[Kodhifi]

Are you sure about the measurement technique and the wired source? A 20dB dip at 2kHz would be drastically noticeable; on my headphones the 2kHz region is not noticeably affected when going between wireless and wired (LG V20 source). (Playing with EQ and adjusting by just a couple of dB at 2kHz I easily hear the difference - it's not a problem of my ears).

The measurements I was mentioning can be found here in the 2nd spectrum "Power Off - Diffuse field target compensated" https://clarityfidelity.blogspot.com/2016/10/sony-mdr-1000x-bt-nc-over-ear-headphones.html

They may have had a particularly bad dip in their set (75db@2.2khz from a 95db baseline) but the low sensitivity from 1-3khz is seen in most graphs on various review sites. Cheers

 

[California_Audiophool]

The measurements I was mentioning can be found here in the 2nd spectrum "Power Off - Diffuse field target compensated" https://clarityfidelity.blogspot.com/2016/10/sony-mdr-1000x-bt-nc-over-ear-headphones.html

They may have had a particularly bad dip in their set (75db@2.2khz from a 95db baseline) but the low sensitivity from 1-3khz is seen in most graphs on various review sites. Cheers

Thanks of the link! Very cool site. I wish there was more info about the measurements as they look really weird (not only for the MDR-1000x). Take a look at the competitor of the Sony, the Sennheiser Momentum here. 35dB down at ~4kHz compared to 100Hz! I looked a several others models and it's similar in terms of wild results; I just don't trust the results (not at least without knowing more about the measurement approach).

 

[Kodhifi]

Thanks of the link! Very cool site. I wish there was more info about the measurements as they look really weird (not only for the MDR-1000x). Take a look at the competitor of the Sony, the Sennheiser Momentum here. 35dB down at ~4kHz compared to 100Hz! I looked a several others models and it's similar in terms of wild results; I just don't trust the results (not at least without knowing more about the measurement approach).

I don't have the equipment to do a sweep but on my own pair of MDR1000x I did some A/B testing with the active EQ turned on and off, and I built a Fubar EQ profile that made the passive sound exactly like the active sound with no fubar EQ. In other words it's a Fubar EQ approximation of what the active electronics in the Sony are trying to do. I took a screenshot of it. It's pretty easy to see there are some real enclosure problems in the Sony. The chamber resonance is likely the cause of this and they could fix it with a little more refinement in the ear cup design.



The thing is that do it yourself folks could also easily fix some of these by adding putty and felt inside the ear cup and it would make the passive/natural sound of the headphones better, but then the active electronics would over compensate and it would make active mode sound worse. That's kind of my beef with active correction, it means you're stuck with the sound forever.

 

[mickeydean]

Interesting.

I wonder if they've changed anything with the new model in terms of sound profile. It seems unlikely though. Just a better battery.