xdog
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2013
- Posts
- 75
- Likes
- 22
Introduction:
I once asked for a quantitative description of heaphones headstage width, but kind of did not get the anwser.
So after doing some investment (those HD800 don't come cheap!), I found the anwser on my own
(those are my subjective values, so you will not feel that wasy, and I really feel like some people put a lot of imagination when describing soundstage).
Which I would like to present (so no one would be tricked into formulas like 'it felt that the sound originated almost from infinity' where in fact it was something like 3cm from the driver
).
While comparing headphones, I've made an experiment comparing the (head)stage width by using some fragment of a song:
Namely two fragments of:
David Guetta + Sia - She-Wolf falling into pices (ambient mix)
1:40-1:55 Single String running on the left side
2:25-2:55 String ensemble on the left side
(on certain heaphones one fragment was further away from the other, but by only a notch 1cm).
I tried to have equal loudness with accuracy lets say -/+3d, at volumn =(1V @ HE500/AKG 701), so at the level were boosting up volumn does not widen soundtage.
As to source I never found much of a diffrence in soundtage width between diffrent dacs/soundcards, taking the volumn equal (up to accuracy of 0.5-1cm)
The results are the distance from the scull(head) in cm [first value], and have the accuracy of 1cm (subjective impressions).
5 Gradi 60*
6 The cheapest on-ear headphone available 3$**
7 Beats Mixr
8 Takstar Pro80
8 Some cheap small over-the ear headphone by Tesco***
9 Beyerdynamic DT150 *4
9 Somic MH463 *5
10 Sennheiser HD600 *6
10 Hifiman HE500 *6
11 Takstar TS-671
12 Some closed pro-gammer headphone *7
13 AKG 701
14 Sennheiser HD800 *8
* How those open heaphones are able to put a wall of (no) sound at the width of my ears(the driver) really strikes me (It has also weirdly large height of the soundstage)
** For that 3$ you get also iems and a little box for them, so I would guess they really cost like 2$
*** Impresive taking int consideration that they width is like 1.5 cm
*4 Really nice soundstage for a closed headphone (unlike Pro80 it does not seems as limiting factor)
*5 I really expected that they will project the sound further away
*6 The main diffrence hear is that on HE500 the sound itself is much wider, but the center of mass seems to be at similar distance
*7 This one has a lot of high treble content, and a little bit messed up sound
*8 I would even go to 15 hear for the enseble
I would generalize that the width of the soundstage (I mean here average width, not some lone sounds, or sounds which were enginered to sound distane) can be expressed as:
Distance from the driver
+ 1-2cm if the can is open
+ 1-2cm if the heaphone produces lots of higher treble
--------------------------
I've also done once a similar experiment, but for not that good known sample of headphones,
measuring how much detail I an hear.
Mainly I took some 'live' recording of Lacrimosa (by Mozart, not the metal band, duration of 4 minutes) and tried to count how much sounds doesn't belong to the musical piece
(such as turing the page, closing the door, someone moving a chair etc)
And found out that i can hear (number of 'artifacts' + heaphone):
8 That cheap 2$ headphone
10 Sennheiser HD600
12 Some 50$ Sony DJ heaphone knock-off**
10/12 AKG 701 *
15 TKD ST750 **
15 Sennheier HD800 ***
* I think that the volumn for AKG 701 was too low, the second value was with some added amplification
** Having a peak at 8-10kHz really does the job (hello DT880), and having that with drop of fundamentals <300Hz makes it even better for perciveing the 'detail'
*** It is more easy to say what the 'artifact' really was (like closing the door vs moving the instrument)
The experiment was done circa in order of the expected result on detailness (so HD800 were the last, 701 before them etc.)
The though question is do I really want to here that detail, especially at the cost of aggresivness of hights.
I once asked for a quantitative description of heaphones headstage width, but kind of did not get the anwser.
So after doing some investment (those HD800 don't come cheap!), I found the anwser on my own
(those are my subjective values, so you will not feel that wasy, and I really feel like some people put a lot of imagination when describing soundstage).
Which I would like to present (so no one would be tricked into formulas like 'it felt that the sound originated almost from infinity' where in fact it was something like 3cm from the driver
).While comparing headphones, I've made an experiment comparing the (head)stage width by using some fragment of a song:
Namely two fragments of:
David Guetta + Sia - She-Wolf falling into pices (ambient mix)
1:40-1:55 Single String running on the left side
2:25-2:55 String ensemble on the left side
(on certain heaphones one fragment was further away from the other, but by only a notch 1cm).
I tried to have equal loudness with accuracy lets say -/+3d, at volumn =(1V @ HE500/AKG 701), so at the level were boosting up volumn does not widen soundtage.
As to source I never found much of a diffrence in soundtage width between diffrent dacs/soundcards, taking the volumn equal (up to accuracy of 0.5-1cm)
The results are the distance from the scull(head) in cm [first value], and have the accuracy of 1cm (subjective impressions).
5 Gradi 60*
6 The cheapest on-ear headphone available 3$**
7 Beats Mixr
8 Takstar Pro80
8 Some cheap small over-the ear headphone by Tesco***
9 Beyerdynamic DT150 *4
9 Somic MH463 *5
10 Sennheiser HD600 *6
10 Hifiman HE500 *6
11 Takstar TS-671
12 Some closed pro-gammer headphone *7
13 AKG 701
14 Sennheiser HD800 *8
* How those open heaphones are able to put a wall of (no) sound at the width of my ears(the driver) really strikes me (It has also weirdly large height of the soundstage)
** For that 3$ you get also iems and a little box for them, so I would guess they really cost like 2$
*** Impresive taking int consideration that they width is like 1.5 cm
*4 Really nice soundstage for a closed headphone (unlike Pro80 it does not seems as limiting factor)
*5 I really expected that they will project the sound further away
*6 The main diffrence hear is that on HE500 the sound itself is much wider, but the center of mass seems to be at similar distance
*7 This one has a lot of high treble content, and a little bit messed up sound
*8 I would even go to 15 hear for the enseble
I would generalize that the width of the soundstage (I mean here average width, not some lone sounds, or sounds which were enginered to sound distane) can be expressed as:
Distance from the driver
+ 1-2cm if the can is open
+ 1-2cm if the heaphone produces lots of higher treble
--------------------------
I've also done once a similar experiment, but for not that good known sample of headphones,
measuring how much detail I an hear.
Mainly I took some 'live' recording of Lacrimosa (by Mozart, not the metal band, duration of 4 minutes) and tried to count how much sounds doesn't belong to the musical piece
(such as turing the page, closing the door, someone moving a chair etc)
And found out that i can hear (number of 'artifacts' + heaphone):
8 That cheap 2$ headphone
10 Sennheiser HD600
12 Some 50$ Sony DJ heaphone knock-off**
10/12 AKG 701 *
15 TKD ST750 **
15 Sennheier HD800 ***
* I think that the volumn for AKG 701 was too low, the second value was with some added amplification
** Having a peak at 8-10kHz really does the job (hello DT880), and having that with drop of fundamentals <300Hz makes it even better for perciveing the 'detail'
*** It is more easy to say what the 'artifact' really was (like closing the door vs moving the instrument)
The experiment was done circa in order of the expected result on detailness (so HD800 were the last, 701 before them etc.)
The though question is do I really want to here that detail, especially at the cost of aggresivness of hights.
