Short Answer:
Yes, that is the correct term. I'm sorry can't write that like guy from 6 moons. And I think that term is fairly benign when you consider that I've written things like "nasty 6k peak" or "problem region" when referring to my current favorite headphone.
Long Answer:
I admit that I tend to overemphasize certain qualities when describing stuff, but you have to know where I'm coming from; after all, the topic of this thread refers to "Kings."
The state of dynamic headphones (including orthos which are still dynamics) is truly sad, mainly for one reason: driver resonances and ringing. Most people don't hear ringing, nor care about it, or have come to accept it. I do, I care about it, I've trained myself (building speakers) to hear it, even if it's buried 20-30db down. Unfortunately I'm forced to accept it.
The kinds of resonances that you hear in headphones would be
completely unacceptable in hi-fi dynamic speakers (with the exception of the single driver oddities.) Every driver depending upon it's size, shape, material, and related rigidity is going to ring. It's just matter of at what frequencies. With speakers, the problem is solved with multiple drivers and crossovers where each driver runs in it's most optimal region. Geez, IEMs even do that now!
So why the heck are we still dealing with
only this one driver crap? I'm mean, these headphone cup sizes are getting monstrous with enough room to fit multiple drivers. Maybe even a 2-way coaxial design can be shoved into a small size? Basically, I'm just getting tired of all us being happily spoon-fed by the manufacturers:
- Trained Sennheiser rep: "it's [HD800] a neutral phone." ... "Your bass is limp and bite my shiny metal ass." Do these Sennheiser guys just listen to classical and David Hasselhoff?
- Audeze's solution of shelving down the entire band from 1kHz so the peak at 10kHz is only 10db down ... "Very clever, nice try, where's the beef [high midrange]?"
- Beyer's "record breaking magnetic flux" ... "Wow an improved DT880 with a darker tilt! Wait, what's that tizz tizz tizz that's even worse than the DT880?"
- Denon's mobile sub-woofers ... "Hmmm. Very ingenious how that narrow bright treble band meshes well with the sub-woofer effect."
Nothing against any of the above manufacturers. I am deeply appreciative of their efforts. But if we just sit around and keep convincing ourselves that what we happen to own are the best most perfect headphones in the world without any issues, then the manufacturers are never going to have a reason to push themselves into more creative or advanced designs, and just re-hash similar "improved" models with the same inherent problems.
I'd like to hear some real "Kings."
