[xnor]

Well you don't need to be a scientist to find out how a headphone sounds. Overall balance of a headphone should be easily decrypted by looking up terms in the glossary and browsing in the headphones forums, taking a look at headroom FR graphs, etc.
Just be careful not to misinterpret stuff like "amazing detail an resolution".. imo, often that's just the result of a peak or resonances in the upper frequency range, or "speed" (rolled-off sub-bass and emphasis on mid/upper bass make any headphone sound "faster"), etc.
Combine that with your preferences and it shouldn't be hard to find a few matching headphones, good luck.

 

[ccbass]

Can anybody point me in the direction of a place that explains all of the frequencies vs names.
 
For example X khz to XX khz is defined as mids;  X hz to XX hz is defined as sub-bass, etc.

 

[Ypoknons]

 
Yes, a lot of things affect how a headphone sounds, a closed headphone for example is very sensitive to the shape and material of the housing, it's one of the big challenges when designing them. Denon, for example, changed the D2000 plastic housing to a wood one and presto, a D5000 (and Denon will gouge you for it). A FR chart should give you a good idea of the balance of a headphone, but it doesn't really capture how good it is a directional audio amongst other things. After a while you just have to listen to a few. Head-fi, much to the dismay of the science types, is mostly an exercise in conversational interpretation and it helps to listen the equipment yourself as to understand how others use words to describe what they're hearing. I could tell a shrill sound is an overemphasis of treble, however, you could probably figure that out by listening to some trumpets and flutes that sound shrill 

 

[ccbass]

Quote:

 
Yes, a lot of things affect how a headphone sounds, a closed headphone for example is very sensitive to the shape and material of the housing, it's one of the big challenges when designing them. Denon, for example, changed the D2000 plastic housing to a wood one and presto, a D5000 (and Denon will gouge you for it). A FR chart should give you a good idea of the balance of a headphone, but it doesn't really capture how good it is a directional audio amongst other things. After a while you just have to listen to a few. Head-fi, much to the dismay of the science types, is mostly an exercise in conversational interpretation and it helps to listen the equipment yourself as to understand how others use words to describe what they're hearing. I could tell a shrill sound is an overemphasis of treble, however, you could probably figure that out by listening to some trumpets and flutes that sound shrill 

 
 
Where do vocals and certain instruments place in here?
 

 

[Ypoknons]

I finally found the site again. Phew! It's so awesome!

 

[ccbass]

You and xnor are awesome.

 

[ccbass]

What's the difference between S/PDIF and Toslink?  People use them interchangeably and I'm confused.  S/PDIF is the more expensive of the two and uses higher quality cables, correct?  Is it also called AES/S/PDIF?  And Toslink is a cheaper version of S/PDIF?
 
What exactly is Digital Coaxial connectors?  From what I can tell it looks like an RCA input, but since it only has one input, do both channels run though one cable?   
 
Also, AES XLR is really just balanced XLR coming through one cable?

 

[xnor]

Toslink is an optical fiber connection system that carries digital audio data. You probably have already seen Mini-Toslink jacks on macbooks that look like normal 3.5mm stereo jacks, but with a led in it.
 
S/PDIF is the protocol for transferring digital data over either electrical or optical connections. It's the consumer oriented version of AES/EBU (targeted at pro audio), with small differences (e.g. max distance of 10m, max resolution is 20 bits ...)
 
You can use 75-ohm coaxial (BNC), RCA or Toslink (optical cable) for S/PDIF. With AES/EBU you can use BNC or XLR (balanced).
 
Pics: RCA, BNC, Toslink

 

[ccbass]

What the heck is Digital Coaxial?  Just a BNC/coaxial cable that ends with an RCA style end?
 
Also, what devices output a Digital Coaxial style end?  I was looking at the Benchmark DAC 1 Pre, and it has 4 or so Digital Coaxial inputs with RCA style ends.

 

[xnor]

Check out the manual, starting with the last paragraph on page 8.

 

[ccbass]

Quote:

Check out the manual, starting with the last paragraph on page 8.

I was talking about the DAC 1 Pre.
 
"The coaxial inputs use female RCA connectors that are securely mounted directly to the rear panel. The input impedance is 75 Ohms."
 
Doesn't coaxial only have one active inner core?  Since it's an analog input, wouldn't there need to be a + and - signal path?

 

[xnor]

It's a digital input (look at the heading of the paragraph), actually 3 digital inputs. Coaxial works with both BNC (pro) and RCA (consumer) connectors. Read the manual page I linked above, it explains this in greater detail than the Pre manual.

 

[ccbass]

Lets say you have a BNC out from your source.  Assuming it's a pro-level source, it's 75ohm and 1V. 
 
Do you need an adapter/resistor to bring it down to 75ohm .5V for the Coaxial [w/ RCA style adapter]
 

 

[peaceful1]

wow,what a great thread thanks guys