Greetings.
I've had a nice share of headphones, DAC, amps, ear pads and other assorted mods I've done on my gear over the years. At first the changes were noticeable enough, as I "moved up" the fidelity tiers I noticed less and less changes. I noticed changes in flavor but not quality.
A couple of days ago a coworker bought a Fiio M7 player. I gave him my Sony WM1A so he could compare mid tier versus high end, he's younger than me so his ears should pick up stuff my jaded self cant. The key takeaway was that the WM1A was overly warm compared to the M7, he said it sounded too bloomy. After I activated direct mode on the WM1A, according to him, the bass bloom went away and couldn't tell the players apart.
Even after I compared direct mode in the WM1A I couldn't tell anything apart.
Now here comes my questions:
Can anyone recommend me a good enough in-ear microphone?
How could I go about measuring the sound output from a DAP? I know it could only be done with over-ear headphones. I want to measure the effects of all the WM1A post processing options.
I want to start measuring the effect of all my gear on the sound. I want to start by getting a pair of decent enough in-ear microphones so I can take some measurements directly with my head. This is not meant to be scientific. I would like to have some accuracy and repeatability, but I understand that measuring sound using your own ears is far from ideal. The goal is to have device; other than my brain, to capture a semblance of the sound coming into my ears.
I've had a nice share of headphones, DAC, amps, ear pads and other assorted mods I've done on my gear over the years. At first the changes were noticeable enough, as I "moved up" the fidelity tiers I noticed less and less changes. I noticed changes in flavor but not quality.
A couple of days ago a coworker bought a Fiio M7 player. I gave him my Sony WM1A so he could compare mid tier versus high end, he's younger than me so his ears should pick up stuff my jaded self cant. The key takeaway was that the WM1A was overly warm compared to the M7, he said it sounded too bloomy. After I activated direct mode on the WM1A, according to him, the bass bloom went away and couldn't tell the players apart.
Even after I compared direct mode in the WM1A I couldn't tell anything apart.
Now here comes my questions:
Can anyone recommend me a good enough in-ear microphone?
How could I go about measuring the sound output from a DAP? I know it could only be done with over-ear headphones. I want to measure the effects of all the WM1A post processing options.
I want to start measuring the effect of all my gear on the sound. I want to start by getting a pair of decent enough in-ear microphones so I can take some measurements directly with my head. This is not meant to be scientific. I would like to have some accuracy and repeatability, but I understand that measuring sound using your own ears is far from ideal. The goal is to have device; other than my brain, to capture a semblance of the sound coming into my ears.
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