Focker
Headphoneus Supremus
Quote:
and those graphs also show the difference between a grado and sennheiser, and the challenge of turning a grado into a more natural sounding headphone design. ALot of folks like the grados becuause they are engaging, fun, etc but they are very colored and unatural, as the graphs always show. the senns are much more linear and are nice sounds, but they do not take a listener on as deep or intimate a ride as a grado design can. the magnum is an attempt to blend these two imo, and the task of the 'modder' or 'builder' of the custom magnum is to allow this to happen while at the same time doing whatever possible to reduce the colorations of the grado (and magnum) drivers. this can be done only with the cup design and particular driver mating to that particular cup, since it's the only real variable besides the cable in that simple design.
It seems to me that the frequency response graph is relied upon way too heavily at head-fi. The FR graph is quantitative, not qualititative. It's a helpful tool to determine if the recording is heard at equal volume across the frequency response. Three qualities I like in a headphone - strong imaging, detail/resolution, and an "airy-ness" - aren't depicted on a FR graph. Beyond that, our hearing isn't "flat" to begin with, and hearing varies from person to person. I'm not saying it's not a reliable tool, cause it is. But it's only one part of the whole picture in terms of why people choose the headphones they do. If you're top goal is a headphone that is flat and neutral in terms of the amplitude that each frequency is reproduced, then that's what you should focus on. But there are lots of other more qualitiative aspects of headphones that appeal to us, and I'm one of them.