I understand that many people won't make any EQ with the Heddphone as it is already a great pleasure as it is. So sorry for them, that I publish this rather long post.
But, for those who wants to explorer some more details in the sound, as there are some margin in the 5.5/6Khz and a bit at 10khz, I will just put some of my non-professional measurements that I tried today with a MiniDSP Ears with and without EQ.
The setups I tried were those, all connected to my PC with REW and to the Heddphone with a 4.4mm to 2x XLR balanced ultra low capacitance cable :
1) SMSL M500 (USB DAC Input and 2 XLR output ) + Monolyth THX887 (2x XLR intput XLR4 to 4.4mm output)
2) MiniDSP HA-DSD (DAC 3.5mm output) + Monolyth THX887 (3.5mm unbalanced input to 4.4mm output)
3) FIIO M11 (USB DAC with 4.4mm output) + Monolyth THX887 (2 x XLR input to 4.4mm output)
4) FIIO M11 (USB DAC with 4.4mm output) + PA3S+4.4MM with 2W (Balanced 2.5mm input, 4.4mm Output to Heddphone)
So first .. for frequency response, I can't see any real difference, even if, unfortunately, under 40hz, in my office there are plenty of low frequencies with a high noise floor (walking people, lift, air conditioner, wind, etc). My measurements are made in a placard and not a well close cabinet with a real noise protection from outside.
So, actually I can never get twice measurements between 10hz and 40hz even with the same config in less than 1-minute time difference.
But, I would clim that every config looks similar (and THD not really different too)
Then I could test some PEQ config based on the autoEQ parameters made by Oratory1990 and some of my own parameters.
For this, I use a Minidsp HA-DSP, which make easy to input PAQ data and measure them quite instantly.
Sowe we can see the 3 frequency response which are rather different and confirmed by my own ears.. of course my favourite sound is under NW666 PEQ
THD with no EQ
THD with AutoEQ from Oratory1990
And EQ made basically with the Oratory1990 parameters and adapted to my own taste
But what I can't show with those measurements is the difference in real life between M500 as DAC and Monolyth THX 887 as amp with 6W , compared to an amp like the PA3S+ with 2W => lower frequencies are definitely better to listen with more watts available (I suspect peak power is a big factor and can be more important than the sustain power itself for low frequencies).
As my freedom to listen to good music anywhere I want in my own home is very important for me => I ordered and I am waiting for one more new model of portable amp with the CETRANCE M8 V2. It seems to be able to produce till 20V in peaks and probably 1.4W (sustain at 32 Ohms).
I think my actual PA3S+4.4mm is a cheap amp manufactured in China and probably far from the 2W as announced by the manufacturer and it is probably very far beyond what the Heddphone needs as peak power (which can be produced easily with the THX 887).
So this was my non-pro contribution, for people enjoying adapting a bit their headphones sounds to their own taste... of course I wouldn't claim it to be essential in the Heddphone situation, but i think it's worth to explore as they are many tools available PC or DAP.
I understand that many people won't make any EQ with the Heddphone as it is already a great pleasure as it is. So sorry for them, that I publish this rather long post.
But, for those who wants to explorer some more details in the sound, as there are some margin in the 5.5/6Khz and a bit at 10khz, I will just put some of my non-professional measurements that I tried today with a MiniDSP Ears with and without EQ.
The setups I tried were those, all connected to my PC with REW and to the Heddphone with a 4.4mm to 2x XLR balanced ultra low capacitance cable :
1) SMSL M500 (USB DAC Input and 2 XLR output ) + Monolyth THX887 (2x XLR intput XLR4 to 4.4mm output)
2) MiniDSP HA-DSD (DAC 3.5mm output) + Monolyth THX887 (3.5mm unbalanced input to 4.4mm output)
3) FIIO M11 (USB DAC with 4.4mm output) + Monolyth THX887 (2 x XLR input to 4.4mm output)
4) FIIO M11 (USB DAC with 4.4mm output) + PA3S+4.4MM with 2W (Balanced 2.5mm input, 4.4mm Output to Heddphone)
So first .. for frequency response, I can't see any real difference, even if, unfortunately, under 40hz, in my office there are plenty of low frequencies with a high noise floor (walking people, lift, air conditioner, wind, etc). My measurements are made in a placard and not a well close cabinet with a real noise protection from outside.
So, actually I can never get twice measurements between 10hz and 40hz even with the same config in less than 1-minute time difference.
But, I would clim that every config looks similar (and THD not really different too)
Then I could test some PEQ config based on the autoEQ parameters made by Oratory1990 and some of my own parameters.
For this, I use a Minidsp HA-DSP, which make easy to input PAQ data and measure them quite instantly.
Sowe we can see the 3 frequency response which are rather different and confirmed by my own ears
THD with no EQ
THD with AutoEQ from Oratory1990
And EQ made basically with the Oratory1990 parameters and adapted to my own taste
But what I can't show with those measurements is the difference in real life between M500 as DAC and Monolyth THX 887 as amp with 6W , compared to an amp like the PA3S+ with 2W => lower frequencies are definitely better to listen with more watts available (I suspect peak power is a big factor and can be more important than the sustain power itself for low frequencies).
As my freedom to listen to good music anywhere I want in my own home is very important for me => I ordered and I am waiting for one more new model of portable amp with the CETRANCE M8 V2. It seems to be able to produce till 20V in peaks and probably 1.4W (sustain at 32 Ohms).
I think my actual PA3S+4.4mm is a cheap amp manufactured in China and probably far from the 2W as announced by the manufacturer and it is probably very far beyond what the Heddphone needs as peak power (which can be produced easily with the THX 887).
So this was my non-pro contribution, for people enjoying adapting a bit their headphones sounds to their own taste... of course I wouldn't claim it to be essential in the Heddphone situation, but i think it's worth to explore as they are many tools available PC or DAP.
Would be greateful for Your response !
newworld666 thank You for Your great job. I would be grateful if You coud explain me how those THD graphs works. I have only seen THD graph with % scale. Could You please explain how to read it? I have seen last THD graphs from Amirm from ASR... Amirm showed that HEDDphones are just horrible in this aspect. I am curious if his measurements are wrong or they dont differ from Yours
as none of his measures could demonstrate why the Heddphone with the THX887 is so impressive to my ears between 10 and 300hz as a kick in my throat, that none of my closed headphones can totally do and are more muddy in those range of frequencies)Thank you,
But basically I have spent a lot of time to try to find some measures that could translate the real sound differences between my Heddphone (by Hedd) connected to the most impressive amp I own (Monolith Thx 887) which truly can give me a real kick in my throat in low and ultra low frequencies (when music needs it) and my other amps or headphones => with the Heddphone, It can give very deep, clear and fast impacts between 10hz and 300hz (it's impressive) but with any other of my amps (and even closed headphones), something is missing somewhere.. those are not bad, but truly missing in A/B comparison.
I really want to find a portable amp able to give me the same feeling when I listen to some music... Unfortunately, no measures could really show this !!! It's rather complicated to make A/B comparison between amps or headphones.
With non-pro measurements (and I think with pro measurements too) the differences between amps and dacs are really tiny for each of my headphone (Z7M2, Ultrasone Ed15, Heddphone).
We can easily catch the signature difference between headphones (through frequency's response), but, it's as if impossible between amp/dacs => though in real life the differences are really there and easy to catch with our own ears !
The THD measure is interesting, as, we all try to compensate some lost of power in some frequencies, and every time we push the equalizer in those frequencies, distortion can be increased by a lot and becomes really annoying !!!
So what could be shown is when I do some EQ is to "see" what happens between the signal emitted by my PC (through a HADSP by miniDSP), the distorted results with the Heddphone in comparison with the permanent ambient background "sound" of my office. My office is very quiet as I am in the countryside in the middle of a huge park (the heddphone is totally open with an amazingly huge surface (AMT) moving even just with your head movements like no other tech and so it catches a lot a background noise).
So in short :
-> the totally flatline "fundamental" represent what my computer produce as sound
-> the THD is the difference of what the Heddphone produce (in DB) compared to the fundamental
-> the Noise Floor line can represent the ambient noise of my office
Unfortunately, even in a very quiet place like my office, the low frequency noise floor is always at a rather high level which probably impacts the Heddphone (AMT) too.
Then, when we increase the EQ in low frequencies we increase quickly the THD too, that it can climb to a catchable level -20db that we can really hear.
And if we use a totally closed small cabinet, there probably some resonance catchable by the AMT driver which can create some THD bumps in some frequencies.
So, in my case, I would mostly compare in a open environment the THD vs noise floor and maybe just the general shape of THD between the measurements .. and not really the THD directly between measurements, as there is a lot of impacts due to the ambient sound (I think THD is rather impacted by Noise floor) => that's why I am not really interested with amir's THD as we don't know what's the environment of his measurements and what could be the noise floor when he measured at each frequency....
I hope with my poor English and level of measurements matters, I could explain the nearly 20 days I have spent last year in various measurements of my headphones.
I am waiting for some theoretically better portable amp I ordered, and I will start again to do some measurements (Another amp that Amir hates => Centrance M8V2, but I don't care so much what he is thinking
really appreciate it.
So, yesterday I took a few hours to compare the he400i and the Heddphone.
how would you describe the sound differences?
