papamogl
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2013
- Posts
- 69
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- 14
Please forgive me if this question of a technically inexperienced audiophile hurts any feelings or puts any paradigms in doubt. I do not know a lot about headphones, physics, accoustics etc. I only know some things about music and a lot about my ears.
As far as I understood the frequency response of a headphone depicts how faithful - which means without adding sth to or taking sth away from the signal - a phone reproduces the actual signal. As we know this can be measured objectively, so next will be following some graphs.
There are a lot of high priced "flagships" for audiophiles, which often seem to be after neutral headphones. One example is the Sennheiser HD800, which is held in high regard, and obviously it measures very nicely and flat:
However, a down the line model from the same company (approx. one third of the price) seems to have an even more natural FR. In fact, this is as close to pinpoint neutral than it probably gets. The HD600:
And an even more affordable model from Beyerdynamic, the DT 770 Pro (this one seems to fare even better with this measurement than the DT 880) comes close to the HD600's stunning result, apparently beating the HD800 in terms of linearity:
From these tests, the HD600 and 650, and the DT 770 Pro and DT 880 seem to be more neutral headphones than the HD800. So what is it exactly that makes the HD800 the better headphone, justifying the huge price gap? Is there something wrong with these tests? Of course they are not telling the whole story. But distortion, impulse response, step response and spectral decay measurements where better with the HD600s too.
Is it only the soundstage that takes them apart, and that can't be measured? Or are the HD600 the most neutral headphone in the world, but this much neutrality might not be called for, as long as "colouration" stays in a certain bandwith? Or is the HD800 a bit "hyped" by the community, maybe even due to it's high price (which makes them more exclusive)?
I guess it is only so much that graphs can tell, as long as the deviation from the ideal FR stays in a certain range. However, when 400$ headphones can have such an incredible FR, and 300$ headphones can have a luxurios soundstage (K702, Dt 880) I have some difficulty in understanding what triple the price can get you more.
As far as I understood the frequency response of a headphone depicts how faithful - which means without adding sth to or taking sth away from the signal - a phone reproduces the actual signal. As we know this can be measured objectively, so next will be following some graphs.
There are a lot of high priced "flagships" for audiophiles, which often seem to be after neutral headphones. One example is the Sennheiser HD800, which is held in high regard, and obviously it measures very nicely and flat:
However, a down the line model from the same company (approx. one third of the price) seems to have an even more natural FR. In fact, this is as close to pinpoint neutral than it probably gets. The HD600:
And an even more affordable model from Beyerdynamic, the DT 770 Pro (this one seems to fare even better with this measurement than the DT 880) comes close to the HD600's stunning result, apparently beating the HD800 in terms of linearity:
From these tests, the HD600 and 650, and the DT 770 Pro and DT 880 seem to be more neutral headphones than the HD800. So what is it exactly that makes the HD800 the better headphone, justifying the huge price gap? Is there something wrong with these tests? Of course they are not telling the whole story. But distortion, impulse response, step response and spectral decay measurements where better with the HD600s too.
Is it only the soundstage that takes them apart, and that can't be measured? Or are the HD600 the most neutral headphone in the world, but this much neutrality might not be called for, as long as "colouration" stays in a certain bandwith? Or is the HD800 a bit "hyped" by the community, maybe even due to it's high price (which makes them more exclusive)?
I guess it is only so much that graphs can tell, as long as the deviation from the ideal FR stays in a certain range. However, when 400$ headphones can have such an incredible FR, and 300$ headphones can have a luxurios soundstage (K702, Dt 880) I have some difficulty in understanding what triple the price can get you more.