[gerG]

I hadn't seen any posted yet. Please forgive if this is old news.

I was over-due for something new, and the SA5000 looked different. Man, they are that! My head still needs to break in, so limited impressions.

First plot is SA5000 (pink) vs the HD650 (blue). Lively but choppy were my impressions prior to measurement.

Next plot is same cans, without my head in the way (uncoupled). Sonys mysteriously turn orange (software feature). I have been learning a lot with this type of measurement, but my setup is not consistent yet. I am working on a coupler that will merge the two techniques, but it needs work. Anyway it takes the internal reflections out of the way.

The Sonys only have a couple of hours on them, while the Sens have all of 10 to 20 hours on them. The Sonys have a bunch of catching up to do. I will feed them pink noise for awhile.


gerG


Update April 24, 2005

Thunderstorm kept me awake last night, so I took some more data. This is after about 12 hours of noise, sine waves, and tunes. I also changed sources, generating signals from the computer: usb >dpu50>toslink>deq>grace901. Deq was not doing anything, it was just in the particular system that I was using. Shoulda gone direct to a 902, but it was on my music source at the time.

Anyway, first one compares tone sweep vs pink noise. Tone sweep is the upper trace. The sweep usually has trouble resolving bass response. Probably operator error. I also did some sine waves, but they agreed with the PN pretty well.

Next lets do SA5k with the lovely DT880. From now on I will try to make the SA5k the blue trace. Sorry about all of the color swaps:

and finally I could not resist trying with the Sony F1:

gerG

Another short update 050423

Why the heck am I waiting for burn-in? The bass deficiency and edgy brightness are starting to bug me. 5 minutes of dialing on the eq gave me this...

This will get me through the week. If they decide to change any at all I will adjust eq, and post results with and without eq.

__________________________________
Update 050507

Up to about 50 hrs on them now.

Right vs left shown below. Right is the dark blue. That is the side that I have been posting results from:

There was a request for response with an 120 ohm adapter. Blue line is without, green line is with. As you can see, it makes absolutely no difference in the response with these headphones other than level, and I compensated for that (mostly) by turning up the amp. Sony had a circuit in the F1 that yielded this result, so I would guess that they used it here as well.

I was also asked about my equalizer settings for the SA5K. It is shown below. I am using a behringer deq2496 in true response mode. That means the adjacent sliders do not effect each other, as they would in an analog eq. There is also no phase shifting. This is a much more severe correction than I normally apply, but it works quite well for me. I have found that as most headphones break in the amount of eq can be decreased to yield the same result.

Forgot to mention, the preamp is set at -3db offset to keep the output off the ceiling.

gerG

 

[gsferrari]

If you need the pics hosted email them to me : guru at gurushankar dot com

I am VERY interested in the curves (no pun intended)

gs

 

[gerG]

ok, thatbetter.

Thanks for the offer Guru! The problem was that my isp has "improved" their service (*****holes) which created syntax incompatibilities for the links. Half of my old links have probably broken as well. I am just a bit angry over this, so I will go cool off with some tunes.


gerG

 

[gerG]

Oh, that bump down around 20 hz is a resonance in my house driven by an air-filter downstairs. I measure the noise floor as part of the series. It usually gets covered up in the coupled measurements, but it reveals itself uncoupled. Signal levels were about 90 db spl (coupled, A-weighted) which is about 10 to 15 above my normal listening level.


gerG

 

[some1x]

Thanks for the information. Perhaps SA5000 isn't as neutral as first thought

Nonetheless, I should be getting mine tomorrow

 

[spike33]

graph shows pretty much what I'm hearing right now, 25 hrs burn in. please post another graph after say 100+ hours. also, a graph of sa5k with 120ohm adapter would be great

 

[kcits]

very nice plots, gerg. thanks

the upper bass/lower midrange dip on the sa5000's plot is interesting - i remember seeing a similar dip in that range on j-curve's a500-a1000 plots. an intentional equalisation by both manufacturers, maybe? [edit: or perhaps because j-curve's measurements were taken w/ the (seemingly) upper-bass heavy hd580 as reference...] either way, if i EQ this range down by say, 2-3dB, it does seem to add an extra sense of spaciousness to the sound.

just out of curiousity (and a bit off-topic

), do you also happen to have a plot for the hd600? i'm wondering if it has the same ~10khz dip as the hd650 does in your measurements. judging by headroom's measurements though, my guess is that the hd600 has less of a dip...

 

[canloader]

Very good measurments. I do notice similar results. But just when you think the lower frequencies are light the right track will come on and reveal the control the SA5k have with nice rolloff. I also wonder how the plot will change with 100+ burn in. I've got about 45+hrs on these.

 

[10068]

Is it just me, or is that very very very similar to CD3000 graphs? I didn't expect SA5000 to depart from Sony sound signature much

Ah well, i'll be hearing it this Sunday.

 

[gerG]

hmmm, I may have a CD3000 trace around, I will check. Sound wise the SA5000 bring back memories of the AT A1000, but I don't trust my memory all that much.

I forgot to mention that the traces are right channel only. Averaging with the left would smooth out some of the bumps.

kcits, of course! Lighter line is the HD600:

Funny, those look closer than I recall. They are average L+R, but still, I will retest them tomorrow.


Since you mention eq, this is what the HD650 look like with my full eq correction turned on:

gerG

 

[saint.panda]

Very cool. Thanks gerG!

 

[10068]

Interesting. I wanna see more graphs, esepcially with that full EQ thing

 

[geekay]

thanks!
i have my sa5000 for hunders of hours, and it is now very wonderful

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by geekay thanks! I have my sa5000 for hunders of hours, and it is now very wonderful

Thanks, that's a bit comforting again... I have mine on the way, and the graph looks quite discouraging.

Anyway, thanks, gerG!

 

[thatopampguy]

Thanks for the charts, very interesting.

I've had my SA5000 running for ~800 hours now.

If there's one thing I've noticed, its the smooth musical warmthness that is starting to appear. It's quite different from the cold detailed sterility that I first experienced. Even after a month of listening, I'm blown away every time I put on these headphones on. I can listen for hours and hours on end now that they've been "burned" in. There is something simply indescribably coherent and beautiful about the sound that comes out of a burned-in SA5k.

The praises of this headphone has been repeated over and over again. This is the first headphone where I've truly felt that I no longer want for more.