Markdude
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2014
- Posts
- 12
- Likes
- 10
I know it's sacrilegious to mix with headphones, but I don't really have much of a choice in my current situation and I'm doing it mainly for fun anyway. Based on my research for my budget, the K712, Spirit Pro, and MDR7520 seem to be some pretty safe choices for my budget and I keep coming back to them as seemingly being the top contenders.
Although I was initially very skeptical, I have read practically nothing but praise about the Sonarworks Reference 3 headphone calibration plugin and I'm planning on using that along with whichever headphones I get. Therefore, frequency response is not a huge concern to me as long as the drivers are capable of reproducing all of the frequency range well enough for Sonarworks to effectively do the rest. My main concerns are transient response accuracy (appropriate level of punch, I suppose) and soundstaging. I suppose ease of amplification is also pretty important too because I'll likely just be using my audio interface (Scarlett Solo 2nd Generation) for amplification for the foreseeable future.
The InnerFidelity test charts for these headphones are here:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AKGK712.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/FocalSpiritProfessional.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDR7520.pdf
I'm not sure if the square wave tests indicate much about transient response rather than just frequency response, but it looks to me like the Focal Spirit Pros have the closest to ideal square wave test response of the 3, based on the writeup here: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/headphone-measurements-explained-square-wave-response-page-2
That surprised me since I would have figured being closed-back would hamper its accuracy. However, the K712 does seem to have the most dynamic range in the impulse response test. Would that be an indicator at greater accuracy in transient response? Does the K712 also have the best soundstaging of the 3, being open-back?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Although I was initially very skeptical, I have read practically nothing but praise about the Sonarworks Reference 3 headphone calibration plugin and I'm planning on using that along with whichever headphones I get. Therefore, frequency response is not a huge concern to me as long as the drivers are capable of reproducing all of the frequency range well enough for Sonarworks to effectively do the rest. My main concerns are transient response accuracy (appropriate level of punch, I suppose) and soundstaging. I suppose ease of amplification is also pretty important too because I'll likely just be using my audio interface (Scarlett Solo 2nd Generation) for amplification for the foreseeable future.
The InnerFidelity test charts for these headphones are here:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AKGK712.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/FocalSpiritProfessional.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDR7520.pdf
I'm not sure if the square wave tests indicate much about transient response rather than just frequency response, but it looks to me like the Focal Spirit Pros have the closest to ideal square wave test response of the 3, based on the writeup here: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/headphone-measurements-explained-square-wave-response-page-2
That surprised me since I would have figured being closed-back would hamper its accuracy. However, the K712 does seem to have the most dynamic range in the impulse response test. Would that be an indicator at greater accuracy in transient response? Does the K712 also have the best soundstaging of the 3, being open-back?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
