[x7007]

What does it mean

This are the HD800 normal Specs

Frequency response: 6Hz–51kHz, –10dB; 14Hz–44.1kHz, –3dB
Sensitivity: 102dB/1V RMS. Impedance: 300 ohms at 1kHz. THD: <0.002% at 1kHz/1V. THD+noise: 0.02 % (1kHz/1V).

The 800S are
Frequency response
4 - 51,000 Hz (-10 dB)

How can I get the (-10 dB) does my Amp can do that ?


I have the MayFlower Electronics Objective2 AMP connected with GSX 1000 USB DAC , are they good enough to get 100% of those headphones ?

Should I use High Gain or Low Gain with the H800S ? Also which better to use if so with the Beyerdynamic DT990 600 Ohms that I have now ?

Thanks

 

[TMRaven]

4-51,000hz means the headphone can produce anywhere from 4hz to 51,000hz, with a margin accounting for a rolloff of 10db, so the 4hz or 51,000hz hz might be 10db lower than what's at 40hz or 5,100hz.

Having said that, never pay attention to frequency limits published by manufactures. The real important thing is what the headphone is doing from our audible frequency range (20-20,000hz, and especially 40hz-12,000hz).

Use Innerfidelity or other sources for 3rd party published frequency response measurements on the headphones themselves. These will tell you how a headphone is tuned, and not just how far its theoretical frequency production is.

 

[HuoYuanJia]

Frequency response data by the manufacturer is always made up and false. If pulled before court, they could always argue that it was a "measurement error" and that there is no device out there that can accurately measure 50 kHz.
Anyway, you are only interested in 20 - 20.000 Hz at best, more importantly 60 - 12.000 Hz with acoustic instruments.

If you want any kind of valuable information, it is looking at raw measurements. For example those on Inner Fidelity or rtings. It is important that you ignore the compensated graphs because both of them are rubbish at compensation, arguably Tyll even more.

Both sites' measurements of the HD 800 S show a fairly good line from 100 to 1.000 Hz. The HD 800 S is lacking in the 2 kHz range, which isn't dramatic but gives voices a more hollow sounding. Both measurements also show a 6 kHz peak. For your convenience I traced both graphs and put them into one image. Red is rtings, green is Inner Fidelity, blue is my personal hearing based on sine sweeps (what I hear as completely flat).

If it is frequency accuracy that you are looking for, the HD 660 S does a far better job than the HD 800 (S).

 

[x7007]

ok thank you guys.

Should I use High Gain or Low Gain with those headphones ?

 

[samvafaei]

It is important that you ignore the compensated graphs because both of them are rubbish at compensation, arguably Tyll even more.

I am curious if you have suggestions on how to improve our compensation curve? Do you find issues with it throughout the range, or just in the treble?

Personally, I agree with you that our compensation curve is not quite there yet, but only in the treble range, and that's partially due to the issues with the dummy head and not the curve itself. I would say our bass and mid ranges are pretty good, especially since it matches the Everest Elite 700 up to 1KHz, which is based on the Harman target. Do you like the sound of Harman target? Or do you prefer something more like the B&K target?

 

[HuoYuanJia]

I am curious if you have suggestions on how to improve our compensation curve? Do you find issues with it throughout the range, or just in the treble?

Personally, I agree with you that our compensation curve is not quite there yet, but only in the treble range, and that's partially due to the issues with the dummy head and not the curve itself. I would say our bass and mid ranges are pretty good, especially since it matches the Everest Elite 700 up to 1KHz, which is based on the Harman target. Do you like the sound of Harman target? Or do you prefer something more like the B&K target?

Hello Sam,
I appreciate your effort and I think your approach on rtings is exemplarily transparent. But one big issue is that the Harman target is not a target at all. It is customer research. Their research approach was good and at the beginning they set up an actual target with which most audiophiles would agree based on logic alone. However, they then asked ~500 unexperienced users to adjust bass and treble to their personal liking. The anchors were set just like the volume. So any person that wanted to lift the volume turned up bass and treble. I don't know how Harman missed this huge issue and continued anyway.

I don't know why one would take the JBL Everest as an example. May I personally ask if you like that headphone and if you truly think it's possible to enjoy acoustic music that has a high quality recording with accurate timbre?

The correct approach would be to sort out people with healthy hearing and create a curve based on sine tones alone to see what curve comes up as perceived neutral. I have done this personally and when I compare my curve to the rtings target, I would say you have 7 dB too much bass. I am in-line in the range of 200 Hz to ~1,5 kHz. Where I cannot agree is your excessive amount from 3 kHz to 8 kHz. I guess this is necessary to balance to crazy amounts of bass, but effectually you have created a loudness curve or a v-shape with a recessed midrange.
When I equalize according to your target, I especially find 3,5 - 4 kHz, 6-7 kHz causes fatigue.
Interestingly I agree with your bump at 4,5 kHz (just mine is 3-4 dB lower), dip at 7 kHz (mine is 4 dB lower) and peak at ~8 kHz (though mine shifts to 9 kHz and again is lower).

I think a target should not include my neighbor's preference of partying in a disco all night. It should be according to studio environment standards. There used to be DIN norms in studios that postulated measurable linearity across the frequency range. I don't know why you would want to purposely deviate from that.

No offense, I understand your position. Your site is not an audiophile or pro-audio review site. You try to appeal to the broad audience. And when I will buy my next TV, rtings will be my number one source to start searching. But most people on Head-Fi or other audio forums are hardcore. We listen to music 6 hours/ day. Putting on a JBL headphone on the bus for a 20min ride is not in our interest.

Having that said, Tyll's compensation is far worse.

 

[Sinery]

The GSX is a DAC+AMP and doesn't have line out VSS, so you're doing double amping which frankly is a terrible idea - especially with a subpar first amp.

But if you wanna balance the impact of subpar amping vs that of VSS, well those are in completely different leagues.

 

[HuoYuanJia]

I just noticed I actually put my personal target in the graph above. The blue dotted line is what I perceive as very neutral (and thus natural), though I occasionally make small adjustments from time to time.