goodsound
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 25, 2005
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Whenever I saw a "distortion chart" for a headphone that shows distortion for just one frequency I always wondered - what about the rest of the band ?
Well here it is - the full range distortion measurements for the headphones I own - KSC-75, AKG-K501 and ipod nano. As a bonus it includes the frequency response also. (White graph is freq response, Green is distortion).
I did these tests using RMAA in acoustic mode.
What I find interesting and amazing is how the sonic signature of each headphone matches the distortion measurements. See my comments below.
KOSS KSC-75:
AKG K501:
Stock ipod nano headphone(just for comparison):
It is important to not just look at the relative but absolute distortion also.
Distortion worsens for all of them in the low frequencies but look at what the absolute distortion is at 100hz and 500hz for all three. That explains why the nano headphone sounds like it does!
The distortion mountain at ~4Khz in KSC-75 explains the high-end harshness.
The very low (well atleast relatively) distortion of the k501 from 1Khz all the way up to 10khz confirms its smooth and pleasant midrange and highs.
As a next step I would like to split up the "total" distortion into 2nd and 3rd harmonic. Kind of give an idea about the odd and even harmonic content of the distortion, the ratio and proportion of which also defines in a big way how a device sounds.
oh btw, the measurement equipment is an ECM8000 measurement microphone, Behringer UB802 mixer that servers as a mic pre-amp and the Audigy 2 NX USB soundcard.
Well here it is - the full range distortion measurements for the headphones I own - KSC-75, AKG-K501 and ipod nano. As a bonus it includes the frequency response also. (White graph is freq response, Green is distortion).
I did these tests using RMAA in acoustic mode.
What I find interesting and amazing is how the sonic signature of each headphone matches the distortion measurements. See my comments below.
KOSS KSC-75:
AKG K501:
Stock ipod nano headphone(just for comparison):
It is important to not just look at the relative but absolute distortion also.
Distortion worsens for all of them in the low frequencies but look at what the absolute distortion is at 100hz and 500hz for all three. That explains why the nano headphone sounds like it does!
The distortion mountain at ~4Khz in KSC-75 explains the high-end harshness.
The very low (well atleast relatively) distortion of the k501 from 1Khz all the way up to 10khz confirms its smooth and pleasant midrange and highs.
As a next step I would like to split up the "total" distortion into 2nd and 3rd harmonic. Kind of give an idea about the odd and even harmonic content of the distortion, the ratio and proportion of which also defines in a big way how a device sounds.
oh btw, the measurement equipment is an ECM8000 measurement microphone, Behringer UB802 mixer that servers as a mic pre-amp and the Audigy 2 NX USB soundcard.