Ideal Frequency Response for IEM

Jan 27, 2013 at 7:16 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 5

KamijoIsMyHero

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So I pretty much understand how headphone/speaker frequency response graphs should look like for a neutral sound, so what would be the ideal frequency response graph for IEM? They are stuck inside the ear so they must have a different response graph right?
 
let's say we use tyll's graphs, since he is pretty much headphone biased than iem, and set the HE500 as the benchmark for a neutral headphone, how much would a neutral IEMs defer?
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 10:36 AM Post #2 of 5
There is no ideal frequency response because it's not the only thing that matters.
 
I have the Etymotic MC5 for example, which has a flat frequency response, extended bass, and a terrific isolation however, the sound is like others mentioned in this forum: lifeless. I wouldn't recommend to anyone.  
http://www.headphone.com/headphones/etymotic-mc5.php
 
Most of the time the "ideal" is a mix of sound signature, composition, soundstage, personal preferences, etc. In other words, don't pay too much attention to curves.
 
Enjoy your music 
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 3:14 PM Post #3 of 5
Dummy heads use microphones at the end of the ear canal. So if you stuff an in-ear into the ear canal you're bypassing the pinna. With a full size headphone you're not bypassing that so the pinna will have an effect on the response.
 
Theoretically, measurements of in-ears should be more accurate, because there's just the ear canal between earphone and microphone. There will be some ear-canal resonances at high frequencies, but other than that the raw response should be about the same.
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 5:41 PM Post #4 of 5
Why look at raw data and not compensated ones?

I always thought midrange would be altered in some form and bass would still look the same, the treble region have its regular spikes due to ear's component(not very good in remembering the names)
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 6:32 PM Post #5 of 5
Compensation is different for in-ears.
 
Raw is the stuff measured where the ear-drum would be. It's not supposed to be a flat line, but you can easily memorize how the curve should look like.
 

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