[astroid]

30 years ago Gunther Theile suggested that diffuse-field response was the correct headphone response and the current free field response was not ideal.
Harman international with a team led by Sean Olive is about to suggest a new response at the AES spring convention in Rome.
The new response is based on acoustic measurements of calibrated loudspeakers in a listening room.

Description of Paper is here http://www.aes.org/events/134/papers/?ID=3474

 

[mikeaj]

Looks like it's up on AES's website, for those who want to pay $20.
http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=16768
 
Tyll kind of mentioned it in a post on IF about NAD:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/2013-munich-high-end-show-highlight-psb-viso-hp-50-sealed-headphones
 
Rin Choi kind of dropped some hints on it and mentioned it as well here:
http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-new-criterion-will-be-added-to-dataset.html
 
So look at ER4 response and make these adjustments: -2.5 dB @ 1 kHz, -5 dB @ 3 kHz and higher...?  Roughly.  That is, for the particular loudspeaker-based response they had.  Who's to say that some slightly different response that was untested, might not have performed subjectively better.

 

[gnarlsagan]

I'd like to know more about the loudspeaker setup, and how it improves on the original DF setup.

 

[jaddie]

Anyone else read the paper yet?

 

[jaddie]

Quote:

I'd like to know more about the loudspeaker setup, and how it improves on the original DF setup.

The loudspeaker setup for the measurements that the target curves were derived from was a 7.1 channel system with 4 subwoofers, one in each corner, in the Harmon listening room. It wasn't an attempt at DF, but an attempt at sampling a real listening room configuration.  The usual measurement head was used.  Predictably, the new target curves were the ones people preferred, and the preference was strongly over no EQ at all.