[LNuneek]

I was wondering if I could get a little help with the analysis aspect of sound quality?
 
I have done only 1 official review on this site and it's all over the place. I'd like to try my hand at another review as I'm expecting a new pair of HP's to arrive in the next few weeks.
 
The one thing that I would like to know about mostly is how other reviewers figure out specifically how a headphone behaves frequency wise without the use of charts available on the web? For instance, when a reviewer will say something to the effect of "There is a 10 db spike at 4k."
 
How does one figure out for themselves where specifically in the frequency range there is problems and by how many db things are off?
 
Is it over time you just figure out things maybe from playing with EQ's, and/or training your ear, listening to tone sweeps, or some other way that you analyze frequency response?
 
As far as the actual writing of the review, I'm open to tips, suggestions, etc.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LNuneek /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

The one thing that I would like to know about mostly is how other reviewers figure out specifically how a headphone behaves frequency wise without the use of charts available on the web? For instance, when a reviewer will say something to the effect of "There is a 10 db spike at 4k."

 

Thy measured it themselves, ie, they have their own set-ups that likely are similar to what the sites that publish the response curves also use.

 

If they don't have any other way of measuring it, and rely on their own ears, they cannot phrase that to that specific. If you saw a line exactly like that, either they actually had their own measuring tools (even if improperly set-up, like just sticking a mic smack next to the earcup), or they're full of schiit. That would be the aural equivalent of having for example a perfume guy take one sniff of trace evidence and then tell you what exactly is in it without a mass spectrometer or, well, a lab that at least will replicate the ratios from trial and error since he'd have an idea of what the more dominant ingredients are.

 

The best that can be expected of a regular person who simply knows playback systems and some background on what those things actually should sound like live can at best state "there is a spike somewhere in the range of xxxhz and yyyyhz." Even if one knows a recording well and is a musician who can easily tune his own instruments, just stating that there's a spike specifically at 4000hz isn't likely, much less knowing exactly how tall that spike is, unless they start comparing sine waves or sine sweeps to isolate each and then continue working backwards by EQ-ing it once pinpointed.

 

[LNuneek]

Thanks for the response! Right from reading what you said I realized I am really over thinking this. It's just from reading some reviews and seeing how specific some people got I thought I'd really like to have that skill to be able to determine specifically what frequencies I wanted to talk about.
 
Right now, I have the basic ability to speak about sound in terms of Sub Bass, Mid Bass, Mids, Highs, etc. and general tonality, spatial characteristics, etc. I just wanted to reach another level in my communication about sound and analysis.

 

[serman005]

Brooko has written a very nice piece on his blog about how to write a review. It is quite exhaustive. I'm sure you've seen it, but on the off chance that you had not, I thought I'd mention it.

 

[HiFiChris]

 
The one thing that I would like to know about mostly is how other reviewers figure out specifically how a headphone behaves frequency wise without the use of charts available on the web? For instance, when a reviewer will say something to the effect of "There is a 10 db spike at 4k."
 
How does one figure out for themselves where specifically in the frequency range there is problems and by how many db things are off?
 
Is it over time you just figure out things maybe from playing with EQ's, and/or training your ear, listening to tone sweeps, or some other way that you analyze frequency response?

 
Experience with many headphones/IEMs, listening to sine sweeps (a good software is "SineGen" for Windows) and noise signals (white noise and pink noise) (<- best with an external DAC if you have one, as many onboard soundcards have either a roll-off in the bass or treble), using an EQ to elaborate by exactly how much a certain frequency area is boosted or lowered.