worthwhile checking out.
 
http://people.rit.edu/afp9959/swaussie.html
 
-Ed