[dakanao]

I've been an audio enthusiast for many years and I've heard (and used) a LOT of descriptive terms for audio quality. "Gritty" doesn't mean anything in the audio world to me. Can you use some other well known audio terms to describe what you are hearing?

Brian.

Harshness.

 

[diamondears]

Harshness.

Upper mids? Sibilance (ssss and cymbals/high hats)?

 

[dakanao]

Upper mids? Sibilance (ssss and cymbals/high hats)?

No, with clap like instruments. Without any EQ it's fine, but the sound is too dark for me.

 

[diamondears]

No, with clap like instruments. Without any EQ it's fine, but the sound is too dark for me.

Ok, I see. Many ears find it dark. Not me though. Older ears become less sensitive to treble. Or you could be used to trebly HP; if this is the case, isolate your ears from any audio for at least 1 week...and clean 'em up to make sure.

 

[diamondears]

No, with clap like instruments. Without any EQ it's fine, but the sound is too dark for me.

What's your HP before HP50?

 

[dakanao]

What's your HP before HP50?

My ears are clean btw. The headphone I had before  the HP50 was the Creative Aurvana Live
 
Btw, if I EQ them on Windows Media Player, the result is fantastic. But I can't get that same EQ on my system EQ (which is clearly inferior in quality to the WMP equalizer)

 

[diamondears]

My ears are clean btw. The headphone I had before  the HP50 was the Creative Aurvana Live

Well, I once thought my ears are clean too as I clean them up religously everyday. Turned out there's a debris well inside the canal that is actually sticking and covering the eardrums on both my ears. An EENT have to clean it up with his special instrument. Told me to clean em up with oil (just drop one or two drops of oil, let it reach the eardrums and fetch any dirt there, then let them flow out); buds or any other else are actually way insufficient he said. True enough, ever since I do this, the treble opened up big time.

CAL is brighter than most. So your ears may be used to or hve already adjusted to it. I recommend isolation (to recalibrate your eardrums), not exposure to the NAD (your ears adjusting to the NAD). You'd want to hear its true sound first.

 

[sheldaze]

I've been an audio enthusiast for many years and I've heard (and used) a LOT of descriptive terms for audio quality. "Gritty" doesn't mean anything in the audio world to me. Can you use some other well known audio terms to describe what you are hearing?

Brian.

I've heard people use the word grainy.

 

[cel4145]

My ears are clean btw. The headphone I had before  the HP50 was the Creative Aurvana Live

CAL is brighter than most. So your ears may be used to or hve already adjusted to it. I recommend isolation (to recalibrate your eardrums), not exposure to the NAD (your ears adjusting to the NAD). You'd want to hear its true sound first.

I agree. It may take you a little time to adjust. I just got my HP50s yesterday in trade from another Head-Fier, and they are a bit dark. After several hours of listening yesterday, I started to get used to the different sound signature.

While I don't think you have to take a week off necessarily, take a day off from listening to your headphones. And then DON'T listen to the CAL's for a few days while you give yourself a chance to get used to the NADs uneq'd.

BTW: This is one of the likely principles behind headphone burn-in/break-in. It's not so much that physical changes happen to a headphone (it's debateable how much of that does happen) as there is psychological adjustment that happens when we give ourselves more time to get used to them.

Btw, if I EQ them on Windows Media Player, the result is fantastic. But I can't get that same EQ on my system EQ (which is clearly inferior in quality to the WMP equalizer)

Equalizer APO is a system wide Windows parametric EQ that can do the job. But give your ears some time to adjust first

 

[dakanao]

Alright, I'm going to listen to your guys advice, and listen to them for a few days unEQ'ed while not listening to the CAL, and see how I like them then.
 
If I still find them too dark, I will try to get another, hopefully better sounding system Realtime Equaliser than the one I have now.

 

[dakanao]

Btw, I'm not noticing any ''RoomFeel'' or anything ''different than usual'' to the sound at all. More details and better instrument separation than my CAL for sure, also more echoes (echoes=details I think?) but not a noticably spacious or ''open'' sound at all.
 
Might be because the CAL has a fairly spacious sound for a closed headphone as well, and I'm used to that kind of sound.

 

[cel4145]

Btw, I'm not noticing any ''RoomFeel'' or anything ''different than usual'' to the sound at all. More details and better instrument separation than my CAL for sure, also more echoes (echoes=details I think?) but not a noticably spacious or ''open'' sound at all.

The "room feel" is the target frequency response, not the soundstage.

 

[sheldaze]

The theory is that we want our headphones to sound like speakers. That is, the music was originally mixed while a person was listening to speakers. The intent is for the consumer to listen to the music played back in a similar speaker environment. Yet typical headphones have a sound that is distinctly different from speakers. More than you can only hear the left sound in your left ear (both ears can hear the left speaker in a room), there is a frequency response difference. The NAD (and PSB) headphones are meant to overcome the frequency response difference, making them sound more like the intended original listening environment - or so goes the theory.
 
I don't disagree and love the sound of my NAD headphones immensely.

 

[Jeff Y]

  I found the perfect EQ for them, if they would become less harsh in in the uppermids. If you boost the 16 khz on these headphones, they become really clear while still sounding very natural (ofcourse if I would rule out that grittiness I hear in the uppermids)

I actually do the exact same EQ sometimes but after owning the HP50 for months, I really use it less and less now because it's actually unnatural.
I enjoy their FR for what it is now.

 

[diamondears]

The "room feel" is the target frequency response, not the soundstage.

The NAD's target FR (Harman-Olive curve) is separate from the RoomFeel. RoomFeel is the creation of natural "echoe", which I notice on the mids. Maybe this is what dakanao hears and describes as upper mids boost. I susoect his source exagerrates this, hence seems like a "boost".