n13l5
New Head-Fier
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- Aug 1, 2011
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I've very much enjoyed reading all the detailed reviews here, and they are not bad as a base to make a decision on buying some earphones you've never heard before...
After my last purchase, a pair of Panasonic HJE900's, I want to make a statement on general use of such reviews and how to make them still more helpful:
Taking the Panasonic HJE900's as an example, there have been many comments to their great clarity, engaging sound, tight bass etc. Just as many people said that they are just too bright, sibilant, or even harsh in the treble.
Naturally, when you're thinking about plunking down your hard earned for earphones you cannot try yourself first, seeing a lot of criticism about harsh treble, sibilance, is a major cause for concern.
And unless you know your own ears, you might decide not to take a chance, and buy some other thing that might really not be as good for your specific ears in the end.
Therefore: Know your Ears first!
Either use free PC software to test your ear's sensitivity, or go to your ear doctor and take a test, (you can always say you've been having trouble understanding your wife's nagging) muahaha just kidding, I have no wife, and my gf doesn't nag ^^
Of course your ear's frequency curve isn't everything, since there's still your mind and what it does with the signal received, potential preferences for HUGE bass etc, but knowing what your ears take in should nonetheless help a lot.
Once you know how well your ears do in the various frequency ranges, you will know much better what criticisms you can ignore...
My ears for example, have a treble roll-off, so that earphones judged as bright, or even too bright are not bright to me, they just compensate the loss in my ears nicely. (So, on the HJE900's, I've found only a single track in all of my music that sounded sibilant to me - it was some early days CD production, which were often over the top on treble, using the old audio recording chain, that was set up to compensate the loss of treble in the old non-digital recording gear)
Why do I have that problem in my ears? I've always been careful not to listen to music too loud, using ear plugs or cotton at concerts etc,
but then I did something really stupid, remember not to do that:
While having a bad flu, I insisted on putting a new steel door in the cellar, for which I needed to cut a wall. Inspite of wearing protective gear over mouth and nose, so much of the stone dust got into my sinuses, that I got a major sinus infection that expanded to my ears, reduced blood flow to my inner ears (according to my doctor) and caused a load of strange effects in my ears, and after recovery, I had lost sensitivity in the higher frequencies. You loose some of that with age anyway, but I accelerated that.
So, the upshot is, if you're older, and the frequency graph for your ears rolls off at the high end, go ahead and buy 'bright' phones, you'll probably love them
I haven't heard about loosing sensitivity to bass, but maybe that exists too, especially for turbine users
After my last purchase, a pair of Panasonic HJE900's, I want to make a statement on general use of such reviews and how to make them still more helpful:
Taking the Panasonic HJE900's as an example, there have been many comments to their great clarity, engaging sound, tight bass etc. Just as many people said that they are just too bright, sibilant, or even harsh in the treble.
Naturally, when you're thinking about plunking down your hard earned for earphones you cannot try yourself first, seeing a lot of criticism about harsh treble, sibilance, is a major cause for concern.
And unless you know your own ears, you might decide not to take a chance, and buy some other thing that might really not be as good for your specific ears in the end.
Therefore: Know your Ears first!
Either use free PC software to test your ear's sensitivity, or go to your ear doctor and take a test, (you can always say you've been having trouble understanding your wife's nagging) muahaha just kidding, I have no wife, and my gf doesn't nag ^^
Of course your ear's frequency curve isn't everything, since there's still your mind and what it does with the signal received, potential preferences for HUGE bass etc, but knowing what your ears take in should nonetheless help a lot.
Once you know how well your ears do in the various frequency ranges, you will know much better what criticisms you can ignore...
My ears for example, have a treble roll-off, so that earphones judged as bright, or even too bright are not bright to me, they just compensate the loss in my ears nicely. (So, on the HJE900's, I've found only a single track in all of my music that sounded sibilant to me - it was some early days CD production, which were often over the top on treble, using the old audio recording chain, that was set up to compensate the loss of treble in the old non-digital recording gear)
Why do I have that problem in my ears? I've always been careful not to listen to music too loud, using ear plugs or cotton at concerts etc,
but then I did something really stupid, remember not to do that:
While having a bad flu, I insisted on putting a new steel door in the cellar, for which I needed to cut a wall. Inspite of wearing protective gear over mouth and nose, so much of the stone dust got into my sinuses, that I got a major sinus infection that expanded to my ears, reduced blood flow to my inner ears (according to my doctor) and caused a load of strange effects in my ears, and after recovery, I had lost sensitivity in the higher frequencies. You loose some of that with age anyway, but I accelerated that.
So, the upshot is, if you're older, and the frequency graph for your ears rolls off at the high end, go ahead and buy 'bright' phones, you'll probably love them
I haven't heard about loosing sensitivity to bass, but maybe that exists too, especially for turbine users